Hi there, very new to solar. I'm probably missing something obvious but my question is how do you know what is the maximum availability of solar power at any given point in time. I did search, but couldn't find anything useful. 

Inverter: Sunsynk Hybrid

App: Sunsynk Connect

Die power flow diagram on the app shows solar power input roughly balanced to the load. I want to know how much extra is available e.g. if I want to power my non-essential geyser is there sufficient extra solar power available.

Example:

This afternoon, house load was 400W, powered by solar. 

9kW solar panels, but very cloudy. I wanted to switch solar to non-essential geyser of 4KW (i.e. put geyser on to heat on solar)

Is there anywhere in the app to see if the panels would generate sufficient solar to deliver to the geyser, before switching the geyser on? In other words the practical maximum power availability at that moment.

TIA 🙏

I am not aware of such a feature.  However, the way I do it is to just switch it on and see how much it produces.  My other way in doing it is to change the setting to not discharge the battery and if the pv only gives for instance 3kW, then the balance of 1kW is topped up with grid.  Therefor in such cases it is not full pv, but also not full grid.  Still a saving.

The simple way would be to set the operating mode to export to the grid. Assuming you've got an approved installation for grid export.

Sunsynk installed and set up correctly should comfortably power your geyser from the excess solar.
Essentially it would push to your local grid in your house.
That's how I have mine setup. I cannot remember when last I paid eskom to heat up my geyser.

The CT Clamp and correct settings and DB wiring is key to this working correctly especially if you do not have feed in tariffs and/or permission from your power supplier to feed back to their grid.

Edited March 9, 20233 yr by WannabeSolarSparky

On 2023/03/09 at 8:04 PM, WannabeSolarSparky said:

Sunsynk installed and set up correctly should comfortably power your geyser from the excess solar.
Essentially it would push to your local grid in your house.
That's how I have mine setup. I cannot remember when last I paid eskom to heat up my geyser.

The CT Clamp and correct settings and DB wiring is key to this working correctly especially if you do not have feed in tariffs and/or permission from your power supplier to feed back to their grid.

For some reason my installer refuses to add the CT that came with my Deye inverter and now I'm trying to do some more research so that I can convince him to change it before he finishes the installation. He says we don't need it and excess solar will still feed into the Geyser somehow. I'm not too sure how he expects that to work without the CT. Perhaps Tshwane just has some strange rules about not using a CT for zero export.

Make sure you keep that CT even if he refuses.. Get someone else to install 

18 minutes ago, Vakie said:

For some reason my installer refuses to add the CT that came with my Deye inverter and now I'm trying to do some more research so that I can convince him to change it before he finishes the installation. He says we don't need it and excess solar will still feed into the Geyser somehow. I'm not too sure how he expects that to work without the CT. Perhaps Tshwane just has some strange rules about not using a CT for zero export.

What about not paying until the job is finished?

31 minutes ago, Vakie said:

For some reason my installer refuses to add the CT that came with my Deye inverter and now I'm trying to do some more research so that I can convince him to change it before he finishes the installation. He says we don't need it and excess solar will still feed into the Geyser somehow. I'm not too sure how he expects that to work without the CT. Perhaps Tshwane just has some strange rules about not using a CT for zero export.

You paid for it, he must give it to you, it came with the inverter.
That is probably the most important part for that type of inverter to work correctly.

34 minutes ago, Vakie said:

For some reason my installer refuses to add the CT that came with my Deye inverter and now I'm trying to do some more research so that I can convince him to change it before he finishes the installation. He says we don't need it and excess solar will still feed into the Geyser somehow. I'm not too sure how he expects that to work without the CT. Perhaps Tshwane just has some strange rules about not using a CT for zero export.

What he is probably doing (which is what another installer tried to do with us in the past) is that he is using 'solar export' , which isn't allowed technically by the municipalities without registration, but if you have an old mechanical meter it will spin backwards. In that way your geyser etc will just be using the power you fed back into the grid. The problem is if they decide to change it for a digital meter, that plan won't work anymore, and that CT will be essential to feed solar to your non essentials

Edited March 10, 20233 yr by abd7

38 minutes ago, Vakie said:

For some reason my installer refuses to add the CT that came with my Deye inverter and now I'm trying to do some more research so that I can convince him to change it before he finishes the installation. He says we don't need it and excess solar will still feed into the Geyser somehow. I'm not too sure how he expects that to work without the CT. Perhaps Tshwane just has some strange rules about not using a CT for zero export.

No need to research far and wide, just tell him to read the manual and do the job properly. Don't entertain any debates. Even if you're not installing solar panels right now, even if you're putting the whole house on the essential loads, just get it fitted, end of story because things may change in the future. The CT coil is key to getting full functionality out of your inverter. Something as seemingly small as the zero export constant power draw depends on it.

8 hours ago, abd7 said:

What he is probably doing (which is what another installer tried to do with us in the past) is that he is using 'solar export' , which isn't allowed technically by the municipalities without registration, but if you have an old mechanical meter it will spin backwards. In that way your geyser etc will just be using the power you fed back into the grid. The problem is if they decide to change it for a digital meter, that plan won't work anymore, and that CT will be essential to feed solar to your non essentials

Even if feeding back to the grid, the CT is still essential for correct operation. Some of the feedback settings will not work correctly if the inverter does not know what is being pushed into the grid, both local and past the meter.

On 2023/03/09 at 7:23 PM, SiriS said:

Hi there, very new to solar. I'm probably missing something obvious but my question is how do you know what is the maximum availability of solar power at any given point in time. I did search, but couldn't find anything useful. 

Inverter: Sunsynk Hybrid

App: Sunsynk Connect

Die power flow diagram on the app shows solar power input roughly balanced to the load. I want to know how much extra is available e.g. if I want to power my non-essential geyser is there sufficient extra solar power available.

Example:

This afternoon, house load was 400W, powered by solar. 

9kW solar panels, but very cloudy. I wanted to switch solar to non-essential geyser of 4KW (i.e. put geyser on to heat on solar)

Is there anywhere in the app to see if the panels would generate sufficient solar to deliver to the geyser, before switching the geyser on? In other words the practical maximum power availability at that moment.

TIA 🙏

At roughly midday and if its a nice clear day then switch on big draw appliances such as microwaves etc and then see on your inverter screen or app what the combined pv output from both mppt is.