viper_za

You have no idea how this works. I'm pretty sure it's got a relay for safety, no\poor grid voltage detected, relay safely disconnects and bam no issue. Did you miss that a Infinisolar inverter is also on that list? You are trying to bash something that you clearly have no idea on how it works.

Yeah Chris go for SMA if the Axpert fails If it turns out I have to replace mine in 5 years at least I can play with some new hardware again

Do you need Grid tied functionality?

Think it's more a case of saving a few mW on the self consumption side

The stuck in the old way customer. Sorry Plonkster you walked into this one

Getting the 50w inverters he spoke about the other day along with the home made arduino MPPT with its 50w max panels.

I'm pretty sure he is talking with a load connected. Natures maybe you can do an experiment and disconnect the loads and turn of the inverter in the morning and leave it for a few minutes and measure the battery bank volts just to confirm this

Yeah they seem to be the same on the charging side. Only thing is the RE can take a bit more abuse with the thicker plates and other add-on's like smart carbon etc

Seems I also missed that sheet you got with the same charging spec as the T105 RE. I don't charge mine at maximum I use that basically as a range to set it according to temp. So in summer I set mine to the lowest and in Winter at the higher end of the range. What I have found is at the lower settings you use way less water as less gassing occurs. Jaco the difference between the two is that the RE batteries use another 2kg of lead for thicker plates. The RE also gives you about 1000 more cycles at the same SOC 80% and 70% and around 500 down at 50% SOC. Also these changes The Premium Line features: Alpha Plus® Paste with T2 Technology™ which optimizes porosity development in the active material enabling the active material to be used more effectively. This results in sustained battery performance over a longer period of time. DuraGrid™ Design provides a thick grid structure that resists corrosion, and when combined with the Alpha Plus Paste with T2 technology, increases overall battery life. Maxguard® XL Separator is exclusively available in Trojan’s Premium and Industrial lines. It features a wide-channel design which increases acid flow for optimum battery performance, and provides even greater resistance to stratification, a typical mode of failure in batteries used in renewable energy systems. The Polyon™ container is Trojan’s ultra-rugged case design which protects against damage caused by harsh environmental conditions, such as moisture and dirt buildup, and safeguards against potential acid leaks.

Jaco here you go

@Chris Hobson Yes this one seems to be the same as the Axpert MKS 5kVA with the grid tied functionality and a very good price. Sure we can source this cheaper than what takealot can sell it for. Real tempting

No problem, next to look at is the battery balancers just as important especially on parallel banks.

I'm not 100% certain about it but I seem to remember people saying it's more efficient when converting directly from PV(DC) to AC volts. This I believe is true for most grid tied inverters but since the one you are using is a true Hybrid not just grid tied it needs to be best of both worlds. I don't see a problem with this. Did you set the inverter to not feed back to the grid in the settings on the inverter itself? Looks like option 9 if I have the correct manual http://www.voltronicpower.com/oCart2/files/manual/InfiniSolar V 1KW-5KW manual 20160517B.pdf

Hi Jaco Yes try from Camel as he had the best prices. You only need one

@Chris Hobson When I look here on Voltronic site it seems to be this range http://www.voltronicpower.com/oCart2/index.php?route=product/product&path=24&product_id=172 If you compare them to the other infini we know they just use the same kind of MPPT as the Axpert not the one that uses high PV voltages like the other infini we have seen around here

Yes this is the best option. Weasel explained why it wont help getting a different inverter while using the exsiting battery bank. Use your existing inverter and just add on with panels and better batteries later

But why should I start out with a "small" foundation to do my upgrades if I know I am going to do that. Do you even dare hand your wife a broom to clean the carpets? I would rather do this ones and right from the start, do all the research I could and advise from the forums and start out without needing to buy the wrong stuff first. This is why I went with with the T105 RE's they have charge voltages that fit the Axpert well. Then because I do treat my batteries well and have the gennie/Eskom to fall back and not go below 70% SOC I can follow the following from the Trojan website "Many experts recommend that batteries be equalized periodically, ranging anywhere from once a month to once or twice per year. However, Trojan only recommends equalizing when low or wide ranging specific gravity (>0.030) are detected after fully charging a battery." Month 7(every day down to +-80% SOC and on occasion down to 70%) almost done on my bank and my gravity readings are still 100% acceptable

Okay, yes it will work. But now all of the sudden the R/$ takes another dive oil shoots back up to $110 a barrel (currently +-$48) This would make running my gennie even less affordable. I want to rely on my solar more, heck even running on the bank is cheaper than running the gennie. Now the 48v bank is more efficient and hammers the battery bank a lot less when running the higher loads. This is something Chris did, he just needs to use the gennie when the need arises. The other reason he is living off-grid and as money allows he can upgrade his panels to start running more and more luxury items. Microwave, kettle, iron, vacuum etc (can use less gass if he only uses a gas stove, another saving during day time) Only expense now would be the the panels and cables since he already makes use of a big enough inverter He already uses the 5kVA inverter

If you can for now try to get the panels on 6 and 9 later as it is better to run them in strings of 3 panels per string with the Axpert 5kVA.

They used to say that there was only one 1.6i faster than the 1.4i Citygolf and that was the 1.6i Citygolf You made me derail this thread so far. I just have to do this now. Sorry @PaulF007 My sleeper Then I realized I need to do the bakes too

Was a custom built motor. Originally 1.8 VW Golf 3 bored out and fitted with 2.4 kombi pistons if I remember correctly. Worked out to about 1987cc with really high compression. Fitted it with a 8 valve Polo head( bigger valves, ported intake/exhaust, knife edged crank, Mr Turbo fuel injection, you name it, it was done) made 99kw 320Nm on the wheels on the dyno. Only way to get more was to add some gummy berry juice and run a different map. I eventually had to get rid of it as replacing starters and clutches killed me. I used to have a spare started, could swap that thing out in 15-20 min and be on my way again. Since I used it as a daily driver I had to rip out the racing clutch as jumping meters in traffic was not working and leaving that 2meter gap in front of me for this was always an invitation for someone else to try and squeeze in. So normal 2.0l clutch had to do replaced it every 3-4 months as it just starts slipping. Great thing about this was I never got less than 12km/liter Replaced this with the 1.4i Velocity and man did this thing feel so slow, and now the Polo 1.2 TDI Bluemotion (slowest of them all) but this gives me 18-20km/liter combined cycle and 22-24km/liter highway. @Weasel I miss that blue golf, it ate 330i's for breakfast. Weasel could never see this as I had a little problem with the front passenger seat. When you floor it I always saw weasel staring at the roof lining of the car. The first time that happened was so epic, I could not stop laughing

Reminds me of my 1994 VW City Golf I got as my first car. Pulled the stock 1.3l and replaced it with a 2.0l fuel injected motor (what a difference and no more 4 speed manual). Changed all the radiator hoses except for the 1 steel pipe (stupid). Half a year later n remember flooring it around a corner, next moment red lights and buzzers and I see the temp gauge in the red. Stomped on the clutch and turned of the ignition immediately. Lucky for me I could free to a garage. Jumped out and just saw this huge pool of water. Lucky for me I only blew the head gasket everything else tested This is something that still gets me with the car (4 years later and I still find myself looking for that gauge). I was so used to stare at that thing in the middle. I'm sure most inverters will have this. I know the Axpert does have this as one of the settings

Yes I boil for free during the day Plan is to get the Bosch Domino range of plates later on, 2 gas and 2 electric

@PaulF007 I did a quick experiment for you yesterday when I got home. Boiled my 1350w kettle with the base load running and still having about 200w of PV available while running the inverter on battery/solar mode. It takes about 5min to boil 1.2liters of water. Now the interesting part on the bank below. Boiling the kettle took me from 100% SOC to 98.9% and consumed 1.99ah from the bank according to the bmv. This was a 1250w drain from the bank the rest was supplied by solar. As a result of doing this, I went down on my SOC for the night to 78.8% where I normally go down to 81%

@PaulF007 when you made the new notes through them out here. I agree with @DeepBass9 with the auto start. It has specific scenarios where you do want to auto start, running servers at work with UPS and gennie yes this is a definite must. Only situation where you would want it at home is to auto start if you are away for holiday or so on but even then, I want an eye on that thing.running on it's own