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My Views on the Imeon 3.6 testing 1st Nov till 1st Jan


Mike

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6 minutes ago, Pierre said:

Can is send it somewhere like, geyser of water pump.

Also am interested in this question.

Been wondering that instead of putting EV tubes up for a geyser, they are more expensive than putting up few more panels, if one can use the inverter to feed the DB board and therefor the geyser also?

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1 minute ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Also am interested in this question.

Been wondering that instead of putting EV tubes up for a geyser, they are more expensive than putting up few more panels, if one can use the inverter to feed the DB board and therefor the geyser also?

This is my plan for the next phase.
Will start a new topic on this then we can discuss it, Chris is doing it already

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10 minutes ago, Pierre said:

Thanks Superdiy

What will happen to this excess power.

Can is send it somewhere like, geyser of water pump.

If feedback is disabled, the inverter will only draw as much power from the panels as required by the inverter, the load and the charger. There are however devices available which you can connect to these inverters and dummy loads like geysers, which will ensure that you don't feed back any power and all access power is dumped into the dummy load. As far as I know these devices are not available off-shelf (in SA), but there are designs available on the net if you want to build your own. I think you can purchase a DIY kit from the UK as well.

The other option is to get an inverter which can control / handle a limiter - I know there is a specific brand available in SA with that option, but I cannot remember the name at the moment.  Other forum members might be able to assist on that matter.

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Mike mentioned a while ago that he occasionally had loads of more than 4KW connected to the infini 3KW Plus he tested, so when I got home yesterday afternoon I thought I'd do some testing.

 

From a past experience I have overloaded the infini while we had loadshedding late on a Saturday afternoon - it tripped when the load was about 3.5KW, but auto-restarted and kept on tripping and restarting every few seconds until I lowered the load, so in yesterday's test I switched off all the circuit breakers to all the plug circuits except for the two circuits I've connected the test loads to - don't want to kill a fridge or something else because of the inverter switching on and off.

 

I then connected my toaster oven (for PC board soldering), a kettle full of water and a vacuum cleaner, all on the infini output while the GRID WAS AVAILABLE and while I still got just under 1KW from the PV panels - the infini handled the total load of just over 5KW without tripping and according to the KW meter I have installed between the infini and the grid, the infini drew the balance of about 4.2KW from the grid. It took about 4 minutes for the water to boil and then the load dropped to just below 3KW. 

 

Hope this helps a few people when they have to decide if it is worth while spending double the amount of cash on an Imeon...

 

Thumbs up for the infini. [emoji3]

So this mean that the infini is combining solar plus grid.

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10 hours ago, bmeagle said:

So this mean that the infini is combining solar plus grid.

Yes, not only when it needs more than 3KW for the load. The infini is a true hybrid inverter, it will combine PV, grid and battery to supply the load or use PV and grid to charge the battery etc. etc.

It does not do the "switching over" thing the Axperts do e.g. switching over to grid when the PV alone cannot supply the load.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Apparently the Axpert can only be operated with batteries connected? Can anyone confirm this?

And can the infini be used without batteries only linked up to the grid, DB and panels?

I'm planning to start off with just an inverter and 1kw of panels... will later ad more panels and a batt bank.

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2 minutes ago, Willem said:

Apparently the Axpert can only be operated with batteries connected? Can anyone confirm this?

Yes, correct

2 minutes ago, Willem said:

And can the infini be used without batteries only linked up to the grid, DB and panels?

Yes

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If I don't feed back I don't see a reason to even let them know. Capetown is a bunch of skelms and it will then be an offline unit... they can come and find me... ;-)

Will do some research again... last time I checked the inverter needed to have some sort of certification... 097-2 or something like that.

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It is not Cpt being skelm, it is a wee bit more than that. ;)

Jip, must be certified for IF they do come for tea, at least that part is covered.

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20 hours ago, Willem said:

If I don't feed back I don't see a reason to even let them know. Capetown is a bunch of skelms and it will then be an offline unit... they can come and find me... ;-)

Will do some research again... last time I checked the inverter needed to have some sort of certification... 097-2 or something like that.

It has the required certification, someone posted the link a few days ago.  If you are going to use it offline, they (CoCT) can go.....

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17 minutes ago, superdiy said:

If you are going to use it offline

But how do you do that without batteries? :-) As I understand it, if it runs grid-interactive, even if you have a limiter device and you don't feed back... they want you on the "other" plan (the one with the R400 a month connection fee)...

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Can someone with knowledge or experience with both give some advice what the pro's and con's are between the Imeon 3.6 and the Infini 5kW? I currently have a 5kW Axpert but would like to move to true hybrid. Both seem like they would be able to do the job for me but the Imeon is quite a bit less expensive than the Infini. Wny would one choose the 5kW Infini over the Imeon?

Would appreciate your comments.

Cobus

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11 minutes ago, plonkster said:

But how do you do that without batteries? :-) As I understand it, if it runs grid-interactive, even if you have a limiter device and you don't feed back... they want you on the "other" plan (the one with the R400 a month connection fee)...

You might have a point here, I'm not sure if it will run without batteries and without being connected to the grid.

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8 minutes ago, cvzyl said:

Can someone with knowledge or experience with both give some advice what the pro's and con's are between the Imeon 3.6 and the Infini 5kW? I currently have a 5kW Axpert but would like to move to true hybrid. Both seem like they would be able to do the job for me but the Imeon is quite a bit less expensive than the Infini. Wny would one choose the 5kW Infini over the Imeon?

Would appreciate your comments.

Cobus

The Imeon 3.6 only has a 3KW inverter and is basically the same as the infini 3KW. They can both supply loads of up to 3KW when the grid is off and up to 6KW when the grid is available.

The infini 5KW has a 5KW inverter. I'm pretty sure it will be able to supply loads up to 10KW while the grid is available - Mike, have you tested this yet?

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13 minutes ago, superdiy said:

I'm not sure if it will run without batteries and without being connected to the grid

I know only one inverter that can do that. It's a Sunnyboy, it has something called an "emergency power" feature, and it's only for about half it's normal rating... IF the sun is shining.

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32 minutes ago, plonkster said:

I know only one inverter that can do that. It's a Sunnyboy, it has something called an "emergency power" feature, and it's only for about half it's normal rating... IF the sun is shining.

Maybe I should do a test. ;)

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1 hour ago, superdiy said:

The Imeon 3.6 only has a 3KW inverter and is basically the same as the infini 3KW. They can both supply loads of up to 3KW when the grid is off and up to 6KW when the grid is available.

The infini 5KW has a 5KW inverter. I'm pretty sure it will be able to supply loads up to 10KW while the grid is available - Mike, have you tested this yet?

So if the grid is available and I don't want to draw from batteries it can still supply 6kW from grid? Since I don't want to operate off-grid and grid is mostly available I cannot see that this limitation would impact me. The Imeon seems like better value for money.

Mike, you recently tested the Imeon and you're testing the Infini 5kW now. What's your opinion on the two?

C

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