Was sick and tired of load shedding and finally had the following installed. Just my luck that load shedding has ended without being able to do a proper test but super stoked, panels generated 21kW hours yesterday (mid July) and the batteries lasted throughout the night.

Sunsynk 8kW Inverter

2 x Sunsynk 5kW batteries

12 x 450W Canadian solar panels

 

Edited July 25, 20224 yr by Gambit

13 hours ago, Gambit said:

Just my luck that load shedding has ended

I would not worry too much about that. You should be able to do a proper test very shortly.

47 minutes ago, P1000 said:

I would not worry too much about that. You should be able to do a proper test very shortly.

Sad but true.

Congrats on the install Gambit! This happened to me as well in 2020, got the system commissioned as the load shedding reduced.

There is always that Eskom mains breaker in your DB that can be flicked to the off position in order to simulate load shedding. Pick a stage as per the known schedule and imitate the Eskom incompetence by switching off your utility feed, did that a couple of times myself 😄 It actually ended up helping with a bit of troubleshooting and optimisation before the actual load shedding kicked in again 😉

 

19 minutes ago, 0 |>\/\/3|<|<3Я said:

There is always that Eskom mains breaker in your DB that can be flicked to the off position in order to simulate load shedding. Pick a stage as per the known schedule and imitate the Eskom incompetence by switching off your utility feed, did that a couple of times myself 😄 It actually ended up helping with a bit of troubleshooting and optimisation before the actual load shedding kicked in again

I actually try and do stage 4 loadshedding everyday now, I noticed during stage 4 loadshedding I was saving quite a bit of cash. My averqage units bought came down from average 15 per day to below 10 per day.

Edited July 23, 20224 yr by WannabeSolarSparky

On 2022/07/23 at 9:02 AM, P1000 said:

I would not worry too much about that. You should be able to do a proper test very shortly.

That didn't take long. 😢

To otimise my system i have 4 x 5.5 Kwh batteries installed .

 

The installed capacity is sufficient for now in winter to carry us from 16h30 to around 06h00 the next morning. 1 more battery would be ideal , but cost wise - is another R27K investment  worth it ?  as i am only using between 0 to 5kwh Grid a day that's roughly a max of R15 a day. R450 a month , down from R3500 to R5500 a month.

Since the system is producing so much extra power in the day, I now encourage my domestic worker to use our tumble drier if needed whilst the PV generation is good and the pool pump times have been extended too.

1 minute ago, Bluefronted said:

To otimise my system i have 4 x 5.5 Kwh batteries installed .

 

The installed capacity is sufficient for now in winter to carry us from 16h30 to around 06h00 the next morning. 1 more battery would be ideal , but cost wise - is another R27K investment  worth it ?  as i am only using between 0 to 5kwh Grid a day that's roughly a max of R15 a day. R450 a month , down from R3500 to R5500 a month.

Since the system is producing so much extra power in the day, I now encourage my domestic worker to use our tumble drier if needed whilst the PV generation is good and the pool pump times have been extended too.

I'm considering adding another 2 batteries but not sure if they will all charge 100% in winter. What is your total panel array output?

Calculate what the batteries will cost you per kWh over their life. Don't be overly optimistic when estimating their life - they have multiple modes of failures, so work on the warranty or less. Then calculate what the electricity will cost you. Then calculate what interest you can make on the cash (or in another investment). When I ran the numbers it made no sense to add more battery, if I have loadshedding covered I am optimized.

17 minutes ago, P1000 said:

Calculate what the batteries will cost you per kWh over their life. Don't be overly optimistic when estimating their life - they have multiple modes of failures, so work on the warranty or less. Then calculate what the electricity will cost you. Then calculate what interest you can make on the cash (or in another investment). When I ran the numbers it made no sense to add more battery, if I have loadshedding covered I am optimized.

Same conclusion here. Opted to spend a much smaller portion of the initial battery budget, to add more solar panels instead, then shifted high energy loads (like cleaning appliances) to sun hours where possible. Batteries are dimensioned to be sufficient for stage 8 load shedding. Any remaining budget, allocate to debt (like a bond, calculate the interest saving over the same time as recovering cost on the batteries) or investment.