February 23, 20233 yr Hi All, I am looking at going hybrid solar, Ideally I would like to run my entire household besides my geyser on solar power during day time and on battery power at night with the security of the grid should I run out of battery in the winter time. Grid will power Geyser that will be put on timer to have as little usage as possible. My highest usage in the last 2years were 750kwh for the month and we average around 700kwh, so more or less 25kwh per day. Plan is to start with a 5kva dual mppt inverter, 5kwh battery and 8x 450w panels. Will expand in future by adding additional battery capacity and panels if needed. Will this be sufficient to start with, which brands to get and what must I avoid. Hopefully my explanation makes sense. Thanks in advance.
February 23, 20233 yr If finances are available definitely go with Sunsynk and maybe a bit bigger wattage panels.
February 23, 20233 yr 13 minutes ago, blugolf said: Will this be sufficient to start with, It is a good start. You can do with a bit more solar if you export. You will need more solar and batteries if you don't. Have you invested in energy management at all?
February 23, 20233 yr Author From the research I have done it seems that Sunsynk is the preferential brand and spending a little extra goes a long way. On the battery and panels side, what brands should I look at keeping in mind the battery cycles and warranties etc. And as mentioned before, will this be a sufficient kit to start with.
February 23, 20233 yr Author Just now, frivan said: It is a good start. You can do with a bit more solar if you export. You will need more solar and batteries if you don't. Have you invested in energy management at all? At the moment I have all lighting on the property on LED and we use Gas stove. Next step is to get a geyser timer. I am considering going solar or gas geyser but the Solar kit will take preference. I work from home and should loadshedding move to stage 8 it will become impossible to do so.
February 23, 20233 yr Almost the standard suggestion to go for a Sunsynk 5kWh inverter and pair it with a Sunsynk 5kWh battery if you'e starting out with only one battery. If you can start out with two batteries, then two Dyness or two Pylontech 5kWh batteries could be a decent choice. I'd suggest 6 or maybe 7 panels at the start on the 1st MPPT (debatable - but personal line of thinking) - and then later double up with the same on the other MPPT. You should know you can use the solar power with Sunsynk also to assist in powering the geyser in the afternoon, or put it on the Smart/AUX Load... long story, not for now. Bottom line, no need to look at replacing the geyser, just power it from solar PV and put that money towards more panels. But a timer could be useful. Powering the whole house on a 5kW inverter could be a bit tight sometimes, and an 8kW could be worth looking at if it's in the budget or you might have a growing household, but a 5kW will also get you far if you practice to manage your load sometimes.
February 23, 20233 yr Author 3 minutes ago, GreenFields said: Almost the standard suggestion to go for a Sunsynk 5kWh inverter and pair it with a Sunsynk 5kWh battery if you'e starting out with only one battery. If you can start out with two batteries, then two Dyness or two Pylontech 5kWh batteries could be a decent choice. I'd suggest 6 or maybe 7 panels at the start on the 1st MPPT (debatable - but personal line of thinking) - and then later double up with the same on the other MPPT. You should know you can use the solar power with Sunsynk also to assist in powering the geyser in the afternoon, or put it on the Smart/AUX Load... long story, not for now. Bottom line, no need to look at replacing the geyser, just power it from solar PV and put that money towards more panels. But a timer could be useful. Powering the whole house on a 5kW inverter could be a bit tight sometimes, and an 8kW could be worth looking at if it's in the budget or you might have a growing household, but a 5kW will also get you far if you practice to manage your load sometimes. Based on your suggestion would it be better to go for larger inverter or additional battery capacity and panels?
February 23, 20233 yr 20 minutes ago, blugolf said: At the moment I have all lighting on the property on LED and we use Gas stove. Next step is to get a geyser timer. I am considering going solar or gas geyser but the Solar kit will take preference. I work from home and should loadshedding move to stage 8 it will become impossible to do so. Get a Geyserwise but note that money for gas and capital on a solar geyser will probably not beat going bigger on solar. An 8kVA inverter will cover your geyser.
February 23, 20233 yr Also note that energy management involves knowing what loads operate when and intervening when needed. You need meters, timers, smart switches, etc.
February 24, 20233 yr Something's got to give here. I would say that for the overnight comfort & security you want, 10kWh of battery is better. My thinking (with apologies to those who have seen this reasoning before). My houses uses 13 to 15kWh most days I have 10kWh of battery I make sure the battery is charged by 16:00. Most days it is charged a LOT earlier. With the battery fully charged at 16:00, I know that I will get through on battery until at least 7 the next morning. Usually SOC will be about 55% at 7:00 So I have used 4.5 kWh out of a useable 9 (nearly all batteries will shut down when 90% discharged) If the morning is overcast AND there is early morning shedding, I still have some battery in hand. If I did all that on a 5kWh, I'd be close to shut down by 7:00, and I'd have very little in reserve. And my usage is clearly lighter than yours. OK... so people are saying "you need THIS" and "you need THE OTHER" and it's not our money. Have a think. Decide what matters most, what you need to have backed up RIGHT NOW, whether you want to tread a line between protection (batteries) and savings (PV) and then decide where to start and what to build up to. And remember that if you hang on a few days, you can get a bit of help from the tax man for your panels (but read all the fine print around that first). Also think about two other things 1) moving as many loads as possible into daylight hours to maximise the PV (though make sure your batteries charge!) and reduce the load on your batteries during the evenings. My house is using 200 to 300W through the night, the only big load is the heat pump at 6am. 2) reducing your useage where you can. Maybe turn the geysers down, and look at other ways of heating the water. Don't turn stuff on just because you can: turn on what you need, when you need it. Okay I lied! 3) Get the household on side. People hear "solar" and their brain translates this into "free and unlimited". It is not either and definitely not unlimited. It's a resource you have to manage.
February 24, 20233 yr 12 hours ago, blugolf said: My highest usage in the last 2years were 750kwh for the month and we average around 700kwh, so more or less 25kwh per day. Plan is to start with a 5kva dual mppt inverter, 5kwh battery and 8x 450w panels Based on your usage, I'd say you need more than double the battery capacity, but you'd really need a breakdown in usage, when does how much energy get consumed... our usage was down to around 15kWh/day and an 8k2Wh battery is actually not quite enough... You should probably increase the panels as well, with a Sunsynk 6S + 6S or 450W panels would probably not a bad number to aim for, even 7 or 8S for each MPPT, if finances will stretch that far... after all, if you have more than enough energy, you will, with a Sunsynk, provide power to the non-essential side, the HWC/Geyser etc. as well. As for cooking with Gas, we used to, less so, now, induction plate cooker is seeing daily action during daylight hours, when solar is plentiful... You will find, that you should shift your consumption to times when you have plenty to avoid the grid... we run the dishwasher during the course of the day etc. so as not to need commercial power input for a lot of things, that one might have run at night in the past, but that would not be great to run off the battery...
February 24, 20233 yr To take this further in terms of panels: - is there a calculation on what the maximum amount of panels an inverter can take (eg a 5kw inverter). What's VOC and what precautions should you take not to damage the inverter Also: - what happens if accidently the peak demand goes over the maximum rated wattage on the inverter? Will this damage the inverter or will inverter just pause function and load moves over to the grid? (hopefully this qn makes sense)
February 24, 20233 yr 14 minutes ago, Solarmaxi said: To take this further in terms of panels: - is there a calculation on what the maximum amount of panels an inverter can take (eg a 5kw inverter). What's VOC and what precautions should you take not to damage the inverter This will vary from inverter to inverter. Read the spec sheets for the inverters you are considering. Also check how many strings each inverter can take. I'd expect it to be two for most modern inverters, but play safe and check before you start putting all that hardware on your roof. 14 minutes ago, Solarmaxi said: Also: - what happens if accidently the peak demand goes over the maximum rated wattage on the inverter? Will this damage the inverter or will inverter just pause function and load moves over to the grid? (hopefully this qn makes sense) Usually the inverter will trip to prevent damage. My Goodwe immediately starts rebooting if there is grid or PV, but I am not sure that they all behave this way. Note that the batteries may also trip if they are overloaded. It's not necessarily the inverter. If your inverter can supply 5kWh, but your battery only 3, the battery will trip first.
February 24, 20233 yr 1 hour ago, Solarmaxi said: - what happens if accidently the peak demand goes over the maximum rated wattage on the inverter? Will this damage the inverter or will inverter just pause function and load moves over to the grid? (hopefully this qn makes sense) On the Sunsynk, if the grid is available and the load is higher than the inverter rating, it will passthrough the balance above the inverter rating, therefor still supply what it can at that point. If the grid is unavailable, it will trip
February 24, 20233 yr 5 hours ago, Solarmaxi said: What's VOC and what precautions should you take not to damage the inverter Voc is the open-circuit voltage, a specification of the solar panel. If you connect a string of panels to an inverter, make sure that the total Voc of that string is comfortably below the maximum Voltage that the inverter's inputs can handle.
February 24, 20233 yr On 2023/02/23 at 8:15 PM, blugolf said: From the research I have done it seems that Sunsynk is the preferential brand and spending a little extra goes a long way. On the battery and panels side, what brands should I look at keeping in mind the battery cycles and warranties etc. And as mentioned before, will this be a sufficient kit to start with. BMW M3 and Mercedes C63 are a preferential brand and spending a little extra goes a long way. But do you really want to spend that when you can have Toyota Yaris GR or VW Golf R or even an Audi RS3? and still have smiles on your face? My point, don't go with the crowd, get what works for you and enjoy the extra saving which you would have paid for something with a 5 year warranty 😁 Edited February 25, 20233 yr by hoohloc
February 25, 20233 yr Good day everyone I have a 5kw lux inverter, 2X Greenrich 5kwh Lithium ion batteries and 7X 450W of PV. Everything is connected to the inverter except the geyser and stove. During the day I run my pool pump for 2hrs, and still get my batteries fully charged by 14:00 in a sunny days. When it’s cloudy ☁️ then I use the grid for 1hr 16:00 - 17:00 and charge the batteries to 100%. I once ran the pool pump and watching machine together, the load was 2.5kw. Question: Can I ask my installer to add the geyser to the inverter? I have bought a timer for the geyser to run it during the day only 🤷🏿♂️and in series with the pool pump.
February 25, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, THULANE said: Good day everyone I have a 5kw lux inverter, 2X Greenrich 5kwh Lithium ion batteries and 7X 450W of PV. Everything is connected to the inverter except the geyser and stove. During the day I run my pool pump for 2hrs, and still get my batteries fully charged by 14:00 in a sunny days. When it’s cloudy ☁️ then I use the grid for 1hr 16:00 - 17:00 and charge the batteries to 100%. I once ran the pool pump and watching machine together, the load was 2.5kw. Question: Can I ask my installer to add the geyser to the inverter? I have bought a timer for the geyser to run it during the day only 🤷🏿♂️and in series with the pool pump. Yes you most definitely can ask installer to add the geyser - just need to be alert as you say so that you don't have more than 5kw running off the inverter
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