Solar, inverter, battery thread

[biometrics]

Do you have a grid-tied system or a UPS?

Grid-tied. Very fancy pants system.

 

[Lara]

Grid-tied. Very fancy pants system.

Nice. Also looking at upgrading the UPS to something that's able to run the entire house.

 

[Spizz]

Grid-tied. Very fancy pants system.

On paper. But we’ll find out tomorrow

 

[Quetzalovercoatl]

Nice. Also looking at upgrading the UPS to something that's able to run the entire house.

Do yourself a favour and start buying things in small increments, and store these. Do this over 12 or 24 months and assemble it (or have somebody qualified assemble it for you)

This way you can have a good system without breaking the bank.

 

[Quetzalovercoatl]

On paper. But we’ll find out tomorrow

Hah. Ours are still on paper. We will have a meeting where we can discuss this, and any issues that may crop up, list these, then go to the installer and ask their feedback and solutions.

Once we got all these sussed out, the company will proceed with procurement and installation can commence.

No good rushing into things, only to find out you have overlooked something crucial...

Bonus of this system is that we can look at removing the UPSes in the server room... but that's still open for discussion.

 

[bigAl-sa]

On paper. But we’ll find out tomorrow

I actually wonder how his pants connect to the system

 

[Spizz]

Happy to report loadshedding kicked in and we never noticed. Automatic switch over without any hitches.

I had a look at the inverter just now and even though it's a cloudy day, the PV is running things mostly and the battery is kicking in every now and again. When it's PV only the battery is also being charged when not in use. I'm still sussing things out but it looks like the load is between 5% to 45%. House has a couple of fridges, laptop, monitor, etc, domestic is doing the ironing so that's a decent sized load and probably the biggest draw on power. I was watching the inverter and thinking the 5% to 45% thing is possible the iron switching off and on to maintain the temperature.

So only 36 minutes in and another two hours to go, interested to see how this pans out over the period.

 

[bigAl-sa]

Happy to report loadshedding kicked in and we never noticed. Automatic switch over without any hitches.

I had a look at the inverter just now and even though it's a cloudy day, the PV is running things mostly and the battery is kicking in every now and again. When it's PV only the battery is also being charged when not in use. I'm still sussing things out but it looks like the load is between 5% to 45%. House has a couple of fridges, laptop, monitor, etc, domestic is doing the ironing so that's a decent sized load and probably the biggest draw on power. I was watching the inverter and thinking the 5% to 45% thing is possible the iron switching off and on to maintain the temperature.

So only 36 minutes in and another two hours to go, interested to see how this pans out over the period.

what is your battery capacity?

 

[Spizz]

what is your battery capacity?

5KWh. I have 1920W of PV in daytime to assist and that appears to be doing the bulk of the work during daylight, but I'm led to believe a 5KWh battery should get us through night time loadshedding without too much trouble. Geyser is not on this circuit, it remains hooked up to Eskom only

 

[Spizz]

I should add that PV is supported by Eskom in the daytime and the battery is kept fully charged and is only used during loadshedding. during night or day.

 

[biometrics]

I should add that PV is supported by Eskom in the daytime and the battery is kept fully charged and is only used during loadshedding. during night or day.

How do they attached the panels to the roof? Do they drill holes?

 

[Spizz]

How do they attached the panels to the roof? Do they drill holes?

No, the screws that hold the roof sheets on are removed and replaced with modified ones that have a kind of extension on the top that allows rails to sit on them.

So if the screw was originally say, 100mm, these ones are 200mm, with 100mm of it in the roof replacing the removed screw (with a screw head/seal thing at 100mm), and the remaining100mm sticking up has a head on it that allows the rails to sit on top that the panels sit on.

Fuck that's heard to explain.

 

[Spizz]

So power stayed off for 3 and half hours instead of 2 and a half, but battery still had 2 solid lights (75%) and the 4th one flashing. So plenty of capacity supported of course by the PV. At one stage I was in an online meeting so my son went to check and he said the battery was on it's own as there was heavy clouds and no PV input. No idea how long it lasted like that though.

 

[Quetzalovercoatl]

Sounds like you've got a good system there.

 

[biometrics]

Btw wouldn't mind seeing the quote for your system (redact what is private obviously)...

 

[Spizz]

Btw wouldn't mind seeing the quote for your system (redact what is private obviously)...

No sweat. I’ll send it to you tomorrow. It’s on my work laptop.

 

[Spizz]

I should add that my quote included a fair bit of work on the DB and tracing of cables throughout the house. I can ask the guy, who also lives in your burb, to pay a site visit if you like. He’s pretty thorough.

 

[biometrics]

I should add that my quote included a fair bit of work on the DB and tracing of cables throughout the house. I can ask the guy, who also lives in your burb, to pay a site visit if you like. He’s pretty thorough.

Mmm, I am interested in such a system, can not deny it. Might get a chunk of cash by changing life insurance soon, so either stick it into the bond or upgrade the house...

 

[Spizz]

Mmm, I am interested in such a system, can not deny it. Might get a chunk of cash by changing life insurance soon, so either stick it into the bond or upgrade the house...

Dude, we were off in the night between 4-6.30am. I woke up now at 6.45 and went to look at the battery to make sure we did actually have loadshedding.

Battery is charging, 3 lights solid and 4th light is flashing so we never went below 75% and we never noticed a thing.

This thing is brilliant. Highly recommended.

 

[biometrics]

Dude, we were off in the night between 4-6.30am. I woke up now at 6.45 and went to look at the battery to make sure we did actually have loadshedding.

Battery is charging, 3 lights solid and 4th light is flashing so we never went below 75% and we never noticed a thing.

This thing is brilliant. Highly recommended.

Only problem with my house is the pitch of the roof is east/west facing which is not ideal. Is your panels all north facing?