Small solar advice (5KVA hybrid system)

[Bl4d3]

Luxpowers are solid inverters and they have a separate generator input. Installed mine back in December 2024 and its been working flat out since with 2 strings of 4 x 600w panels each and 2 x 5kw batteries.
Only regret I have is not getting their bigger inverter.
Luxpower now makes a 14kw inverter for R19000 - https://www.solarwaysuppliers.co.za/product/14kw-luxpower-eco-hybrid-inverter

I bought my entire system from Solarway. I installed it myself, had a sparky do the final connections to the DB and check over everything, then had an electrical engineer give sign off and submit registration to City of Cape Town. All in all, cost me R77000

 

[Bl4d3]

Luxpowers are solid inverters and they have a separate generator input. Installed mine back in December 2024 and its been working flat out since with 2 strings of 4 x 600w panels each and 2 x 5kw batteries.
Only regret I have is not getting their bigger inverter.
Luxpower now makes a 14kw inverter for R19000 - https://www.solarwaysuppliers.co.za/product/14kw-luxpower-eco-hybrid-inverter

I bought my entire system from Solarway. I installed it myself, had a sparky do the final connections to the DB and check over everything, then had an electrical engineer give sign off and submit registration to City of Cape Town. All in all, cost me R77000

Side note. All inverters are loud. Do not install them in a living space.
Also, inverters can get hot in summer, so if you put it in your garage, make sure your garage is well ventilated to keep the inverter cool

 

[Bl4d3]

My panels are rated for 6780wp
2 strings of 6 panels, which them go into 2 mppt in parrallel, so panels aren't parrallel mppt are.

I have seen over 8kw before, when everything is cool on rainy days and the sun suddenly comes out it sustains over 7.5kw before everything warms up.

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That permanent earth neutral bond

 

[wingnut771]

Side note. All inverters are loud. Do not install them in a living space.
Also, inverters can get hot in summer, so if you put it in your garage, make sure your garage is well ventilated to keep the inverter cool

Put aircon in garage. Set it to 25.

 

[isie]

Luxpowers are solid inverters and they have a separate generator input.

So does deye / sunsynk - its multipurpose as well - i use it for my Geysers / Oven (apparently Lux power was working on doing something similar not sure if they did though)

 

[wingnut771]

So does deye / sunsynk - its multipurpose as well - i use it for my Geysers / Oven (apparently Lux power was working on doing something similar not sure if they did though)

Only problem with that setup is they don’t work if there is a grid failure.

 

[Lupus]

Luxpowers are solid inverters and they have a separate generator input. Installed mine back in December 2024 and its been working flat out since with 2 strings of 4 x 600w panels each and 2 x 5kw batteries.
Only regret I have is not getting their bigger inverter.
Luxpower now makes a 14kw inverter for R19000 - https://www.solarwaysuppliers.co.za/product/14kw-luxpower-eco-hybrid-inverter

I bought my entire system from Solarway. I installed it myself, had a sparky do the final connections to the DB and check over everything, then had an electrical engineer give sign off and submit registration to City of Cape Town. All in all, cost me R77000

I paid that for my 12k last year

 

[denmendez65]

Let us be honest. Almost every modern inverter brand is good. You pick features that you want in an inverter and that’s the main thing. Second main thing is price. But a 4k inverter will last just as long as a 15k one.

Deye, Sunsync, Growatt (I was mistaken), Mecer, Solis, MUST, Luxpower, Ecco, Navasolar, etc. I can go on and on.

Anyone that says their specific inverter is superior to the others is pretty much lying to themselves.

At the end of the day…all Chinese

 

[NR7]

Let us be honest. Almost every modern inverter brand is good. You pick features that you want in an inverter and that’s the main thing. Second main thing is price. But a 4k inverter will last just as long as a 15k one.

Deye, Sunsync, Growatt (I was mistaken), Mecer, Solis, MUST, Luxpower, Ecco, Navasolar, etc. I can go on and on.

Anyone that says their specific inverter is superior to the others is pretty much lying to themselves.

At the end of the day…all Chinese

Someone's going to point out a Beetle and a Porsche are both German too

 

[wingnut771]

 

[Bl4d3]

So does deye / sunsynk - its multipurpose as well - i use it for my Geysers / Oven (apparently Lux power was working on doing something similar not sure if they did though)

2 - 4 times the price though

 

[Bl4d3]

Let us be honest. Almost every modern inverter brand is good. You pick features that you want in an inverter and that’s the main thing. Second main thing is price. But a 4k inverter will last just as long as a 15k one.

Deye, Sunsync, Growatt (I was mistaken), Mecer, Solis, MUST, Luxpower, Ecco, Navasolar, etc. I can go on and on.

Anyone that says their specific inverter is superior to the others is pretty much lying to themselves.

At the end of the day…all Chinese

In all fairness there are differences.

Mecer and Ecco are based on the early Axpert inverters.
Deye is Sunsync, same factory.
EG4 is made by Luxpower. Luxpower is also similar to Axpert BUT massively improved, allowing to to be more budget friendly.
Growatt is made by Sacolar. These are based on Axpert as well but only slight improvements, improving their reliability slightly.

 

[denmendez65]

In all fairness there are differences.

Mecer and Ecco are based on the early Axpert inverters.
Deye is Sunsync, same factory.
EG4 is made by Luxpower. Luxpower is also similar to Axpert BUT massively improved, allowing to to be more budget friendly.
Growatt is made by Sacolar. These are based on Axpert as well but only slight improvements, improving their reliability slightly.

I dont doubt that but as I said, one buys based on their pocket and preferences for certain features. As for reliability, I am sure with enough digging one can find issues on all of them (Deye for example, 2 of my Dads coworkers had issues with some overvoltage thing and the inverter had to be sent in for repairs).

One can also find examples from all the brands of inverters lasting years and years. At the end of the day they just take DC and convert to AC. One will say theirs costs 30k and the other will say 3.7k. But they will both have electricity.

I for example make do with the basics (MPPT, Dual output, Overload Protection and SOC cut off). I dont even have a wifi dongle on mine as I never needed it or cared about it. Didnt feel like spending money for it or the HA. I just come home everyday and see my batteries charged. That is what matters to me, not how it did that. For someone else, they want to see what temp the inverter is charging at, a graph of the voltage, the generation boobs etc for which some inverters do better than others.

Its all individualistic in my opinion.

 

[Zuner]

That permanent earth neutral bond

Was waiting for this, despite my pic showing eskom voltage, I actually do not generally have eskom switched on.

My eskom usage since August 2024.

 

[isie]

Only problem with that setup is they don’t work if there is a grid failure.

It does work (based on what parameters) thats the point of it its different from non essential its more of an in between option
non essential gets from grid but if sufficient pv you push extra to it

this works as essential on normal conditions but if no grid based on settings say you set it battery must be over 50% if battery is lower it goes off if over it goes on and during no grid if battery goes over it will come on - really saved me when we had prolonged outages

 

[isie]

2 - 4 times the price though

Nah - depending on where you buy its maybe 4k or 5k difference on the higher KW ones the prices are closer

 

[wingnut771]

Nah - depending on where you buy its maybe 4k or 5k difference on the higher KW ones the prices are closer

Dont think luxpower comes with ct coil though so not really apples vs apples:

 

[denmendez65]

Nah - depending on where you buy its maybe 4k or 5k difference on the higher KW ones the prices are closer

Here is 6kW sizes. From cheapies on left to fancy right. Cant really put navasolar as they dont have a 6kW. Trying to find off-grid ones only even though I added the Lux there which they say has a CT, not sure why labelled off-grid. Price was competitive, so I threw it in



The bigger inverters. I didnt vet which ones can export on the big ones to be honest. But we all know exporting is a waste of money in SA. The price difference is quite humungous. Someone like me would go for the Ecco or MUST. Someone more interested in the refined Axpert features, the Luxpower. Now I dont know what the Deye and Sunsync has that makes it cost that much. The Lux seems to be the best middle ground for most

 

[denmendez65]

Here is 6kW sizes. From cheapies on left to fancy right. Cant really put navasolar as they dont have a 6kW. Trying to find off-grid ones only even though I added the Lux there which they say has a CT, not sure why labelled off-grid. Price was competitive, so I threw it in

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The bigger inverters. I didnt vet which ones can export on the big ones to be honest. But we all know exporting is a waste of money in SA. The price difference is quite humungous. Someone like me would go for the Ecco or MUST. Someone more interested in the refined Axpert features, the Luxpower. Now I dont know what the Deye and Sunsync has that makes it cost that much. The Lux seems to be the best middle ground for most

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Couldnt attach this one as max of 10 attachments.

Also note Luxpower has a 14kW for 1000 rand more than the 12kW.

 

[denmendez65]

Heck makes me think of someone that was selling a FW 10/8 battery (10kwh). What does the FW have that a fancy brand name like Dyness doesnt have. But people still buy.