Extra panels or Solar Geyser?

Crusader1982 said:
Ok, so this is for February:
View attachment 1486827
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Cool.
I'd like to see:

  1. What is all running on non-essentials;
  2. What the settings are (screenshots) for:
    1. System info -- 5/6 blocks
    2. System flow diagram
    3. System mode 1 and 2
    4. All 3 Battery screens
  3. Then some custom graphs, for 5,6,7 Feb and 15,16,17 and 18 Feb with parameters:
    1. P-grid
    2. P-inv
    3. P-pv
    4. P-bat
    5. P-load
for starters
 
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Mike Hoxbig said:
Your SOC is 90% from 9pm onwards. Start using your batteries. You have 15 kWh installed but only using 1.5 kWh?

You can use the 10 kWh deficit and still have plenty to spare...
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I want to know why he isn't exporting in the morning when the battery is full.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Your SOC is 90% from 9pm onwards. Start using your batteries. You have 15 kWh installed but only using 1.5 kWh?

You can use the 10 kWh deficit and still have plenty to spare...
Click to expand...
I echo this I keep my soc at 50% during ls times. When no ls ill push all the way to 5% fr time to time. Get your monies worth!
 
Paul_S said:
Adding that much additional battery capacity is not a great idea from a financial point of view unless you live in an area where you get frequent rainy days in a row.

The typical install seems to be around 10kWh of battery storage at a cost of around R70 000. If you increase that by five fold you'd need to spend R280 000 extra on batteries which is only required for infrequent use. Now work out how much diesel or petrol one could purchase for R280K and how many kWh you could generate using a generator to top a smaller battery bank.
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Ja, from what I have read, you’ll spend 450k to 750k to go completely off grid.

80/20 principle.

Getting rid of 80% of your Eskom bill costs a lot less than that last 20%.
 
Crusader1982 said:
Thank you. You guys have been unbelievable. Sure many get frustrated by these newbie questions.
Appreciate everyone's help.
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Just be careful of internet advice. You are getting wildly different advice here and in my opinion a lot of them are wrong for you.

You are very lucky to be able to feed back into the grid unless we are misreading that info and your inverter is configured wrong. Does your meter roll back when its pushing into the grid?

Feeding back to the grid is the cheapest way to store energy and PV panels are the cheapest way to generate that energy so make the best use of those you can.

From the few screenshots you shared it also looks like there is a lot if config you can change to improve your current setup but we will need all the config screens to see that.
 
B-1 said:
Just be careful of internet advice. You are getting wildly different advice here and in my opinion a lot of them are wrong for you.

You are very lucky to be able to feed back into the grid unless we at misreading that info and your inverter is configured wrong. Does your meter roll back when its pushing into the grid?

Feeding back to the grid is the cheapest way to store energy and PV panels are the cheapest way to generate that energy so make the best use of those you can.

From the few screenshots you shared it also looks like there is a lot if config you can change to improve your current setup but we will need all the config screens to see that.
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What was wrong with my advice?
 
wingnut771 said:
You guys that are hammering your batteries only do that because you can't export. Maybe use more battery on cloudy days.
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That's a factor, but he's using more grid than he's exporting.

The issue is his SOC is high and he topping up the batteries from the grid. And this is using more than he's exporting.

Screenshot_2023-03-04-09-46-24-16_53d78d31f5fddc7fa0cdf74ca6b9290c~2.jpg

He doesn't need to buy anything more, just needs to start making better use of what he already has...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
That's a factor, but he's using more grid than he's exporting.

The issue is his SOC is high and he topping up the batteries from the grid. And this is using more than he's exporting.

View attachment 1486849

He doesn't need to buy anything more, just needs to start making better use of what he already has...
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Agree, like over here, PV matching loads but not exporting? I would still use grid instead of cycling batteries and save batteries for grid down situations.
Untitled.png
 
B-1 said:
I havent looked at yours specifically but I've seen a lot of get more battery, install solar geysers, install gas etc posts. That doesn't make much sense if he can feed into the grid and already has the inverter and battery setup he does.
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A lot of that advice came before he posted much supporting info. The only thing that's bad advice from the start is to install a new geyser...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
That's a factor, but he's using more grid than he's exporting.

The issue is his SOC is high and he topping up the batteries from the grid. And this is using more than he's exporting.

View attachment 1486849

He doesn't need to buy anything more, just needs to start making better use of what he already has...
Click to expand...
His requirement is to run an aircon 24/7, that's why his base load is around 1700W. So he either needs to get a more efficient inverter aircon, or more batteries (and charge them from PV instead of feeding into the grid). His PV can do with some augmentation too, it struggles on cloudy days (16th and 17th).
 
RonSwanson said:
His requirement is to run an aircon 24/7, that's why his base load is around 1700W. So he either needs to get a more efficient inverter aircon, or more batteries (and charge them from PV instead of feeding into the grid). His PV can do with some augmentation too, it struggles on cloudy days (16th and 17th).
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Maybe just use more battery during the night so it can make use of solar during daytime LS instead of it going to waste, that way you don't spend a cent.
 
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RonSwanson said:
His requirement is to run an aircon 24/7, that's why his base load is around 1700W. So he either needs to get a more efficient inverter aircon, or more batteries (and charge them from PV instead of feeding into the grid). His PV can do with some augmentation too, it struggles on cloudy days (16th and 17th).
Click to expand...
Aircon only goes on from 20:00 until 06:00.
 
Crusader1982 said:
I currently run a Hybrid solar system with an 8Kw Inverter, 3 x 5Kwh Batteries and 16 x 455W panels.
This system is just not enough for my household. Currently, I am switching the 2x geysers on for only 2 hrs per day which gives enough hot water.
I am probably 10 units short per day on average, taking into account that we get some cloudy days.
I was wondering what would be more beneficial between going to two Solar geysers for the house and flat, or if I should add more panels?
If so, how many panels would give me the same result as the two solar geysers in trying to gain that 10 units per day?
I am trying to establish which route will make more financial sense?
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Install a wifi controller in your db where the geyser is. You then time it to only come on when the sun shines. And you now have a solar geyser with electricity as backup. Also move the geyser to essential
 
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