Good day

Long time lurker to the forum and in doing so learnt so much. Taking the long overdue plunge into renewable energy.

My system is currently being sourced and will consist of the following:

Sunsynk 8kw

BSL 7kw

This leads me to my question. What panel configuration will be the best and more importantly safe for my inverter.

9 or 10 - 455w JA Solar Panels (Please confirm quantity)

or

8 - 545w JA Solar Panels

I will add a second string of matching panels but this will be done at a later stage. I have enough roof space and based in Cape Town.

Thank you for the assistance.

Dean

2 hours ago, DPVH said:

Good day

Long time lurker to the forum and in doing so learnt so much. Taking the long overdue plunge into renewable energy.

My system is currently being sourced and will consist of the following:

Sunsynk 8kw

BSL 7kw

This leads me to my question. What panel configuration will be the best and more importantly safe for my inverter.

9 or 10 - 455w JA Solar Panels (Please confirm quantity)

or

8 - 545w JA Solar Panels

I will add a second string of matching panels but this will be done at a later stage. I have enough roof space and based in Cape Town.

Thank you for the assistance.

Dean

10 panels on one MPPT in series might be too much and you may go over the MPPT voltage - which is not good. 8 or 9 is the sweet spot. In terms of wattage its up to you, your budget and what you can get your hands on

Thank you for the clarification Mzezman. So as long as the voltage limits of the Inverter is not exceeded, you can select any wattage of panels.

4 hours ago, DPVH said:

Thank you for the clarification Mzezman. So as long as the voltage limits of the Inverter is not exceeded, you can select any wattage of panels.

Pretty much, the current is clipped if it exceeds the MPPT but voltage will cause the MPPT to get damaged

See case study 3 at Solar Advice:
https://solar.co.za/how-to-size-a-pv-array#cs3

10 hours ago, mzezman said:

Pretty much, the current is clipped if it exceeds the MPPT but voltage will cause the MPPT to get damaged

It is due to this reason and looking at the NOCT values that I would think in the link on sizing in the post from 

@system32

one can in fact use 7x4=28. 

Good morning

Like you I am installing an 8kva SS and 16 545w JA panels, no battery for now. 

My plan is 2 x 8 panels per Mppt both on the same plane and orientation and if needed later I can string them together on one Mppt and then add another array on the other at a different orientation.

This gives me time to monitor consumption and work out if I need more power in the morning or afternoon with will dictate the second array of panels orientation.

We only use 21kwh per day at home and we taking the geyser offline and converting to gas.

16 minutes ago, Warrenpfo said:

Good morning

Like you I am installing an 8kva SS and 16 545w JA panels, no battery for now. 

My plan is 2 x 8 panels per Mppt both on the same plane and orientation and if needed later I can string them together on one Mppt and then add another array on the other at a different orientation.

This gives me time to monitor consumption and work out if I need more power in the morning or afternoon with will dictate the second array of panels orientation.

We only use 21kwh per day at home and we taking the geyser offline and converting to gas.

Thats a really lot of pv power you have  there. Enough to push lots of energy to the geyser and stove from the non essential side, during the sunny hours. 

Stove and oven is gas already. Any excess I will use to run my pool pump and AC if needed as I don't want to waste any power.

be wary of Eurener panels - they are low voltage but higher current (30v and 18 amps) meaning you cannot add Tigo Solar Optimisers if you need to cope with shading! Although it does mean I can put 14 in a single string.

I got caught out - ordered JA Solar and planned around that, delivery turned out with Eurener panels and needed a complete redesign