I have Victron Easysolar 2 and Bluenova 5kwh battery installed. Now I am very keen to add solar panels. Our consumption is plus minus 18kw per day. The house idle during the day around 400watt per hour.

Just would like to add panels to run the house during the day, and charge the battery if it was used during power off.

What brand of panels and how many would you recommend?

We have solar split system for the geysers.

Regards

Morne

46 minutes ago, Morne van der Merwe said:

I have Victron Easysolar 2 and Bluenova 5kwh battery installed. Now I am very keen to add solar panels. Our consumption is plus minus 18kw per day. The house idle during the day around 400watt per hour.

Just would like to add panels to run the house during the day, and charge the battery if it was used during power off.

What brand of panels and how many would you recommend?

We have solar split system for the geysers.

Regards

Morne

Your 16hrs standing load during the no/low sun period is 6400wh. If you use 4000wh from the battery you are at 10400wh. Using 18kwh a day means you are using 8kwh per day from the grid. 

Thus to be able to charge the battery and cover the standing load you would need 2kw of panels on a sunny day. In summer up North we have bad days where this will not even charge your battery without accounting for the standing load. 

Seems like you must aim for 4kw of PV and also a 2nd 5kwh battery? 

1 hour ago, Morne van der Merwe said:

I have Victron Easysolar 2 and Bluenova 5kwh battery installed. Now I am very keen to add solar panels. Our consumption is plus minus 18kw per day. The house idle during the day around 400watt per hour

You want to change that to make best use of PV. You need to use power during the day. Heat your water, run appliances, run the pool pump. Then you leave your battery less to handle when there is no PV. 

I don't even run the dishwasher at night. All the heavy lifting, so to speak, happens during the daylight hours. Then at night that's when we consume 200 to 400w per hour and our battery serves us all night long. 

The battery is only for backup power in event of Grid lost. The swimming pool pump, geysers and stove are grid tie at the moment.

At the moment do not want to go off the grid completely . Just to add solar panels to run the house during the day, if the PV not enough use help from grid, but if the grid is off, battery and PV. We very lucky, hardly get loadshedding, we used 60kw in the last year in battery power.

solar energy just fascinates me alot.

I was thinking to start with 4 Solar panels say 550watt? Do not want to over the top, and just throttle the panels when the house use average of say 700watt per hour?

Thank you so far for the advice

 

15 hours ago, Morne van der Merwe said:

The battery is only for backup power in event of Grid lost. The swimming pool pump, geysers and stove are grid tie at the moment.

At the moment do not want to go off the grid completely . Just to add solar panels to run the house during the day, if the PV not enough use help from grid, but if the grid is off, battery and PV. We very lucky, hardly get loadshedding, we used 60kw in the last year in battery power.

solar energy just fascinates me alot.

I was thinking to start with 4 Solar panels say 550watt? Do not want to over the top, and just throttle the panels when the house use average of say 700watt per hour

 

I agree with @Scorp007 that ideally you need more panels and more battery. Then you are in a position where most days you can charge the battery and run the house off of PV during the day, and then discharge the battery (partially or fully as you feel comfortable) at night. You maximise this if, as discussed, you start using more power during the day to make best use of the PV.

OK... it's not my money. So maybe do this: Get those panels (I think 6 would be a better starting point). They are heavy and large, so you probably want to get somebody with the skills and manpower and tools to install them. Anyway, get them installed and then start watching your system. See when you get PV, see when you have loads, see what loads you can move to the hours when you have PV, and watch how the system reacts. Then plan from there.
 

Edited February 26, 20233 yr by Bobster.

Thank you for the advice.

Now the question, what brand panels?

Qcells, JA, Longi?

Where To buy? Vanderbijlpark based.

2 hours ago, Morne van der Merwe said:

Thank you for the advice.

Now the question, what brand panels?

Qcells, JA, Longi?

Where To buy? Vanderbijlpark based.

Now that we know your batteries are not cycled each night. Also you don't have regular LS changes quite a lot from trying to give answer that suits you. 

Yes 4 panels as suggested can nicely cover your day standing load. Good for you for using the grid tied side. 

We tend do want the best of any equipment. Add Canadian, Enersol, Cinco or other tier 1 panels to your list. Supplier I cannot help. Just use a seller with a shop and be very wary of some on line sellers.