Super excited as my new system is in process of being installed. 23 Ja Solar 455w panels feeding through 3 strings to 3 Sunsynk 5kw hybrid inverters in parallel. This will power 3 Hubble 5.5kw batteries.

Yay! I exclaimed to my installer. I will soon be out of the clutches of big bad Eskom. Not so old man, said my installer shaking his head sagely. Your Hubbles have not yet arrived. Your system cannot power your home if you do not have batteries and the power from Buffalo City Munkeypality goes down. You will only have power from your panels feeding your home if you either have batteries ( which haven’t arrived!) or BCM is feeding your home from the grid. When the grid goes down, your inverters will shut down and all that power being generated from your panels will be wasted.

What! I exclaimed. Surely not! So, dear Forum members, is he correct? Is there a way around this debacle? Looking forward to some wise advice.

 

6 hours ago, Electronmonkey said:

Is there a way around this debacle?

Yes, install the batteries. 🤪

The problem is, if you have only solar, and a cloud passes by causing the available PV to dip below the load, the system will shut down. There is a new system from enphase that can power small loads with only solar - but the press release is light on the details. That system is also more expensive and less versatile than the Sunsynk Hybrid (enphase is grid-tied).

7 hours ago, Electronmonkey said:

When the grid goes down, your inverters will shut down and all that power being generated from your panels will be wasted.

Not quite true. The power generated from your panels will not be wasted. It will instead travel back in time, alter the course of history catastrophically and return to a new timeline in which it has in fact never been born.

Thanks P1000.

 

Ha Ha. Well said Greenfields.

The inverters need a frequency to sync to when running in grid attached mode.

If there is no signal they switch to islanding mode but need a battery to run in Islanding mode. 

Only way around it would be to keep them in grid attached mode by connecting the inverters to a generator. You can then run the inverters and they will only pull power from the generator when there is not enough solar power. 

You need to make sure that you have the CT installed and that there is no back feed into the generator or you will blow the generator AVR up!  

The Sunsynk is a great machine, but batteryless operation is reserved for the more budget friendly Voltronics machines. For sure not an apple for Apple comparison. But things can & do go wrong & having no battery attached but still having the option to use the Sun is a nice to have. Yes the loads can cause havoc especially when a cloud goes by. But having mostly clear sunny days on the highveld during winter can mean a good amount of PV yield available to exploit. 

I hope your batteries arrive soon. Renusol are also having heavy supply issues, so looks like Hubble are not the only affected company in our industry.