Posted January 8, 20232 yr Hi All, We are considering going off-grid for my friend's 1 000m^2 house. I am considering a 15 kVA Victron installation with 14 kW panels and 30 kWh batteries. (Roof space is a bit limited, cannot really add more panels. Batteries might be a bit small, but can always be added a bit later). My key question: We want to add a generator for cloudy days etc. 1. What size would you recommend? I was thinking 10 kVA (can thus charge the batteries in 3 hours if my maths are correct). Or should we rather go for 15 KVA to match the inverter capacity? 2. What brand would you recommend? 3. Best supplier around Gauteng?
January 12, 20232 yr On 2023/01/08 at 12:04 PM, Corneel said: Hi All, We are considering going off-grid for my friend's 1 000m^2 house. I am considering a 15 kVA Victron installation with 14 kW panels and 30 kWh batteries. (Roof space is a bit limited, cannot really add more panels. Batteries might be a bit small, but can always be added a bit later). My key question: We want to add a generator for cloudy days etc. 1. What size would you recommend? I was thinking 10 kVA (can thus charge the batteries in 3 hours if my maths are correct). Or should we rather go for 15 KVA to match the inverter capacity? 2. What brand would you recommend? 3. Best supplier around Gauteng? Generator is less important... Yes 10kva would be nice but remember the gennie is really only for emergencies when the sun does not shine and batteries are depleted. Power is less of an issue so even a 5kva would be more than fine imho.. Water warming etc will be more of a driving factor. Thus a solar geyser or gas setup is probably more important to get right
January 12, 20232 yr With that much battery, unless they're using power with reckless abandon, there really shouldn't be too much need for a backup gennie. Like @JTKmentioned, getting a solar or gas geyser would be more important than a generator since its those things that would run the batteries down. However, with lights (25W max for LED), TV (usually less than 500W) and all the other loads of a couple hundred watts the system should be able to survive a cloudy day. It's the kettles, geysers, stove and other appliances with elements in them that would pose the biggest issues so if they get gas stove & geyser the system should be sufficient.
January 12, 20232 yr If you really want to add a generator I would look at something that can be remotely started, seeing that the inverter can be setup up to do the starting when a certain level of state of charge is reached. Silent and Diesel would be a plus point. The size can be limited by the charging current of the inverter so that can be managed.
January 25, 20241 yr Please check out an article about Best Generator for Victron to find your answer: https://electriciandiary.com/best-generator-for-victron/
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