absynth
Expert Member
Nope,but you can change settings on your inverter from anywhere in the world.
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Mike's (non-Sunsynk) System
- Thread starter Mike Hoxbig
- Start date
Speedster
Honorary Master
Excuse my ignorance, but what is the benefit of updating battery firmware?
Main benefit is if you mix different sized pylontechs.
Also believe that it results in better operation logic and lower self-consumption.
Edit
New BatteryView(3.0.28) – Google Drive
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Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
Prepaid conversion was done today. Does this look right to you guys?
They deducted vat and then give you units on the balance. I'm sure it works out to the same thing as not showing the vat, just a really strange way of reporting.
Also vat is supposed to be 15% so they gave me a couple of bucks for free...
They deducted vat and then give you units on the balance. I'm sure it works out to the same thing as not showing the vat, just a really strange way of reporting.
Also vat is supposed to be 15% so they gave me a couple of bucks for free...
Speedster
Honorary Master
Looks right to me. You bought R86.96 ex vat. Vat on that is R13.04 which is pretty much exactly the R100 you paid.
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
Doh! And here I am giving maths lessons in the home improvements thread
Still a strange way of reporting to show the vat component. We just assume that the price we're paying includes vat...
Speedster
Honorary Master
Interestingly a LOT of trade invoices will have the ex vat pricing and then only at the end they add vat. I personally prefer everything to be incl vat, but I get why businesses (municipalities) bill this way.Doh! And here I am giving maths lessons in the home improvements thread
Still a strange way of reporting to show the vat component. We just assume that the price we're paying includes vat...
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
Just had my first full billing month so it's time for a bill update.
Feb 2022 (before solar):
986 kWh
April 2022 (first full billing month):
389 kWh - most of this is geyser
I had only just optimised my system so that production matches consumption towards the end of the reading period, so that should come down even more next month.
Also had prepaid installed so all those pesky fixed fees fall away and I should be looking at around R600. Which should drop even more when my CT is finally installed...
Feb 2022 (before solar):
986 kWh
April 2022 (first full billing month):
389 kWh - most of this is geyser
I had only just optimised my system so that production matches consumption towards the end of the reading period, so that should come down even more next month.
Also had prepaid installed so all those pesky fixed fees fall away and I should be looking at around R600. Which should drop even more when my CT is finally installed...
How are you managing feedback to meter if no CT installed?
AchmatK
Honorary Master
The inverter will only supply loads if no CT is installed and you can't use the limit to home function and feed non essential loads until the CT is installed.
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
I'm not.
The prepaid keypad/UI is plugged into a dedicated plug point that's connected directly to the grid, so that it doesn't lose sync with the meter.
My meter itself is fortunately too dumb/cheap to detect current direction and trigger the anti-tamper. All it does is increment up when there's backfeed, as if I was consuming power.
I'm fine with this, it's only a couple of units extra a month that I'm paying for, to avoid the headache of triggering the anti-tamper and getting the municipality to reset it each time.
@RonSwanson helped me understand this so that I knew exactly what to tell the guys when they came out to do the conversion...
Mystic Twilight
Expert Member
Apparently those extra fees are baked into the unit cost for prepaid resulting in higher cost per unit, so if that's the case your R600 might be relatively fairly more. Is there a breakeven amount or does prepaid scale equally to post paid sliding scale?
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
I think it balances out in the end, the more you use. For low usage there's a definite benefit on the prepaid tariff (I'm assuming because of low income households).
I'm targeting Block 1, so even using the full 350 kWh gives you just under R600.
Once my CT is installed it'll probably be less than half that, because the timer will run at night, only requiring grid power in the early morning to heat the geyser before sunrise. Daytime it'll be powered by PV...
Do you have any geyser blankets?
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
Going to do all the geyser stuff last. Blanket, timer and 2kw element.
Plan is to add at least 2 more batteries in August and move the geyser to essentials, so need to have it ready by then...
Mike Hoxbig
Honorary Master
Shot thanks, might pop you a message and take you up on it...
Neuk_
Honorary Master
Even in Block 3 it is cheaper than post paid due to all the network and service charges, we have averaged at R4.26/kWh on post paid in the last year including all charges and VAT.
Mzezman
Executive Member
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2021
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Am
Am also planning to do my geyser blanket this long weekend - we are losing a lot of heat in the geyser with the cooler temps