Defective Solar System Installation

TheChamp said:
I also don't understand the setup as far as savings on the system is concerned, why are you applying formulas to the bill? Because it is supposed to have already accounted for the solar usage on your side?
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This is the reason we're here - it is not reflecting from the Municipality side (bill) as all usage is deemed grid usage.
 
Maelly said:
This is the reason we're here - it is not reflecting from the Municipality side (bill) as all usage is deemed grid usage.
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So simply put, there is no difference in your bill before solar and after solar?

Because there is no option for the municipal bill to reflect solar usage and utility, anything in the bill is utility, minus whatever saving ls you did on your side.
 
wingnut771 said:
People who rent solar are clueless about these things otherwise they would never rent in the first place because thats a stupid thing to do. Probably uses all the power at night and solar sits idle all day after the battery is charged by 9am. Its easy to not export to the grid with a setting.
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Yeah sounds like it, no other info like how is it configured. What is the cut off, what is the battery size and and
 
Maelly said:
All comments noted and appreciated.
Just to adress some of the key ones here - to avoid responding to evry reply:
  1. Bill savings - perhaps a lack of a better phrasing, in all intense and purposes the system is meant to safegurd against annual annual eskom increases, and also if used optimally you should generally see some savings (reduced electricity bill + avoid annual increases).
  2. 3 years to realise this - many various reasons, i.e., perhaps not initially used optimally, you may have had temporarily more people living with you at that time etc. Either way, think of it of sayingh having a "latent defect" of some sort - these thjoings can happen.
  3. From Lupus - the main thing is the usage, and I have captured this under OP that it's roughly 894 Kwh per month. Having said that, it's a 5Kw system. Connected - all but the stove (by the way I bought a gas stove in 2025), geyser (switch installed to optimise usage) and pool.
  4. Name of company - come on guys that would be unfair of me to do so at this stage.
key facts:
  • the Service provider report sgtates that my average grid usage is 43%. This is material - a 57% savings on 894 monthly usage is pretty decent. It was established that this was not being realised because the municipality argues that the system was feeding into the grid.
  • the municipality advised that I get a biderectional meter.
  • to remedy this - the Service provcider came to do the reinstallation (a full half-a-day job re-wiring and reconfiguration of the system) - why is that, if their system was working well?
  • no biderctional meter installed - just re-installation of the system.
  • further, they offered a 4 months reimbursement.
Surely there's something here?
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It seems you don't know what is installed.
5kw what? Just the inverter?
How many batteries, what is their amperage? What % does it cut back to the grid, does it even actually use the battery?
When does it fully charge the battery? We can't answer you when we've got no idea on what is installed.
 
Lupus said:
It seems you don't know what is installed.
5kw what? Just the inverter?
How many batteries, what is their amperage? What % does it cut back to the grid, does it even actually use the battery?
When does it fully charge the battery? We can't answer you when we've got no idea on what is installed.
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He can maybe start with a pic like this but probably can’t because he doesn’t own it:
IMG_6356.jpeg
 
wingnut771 said:
He can maybe start with a pic like this but probably can’t because he doesn’t own it:
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Easier test, during a sunny day/ Flip the eskom breaker to off on DB. What happens ? still got lights/sockets work ?

Even easier. photo of inverter front panel !
 
biena said:
Easier test, during a sunny day/ Flip the eskom breaker to off on DB. What happens ? still got lights/sockets work ?

Even easier. photo of inverter front panel !
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Can't, he will say he is not at home but at work.
 
Ok stop trolling 😡
The issue is not the ability to generate power. So, the size of the system installed has nothing to do with anything.
I mentioned 5kw hybrid inverter because that was the question asked - yes also has a 5Kw Hubble battery. What's the next question - how many panels I have? No - the size of the system is NOT the issue at hand!

Of course I can do manual configurations on the inverter and also on the web portal. I can play around with battery settings, including customising the % etc. safety , balanced, economical, etc. - I just leave it on the recommend setting by the Service provider in case they say my settings were not optimal. Again This is NOT the issue at hand!

The highest power generation that I've observed was a 4Kw solar production, 0.02Kw grid usage, 4.55kw house consumption and a 0.88Kw battery usage sitting at 96% full!

It has been established (Service provider and Municipality) that all my usage is deemed grid.
Yes! This is crazy because, 1) I can manually switch off the Inverter to Eskom bypass to either Solar only (no Eskom) - and I will still have power in the house or 2) even when there's power failure around - I will still have power (in fact in most cases I don't even see that there's power failure unless you go out, i.e., street lights, traffic lights etc. - or on the Complex WhatsApp group asking whether there's power failure), and even 3) back during loadsheding - I mostly had power unless loadsheding runs for over 6 hours or something.
So - no problem with power generation, inverter and battery, etc. None!

I can also monitor the system through mobile apps (one of which is Solarman Smart) - no problem here.

It is just bizarre that the supposed "grid feed-in" is being singled out by the municipality as a culprit.
The Service provider did not contest this (I thought they would have) - instead they chose to do the re-installation - a full and complete re-wiring including changing my DB box - new switches etc.!

So, I don't need to be posting pictures here - that's not the issue!

Now - what else? And stop strolling 😁
 
Ok so supply the info that is on the app, like the grid pull from the inverter, something like this
1772516480561.png
Plus what the settings are for the battery cut over.
 
Wants help but won't provide information needed for understanding the problem or to give proper well thought out advice.
 
I have read this a few times and am still at a loss as to what the problem is :unsure: It sounds like the OP is claiming that all use by their house, whether it be supplied by solar, battery or grid, is billed as grid? I don't see how this is possible as the grid meter has no way to know how much is supplied other than by grid.
 
Neuk_ said:
I have read this a few times and am still at a loss as to what the problem is :unsure: It sounds like the OP is claiming that all use by their house, whether it be supplied by solar, battery or grid, is billed as grid? I don't see how this is possible as the grid meter has no way to know how much is supplied other than by grid.
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Finally someone else, I almost thought my brain was not functioning okay.

TheChamp said:
So simply put, there is no difference in your bill before solar and after solar?

Because there is no option for the municipal bill to reflect solar usage and utility, anything in the bill is utility, minus whatever saving ls you did on your side.
Click to expand...
 
Neuk_ said:
I have read this a few times and am still at a loss as to what the problem is :unsure: It sounds like the OP is claiming that all use by their house, whether it be supplied by solar, battery or grid, is billed as grid? I don't see how this is possible as the grid meter has no way to know how much is supplied other than by grid.
Click to expand...
It sounds as if the inverter is connected on the municipal side of the meter... so it is recording the input from the inverter. 🤷‍♂️
 
Neuk_ said:
I have read this a few times and am still at a loss as to what the problem is :unsure: It sounds like the OP is claiming that all use by their house, whether it be supplied by solar, battery or grid, is billed as grid? I don't see how this is possible as the grid meter has no way to know how much is supplied other than by grid.
Click to expand...

There are a few prepaid meters like the Conlog and lTron that doesn't differentiate direction so any flow is counted as consumption.

If they installed the CT clamp backwards like we have seen on here so many times that could very easily cause the problem but trying to drag info out of op seems like way too much effort.
 
B-1 said:
There are a few prepaid meters like the Conlog and lTron that doesn't differentiate direction so any flow is counted as consumption.

If they installed the CT clamp backwards like we have seen on here so many times that could very easily cause the problem but trying to drag info out of op seems like way too much effort.
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Sure, but there would be a lot of other issues with the CT clamp backwards, as you say the OP isn't supplying adequate information to make heads or tails though, for me anyway.
 
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