Solar generation in rain/cloudy conditions

Lupus said:
Isn't there some things you could cut? To get more power to the batteries?
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I've switched off everything i could, main geyser, pool pump, fountain, water cooler. etc. My house is currently pulling 424W.
I'll just have an early night, or watch something on a laptop. I'd rather sit in the dark than give my money to Eskom. By loose calculation, i've saved R81K over the past 2.5 years.
 
Snotface said:
I've switched off everything i could, main geyser, pool pump, fountain, water cooler. etc. My house is currently pulling 424W.
I'll just have an early night, or watch something on a laptop. I'd rather sit in the dark than give my money to Eskom. By loose calculation, i've saved R81K over the past 2.5 years.
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With your kit, you should still be able to watch stuff, or even play games. Your system sounds incredibly over specced.
 
Lupus said:
With your kit, you should still be able to watch stuff, or even play games. Your system sounds incredibly over specced.
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It is, completely, but at the time i got a deal i couldn't ignore so i just went all-in, over-draught, credit card, access bond. I just need more batteries and i'll be future-proofed electrically.
 
Snotface said:
I've switched off everything i could, main geyser, pool pump, fountain, water cooler. etc. My house is currently pulling 424W.
I'll just have an early night, or watch something on a laptop. I'd rather sit in the dark than give my money to Eskom. By loose calculation, i've saved R81K over the past 2.5 years.
Click to expand...
Yeah, these kinda days arent that common anyway. Could even get a little 5kW genie that only charges the batteries. Triggered by the contact of the inverter. I have the provision on mine and all the cabling with the outdoor genie plug, just havent bought the generator and dont want to.
 
denmendez65 said:
Yeah, these kinda days arent that common anyway. Could even get a little 5kW genie that only charges the batteries. Triggered by the contact of the inverter. I have the provision on mine and all the cabling with the outdoor genie plug, just havent bought the generator and dont want to.
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I agree, no point in saving on Eskom, but paying Shell/Caltex.
 
Yesterday I got to 90% or so on the 5kW, but my GELs were on 70%.

Today I won't go over 82% as I see the other inverter killed the charge to the 5kW and probably won't turn it on again.

My cut-off on the charging output port of the 3.6 is at 60%, so with voltage drop, etc., it probably means my GELs are at 70% again, might get a little more in the GELS in the next hour, and that's it.
 
Snotface said:
36 x 600W. Only got my batteries up to 60% yesterday.
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Holy schit that's quite the array you have going there! You must have a roof like a football field. :laugh: This your home setup?

I'm going for worst of worst today. Pool pump only ran an hour this morning and SOC up 1% from lowest point.
 
Snotface said:
I've switched off everything i could, main geyser, pool pump, fountain, water cooler. etc. My house is currently pulling 424W.
I'll just have an early night, or watch something on a laptop. I'd rather sit in the dark than give my money to Eskom. By loose calculation, i've saved R81K over the past 2.5 years.
Click to expand...

I'm on 98K after the same time. You must have days of reserve and not actually use that much power relative to system size because my array is only 5.5kWp but runs for all it's worth.
 
denmendez65 said:
Yesterday I got to 90% or so on the 5kW, but my GELs were on 70%.

Today I won't go over 82% as I see the other inverter killed the charge to the 5kW and probably won't turn it on again.

My cut-off on the charging output port of the 3.6 is at 60%, so with voltage drop, etc., it probably means my GELs are at 70% again, might get a little more in the GELS in the next hour, and that's it.
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Doubt it, clouds are not budging
 
Flanders said:
Holy schit that's quite the array you have going there! You must have a roof like a football field. :laugh: This your home setup?

I'm going for worst of worst today. Pool pump only ran an hour this morning and SOC up 1% from lowest point.
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It basically covers the entire northish facing side of my roof.
 
Snotface said:
It basically covers the entire northish facing side of my roof.
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So what do you actually use that requires that many panels and that many batteries?
As you can be off the grid with that easily, you'll generate 60 to 80kWh easily on a good sunny day.
 
Flanders said:
I'm on 98K after the same time. You must have days of reserve and not actually use that much power relative to system size because my array is only 5.5kWp but runs for all it's worth.
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Generally i can survive with my geyser on and pool pump, just runs of days like this that run it down, but deep-cycling isn't always a bad thing.
 
Lupus said:
Doubt it, clouds are not budging
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Yeah, I saw it came on to charge the other inverter for another 10 minutes or so, and finally stopped. Got to 85%. 2.9kWh is all I pushed into the 5kW and a bit of fridge running. Very pathetic.

I would guess I generated a max of 6kWh today for the inverters. My geyser, who knows. I just know it was hot this morning and probably will be tonight/next morning. The geyser controller never ceases to amaze me with how well it works with its 4 panels. Zero chance I would be able to be off-grid without it as it saves me around 7kWh a day in consumption.

With the estimated 6kWh that got pushed into the batteries and tiny load (had to kill the pool this time), I would only be heating the geyser at this point, and with nothing going into the batteries. Now I can get home and go about my business without worrying about battery capacity, be it gaming, TV or making something in the microwave if need be.

WhatsApp Image 2026-06-18 at 15.49.14.jpeg
 
Lupus said:
So what do you actually use that requires that many panels and that many batteries?
As you can be off the grid with that easily, you'll generate 60 to 80kWh easily on a good sunny day.
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On Tuesday, i generated 44.6. If i was drawing more then it would probably generate more, but it dials back once my batteries are full.
 
Lupus said:
So what do you actually use that requires that many panels and that many batteries?
As you can be off the grid with that easily, you'll generate 60 to 80kWh easily on a good sunny day.
Click to expand...
I got an excellent deal, so i just bought everything i could afford at the time. I plan to put air-con in, i have a borehole so want to put the system in to run that into the house too. Except for more batteries, i'll never need to upgrade the system.
 
Snotface said:
Generally i can survive with my geyser on and pool pump, just runs of days like this that run it down, but deep-cycling isn't always a bad thing.
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So you most definitely don't ever have 'grid charge' checked in settings. Dream system, man. Love it. 😍

What's your inverter setup?
 
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