Snyper's Solar Farm

wingnut771 said:
How much PV production are you losing because of LS?
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I am not entirely sure but it is not a big concern as only our geysers, ovens and underfloor heating are on the non-essential side of the inverter. The rest of the house is on the essential side so on a day like today where there is a lot of washing to do and our nanny is running the washing machine and tumble dryer with the pool running as well we make plenty of PV.
 
Snyper564 said:
Interesting you note this point, we threw the whole house onto essential geysers, stove, oven, geysers,

But Im curious how LS messes with non-essential side now that you bring it up
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Well, you can't power those items during a power outage and with 4 hour stints, that is most of a solar day.
 
wingnut771 said:
Well, you can't power those items during a power outage and with 4 hour stints, that is most of a solar day.
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Thats rough, actually makes me wonder if people have a sufficient system if they would shift these item to essential.

My logic was always if I dont have enough power I would just not turn it on, now you have no choice when its LS...
 
Neuk_ said:
I am not entirely sure but it is not a big concern as only our geysers, ovens and underfloor heating are on the non-essential side of the inverter. The rest of the house is on the essential side so on a day like today where there is a lot of washing to do and our nanny is running the washing machine and tumble dryer with the pool running as well we make plenty of PV.
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I think it's just a matter of time until you get a 48 hour outage then you won't have any hot water.
 
You guys putting geysers on the essential side, do you have 8 kVA inverters? Or are you living on the edge and doing it with 5 kVA units?
 
newby_investor said:
You guys putting geysers on the essential side, do you have 8 kVA inverters? Or are you living on the edge and doing it with 5 kVA units?
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8kva this side and have the geyser on essentials. I do however have a smart switch connected to it and I make sure that it turns off the geyser at night when load shedding is scheduled in case the load shedding is at the same time my geyser timer comes on as I don't want it draining my batteries with no grid feed available.

My geyser element is 3kw.
 
wingnut771 said:
Put smaller elements in and use timers if you want smaller peaks if you have 5kva. Anything is possible.
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True, but having a 2kW load for several hours on a 5 kVA inverter will leave much less headroom for if someone switches on a kettle and a hairdryer at the same time...
According to my calculations, a 5 kVA unit will be fine *most* of the time, but these edge cases make me nervous.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
8kva this side and have the geyser on essentials. I do however have a smart switch connected to it and I make sure that it turns off the geyser at night when load shedding is scheduled in case the load shedding is at the same time my geyser timer comes on as I don't want it draining my batteries with no grid feed available.

My geyser element is 3kw.
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Is there not also a configurable aux port? Can that not be used instead of the non-essentials? I seem to recall reading that you could tell it to use solar or grid but not battery.
 
newby_investor said:
True, but having a 2kW load for several hours on a 5 kVA inverter will leave much less headroom for if someone switches on a kettle and a hairdryer at the same time...
According to my calculations, a 5 kVA unit will be fine *most* of the time, but these edge cases make me nervous.
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Thats the reason we went 8kva wife didnt want to think twice about turning something on.
 
newby_investor said:
Is there not also a configurable aux port? Can that not be used instead of the non-essentials? I seem to recall reading that you could tell it to use solar or grid but not battery.
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There is a auxiliary feed but it would have been very difficult to use as in my case the geyser is in a separate building and db to where the main db is.

I still prefer having everything on essentials though, I'll probably install a heat pump for the geyser at some point down the line too.
 
newby_investor said:
True, but having a 2kW load for several hours on a 5 kVA inverter will leave much less headroom for if someone switches on a kettle and a hairdryer at the same time...
According to my calculations, a 5 kVA unit will be fine *most* of the time, but these edge cases make me nervous.
Click to expand...
Yes, you would need to adapt to your other devices, maybe go smaller than 2kw? Do you get a 1kw element? Or get a lower wattage kettle and/or hairdryer?
 
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