Generator or Inverter for residential use?

[wingnut771]

Which is back to square 1. I don't get why everyone is being so salty about my moving to a place with 3-phase? I didn't buy the house for the electricity supply, if I did I would have gone for single phase with a rotating meter, but alas. So throw me a bone here, I'm just trying to figure out what will work best for my new crib.

Options on the table are to go with three 5.5Kw Sunsynks (which would be pricey), the Goodwe 3 phase hybrid or reconfigure the wiring to only use a single phase (if feasible). Other plausible suggestions?

Rewire and change to single phase I think is your best bet, both from a cost/simplicity sake. You don't really need 3 phase unless there's a workshop with a lathe or something with a 3 phase motor.

 

[Speedster]

Request that the Muni downgrade you to a single-phase. If I were you, this would top the list.

Maybe I'll request that they switch back to an old school rotating meter while we're at it But this does seem the best option.

Then a synsynk 8kW inverter coupled to a bunch of 400w-ish panels and a few pylontech's. That should do it?

 

[gbyleveldt]

Maybe I'll request that they switch back to an old school rotating meter while we're at it But this does seem the best option.

Then a synsynk 8kW inverter coupled to a bunch of 400w-ish panels and a few pylontech's. That should do it?

That's going to give you the best bang for the buck. In fact, you may be lucky in that heavy users are on other phases than essential loads, saving you a lot of pain of rewiring the DB

 

[RonSwanson]

Maybe I'll request that they switch back to an old school rotating meter while we're at it But this does seem the best option.

Then a synsynk 8kW inverter coupled to a bunch of 400w-ish panels and a few pylontech's. That should do it?

Sounds good to me, even a 5.5 K will work with your loads -- if I recall it was 10kWh / day?

 

[itareanlnotani]

Maybe I'll request that they switch back to an old school rotating meter while we're at it But this does seem the best option.

Then a synsynk 8kW inverter coupled to a bunch of 400w-ish panels and a few pylontech's. That should do it?

Thats what I'm doing, for better or for worse. Although I may go with the 330w as the price per kw is much less.

 

[Speedster]

Sounds good to me, even a 5.5 K will work with your loads -- if I recall it was 10kWh / day?

We're at about 13kwh per day, but that is bound to increase as the girls get older. Also, the new place has a couple of aircons which would be nice if we could actually use them.

 

[wingnut771]

Maybe I'll request that they switch back to an old school rotating meter while we're at it But this does seem the best option.

Then a synsynk 8kW inverter coupled to a bunch of 400w-ish panels and a few pylontech's. That should do it?

Don't think they make these anymore, only old houses that haven't converted their meter would have this AFAIK.

It's a sign not to buy those house.

 

[RonSwanson]

We're at about 13kwh per day, but that is bound to increase as the girls get older. Also, the new place has a couple of aircons which would be nice if we could actually use them.

Then go for the 8k. Excellent value.

 

[Tacet]

We're at about 13kwh per day, but that is bound to increase as the girls get older. Also, the new place has a couple of aircons which would be nice if we could actually use them.

Don't confuse peak load with average load.

A 2 kW geyser element takes about 2 hours to heat up my geyser. It uses 4 kWh to do so.
A 4 kW geyser element takes about 1 hour to heat up my geyser. It uses 4 kWh to do so.

If you use those 13 kWh all in one hour, you'll need a 13 kW inverter. If you manage to live in an ideal world and spread those 13 kWh equally through the day, you will only need a 1.85 kW inverter.

In my setup I have a 4 kW/5 kVA Victron inverter. Most of my load is less than 3 kW, so most of it is supplied by the inverter. Sometimes, though, I'll have the kettle and geyser on at the same time, and then my load will be a bit over 4 kW. In those times the inverter pulls 4 kW from the panels/battery, and the missing bit from Eskom.

 

[AchmatK]

Don't think they make these anymore, only old houses that haven't converted their meter would have this AFAIK.

It's a sign not to buy those house.

My place was built in the early '70s and when I viewed it in 2011, one of the first things I noticed was the spinning disk meter. Was a sign that I should buy it as I was already considering solar before then.

Over the years CoCT has had a few initiatives in the area to replace the old spinning meters with prepaid meters and very few of my neighbours took them up on their offer. Every month the meter reader still walks from house to house knocking on gates getting the readings with all the meters on the individual properties with no direct access.

 

[AchmatK]

We're at about 13kwh per day, but that is bound to increase as the girls get older. Also, the new place has a couple of aircons which would be nice if we could actually use them.

The 8kw might be too much now but does allow you the flexibility to use more appliances. In my case, I just did not want to be constrained in what I could or could not run. We live in a modern society that lives on electricity. If I want an aircon in each room and be able to run them all at the same time I want to be able to do this. During the day this is fine and at night the only limitation is the expensive battery bank to be able to do this.

I've been through the load reduction excercise but got to a point financially to be able to say "F*# it". My wife also does not have to try and manage what she can or can't run in fear of overloading the inverter or draining the batteries. We've become less obsessed about running around switching off lights and appliances in order to save electricity as we have sufficient generating capacity. We are actually using more electricity now since moving over to solar than what we did when we were CoCT supply.

 

[vassen]

Which is back to square 1. I don't get why everyone is being so salty about my moving to a place with 3-phase? I didn't buy the house for the electricity supply, if I did I would have gone for single phase with a rotating meter, but alas. So throw me a bone here, I'm just trying to figure out what will work best for my new crib.

Options on the table are to go with three 5.5Kw Sunsynks (which would be pricey), the Goodwe 3 phase hybrid or reconfigure the wiring to only use a single phase (if feasible). Other plausible suggestions?

Most houses have 3 phases and only 1 is being used. So without you actually knowing how it’s wired, difficult to really shop around.
As others have said, change the supply to a single phase or move all your loads to 1 phase and use a single phase inverter.
Disadvantage of moving essentials to 1 phase and non essential to another phase is that you would not be able to power your non essential loads with excess solar power, which reduces your ROI.
If your loads are around 20kwh a day, don’t see the need to have 3 phase.
You need to check if the place has a 3 phase pool pump... that’s the only thing I can think of that would be using 3 phase.

 

[wingnut771]

My place was built in the early '70s and when I viewed it in 2011, one of the first things I noticed was the spinning disk meter. Was a sign that I should buy it as I was already considering solar before then.

Over the years CoCT has had a few initiatives in the area to replace the old spinning meters with prepaid meters and very few of my neighbours took them up on their offer. Every month the meter reader still walks from house to house knocking on gates getting the readings with all the meters on the individual properties with no direct access.

My place too, built in the 70's.

 

[Saba'a]

I've been following this thread since it started in preparation for doing my own solar setup at the appropriate time (probably as soon as we've moved and settled into the new place). I had (have) my head set on a Sunsynk but now salespeople are confusing me with all their clever talk. Help me out quick, what is the big win of a sunsynk above the Mecer / Axpert type inverters?

As @signates said ... true hybrid that blends the grid and offgrid energy sources. Most will claim theirs hybrid but actually switch to either grid or offgrid.

Edit and @wingnut771 said

 

[Saba'a]

My house has 3 phase, when solar was installed we just used a single phase and everything was fine.
I can get the installer to give more info if required.

Same here, used sunsynk 8.8kw but 3 phase board from CoT.

 

[Saba'a]

Request that the Muni downgrade you to a single-phase. If I were you, this would top the list.

Plus CoT charges more for 3 phase.

 

[itareanlnotani]

My place too, built in the 70's.

Mine too. although it was the 18th of the 70's.
The meter is from 1930

 

[wingnut771]

Mine too. although it was the 18th of the 70's.
The meter is from 1930

I guess they didn't change much over the years lol - my one looks like it's from 100 years ago.

 

[AchmatK]

Crap weather in CT and Eskom announcing possibility of loadshedding over the weekend.

Charging battery from the grid as there was just enough solar today in Cape Town to cover my loads. Also turned off time off use.

8kw inverter pulling over 9kw from the grid.

 

[air]

Plus CoT charges more for 3 phase.

Where do you see that in your 'billing'?