Hi everyone, nameste again from India.

I've searched the forum for past threads on Deye and Victron and which is better/the way to go recently but I think this warrants a new thread for my specific requirements. I've been in hibernation in the forum and the last time I installed solar, I started with a 24v Axpert and upgraded to 48v with Victron multiplus - that journey is documented here if anyone's curious:

(I was a solar novice back then, not so much now!)

 

Fast forward to 2024, my Victron multiplus 48/3000 died unexpectedly during a grid outage and is out of warranty. I've been in touch with the distributor and hoping to get some help on this. Meanwhile, the 24v axpert is back in action saving the day several years later

 

Fortunately, I'm moving places in a few months and have been exploring what kind of options I have now and Deye inverters have caught my eye. I was looking at the 6kw SG04 deye hybird inverter, costs around 1.10L INR (25k SA money) ~ however, my searches in the forum revealed drastic support experiences with Sunsynk (rebranded, different market, I know) but the number of reports with inverters being out of commission just weeks/months in is upping my anxiety a bit. Coming from victron with a failed inverter, albeit 7 years later..

I'm fully invested in the Victron ecosystem (MPPT, BMV, RPI with venus, etc) but depending on how the repair of my Multiplus goes, I wanted to see if anything else is better. The new system has to be everything new since all my other equipment is out of warranty and won't support high voltage panels anyway.

In terms of battery, I've custom built lifepo4 packs and use it already, so expect to have around 20kwh (usable) of battery storage in same 48v. I choose to custom build because ready made packs are more than twice as expensive and use more or less the same cells anyway and I prefer to have some control.

 

This is what I have come up with in terms of inverter options that I potentially have (solar to be updated, so this thread is only on inverter capacity):

2x Deye 6KW SG04 in parallel (12kw usable) (costs 2.20L INR or 51k SA money) (5kw version is slightly cheaper but this one has a fan so I chose this)

OR

2x Victron Multiplus II 48/3000 in parallel (4kw usable) (costs 1.88L INR or 44k SA money)

My actual usage is 4.5kw max peak, with 2.5kw mostly. If I wire the geyser on the smartload/2nd output of the multi, I will likely stay well below the 4kw limit I think.

 

Unfortunately I missed the victron 3 phase promotion (buy 2 get 1 free), would've been nice to have that now. Redundancy is important for me, that's why I picked two for both inverters in the equation. However, with victron, if 1 were to die, I cannot use all of my loads anymore unlike the deye where 1 is enough already.

My mind says to go deye (12k output... don't have to spend on MPPT) but the heart says to go victron. Perhaps some input from the community will help sway the mind

Thanks everyone in advance.

 

PS. I asked around about the RS models from victron (48/6000 and the likes) but it is not available here. The inverter RS is available (more or less same price as Multiplus II due to a promotion) but it does not have a grid input.

Deye and Sunsynk have proven themselves to be excellent units. Sunsynk's support isn't that great in SA (they reneged on providing loan units for RMA under warranty) but the support situation may be different in India.

I was also a Victron fan at the beginning of my journey, but sanity prevailed and I have two sites running 5K Sunsynks. I don't regret not buying Victron, and I know of quite a few folk that have moved from Victron to Deye / Sunsynk.

Also worthy of consideration is the Solis S6 range, more advanced and feature packed than Deye / Sunsynk, and cheaper. Plus they appear to deliver on their support promises.