Yassis! Was 99% done with typing this post, uploaded pictures and then, boom! The tab disappeared!
Let's try again.
In April 2022, a friend bought a bunch of Mecer inverters and sold one to me at Cost.
Mecer 5kw R7900.
I saved up for a few months and added my Tax Refund to the savings, then bought a Hubble AM5 from VOLTEX for R31625:
I then got a few quotes from Installers, First was R4500, second was R9000 and third was R11500.
However, the 3rd guy, also advised against using the Mecer. He explained that the Hubble and Mecer are a "Mismatch" and recommended Synsynk, Dye or Luxpower.
I then put my Mecer up for sale for R10500 (they were retailing for R11k-R12k at that time) and I got a buyer within a day for R10k.
Now to replace the Inverter with a proper one.
The Luxpower SNA5000 was classified as off-grid and the cheapest of the lot at R13k-ish.
BUT, no1 had stock in Cape Town.
At the time the Sunsynk and Dye was about R25k and was getting rave reviews here, on powerforum and all over.
I researched the Luxpower LXP5000 hybrid inverter and liked what I saw. I was also on the Luxpower Whatsapp support group and saw that these LXP units are solid!
I then found "the last LXP 5000 in stock" at Solar Sonic for R21 900.
Bought that and contacted the Installer, who, now almost 2 months later honored the quote and still installed at the quoted price.
Once installed, all went really well.
Just one day in June, the wife and I were away and the kids messaged to say "everything died".
I Called the installer who came out, found it to be a dead phase on the City supply side.
He temporarily bridged the non-essentials onto one phase and used the 2nd phase for the inverter (third phase being dead).
He never charged for this.
A few weeks later the City sends their guys out to replace a breaker outside and we have the 3rd phase working again.
I contact the Installer who comes out again and switches everything back to the way it was. (R640 callout and phase "fix").
I then started considering Solar Panels and started this thread.
That's just about the time Solar Sonic had a sale (still ongoing at the time of writing this) for 455w Canadian Panels at R2198 each.
I jumped at the opportunity and bought 10.
I also considered that 25% of that cost is refundable next year when I do my Tax
Panels installation cost was a bit high R21928, but I wasn't prepared to use anyone else.
I completed the COCT application myself, sent it to the Installer to fill in his details and check it. He signed and returned it with the Engineers drawing. I then Submitted to the City and they acknowledged receipt thereof.
They installed on Monday:
First 2 x days of PV production was good.
DAY 2 Production
Day 3 and 4 were a bit cloudy.
Yesterday however, I decided to change settings a bit.
I noticed the PV production starts at about 6h45 and runs till about 18h30.
So I changed settings as follows:
Use battery till 60% (On Grid Discharge)
Use Battery till 20% (Off Grid Discharge)
A/C Charge disabled (so battery only charges from PV), there is a "quickcharge" button on the Luxpower app, which force charges it from Grid if needed.
So what happened last night was, the battery was used till about 8pm (60% SOC on Battery), then it switched to grid.
We had Load Shedding from 2am to 4am, again it used Battery. Battery was drained to 45% then it went back to grid.
Then once the sun came out, PV started Charging the Battery, and as the PV Production increased, the PV provided load to the house and charged the Battery.
By 10ish am, the battery was fully charged and the house load was covered by the PV.
Very happy so far. Might tweak it a little more as time goes one, but happy with my spend and decisions so far!
Today's Graph so far...
Summary:
Total Cost of Hybrid system
Hubble AM5 - R31 625
Luxpower LXP5000 - R19 800 (Cost of R21800 less profit off Mecer inverter sale R2000)
Installation (Batt and inverter) - R11 500
Canadian 455w (10 x panels) - R16 485 (Cost of R21980 less Tax Rebate 25%)
Installation (Panels) - R21 928
Total R101 338
Let's try again.
In April 2022, a friend bought a bunch of Mecer inverters and sold one to me at Cost.
Mecer 5kw R7900.
I saved up for a few months and added my Tax Refund to the savings, then bought a Hubble AM5 from VOLTEX for R31625:
I then got a few quotes from Installers, First was R4500, second was R9000 and third was R11500.
However, the 3rd guy, also advised against using the Mecer. He explained that the Hubble and Mecer are a "Mismatch" and recommended Synsynk, Dye or Luxpower.
I then put my Mecer up for sale for R10500 (they were retailing for R11k-R12k at that time) and I got a buyer within a day for R10k.
Now to replace the Inverter with a proper one.
The Luxpower SNA5000 was classified as off-grid and the cheapest of the lot at R13k-ish.
BUT, no1 had stock in Cape Town.
At the time the Sunsynk and Dye was about R25k and was getting rave reviews here, on powerforum and all over.
I researched the Luxpower LXP5000 hybrid inverter and liked what I saw. I was also on the Luxpower Whatsapp support group and saw that these LXP units are solid!
I then found "the last LXP 5000 in stock" at Solar Sonic for R21 900.
Bought that and contacted the Installer, who, now almost 2 months later honored the quote and still installed at the quoted price.
Once installed, all went really well.
Just one day in June, the wife and I were away and the kids messaged to say "everything died".
I Called the installer who came out, found it to be a dead phase on the City supply side.
He temporarily bridged the non-essentials onto one phase and used the 2nd phase for the inverter (third phase being dead).
He never charged for this.
A few weeks later the City sends their guys out to replace a breaker outside and we have the 3rd phase working again.
I contact the Installer who comes out again and switches everything back to the way it was. (R640 callout and phase "fix").
I then started considering Solar Panels and started this thread.
That's just about the time Solar Sonic had a sale (still ongoing at the time of writing this) for 455w Canadian Panels at R2198 each.
I jumped at the opportunity and bought 10.
I also considered that 25% of that cost is refundable next year when I do my Tax
Panels installation cost was a bit high R21928, but I wasn't prepared to use anyone else.
I completed the COCT application myself, sent it to the Installer to fill in his details and check it. He signed and returned it with the Engineers drawing. I then Submitted to the City and they acknowledged receipt thereof.
They installed on Monday:
First 2 x days of PV production was good.
DAY 2 Production
Day 3 and 4 were a bit cloudy.
Yesterday however, I decided to change settings a bit.
I noticed the PV production starts at about 6h45 and runs till about 18h30.
So I changed settings as follows:
Use battery till 60% (On Grid Discharge)
Use Battery till 20% (Off Grid Discharge)
A/C Charge disabled (so battery only charges from PV), there is a "quickcharge" button on the Luxpower app, which force charges it from Grid if needed.
So what happened last night was, the battery was used till about 8pm (60% SOC on Battery), then it switched to grid.
We had Load Shedding from 2am to 4am, again it used Battery. Battery was drained to 45% then it went back to grid.
Then once the sun came out, PV started Charging the Battery, and as the PV Production increased, the PV provided load to the house and charged the Battery.
By 10ish am, the battery was fully charged and the house load was covered by the PV.
Very happy so far. Might tweak it a little more as time goes one, but happy with my spend and decisions so far!
Today's Graph so far...
Summary:
Total Cost of Hybrid system
Hubble AM5 - R31 625
Luxpower LXP5000 - R19 800 (Cost of R21800 less profit off Mecer inverter sale R2000)
Installation (Batt and inverter) - R11 500
Canadian 455w (10 x panels) - R16 485 (Cost of R21980 less Tax Rebate 25%)
Installation (Panels) - R21 928
Total R101 338
