Hello from Cape Town

[JJS]

Howzit Everyone,

Having some idle time for a change I stumbled across the solar idea yet again, been reading topics and trying to match my equipment, checking what other guys have done, what they use etc etc.

I am in the planning stage but I have some hardware already, I have a good idea of my daily usage but not really how much hourly, so I got myself an Efergy Engage Hub  for the DB and a Sonoff Pow R2 for checking usage on individual devices.

Usage currently is between 15 -20 kwh daily, depending on washing, dishwasher use. 

I have a solar evap tube geyser (no element) and gas geyser and want to change from an Induction hob to gas one.

Solar Hardware (Not brand new):

2 X 5kW Microcare Bi Directional Inverters

1 X 60Amp SetSolar MPPT (Believe its also Microcare)

No Panels yet and no batteries yet.

I believe a 5 kW is suitable for my house and that brings me to my first question.

What would you do, sell all the Microcare kit and go Victron or sell one inverter and setup with Microcare?

I do not even know if selling everything would be enough ZAR to go Victron in the first place.

I really want to go LFP batteries and read the whole MPPT controller's PIC needs updating from Microcare threads etc etc.

What would you do??? Really do not want make mistakes and re-do this.

Cheers to an awesome forum !!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gerlach]

I will keep them and just get the battery monitor and cable links from microcare that connect the the mppt to the inverter and batteries. 

The Setsolar is a rebrand Microcare yes. I got 60amp one like this and then a Microcare one to. They look all the same inside. On this part. You can run max 150v on it and max 3000 watt solar and max 60 amps supply. I will recommend that you get 2 or 3 of them because i spotted that you quickly can run out of that amp supply. Switching in a kettle can pull 40 amps super fast out of it. Other option is to go for the 100amp ones but 2 of them. They really good units.

On the lithium part, bluenova batteries can work with this units or some other brands that got a higher charge rate then Pylontech batteries. That's why i went the DIY root with Lifepo4s for my setup with its own BMS. 

[jasonvanwyk]

Hi JJS

Being fairly "novice-icle" myself, I can't really give you expert insight. But from my own experience - I went with cheaper inverters (nothing wrong with that), but I am now finding myself "upgrading" to victron. If I would do it over again, knowing what I know now, And in my circumstances, i would just go for Victron from the get-go. One question, I think at least, that often gets overlooked is; How autonomous do you want to system to be? Remember a lot of the time you are not at home when things go wrong. How easily will it be to get your system back up and running, or make a small setting change when the sun's not shining ect. Most people I know, have wives or staff at home that can't do all these technical things when you're not there.

all I can say is congratulations on making the first step. There is a learning curve, so there will be some changes you will make in the future (I don't really think of them as mistakes - If you've done your homework properly) which i think is unavoidable altogether, but it is fun and interesting, and satisfying. stay on the forum to learn as much as  possible. Good Luck 

[JJS]

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

I do travel a bit and would like to keep an eye on the whole thing while being away.

So I keep finding myself comparing the two blue's, please correct me if I am wrong, it seems the monitoring and control is much better on the Victrons.

I am between these paths:

• Use one of the 5kW Microcare's and the 60Amp MPPT, sell the other 5kw Inverter and use the funds to buy the monitoring kit +- R5500 ( Battery Monitor + 2 Battery Sensors + WiFi ), if I want web logging the web logger is extra R5000 plus a yearly subscription, which I am not fond of.

 

• Or sell the all the kit in first post (Not sure what I can get for it ???? ) and look at:
  Victron Quattro 48/5000 or Multiplus II
  Victron 150/70 MPPT
  Venus GX
  BMV 702 (Still needed ?)
   

 

 

 

[Gerlach]

@JJS let me know when you planning to sell the 60 mppt. I'm looking for one more for my setup. 

[JJS]

On 2020/01/02 at 8:18 PM, Gerlach said:

@JJS let me know when you planning to sell the 60 mppt. I'm looking for one more for my setup. 

@Gerlach

No problem, will do if it comes down to that, I still am not anywhere closer than I was previously.

Anybody in Cape Town that wants to have a chat around this ?

Also looking for an installer reference pretty please.

 

Edited January 5, 2020 by JJS
quote add @

[Gerlach]

@JJS where are you based in cape town side because i'm in cape town side. I will keep the 2 microcare units and just link them together because they can run max 20 amps ac if i'm correct per unit. They can perform at 200% if you add grid to assist the extra load, this if you planning to run the hall house excluding the guyser and stove. 

The second hand mark per unit is between R6000 and R15000, depends how new it is and if it's got a service record and the coms unit in it. 

 

[JJS]

12 hours ago, Gerlach said:

@JJS where are you based in cape town side because i'm in cape town side. I will keep the 2 microcare units and just link them together because they can run max 20 amps ac if i'm correct per unit. They can perform at 200% if you add grid to assist the extra load, this if you planning to run the hall house excluding the guyser and stove. 

The second hand mark per unit is between R6000 and R15000, depends how new it is and if it's got a service record and the coms unit in it. 

 

@Gerlach

I am in Panorama

Edited January 6, 2020 by JJS
@

[Gerlach]

27 minutes ago, JJS said:

@Gerlach

I am in Panorama

Ahaaa. Ok. Around the corner of me. I'm in Sonkring.  

[JJS]

1 hour ago, Gerlach said:

Ahaaa. Ok. Around the corner of me. I'm in Sonkring.  

Around the corner and downhill

Do you have some installer recommendations for me or someone that can assist ?

[Gerlach]

Hahahaha. Jip, free all the way downhill. I think Mike Thorne on the forum or here https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThorneSolar/ will be your best bet to help you in cape town side. He knows his way arround this stuff. 

[JJS]

So when choosing panels to match a current MPPT with spec MAX 150V VOC / 3000W / 60 AMP.

Does one factor in the losses of the panels to get to as close as possible to to 3000W max ?

I read its about 20% loss, please correct me if I am wrong, which one below must it be or other option that I have missed

ie.

9 X 335Watt (3015 Watt - Minus losses  +- 2400Watt)

or

12 X 305Watt (3660 Watt - Minus losses  +- 2900Watt)

 

 

[Gerlach]

@JJS run 9×335w . I'm running mine like this. 3s 3p. Your volts will between 120 and 130v from the pannels to the mppt. In the rite weather condition you will get it close to max out. You will see in my photo i did a test to see how hard i can pull a load and it nearly max out die mppt. The volts from the battery side just to start to drop en volts from the pannels drop from 121v to 100.4v. 

Edited February 3, 2020 by Gerlach

[JJS]

Thanks Gerlach

 

@plonkster

Hope you don't mind tagging you out of the blue, can I have your take please on connecting 355Watt x 9 (3195watt) in 3s 3p connected to a 3000watt mppt ? thanks

[___]

3 hours ago, JJS said:

Hope you don't mind tagging you out of the blue, can I have your take please on connecting 355Watt x 9 (3195watt) in 3s 3p connected to a 3000watt mppt ? thanks

Out of the blue nogal...

Well, you're 3200/3000 aka less than 10 % oversized. I don't know the Microcare that well, okay I know it fairly well in terms of the topology, but I don't know how it deals with oversizing. Assuming it does what the others do, this should be fine. 3 Panels in series might get you in trouble on a cold morning. This will depend on the precise temperature gradient of those panels, but a calculation I did for my own Canadian Solars indicated that -7°C was about the limit before I risk going over 150V and damaging things. So 3 series should be fine for Cape Town, I think we haven't had temperatures like that since before I was born.

[JJS]

On 2020/02/12 at 12:23 AM, plonkster said:

Out of the blue nogal...

Well, you're 3200/3000 aka less than 10 % oversized. I don't know the Microcare that well, okay I know it fairly well in terms of the topology, but I don't know how it deals with oversizing. Assuming it does what the others do, this should be fine. 3 Panels in series might get you in trouble on a cold morning. This will depend on the precise temperature gradient of those panels, but a calculation I did for my own Canadian Solars indicated that -7°C was about the limit before I risk going over 150V and damaging things. So 3 series should be fine for Cape Town, I think we haven't had temperatures like that since before I was born.

Different shade of blue

Thanks for the reply  @plonkster much appreciated,  panels in question are also Canadian Solar.