July 16, 20206 yr Hi I currently have an Axpert King 5kw with 1x Pylontech US300 running as a backup power for lighting and a fridge. It runs for somewhere between 8 and 20 hours depending. I have another 3 US3000 batteries which i am going to connect, but I have been considering why not expand and get panels. Normal 4 person household, and i doubt we are heavy consumers. (bill is around R1200 per month plus services charges another R600) We have an electronic meter (postpaid) in Randburg JHB. We have 2 DBs connected via 1x 10mm cable (Currently ESKOM supply) and 1 x 4mm cable (supplied by the Axpert) (DBs on different ends of the house) setup so that most of the plugs, the geyser and pool are on one circuit and the lights and fridge alarm etc are on another. Now I have been considering adding PV panels to the system have read about some issues with the Kings and PV freezes. Thing is adding PV makes more sense if I can use it for everything else as well. So potentially I could reconfigure the DB to take out some heavy consumers like the Geyser and put everything else on the 1 King. (Will require some wiring as I may need another 10mm cable run about 50m up walls through roofs etc) having the additional 10mm cable would allow for freedom in configuring different options (currently its a 4mm cable). This option means that people in the house would need to start learning how to manage the load and maybe can't boil a kettle which the dishwasher and the stove and microwave is on etc. Another option would be to get another King and parallel them so that everything runs through the inverters permanently. Means that there would be no need to reconfigure the wiring run geyser, stove etc through the inverters. I assume we will be able to keep the load below 10KW without much effort. Or sell the Axpert and get something like a Goodwe (Victron seems to be getting expensive) and leave the wiring like it is, then the hybrid inverter can supply the loads when there is ESKOM power available. Would be no need to rewire, should work for what i need. Not sure if the electronic meter might have issues with a hybrid inverter. Which option makes most sense?
July 16, 20206 yr My setup: I moved my King over to run Pool and borehole seperately with AGM batteries And installed a Victron system to run the houses with the Pylontech, feeding in access solar to geyser,kettle,microwave,etc I have loaded 2 inverter aircons,washing machine and tumble drier to the essentials load Going BLUE is expensive but works like a charm !!!
July 16, 20206 yr 59 minutes ago, Abnormal said: Now I have been considering adding PV panels to the system have read about some issues with the Kings and PV freezes. Never happened to me. Install solar and check, you might need to update the firmware on the machine
July 16, 20206 yr 1 hour ago, Abnormal said: This option means that people in the house would need to start learning how to manage the load and maybe can't boil a kettle which the dishwasher and the stove and microwave is on etc. IMO Going solar is a lifestyle!!!
July 16, 20206 yr Author Thanks for the feedback. Yeah agree the Victron kit seems like the best option cost aside Plus it has all the configuration options and integration options as well. And yes the integrations options would be worthwhile, thats my kind of thing. But alas going Victron is going to cost maybe R50k + for a 5KW kit. Then will it work with my meter, but I guess there are work arounds as to prevent it backfeeding into the grid. Have checked out the video on the config options. But alas financially Might be better to use what I have. Hence my dilema.
July 16, 20206 yr 1 hour ago, Abnormal said: Thanks for the feedback. Yeah agree the Victron kit seems like the best option cost aside Plus it has all the configuration options and integration options as well. And yes the integrations options would be worthwhile, thats my kind of thing. But alas going Victron is going to cost maybe R50k + for a 5KW kit. Then will it work with my meter, but I guess there are work arounds as to prevent it backfeeding into the grid. Have checked out the video on the config options. But alas financially Might be better to use what I have. Hence my dilema. I think the inverter is about R27k and then a Venus GX maybe R4.5k. Then an MPPT will set you back whatever you need it to set you back, but you'd probably be fine with a 150/70 for R9.5k? So call it R42k. That is some 20% shy of R50k!
July 16, 20206 yr 2 hours ago, Abnormal said: Might be better to use what I have Can also work if, like you say used correctly. The one functionality I like of the King is SUB (blending between Solar and Utility)
July 16, 20206 yr 1 hour ago, Quwatush Shams (Suly) said: Can also work if, like you say used correctly. The one functionality I like of the King is SUB (blending between Solar and Utility) The king does blending? Thought only the more expensive blue stuff does that. In the market for an inverter and considering an Axpert King.
July 16, 20206 yr Have a look at the luxpower 5kv hybrid inverter as well, I know not a lot of site members have experience with them but pretty good piece of kit in my opinion and very well specked out machine for nearly half the price of the blue stuff everyone is crazy about. Has the ability to parallel and blends all power sources PV 1st, battery then rest of load from grid Works well with pylons Coupled with mobile app/web monitoring and maintenance Worth a look as well Also depending on meter (old type with the spinning thingamabob)u can feed back to grid 😎😎 Edited July 16, 20206 yr by Gelo
July 17, 20206 yr 7 hours ago, Gelo said: Has the ability to parallel and blends all power sources PV 1st, battery then rest of load from grid Hi Gelo can the order in which it blends be changed? Let's say I want to use PV first, then grid and lastly the battery for incase I want to save the battery for loadshedding. Regards.
July 17, 20206 yr 2 hours ago, Quwatush Shams (Suly) said: Blending yes,not feeding in So this to me is the big issue if you want to utilise your PV effectively. You will really struggle to utilise all your PV if you can only use it on your backup circuit or to charge batteries (for the backup circuit). You'd likely find that once the batteries are full and the (most probably low load) of your backup circuit is met, your nice big PV array will just sit there, idling. A true hybrid inverter that can feed in excess PV to help meet demand on non-essential circuits (not feed-in to the grid, don't think that is allowed) are just so much more efficient in the long term. You'd be able to run anything that creates a demand off the PV during the day. I know Goodwe and Victron to perform like this, but read from other members that Sunsynk and Luxpower also have this ability. If you have a Multiplus II 5kVA, you'd even be able to wire your entire house through it. You'd wire non-essentials to AC OUT 2 and essentials to AC OUT 1.
July 17, 20206 yr 2 hours ago, francois said: Hi Gelo can the order in which it blends be changed? Let's say I want to use PV first, then grid and lastly the battery for incase I want to save the battery for loadshedding. Regards. Hi Francois I suppose You could manually set the battery discharge rate to cut off at 90% (literally sliding a tab on the user interface menu) so in the event that pv is lost early evening 10% of battery would be used and inverter would cut off battery usage leaving you with remaining battery for backup. Even if u set to 50% with the 4 pylons 300s you have. you should have a very healthy 5.5kw for backups
July 17, 20206 yr 3 hours ago, francois said: Let's say I want to use PV first, then grid and lastly the battery for incase I want to save the battery for loadshedding. Yes
July 17, 20206 yr Author 10 hours ago, Gelo said: Also depending on meter (old type with the spinning thingamabob)u can feed back to grid 😎😎 Unfortunately not, we already have the electronic meters. 1 hour ago, jykenmynie said: So this to me is the big issue if you want to utilise your PV effectively. You will really struggle to utilise all your PV if you can only use it on your backup circuit or to charge batteries (for the backup circuit). You'd likely find that once the batteries are full and the (most probably low load) of your backup circuit is met, your nice big PV array will just sit there, idling. Yes this is the biggest issue, if I leave everything as it is it will work, but all that PV will be wasted if it cannot be used for the non critical loads. Can go adding change over switches to manage it manually, but that seems like too much effort. Its not fun anymore when it becomes are chore unless i can find some happy medium.
July 17, 20206 yr If you are happy with the inverter side of your system, why not add a standalone Victron MPPT if you don't want to connect the PV to your Axpert? It's also what I did. It gives you the benefit of the better MPPT technology from Victron without having to fork out all the cash to also replace the inverter side
July 17, 20206 yr 20 minutes ago, wolfandy said: If you are happy with the inverter side of your system, why not add a standalone Victron MPPT if you don't want to connect the PV to your Axpert? It's also what I did. It gives you the benefit of the better MPPT technology from Victron without having to fork out all the cash to also replace the inverter side If you go this way what do you use to control and monitor your batteries . I use ICC with Pylontech . What is the benefits . Does Victron make a 48v inverter only . Only with battery and AC out connection for offgrid application .
July 17, 20206 yr 9 minutes ago, Chris Louw said: Does Victron make a 48v inverter only Yes. It's called the Phoenix. Inverter component is similar to the one in the equivalent Multi, but it has no transfer switch and no ability to grid-tie. You can tie PV-inverters to it and it can frequency-shift them though, so it can be used for microgrids. Edited July 17, 20206 yr by plonkster
July 17, 20206 yr Author 1 hour ago, wolfandy said: If you are happy with the inverter side of your system, why not add a standalone Victron MPPT if you don't want to connect the PV to your Axpert? It's also what I did. It gives you the benefit of the better MPPT technology from Victron without having to fork out all the cash to also replace the inverter side I have not tried the PV side, but I assume it will work. I don't have a problem with the PV side and don't think adding a stand alone MPPT will be of benefit, maybe minimal benefit. Its more the utilisation of the PV which I am looking at. The Axpert basically can only supply essential loads meaning you could be left with PV to spare and end up using Eskom for the non essential loads, where a proper hybrid would be able to feed the non essential loads as well. *edit Or reconfigure some wiring to try and maximise "essential loads" Edited July 17, 20206 yr by Abnormal
July 17, 20206 yr 43 minutes ago, Chris Louw said: If you go this way what do you use to control and monitor your batteries . I use ICC with Pylontech . What is the benefits Yes, I also use ICC. Since one of the latest versions, it also supports the integration of Victron MPPT. So I have connected the MPPT with a VE.Direct to USB cable to my Pi and ICC is reading the data from the MPPT and shows the combined Axpert/MPPT data on the dashboard 35 minutes ago, plonkster said: Yes. It's called the Phoenix. Inverter component is similar to the one in the equivalent Multi, but it has no transfer switch and no ability to grid-tie. But would you not still recommend the Multi rather? 3 minutes ago, Abnormal said: Its more the utilisation of the PV which I am looking at. The Axpert basically can only supply essential loads meaning you could be left with PV to spare and end up using Eskom for the non essential loads, where a proper hybrid would be able to feed the non essential loads as well.. On the one hand agreed. But your 5kW already allows you to power more than just your essential loads. I had most of my house (incl. 2 inverter aircons, microwave, and pool pump) connected when I was running only a 4kW Axpert. I only had to watch out for the occasional 'overload' scenario of e.g. 1 aircon running, my domestic vacuum cleaning, and me then switching on my bean-to-cup coffee machine... (my pool pump switches automatically on/off based on the amount of excess PV available) I have added a 2nd Axpert in parallel in the meantime and now even moved my dishwasher and oven onto the inverter. I now only have heat pump, washing machine, and tumble dryer running directly off Eskom
July 17, 20206 yr 8 minutes ago, wolfandy said: But would you not still recommend the Multi rather? Depends. Are you off-grid? Do you need a transfer switch? Do you charge with AC? 🙂
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