Solar power and Geyser

[wingnut771]

Ok its settled then, put geyser on aux port. Crisis averted. No R25k heatpump or 3kw geyser element replacement needed.

 

[wingnut771]

Why not?

There is AC passthrough for a reason.

I happily do in excess of 12kW regularly on my 8kW.

and during power failure will only use battery to a certain soc level? I still want to know why the water is ice cold in the morning.

 

[wingnut771]

Why would that matter?

The first thing you turn off under power failure is the geyser…so that’s a good thing if the AUX does it automatically for you.

The issue is when the substation blows up and you have no power for 2 weeks.

 

[SauRoNZA]

and during power failure will only use battery to a certain soc level? I still want to know why the water is ice cold in the morning.

Power failure is a power failure and you want to turn everything off to preserve the batteries and yes then a geyser is non-essential.

So if you don’t have other means to control the geyser when that happens the AUX sounds line a solid option as it will only turn on when the SOC threshold is reached again.

But yes there appears to be an entirely unrelated issue here, sounds like something else is turning it off or the thermostat is busted.

 

[SauRoNZA]

The issue is when the substation blows up and you have no power for 2 weeks.

And then you are ****ed either way.

So you can go adjust the SOC accordingly etc.

You are planning the entire thing for a 0.1% unlikely event and compromising the other 99.99% for it.

 

[wingnut771]

Power failure is a power failure and you want to turn everything off to preserve the batteries and yes then a geyser is non-essential.

So if you don’t have other means to control the geyser when that happens the AUX sounds line a solid option as it will only turn on when the SOC threshold is reached again.

And then you are ****ed either way.

So you can go adjust the SOC accordingly etc.

You are planning the entire thing for a 0.1% unlikely event and compromising the other 99.99% for it.

Okay, you can stop biting my head off now.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Okay, you can stop biting my head off now.

Not at all, I generally consider you the sage of this stuff and the person I would refer to.

Just giving another perspective.

 

[wingnut771]

Not at all, I generally consider you the sage of this stuff and the person I would refer to.

Just giving another perspective.

Thank you.

Can you explain why this installer never fitted geyser to aux port in the first place?

 

[SauRoNZA]

Thank you.

Can you explain why this installer never fitted geyser to aux port in the first place?

I don’t use it myself, but I believe making it overridable/switching gets a bit complicated because if you only ever used AUX then it would only run when there is excess meaning it would be cold the rest of the time.

Which is why I don’t use essentials/non-essentials at all and just have the entire house wired on essentials.

BUT I have Home Assistant to manage load shedding conditions, that’s not the norm for most who want hands-off setups.

To be fair I was just replying to those posts in isolation.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Hmmm seems you can just have it use AC and only pull solar at specific thresholds.

So it should actually be great for a geyser.



And if you do have an extended power failure easy enough to toggle those options or adjust them to let it run.

 

[isie]

Good to know.

Anyway, the consensus here is that 8kW is not enough to power a 4kW geyser. How will the aux port stop nuisance trips?

to say it is or isn't sufficient isn't an accurate answer, it all depends on the expected total house load (also the batteries C rating has an effect) the deye and Sunsynk (im sure other but those i have experience with) allow a bit over 8kw plus the pass through can help - easiset answer is to go 10KW+ for me 8Kw is more then enough but i dont have much high usage stuff like a pool pump etc -
but lol dont forget im also the 2 geysers in series guy

 

[Bl4d3]

My 2c on geysers and solar.

I have a Luxpower 5KW inverter, 8 x JA Solar 600w panels and 2 x Cycling F5 5.12kw batteries.
My geyser is solar and heats up near 70 degrees in Summer, however it drops in winter and I need to run its element.

The geyser is fitted with a 4kw element and runs perfectly fine off my 5kw inverter. Yes its tight, I have about 500w spare, but the geyser runs in the middle if the night, and only if its dropped below 40 degrees, and for 45min only.

Works perfectly.

 

[wingnut771]

to say it is or isn't sufficient isn't an accurate answer, it all depends on the expected total house load (also the batteries C rating has an effect) the deye and Sunsynk (im sure other but those i have experience with) allow a bit over 8kw plus the pass through can help - easiset answer is to go 10KW+ for me 8Kw is more then enough but i dont have much high usage stuff like a pool pump etc -
but lol dont forget im also the 2 geysers in series guy

There is 15kWh of battery which is plenty to cover 8kW and I have asked for a sunsynk app pic of a typical days use age to gauge peaks. I’ve also asked the hot water usage to understand why it’s ice cold in the morning. There’s only so much I can do.

If it was me the geyser would already be connected to aux port and would be filling in disconnection forms from the utility (if I’m paying line fees).

 

[wingnut771]

My 2c on geysers and solar.

I have a Luxpower 5KW inverter, 8 x JA Solar 600w panels and 2 x Cycling F5 5.12kw batteries.
My geyser is solar and heats up near 70 degrees in Summer, however it drops in winter and I need to run its element.

The geyser is fitted with a 4kw element and runs perfectly fine off my 5kw inverter. Yes its tight, I have about 500w spare, but the geyser runs in the middle if the night, and only if its dropped below 40 degrees, and for 45min only.

Works perfectly.

You see whats possible when you apply your mind to things. Remember when I said an 8kW could handle it no problem, then I got shot down for suggesting such madness.

Why run in the middle of the night instead of just before morning shower? Heat loss is wasted energy.

 

[denmendez65]

You see whats possible when you apply your mind to things. Remember when I said an 8kW could handle it no problem, then I got shot down for suggesting such madness.

Why run in the middle of the night instead of just before morning shower? Heat loss is wasted energy.

Because not everyone wants to apply their mind to everything (that’s not a bad thing). And not everyone wants to sit there and micromanage things when they have better things to do.

Like how @Next Thing put gas geysers despite having a huge solar install. Not everyone wants to sit there playing with timers, overloading things, draining batteries, complaints about cold water etc.

And I’m one of those that liked to tinker somewhat and I barely lasted 1 month with the geyser on inverter before I removed it because the effort and worry/anxiety wasn’t worth it.

With the way mine currently is there is zero management going on. 2 people are staying at the house who have no idea how solar works or what an inverter is. Good luck trying to explain to such people they need to do so and so when it’s cloudy to and avoid draining batteries and not to connect too many things etc.

That’s why I said a smart installer will know his customers needs and won’t just automatically put a geyser on inverter. What his installer did was the right thing.

 

[wingnut771]

Because not everyone wants to apply their mind to everything (that’s not a bad thing). And not everyone wants to sit there and micromanage things when they have better things to do.

Like how @Next Thing put gas geysers despite having a huge solar install. Not everyone wants to sit there playing with timers, overloading things, draining batteries, complaints about cold water etc.

And I’m one of those that liked to tinker somewhat and I barely lasted 1 month with the geyser on inverter before I removed it because the effort and worry/anxiety wasn’t worth it.

With the way mine currently is there is zero management going on. 2 people are staying at the house who have no idea how solar works or what an inverter is. Good luck trying to explain to such people they need to do so and so when it’s cloudy to and avoid draining batteries and not to connect too many things etc.

That’s why I said a smart installer will know his customers needs and won’t just automatically put a geyser on inverter. What his installer did was the right thing.

We don't know what he wants, we hardly hear from the guy. All we know is there are 2 people in the house and the water is ice cold in the morning.

Any reason why this installer didn't put it on the aux port?

 

[denmendez65]

We don't know what he wants, we hardly hear from the guy. All we know is there are 2 people in the house and the water is ice cold in the morning.

Any reason why this installer didn't put it on the aux port?

Check his responses. He pretty much said he isn’t technical and doesn’t want to play around with the system.

He also said they have frequent power cuts in their area so draining the battery is a no no.

 

[denmendez65]

Any reason why this installer didn't put it on the aux port?

Probably the battery draining thing and you guys pretty much said the port goes dead when the SOC hits a certain level. So he will deal with cold water issues.

Sauron at least said that the aux port can be configured to use the grid when the SOC set for the aux port was hit so yeah, then you can use the aux port.

If it doesn’t do that then the aux port is useless.

 

[Neuk_]

Good to know.

Anyway, the consensus here is that 8kW is not enough to power a 4kW geyser. How will the aux port stop nuisance trips?

I haven't read everything but why is this? We managed just fine using our old Sunsynk 8kW inverter to run a 4kW geyser. I do have HA managing geyser heat times as we have a 3kW as well.

 

[wingnut771]

Check his responses. He pretty much said he isn’t technical and doesn’t want to play around with the system.

He also said they have frequent power cuts in their area so draining the battery is a no no.

So with frequent power cuts he frequently has ice cold water in the morning? Why not put it on aux port to use solar only setting and set geyser to 70c so there isn't ice cold water in the morning? If there isn't enough solar then the aux port wont turn on so will only have ice cold water in the morning only when it was cloudy the previous day and a power failure.

Anyway, I still say its madness that its not connected.