In February 2020, I had a typical "load shedding beater" system installed, as I work from home and need a constant power supply and a steady internet connection.  It consisted of the following:

1 x 24V Growatt 3kVA Inverter

2 x 200Ah lead acid batteries

3 x 330 Canadian Solar Panels

1 x Geyser plate with a Geyserwise control panel.

The system was installed by a company that should most definitely be added on the no-go list and there were a lot of teething issues.

Everything ran from the inverter, except my kitchen plugs, jacuzzi and the geyser.   

In December 2020 I added a 4th 330W panel, just to carry me through the day, should there be load shedding.

Inverter and batteries. DBs with no blanking plates... Sies!

My 4 panels.

Geyser plate.

This system served me well, until I discovered this forum... sigh.

Watching all of you post about your nice batteries, inverters, monitoring, etc. got me all depressed.

So I decided to jump into the endless money pit called solar energy, or whatever your flavour is.

Since the 24V Growatt is not really upgradeable, I needed to get a new inverter.  New inverter means new batteries and before I realised it, my wish list was worth more than my car.

Here goes.  Version 1.0 of the upgrade:

Tomorrow is the day.  I am replacing the Growatt with a 8kW Deye inverter, with 2 x Pylontech US3000C batteries.  I will also be adding two more 330W panels to fill the current frame, mounted on the roof.

I realise that I will be light on batteries and solar generation, but that will have to wait for upgrade version 1.1 or 2.0 or maybe 3.0.

I bought a secondhand 19" server cabinet, where my batteries will live.  It has space for 4/5 batteries, so it's futureproof. While I was at it, I moved my fibre router, PoE's and media laptop into the top cabinet. (the wiring is still a mess).

The nice thing about the enclosure is that it already has fans to keep the batteries cool:

I will post more pictures after the upgrade tomorrow, or as the installer goes along...

Part of V2.0 will be to add an array of 450W panels for the 2nd MPPT, as I still have plenty of roof space available:

That is me for now.

DieDusman out

Very very nice... Just A note to check that the 4x330s will startup the MPPT ok on that 8kw. You can definitely add more 330s as well for the original MPPT as they are a sight cheaper than that 450s

22 minutes ago, mzezman said:

Very very nice... Just A note to check that the 4x330s will startup the MPPT ok on that 8kw. You can definitely add more 330s as well for the original MPPT as they are a sight cheaper than that 450s

Thanks. I think I'll be okay, I'm adding 2 more 330W panels on the 1st MPPT.

I'm like a kid in a sweet shop. The new equipment has been installed and immediately I can see an improvement on the solar efficiency with the Deye inverter over the old Growatt.  I have been waiting for a sunny day to get an idea of my full yield, but seems like I'm out of luck this week.  Still happy with the performance.  One thing that I note is that I will need to install more PV panels and another battery... Something I knew before embarking on this upgrade.

Some installation pics:

I have set the DoD to 70% as I don't want to sit without power when load shedding hits.

Yesterday:

    

Today:

Not too bad, considering the total PV capacity is 1980W.

One thing with the Deye, the monitoring is absolutely horses arse. I got the Solman Smart account, but the latency is too high for my liking and the app crashes frequently. So I ordered my Pi with the Solar Assistant today.  Seems like you can do much more with it and have almost real time info.

Laters

DieDusman  

43 minutes ago, DieDusman said:

So I ordered my Pi with the Solar Assistant today.  Seems like you can do much more with it and have almost real time info.

You won't be sorry with this purchase 😀