Geyser timer solution for solar

Lupus said:
Shoo don't know if you know how dark JHB can get in summer storms :-) I've seen mine drop to 200w with a 9.2kw on my roof, when I had just 4.3 it was down to 50.
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How is a heat pump affected in similar weather though?
 
wingnut771 said:
Yeah, its been cloudy here for days now.
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Here it's been on and off, though we had clouds blow in yesterday from about 1pm, some areas had storms we just had rumbles and light rain. Kids were swimming by 6pm again
 
cavedog said:
I think I will do this. It says it has a max of 10KW surge supply, but I don't know what exactly the cut-off for over draw is. Probably like 1min or less so i would just need to watch my consumption to not trip the thing all the time.
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If this is an Off grid inverter then your battery will most likely trip if it is Battery/ Solar Mode (No Grid). I have a 5.5Kva Off grid inverter with a 5.2 Kva Battery and when my power exceeds 5.2 Kva it trips without fail. From what i read if you get a battery that can handle the surge it should not trip. As the battery is rated for it.

Right now I am saving up for a 10 ~ 12 Kva battery that can handle the surge. In that 10 Seconds issue a HA command/ Solar assistant to change to grid to ensure it does not trip.



No matter how much I have changed the families ways. There are still scenarios when the Kettle Toaster is on and someone switches on another high power item and it trips.
 
Splinter said:
Seems a pretty minimal impact then.
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Yup it was, hence the efficiencies of them. They can be a little less efficient in winter at night when temps are below 10 degrees and water can be cooler. Though will see in winter.
 
Speedster said:
What's your temp at? You can add a geyserwise and then dynamically pump up the temp if there's excess solar available.
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Max which is 70, I wanted Geyser wise but decided against spending the money, not worth it for me, there's always excess solar available so the automation triggers the geyser.
wingnut771 said:
Add second 150l geyser (9kWh storage) in series for R5k.
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Maybe one day.
denmendez65 said:
I am hoping to achieve that with my Jojo tank. Supply the bathrooms and geyser with luke warm water (some 30 degrees celcius). At the moment my batteries are full at 8:30. The earliest I have ever seen so other than the pool pump there is nothing really using the power. There is 2 teenage cousins staying over for the next 2 weeks so they are running the TV and PC the whole day so they can use the power guilt free lol. Otherwise the solar is idling most days.
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I even tried mining to use some power but these days for the casual miner you get like zero $$
 
Zuner said:
Max which is 70, I wanted Geyser wise but decided against spending the money, not worth it for me, there's always excess solar available so the automation triggers the geyser.

Maybe one day.

I even tried mining to use some power but these days for the casual miner you get like zero $$
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Yeah sometimes you literally can't use all the power.
 
wingnut771 said:
You can if you have 10 geysers in series.
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cavedog said:
I'm finally getting my small solar setup going.

8 x JA solar panels with a 5.2KW Inverter. I'm getting a 5KW battery just to use as backup since the electricity seem to be somewhat unstable in the area with a number of outages.

So the plan.

Run inverter in SUB. Still making use of Tshwane if solar isn't enough but keeping the battery on standby for outages.

I want the geyser to run from around 9am to 2pm daily so it can run of the solar. My issue is what if the grid fails during that time and I'm on battery. I don't want the geyser to drain the battery. The geyser should come on between 9 -2 daily on the condition that grid is online so if the solar isn't enough it uses the grid which is fine but if grid is offline it should not come on.

Anyone advise?
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You should check out this smart home Geyser Smart Control WiFi Switch - from Light Market You can schedule times for it to be on & off and it has energy monitoring https://www.lightmarket.co.za/produ...l-wifi-switch-30a?_pos=1&_sid=cdbcf2c88&_ss=r
 

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I had a geyserwise installed with my solar and it was well worth it. Being able to heat the geyser the minimum for a shower for me (45) early morning before I drive to the office but much warmer later when the sun is up was a large part of my electricity savings. The ability to both control temperature and time is the key. Early morning its set to 45. Later on it goes up to 60. Weekends I have a different schedule. I would prefer something a bit smarter though as it's an offline system and it constantly loses time. Something smarter I could manage with my phone would be preferable.

Secondly my geyser and stove are on the non essential side so they did not run when power was off. However we had a few times where power was off for a few days and I had an abundance of spare power with my whole system idling and the batteries full and no way to direct that power into my stove or especially the geyser. So I had an electrician install a bypass switch that allowed me to flip the stove and geyser between the essential and non-essential side. It's one of those 3 level switches on my main DB. Was not expensive to do and was a lifesaver a few times for me so that we could at least all shower. I have to obviously be careful to not have much else on with the geyser as it's a 3kw element and my inverter is a 5KW inverter but I find I can manage that fairly well during prolonged power cuts. It's nice having the option!
 
So the installers are refusing to put the geyser on the inverter unless I can show them its a 1500W element or I get a bigger inverter. They said they can't issue a coc if they connect it because it's not big enough.
 
cavedog said:
So the installers are refusing to put the geyser on the inverter unless I can show them its a 1500W element or I get a bigger inverter. They said they can't issue a coc if they connect it because it's not big enough.
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Get the opinion from different installers. This sounds like Hogwash. Did they tell you the reason? Some other guy was told by an installer a 4mm2 cable cannot supply a house and he refused a COC. The guy just went to another installer and got it done. They all have different opinions and there is no SANS requirement that states you cant do that that I am aware of.

Also why 1500W? Why not 1000? 2000? How did they come to that conclusion?
 
cavedog said:
So the installers are refusing to put the geyser on the inverter unless I can show them its a 1500W element or I get a bigger inverter. They said they can't issue a coc if they connect it because it's not big enough.
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Can you ask them why? 5500W > 2000W > 1500W. Put a 1500W then, then when they gone, change it to 2000W.
 
denmendez65 said:
Get the opinion from different installers. This sounds like Hogwash. Did they tell you the reason? Some other guy was told by an installer a 4mm2 cable cannot supply a house and he refused a COC. The guy just went to another installer and got it done. They all have different opinions and there is no SANS requirement that states you cant do that that I am aware of.

Also why 1500W? Why not 1000? 2000? How did they come to that conclusion?
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Must be engineers.
 
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