We finally want to pull the trigger & go Solar

[spit]

I still love this idea and have been looking into the GeyserTech range of products for a next step upgrade path

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My sister bought a house that already had a similar system installed—specifically, the Geysertech Pi2R iX SMART geyser solar controller combo, hooked up to 3 solar panels.

Unfortunately, it hasn't been the great investment it claims to be. Every 10 to 12 months, the controller either breaks or something goes wrong and stops heating the water. Because of this, all the money she "saved" on her electricity bill goes straight into buying a replacement controller. After replacing the unit twice, she gave up. She had an electrician bypass the controller and the solar panels entirely. Her geyser is now just running directly from the grid like a standard, normal geyser.

This is just one person's experience and maybe others have had better luck, but I thought it was important to share it with you.

 

[Tomtomtom]

Every 10 to 12 months, the controller either breaks or something goes wrong and stops heating the water. Because of this, all the money she "saved" on her electricity bill goes straight into buying a replacement controller. After replacing the unit twice, she gave up.

That's bad. Did she attempt a warranty claim at least one of those times? I would start to suspect an installation issue though, maybe panels not grounded.

I have the Geyserwise Solar Eco MPPT 72V DC and have had no serious issues so far, but it's only been 18 months or so.

These are relatively simple devices so in principle there should be little that can go wrong. There are a couple of bigs caps that are probably the only "wear" items.

 

[SafariTin]

So i mentioned to the installer I am having to almost micromanage certain loads during the day to avoid over cycling of the battery although the system handles the geyser fine I dont like beating the battery with 6Kw sustained load, maybe I am being too cautious with it all being new to me, I dunno? He recommended the 2Kw element as a more solar friendly option, yes it needs to run for twice as long but could mean the difference between it running from panels versus the combination of battery and grid, I am trying to avoid grid as much as possible for geyser since we have to cook and the stove/Oven combo is on non-essential load for the timebeing while we try to save up towards gas conversion (every penny saved from non grid usage is going to help fund this) we've been supplementing alot of stove use with some skottel here and there as well (every bit counts)

This is the reason why I only drive my car max 100km/h. I also downclocked my CPU and GPU in my gaming rig and never run the microwave for longer than 60 seconds. Rather luke warm food than beating the microwave with load.

/sarcasm off - my opinion is that I bought the batteries to get the consumption savings. The small amount of degredation may make a difference of a year or two in the lifetime of the batteries, but by the time I need to replace them technology may have changed so much that I'd be happy to get rid of the batteries I bought in 2021 in favour of newer technology as opposed to having paid for consumption in 2026 and extending the life of my batteries by a few months.

That's bad. Did she attempt a warranty claim at least one of those times? I would start to suspect an installation issue though, maybe panels not grounded.

I have the Geyserwise Solar Eco MPPT 72V DC and have had no serious issues so far, but it's only been 18 months or so.

These are relatively simple devices so in principle there should be little that can go wrong. There are a couple of bigs caps that are probably the only "wear" items.

What would be the reason for using the Geyserwise Solar Eco MPPT 72V DC over my existing Geyserwise Max with Tuya Module? As I understand it my existing MPPT and inverter is already doing the DC to AC conversion and optimising the geyser. What am I missing?

 

[spit]

That's bad. Did she attempt a warranty claim at least one of those times? I would start to suspect an installation issue though, maybe panels not grounded.

Great question. I'll let her look into that as I have no idea. The company that handles the replacement also did the installation, since they are the only company in the area. She didn't pay for the replacement last time, only for the labour.

 

[BLG]

it's not too bad for now I mean we are offsetting quite a bit to the panels, today has been another crappy PV input day but overall - at least 3 quarters of that geyser load is being covered by the sun on most days with 1 quarter from grid (not perfect, but not bad at all either)

 

[BLG]

And when the Geyser is done doing what it does, we still have 2 hours or so to run the house and topup battery (battery also receives a bit charge BEFORE the geyser kicks in, as well as other things like normal houseload) and Dishwasher we got away with running twice in a day and still got a full charge by afternoon, today was pretty surprising with the PV up and down constantly, but a few Cloud edge bursts I think helped top up battery (we usually hit 100 SOC around 12pm or so, but today only hit 100% at roughly 2pm

 

[Tomtomtom]

What would be the reason for using the Geyserwise Solar Eco MPPT 72V DC over my existing Geyserwise Max with Tuya Module? As I understand it my existing MPPT and inverter is already doing the DC to AC conversion and optimising the geyser. What am I missing?

If you already have your geyser on evacuated tubes I wouldn't necessarily retrofit.

If you have no solar yet then an MPPT for your geyser gives the fastest ROI. A geyser is a large resistive load. It does not need 230 V, so it does not need an inverter. So it doesn't need a battery either (it is a thermal battery itself essentially). So ~10-15% of the capital outlay can get you the first ~40% saving.

But if you already have a full house inverter setup and you are short on inverter headroom then moving the geyser onto its own MPPT could still be a reasonable upgrade.