Hi Guys,

What inverter would you recommend to firstly supply power from PV panels and then top up power from batteries and then finally from the grid? Is this even possible? From what I’ve read the Victron multiplus can do this? 

I don’t want to feed power back into the grid. I don’t think this is even possible in KZN midlands? 

Thanks in advance

Hi.

 

I have outback and it does exactly this

7 hours ago, Kilowatt said:

Hi Guys,

What inverter would you recommend to firstly supply power from PV panels and then top up power from batteries and then finally from the grid? Is this even possible? From what I’ve read the Victron multiplus can do this? 

I don’t want to feed power back into the grid. I don’t think this is even possible in KZN midlands? 

Thanks in advance

Hi Kilowatt,

THIS is the big question I am trying to get answers on? I am also not interested in feeding back to grid? I firmly believe, that every obstacle possible will be found to complicate this process, and I'm sure ESKOM will only credit you a few cents/kwh, dispite what is said in the media.

I have looking at the AXPERT range, and I know the entry level series, simply switch between supply, instead of combining the supply. I am trying to confirm though whether the AXPERT KING series has this feature. I have told it does by the suppliers, but would like to find someone running one, that can confirm this?

I am also told the INFINISOLAR series can COMBINE power supply sources?

7 hours ago, Merlin said:

 

Hi.

 

I have outback and it does exactly this

Hi Merlin

what model outback do you have? And where did you get it from?

1 hour ago, Blinkwater9 said:

Hi Kilowatt,

THIS is the big question I am trying to get answers on? I am also not interested in feeding back to grid? I firmly believe, that every obstacle possible will be found to complicate this process, and I'm sure ESKOM will only credit you a few cents/kwh, dispite what is said in the media.

I have looking at the AXPERT range, and I know the entry level series, simply switch between supply, instead of combining the supply. I am trying to confirm though whether the AXPERT KING series has this feature. I have told it does by the suppliers, but would like to find someone running one, that can confirm this?

I am also told the INFINISOLAR series can COMBINE power supply sources?

Thanks Blinkwater9, 

I fully agree on your thinking regarding eskom. It would be nice to be completely independent and say good bye to Eskom. But I don’t think that is completely necessary for me at the moment. So finding the right inverter to combine power and have battery back up seems like right option for now. I will do some research on the Axpert king and infinisolar inverters. Hopefully someone on the forum has first hand experience on one of these. 

I also need to get some clarity on whether size matters on a grid tie inverter, I’m sure I read that if your inverter is 3kw and your load calls for 4kw the inverter supplies 3kw and the other 1kw comes from the grid or so then no need to fork out for a big inverter if majority or average load is going to be 3kw or less? 

35 minutes ago, Kilowatt said:

read that if your inverter is 3kw and your load calls for 4kw the inverter supplies 3kw and the other 1kw comes from the grid or so then no need to fork out for a big inverter if majority or average load is going to be 3kw or less? 

Not really. Most inverters will supply more kilowatts for a few seconds only. You do get some makes that can split loads up by bypassing higher kw loads.

My Infinisolar 4kw super plus have run at 128% for periods whilst pumping but I regard it as overloading.

Your first action plan must be to determine the power consumption for all your household machines. It is cheaper to invest in gas powered stoves and geysers and energy efficient washing machines etc than purchasing big solar plants.

New regulations might restrict you to 3.6kw output anyway in future, depending on where you stay.

You can get answers to all your questions by doing searches on the forum.

 

45 minutes ago, Johandup said:

 

Your first action plan must be to determine the power consumption for all your household machines. It is cheaper to invest in gas powered stoves and geysers and energy efficient washing machines etc than purchasing big solar plants.

 

I seem to tend to over engineer everything I do, so I cant see myself installing less than I will need. I am currently doing a consumption survey, with an EFERGY HUB KIT I got from Ellies.

I am sure I will be able to design my system to meet my current needs. 

I unfortunately, have 3 pumps I need to run, that I cannot exclude, and my system requirements will need accommodate these. The biggest pump, is 1,55kw, but this is a VSD pump, so there are no surges that I am concerned over.

My hob is GAS, my geyser is SOLAR, and all my lights are LED.

My BASE LOAD averages around 700w. Spikes up to 6,6kw have been recorded. So some creative load splitting will take care of most of this. I want to run the survey for a least a week, and get a clearer picture before making any more decisions.

My choice this far is leaning towards the INFINSOLAR though.

1 hour ago, Johandup said:

Most inverters will supply more kilowatts for a few seconds only.

Right. But if the load is 4 kW, and the grid-tied or hybrid inverter is rated at 3 kW continuous, then after short term overloads are over, the grid will supply the missing 1 kW. That's assuming that in the hybrid case, the load is connected to the utility, not the essential loads port.

Ok, so far I’m still not getting the answers I would like to hear. Let me ask my question differently. I have R100000.00 Budget, I was going to install the following.

18 x 350w artsolar pv panels

2 x axpert 5kw inverter

2 x phylon batteries 

All lights already led, I have a gas hob and gas geyser in my kitchen. No pumps. Only bath once a day in the evening. Bathroom geyser only used then. 

Daily average usage is 14kw at the moment, no idea what I peak at. I believe this will be sufficient to take me mostly off the grid provided I have sun. 

What would be a better system? I don’t need to be completely off grid, I just want to substitute eskom power and have back up. I will eventually install a solar geyser. 

52 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

Right. But if the load is 4 kW, and the grid-tied or hybrid inverter is rated at 3 kW continuous, then after short term overloads are over, the grid will supply the missing 1 kW. That's assuming that in the hybrid case, the load is connected to the utility, not the essential loads port.

Coulomb, do you use a grid tie inverter? 

1 hour ago, Kilowatt said:

Ok, so far I’m still not getting the answers I would like to hear. Let me ask my question differently. I have R100000.00 Budget, I was going to install the following.

18 x 350w artsolar pv panels

2 x axpert 5kw inverter

2 x phylon batteries 

All lights already led, I have a gas hob and gas geyser in my kitchen. No pumps. Only bath once a day in the evening. Bathroom geyser only used then. 

Daily average usage is 14kw at the moment, no idea what I peak at. I believe this will be sufficient to take me mostly off the grid provided I have sun. 

What would be a better system? I don’t need to be completely off grid, I just want to substitute eskom power and have back up. I will eventually install a solar geyser. 

Without knowing your peaks, it's going to be a thumbsuck figure. My system runs on a single 4Kw Axpert with 9x 255W panels (normally 12) and we're offgrid throughout the day.  My current 240Ah battery bank will carry us through the night if there's power failure. It will be replaced with a 5.9Kw Pylontech once they've reached EOL. Cost be was more in the region of R80K. It's an Axpert, so if it's a cloudy / rainy day it will switch the whole load back to Eskom, or batteries, if the load is more than the PV could supply. When I  installed it the Infinisolar and Goodwe inverters weren't available, otherwise either of those would have been my first choice. Infinisolar is more expensive but you can parallel them. With the new legislation that CoCT is pushing through, we're limited to 3.5Kw on 60A breaker or 4.6Kw on a 80A breaker in any case so that's a big show stopper. I don't have any gas appliances, other than a portable gas heater.

2 hours ago, Kilowatt said:

Coulomb, do you use a grid tie inverter?

Only on a separate small system, for my Feed In Tariff (I export as much as possible, but I'm only allowed to export through my original 1.2 kW grid-tie (non hybrid) inverter). My main system runs off a 3.5 year old 5 kVA / 4 kW PIP-4048MS (Axpert MKS 5K-48 PF0.8). Mine was one of the last ones to have solar charging limited to 60 A battery-side (3 kW). I've updated capacitors and MOSFETs to hopefully make it more reliable, and I run patched firmware. I run all my loads through the off-grid inverter, except for a large ducted air conditioner with an 80 A start-up current, oven, and hot water booster (solar geyser, I think you guys would call that).

Most electricity bills (I'm billed quarterly), the income from the Feed In Tariff offsets the connection fees and the small amount of energy I use for those three non-inverter loads, plus the occasional bypassing to run the loads from utility. My account has been in credit for the last 4-6 bills.

Edited April 21, 20197 yr by Coulomb
typo

On 2019/04/21 at 7:00 AM, Kilowatt said:

Hi Merlin

what model outback do you have? And where did you get it from?

Sorry for the late reply.

 

Ive got 3x3kw GVFX inverters from sinetech.co.za.  they charge batteries,  work with or without eskom and have settings to sell or not sell to grid.