PhatWheZ Posted November 4, 2020 Share Posted November 4, 2020 Hi all, i have been pondering and wanting to pull the trigger on a setup to help protect me during load shedding but also to reduce as much of my municipal bill as possible. I currently have a Hoymiles MI-600 with 2x80w panels in series on one of the inputs. This currently covers my base load during good summers day with very little export back onto the municipality side. The CitiQ prepaid meter that is in the house cannot register negative watts (export) so I end up paying for the little bit that exports back. I have never wanted to purchase the DTU unit with limiting function as that alone is more than I have already spent just save a few watts. So having this setup for the last 3 years it has been good as it has cut about 1KW daily off my bill, so now for me to upgrade! I have been looking to invest in a Victron Multiplus II. I want to bite the bullet and buy the 5KW for some headroom and future growth, but I am struggling to make piece with the fact that I would need to buy 4 x 2.4Kw Pylontech / Dyness batteries. For the panels, I can only install 2 x 370W panels as I have limited space available but this would be more than enough for my use case. My expectation is to build a system with 1 x 3.6K Pylontech / Dyness battery with a MPPT for 2 x 370W panels, connected to a 5KW (ideally) Victron MultiplusII-GX. My initial critical load would only be lights and a plug for all my wireless and internet equipment so nothing more than 100-150W. During the night I would like to use the battery for 1-1.5KW as my overall household usage is 2KW per night and about 5-7 during the day. So the excess power from the panels could charge up the battery during the day. The other thing I would do is install a CT or Single phase meter at the DB to allow bi-directional flow from the inverter to provide the excess energy into the non-critical loads. Suggestions and recommendations are what i am looking for. I would have a qualified electrician setup the entire thing so not worried about the misc items. Im more concerned about: 1. Can the Victron 5kw with 1 3.6kw battery work for lights and 1 plug running wifi kit, so that i can save up for the other batteries (looking at 4 x 3.6Kw at the end of the whole project) 2. Will it do as I believe it will by consuming the battery to a set value (~50-60% DOD), then switching to mains 3. If the batteries are full, it will 'blend' power with mains to reduce the overall dependency on the municipal electricity Thanks for any feedback and suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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