Dawie's Solar Setup

W@P said:
Jus it seems there is a whole new can of worms that starts sticking its head out with the number of solar installations being done lately. Klomp kak as jy my vra.
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I agree - when the original solar geyser was installed waaaaay back then, the installers provided an invoice and you paid and they installed and that was it.

Now, I am being told that my insurance won't cover anything if the roof implodes as I don't have a structural engineers report or a subsidence risk report regarding the extra load on my roof + walls etc.

Are insurers just running out of reasons to pay or are they unilaterally chopping and changing policies to suit their agendas on the back of 'engineering flaws'?
 
Mista_Mobsta said:
I agree - when the original solar geyser was installed waaaaay back then, the installers provided an invoice and you paid and they installed and that was it.

Now, I am being told that my insurance won't cover anything if the roof implodes as I don't have a structural engineers report or a subsidence risk report regarding the extra load on my roof + walls etc.

Are insurers just running out of reasons to pay or are they unilaterally chopping and changing policies to suit their agendas on the back of 'engineering flaws'?
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Does sound like they are looking for excuses.
My panels are approximately 11kg per square meter... if a 100kg person can apply that 100kg to a much smaller space, im sure the roof will hold up fine.
 
Mista_Mobsta said:
I agree - when the original solar geyser was installed waaaaay back then, the installers provided an invoice and you paid and they installed and that was it.

Now, I am being told that my insurance won't cover anything if the roof implodes as I don't have a structural engineers report or a subsidence risk report regarding the extra load on my roof + walls etc.

Are insurers just running out of reasons to pay or are they unilaterally chopping and changing policies to suit their agendas on the back of 'engineering flaws'?
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Is it not perhaps the the solar geyser's weight is concentrated in one area? I'm sure they are pretty heavy when filled with water.
Solar panels on the other hand are much lighter and more spread out.

I was told, so I'm not 100% on it, that all roofs have to be able to carry 50Kg per m2 to cater for hail loading etc.
 
My system's been running perfectly the last month and I am very happy with the performance.

My Orange PI should be delivered today. I can then get Solar Assistant up and running. Cabling already sorted.

Will post a few photos of the goodies.
 
DawieZA said:
My system's been running perfectly the last month and I am very happy with the performance.

My Orange PI should be delivered today. I can then get Solar Assistant up and running. Cabling already sorted.

Will post a few photos of the goodies.
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I am still in two minds about getting SA. My solarman pro is doing everything I need it to do, I think.
 
DawieZA said:
My Orange PI should be delivered today. I can then get Solar Assistant up and running. Cabling already sorted.
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Mine supposedly coming Monday. Looking forward to it, the Sunsynk connect app has been down multiple times this month and it annoys me that it only updates every 5 minutes and I cannot get "live" data.
 
W@P said:
I am still in two minds about getting SA. My solarman pro is doing everything I need it to do, I think.
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I'm sold on the fact that I don't need SA. I can't see it adding any value to what I already have with my Solarman/HA integration. It's just going to add a bunch more cables, and costs.
 
Speedster said:
I'm sold on the fact that I don't need SA. I can't see it adding any value to what I already have with my Solarman/HA integration. It's just going to add a bunch more cables, and costs.
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Agreed, at first more data tweaking etc is nice then you get to a point you dont care anymore and everything just works as it should and you dont check anything for months :P
 
I am not a big fan of Sunsynk's cloud management and monitoring solution. The updates are too infrequent, and the downtime is annoying. I know others might not have an issue with that or have an alternative solution that works better from them. For me anyway, Solar Assistant seems like a good alternative.
 
DawieZA said:
Could be the cloud edge effect as it is overcast here today, with moments of direct sunshine.
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I doubt it, cloud edge is usually very quick because clouds are moving. I suspect panel temperature was cool, in the morning, with a cool breeze. What area are you in?
 
RonSwanson said:
I doubt it, cloud edge is usually very quick because clouds are moving. I suspect panel temperature was cool, in the morning, with a cool breeze. What area are you in?
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Cape Town, northern suburbs. I usually see it happen on somewhat cloudy days and it is for very short periods of time.
 
DawieZA said:
Cape Town, northern suburbs. I usually see it happen on somewhat cloudy days and it is for very short periods of time.
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So on 21 Feb you had cool conditions, high temp was 23.9, so under STC. Plus solar radiation was over that of STC at 1009.9 W/m2. And a wind was blowing to top it all off.

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All the goodies I installed today. The RJ45 splitter and patch cable from the inverter were done a few weeks ago. I must say, the Solar Assistant activation and registration process was quite simple.

Only issue I had was with comms to the inverter as it kept disconnecting. The BMS cable from the battery to the RJ45 splitter is a normal ethernet cable (all pins connected) and it seems like there is something on the "unused" pins from the battery that causes issues with the pins used by the Solar Assistant cable. I ended up removing all the pins (except the ones needed for CAN traffic) on the one port of the RJ45 splitter where I plugged the ethernet cable from the battery into. That solved my comms issue with the inverter.

Orange PI.jpg
 
Currently load-shedding but the PV is picking up speed. Loving the almost real-time stats.

SA.png
 
It's been an interesting afternoon. Arrived home this morning and my tenant in the flat running off non-essentials complained that her prepaid meter (used for personal billing) keeps tripping. Checked the error message on the meter and it complains about low voltage supply.

Checked Solar Assistant and I could see a grid voltage drop every time her meter trips. Also, the lights in our house on essentials flicker during this time. At first, I thought it might be the grid supply in the area that is giving issues, but the issue seems to go away if I trip the inverter input breaker. Essentially simulating a power failure at the inverter.

Now I am wondering if it has something to do with the solar/battery power being fed back to the non-essentials, but why would that have an impact on the grid voltage... I will contact the installer on Tuesday, but was wondering if anyone else had seen this before?
 
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