Mike Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 lol Wetkit, yep i understand that, the "credit "i have with the muni is just offset against my bill each month. the nasty thing is that there is no carry over ( credits ) to future months...I will be happy just with a zero bill.they must maar enjoy the surplus ! what pics you waiting for? i posted a few, a few posts back Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetkit Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Hi Mike, Sorry man, those picks looked like you "stole" them from some other site. I do humbly apologize.... What/how did you eventually use to mount the panels? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 haha, no worries I decided to go the normal route of using fixplus track ( aluminium ) and the undertile hooks. I must still earth the frame.....just in case and i am thinking of some type of security feature as i hear that panels are a required item for North of our border. persons from there have been caught collecting at night so i have been told. thinking of pop riviting a strapping from the panel side to the frame and perhaps follow through to the truss. i would appreciate any suggestions on this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetkit Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Just run a thin 0.22mm cable through all your PV panel's mounting holes. loop the cable to your alarm system as an extra zone. If the cable or loop is broken anywhere, meaning a panel is removed, the alarm will sound, that is if the alarm is activated. Perhaps you can even wire it in as an panic zone, meaning the alarm will sound even if it is not activated. Mike 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted March 23, 2014 Author Share Posted March 23, 2014 So i received my February Electricity bill...............and i am smiling big time....R144 for availability and a whole R34 for usage. So Net Metering is working for me right now. The Muni got 161kwh extra back from me. this month ( March is going to be higher ) . At the moment for March i am on approx 386kwh, so lets see Clint 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetkit Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 That is very good news indeed!!! Think I must contemplate moving out of the city as well. The guys is so full of bull regarding exporting power they making it next to impossable. The requirments is the same for 1kw up to 1MW!!! And they still have no approved meter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 this was one of the most helpful guys from Cape Town...chat with him We are testing a single phase Itron ACE9000 bi-directional prepayment meter that has consumption and generation energy registers. This meter will be integrated with our back-end systems to facilitate consumption via the prepayment vending system and generation and daily service charge via SAP billing. Communication with the meter is by means of GPRS to our meter data unification system. Yours faithfully, Ryno van der Riet Head: PTM Block A2, Bloemhof Centre Bloemhof Street, Bellville Tel: +27 (0) 21 918 7010+27 (0) 21 918 7010 Fax: +27 (0) 21 918 7088 Cell: +27 (0) 84 627 2380+27 (0) 84 627 2380 City of Capetown website Service Requests Call Send SMS Add to Skype You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetkit Posted March 24, 2014 Share Posted March 24, 2014 Hi Mike, This is so NOT funny Same guy I have been corresponding with..... Did you have to go through the complete process as stated below? Application detail as follows: GEN/EMB - Application for the connection of embedded generation. Refer to CCT website http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/electricity/Pages/ServiceApplicationForms.aspx. Clearance by other City of Cape Town Departments required. Their requirements are as follows: 2.1 Planning and Building Development Management (Various offices and queries to Peter Henshall-Howard): a. All PV roof top installations: No building plans are required to be submitted provided the panel(s) in its installed position does not project more than 1,5 metres, measured perpendicularly, above the roof and/or not more than 600mm above the highest point of the roof. Full building plans, including an engineer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted March 24, 2014 Author Share Posted March 24, 2014 wow, a bit of overkill there: below is all i had to do. best you start moving now! Dear Mr Mike Thorne Swartland Municipality offers a net-metering tariff for residential, Tariff 11 . The available tariffs are enclosed. You may also select an alternative residential tariff eg no 1 or 12 if energy is not exported and used for battery charging. At this stage we have not yet accepted a low cost single phase meter with import and export registers, therefore we use the Strike Technologies Enermax plus three phase meter and program the meter to record active import and export single phase energy. From a technical point of view it is essential that the system automatically disconnects from the supply grid in the event of failure of supply. Please apply for the electrical connection at the municipal Malmesbury office, Mr Jaco Carstens if you wish to select the net-metering option, for a quotation to be prepared. Regards Roelof du Toit Pr Eng Director: Electrical Engineering Services Swartland Municipality 0828237539 0224879400 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted April 6, 2014 Author Share Posted April 6, 2014 This last month ( March ) i had a surplus of 324kwh of energy returned to the grid, so my bill is availability only ----R144,00 You guys have to start pushing the local municipalities to speed up the implementation of smart meters for Net Metering Clint 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shanghailoz Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 Lucky you. Here in Cape Town, its R360 for the "connection" aka lets make sure that no-one gets solar, *and* you can't make a credit. Net use must be less than generation. So, if I connect, my currently R200 bill goes up to R560 or more!. I'm not going SSEG, as it doesn't make sense. Its crazy stupid in that in the summer months I generate 2x - 3x what I need, but it doesn't make sense to sell it back to them financially. So, I just waste it, sigh. I'll probably go offgrid at some point, and just keep Eskom as a (poor) backup. Right now I'm grid tied (3 phase), but going Hybrid is just a matter of adding battery inverters on one phase, or 3 x battery inverters tied together for 3 phase, and a 3 phase ATS switch (eg http://www.comap.cz/products/detail/mainspro/ ) at the front of the house. I have some of that documented here - http://goingsolar.co.za/2014/03/07/going-off-grid-with-a-grid-tied-inverter-aka-a-hybrid-system/ Brian Jones and Ryno are the main guys to deal with in the municipality in Cape Town, but CoCT is rather anti-solar imho. PDF of one of Brian's presentations showing their thoughts here - http://www.esi-africa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Brian-Jones.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wetkit Posted June 23, 2014 Share Posted June 23, 2014 Hi Mike, Wassup? See your house is in the market? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Morning Wetkit, testing the waters....... i want to build more of them by the way... the netmetering is working great. on average between R74 and R86 per month for Eskom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted June 23, 2014 Author Share Posted June 23, 2014 Lucky you. Here in Cape Town, its R360 for the "connection" aka lets make sure that no-one gets solar, *and* you can't make a credit. Net use must be less than generation. So, if I connect, my currently R200 bill goes up to R560 or more!. I'm not going SSEG, as it doesn't make sense. Its crazy stupid in that in the summer months I generate 2x - 3x what I need, but it doesn't make sense to sell it back to them financially. So, I just waste it, sigh. I'll probably go offgrid at some point, and just keep Eskom as a (poor) backup. Right now I'm grid tied (3 phase), but going Hybrid is just a matter of adding battery inverters on one phase, or 3 x battery inverters tied together for 3 phase, and a 3 phase ATS switch (eg http://www.comap.cz/products/detail/mainspro/ ) at the front of the house. I have some of that documented here - http://goingsolar.co.za/2014/03/07/going-off-grid-with-a-grid-tied-inverter-aka-a-hybrid-system/ Brian Jones and Ryno are the main guys to deal with in the municipality in Cape Town, but CoCT is rather anti-solar imho. PDF of one of Brian's presentations showing their thoughts here - http://www.esi-africa.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Brian-Jones.pdf I do like what you have done and are going to do. In my case my intention is to put a bidirectional inverter in but between the grid tie and the dbboard, so when grid fails i will switch to battery then once Eskum returns back to grid tie by default. this is the method Microcare suggested to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 i have been taking daily readings for the last six months to identify our summer / winter patterns. now to figure out excel for some graphs to post here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Hmmm, cannot seem to post an excel sheet in this community Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Energy-Jason Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 HI Mike Let me fix that for you. Standby. E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Energy-Jason Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Hi Mike. ".xls" and "xlsx" Is now allowed. Thank you. Looking forward to your data. E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Hi Mike. ".xls" and "xlsx" Is now allowed. Thank you. Looking forward to your data. E thanks E, will try the first graph shortly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 still getting: You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Energy-Jason Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Try Logout and In a again E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 ok lets try now.... E, send me some specs on the hybrid GTI, i might want to try one at this site. I have another install to do Wednesday in Rural Atlantis. nope still : You are not allowed to use that image extension on this community. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 Try Logout and In a again E have done so, but will do again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted July 20, 2014 Author Share Posted July 20, 2014 nope won't allow.... don't worry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Energy-Jason Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Hi Mike, What is the is the file extension you are trying to add? E Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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