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No changes in KWh per day


Nadeem Ahmed

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I have recently installed Infini V 5KW inverter at my house.  It runs all of my household lights, fans, 2 referigerators, 1 inverter based air conditioner.  A microwave and an iron is also on it but they are occasionally used for short periods.  There is a second inverter based air conditioner which I have not connected to this inverter yet.  I have 3-phase grid supply available.Throughout the day, the load varies anywhere from 600W to 2500W.  I am using SUB and off-grid modes.

I have 3 strings of 325W x 3 Renesola solar panels (9 panels) connected at PV1 input of this system.  At peak sunny days, I have noticed these panels going up to providing 2KW of power (as shown on the inverter LCD).

I was expecting to get some electricity saving each month but I was surprised to notice that I got almost the same amounts of KWh units consumed as last month.  Then I started taking readings from my grid meter on daily basis.  My daily consumption was between 36-41 units per 24 hours.  I then kept my inverter switched off for 24 hours and put its load directly on grid.  After 24 hours, I had the same consumption of electricity i.e. 38KWh.

This is not what I was expecting.  What could I be doing wrong?  Any suggestions from the group?

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Hi Nadeem,

Here is the short version of my road to savings:
1) First I checked all the loads, I knew what each trip in the DB was feeding power to.
2) Then I chose the loads that use the most power in the day, to be on solar. Started with EV tubes for the geyser long before solar. That was a whopper of a saving back then.
3) Then we upgraded things like fridges and freezers to use less power, as older fridges can use up to 4kw per day.
4) Then I started checking what is drawing power when we all sleep. Like in WHY is their any power usages bar alarm etc.

You only save with solar when the sun shines and you use all that power.
Biggest draw tends to be when all come home at night, cooking food, watching TV etc. Using batteries for that is not cheaper than Eskom.
THE best savings are to bring down the 24/7/365 loads, as they cost the most per annum.

Hope that is a good start?

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3 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Hi Nadeem,

Here is the short version of my road to savings:
1) First I checked all the loads, I knew what each trip in the DB was feeding power to.
2) Then I chose the loads that use the most power in the day, to be on solar. Started with EV tubes for the geyser long before solar. That was a whopper of a saving back then.
3) Then we upgraded things like fridges and freezers to use less power, as older fridges can use up to 4kw per day.
4) Then I started checking what is drawing power when we all sleep. Like in WHY is their any power usages bar alarm etc.

You only save with solar when the sun shines and you use all that power.
Biggest draw tends to be when all come home at night, cooking food, watching TV etc. Using batteries for that is not cheaper than Eskom.
THE best savings are to bring down the 24/7/365 loads, as they cost the most per annum.

Hope that is a good start?

Very nice!  Thanks for sharing.  Will consider them.

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