Neuk_'s Home ESS - Round Two

leon.davibe said:
Yea No idea on costs of heatpump
But they can also help lower the geyser usage

As often they can run at a COP f at least 4. Which would mean that your normal geyser usage will be 25% vs now

The COP varies based on weather sometimes you can get more sometimes less

Not well read on geyser heatpumps
So based on knowledge from pool heatpump
Click to expand...

Here are my concerns.

. will Eskom increase my power bill based on owning solar or not.
. will Municipality add more costs to my monthly power bill
. what COC is acceptable for both municipality and Eskom

I will leave a link why I decided not to install solar. It is so much bullshit and unknowns that I can't risk it. The legality alone is enough to make me just burn a generator. But I am considering leaving the country for Namibia because if we can't afford to live in South Africa anymore we can't live in South Africa anymore. It is simple as that. So I am close to calling it and move. The DA thinks ignoring us is a good idea I PROMISE THEM when voting time comes around people are not going to be nice to them. They promised they would address this and didn't.

https://sapac.co.za/blogs/news/2024...fBHvtVFyl90J_bXI0dTVhbIsDA08KAZiqPVkDVN8h6uX4
 
Jackal46 said:
How is the municipality treating you? Did you have to register and pay more for your power. In short what is real and what is fiction when it comes to this stuff. I be real for a moment Eskom is insane they are detached from reality. Our current budget of 15 units a day will be crippled AGAIN with Eskom's 12% taking us down to about 12 or 13 units of power a day.

I wanted to install evacuated tubes for water heating but the contractor wanted R30k. I am working on a portable solar system because I don't trust the roof as the house is about 70 years old.

Unit break down.
Geyser is 3kw/h and takes about 4 hours 3 X 4 = 12 units a day.
That leaves us with 1 unit of power to cook food. Then Eskom wants to shaft us even more. Seriously getting tired of them. Essentially from April they are decommissioning the toaster as just using it once put us over our unit limit for the day.
Click to expand...
Why does it take 4 hours? Unless you drain the geyser every time?
 
Lupus said:
Why does it take 4 hours? Unless you drain the geyser every time?
Click to expand...
We keep ours off until a few hours before we are going to take a shower then turn it on. It sounds stupid but it works out cheaper then just keeping it on. The reason is every time the hot water gets used it turns on. That can be once every hour making me pay for 10 hours instead of just 4 hours.
 
Lupus said:
Why does it take 4 hours? Unless you drain the geyser every time?
Click to expand...

How big is the geyser @Jackal46? We have two 200l geysers, one uses a 3Kw element and the other a 4kW, both use around 5kWh - 6kWh per day. The one is used for two kids baths and two adult showers and the other is for the scullery for cleaning with some light use in a bathroom. Neither are on 24/7...
 
Yea assumed usage means nothing

Yes if you have some form or monitoring you can say what your geyser is using

People see what they want to see

There will be a tiny saving
The rest comes from temp compromises

Anybody that thinks they can compete with solar with a generator , should check Facebook marketplace to see how many almost new generators are for sale

Actually Running a generator is super quick way of getting a feel for costs

Most that buy generator feel they can't afford solar
So they run it a bit and realise they can't afford the running costs = for sale

If you can do math you will never buy a generator (there are scenarios where they make sense for most this won't be the case)

If you don't want to do solar just do a battery backup way cheaper as you use Eskom electricity in shedding with let's say a 20-30% premium dependant on inverter efficiency

While with a generator you are probably going to pay premium in the region of at least 500%
 
Neuk_ said:
Switch on the main supply, IF there is no mains supply and the when the generator is set to run either automatically or manually, a controlled switch feeds from the generator to the main DB in the house. There is only a single feed wire from the control switch to the main DB so it supplies either mains or generator supply and the inverter CT clamp is on this feed wire.
Click to expand...
Anecdotal at best. When we installed our Deye, I asked the installer about installing my generator to charge the batteries. I wanted to do it via a switch over switch on the mains. Because of where the mains feeds in, but he prefers to do directly on the inverter because of past issues with the inverters not wanting to work properly when done with a change over.

Ended up not connecting the generator, because I wasn't in the mood to trench the cable to get it to the inverter that was on the other side of the property.
 
Jackal46 said:
We keep ours off until a few hours before we are going to take a shower then turn it on. It sounds stupid but it works out cheaper then just keeping it on. The reason is every time the hot water gets used it turns on. That can be once every hour making me pay for 10 hours instead of just 4 hours.
Click to expand...
Yeah but unless you're draining the geyser it will warm up a little bit when used. It'll only use enough power to get the geyser back to temp. It won't be the full 3kw it'll be a portion of it.
 
leon.davibe said:
Yea assumed usage means nothing

Yes if you have some form or monitoring you can say what your geyser is using

People see what they want to see

There will be a tiny saving
The rest comes from temp compromises

Anybody that thinks they can compete with solar with a generator , should check Facebook marketplace to see how many almost new generators are for sale

Actually Running a generator is super quick way of getting a feel for costs

Most that buy generator feel they can't afford solar
So they run it a bit and realise they can't afford the running costs = for sale

If you can do math you will never buy a generator (there are scenarios where they make sense for most this won't be the case)

If you don't want to do solar just do a battery backup way cheaper as you use Eskom electricity in shedding with let's say a 20-30% premium dependant on inverter efficiency

While with a generator you are probably going to pay premium in the region of at least 500%
Click to expand...
A generator is great as a backup for solar, especially if there is no grid supply.
 
Switched to mains supply for now, whatever solar is generated can charge the batteries while I try figure this out, I am thinking that something is wrong with the inverter settings and when it tries to reconnect/sync with the mains it is rejecting the mains frequency.
 
Grid voltage and frequency is holding, switched back to use the inverter but it will not use the grid at all, even when telling it batteries must be at 100% and to use the grid. The mystery continues...
 
I am reading this with interest if you do get down to the bottom of this please share,

Have you tested at the inverter with a multimeter just to make sure nothing has perhaps gone wrong between the changeover and the inverter, just a thought.
Everything on the screenshots is showing that it should connect without any issue as far as I can tell.
 
Düber said:
I am reading this with interest if you do get down to the bottom of this please share,

Have you tested at the inverter with a multimeter just to make sure nothing has perhaps gone wrong between the changeover and the inverter, just a thought.
Everything on the screenshots is showing that it should connect without any issue as far as I can tell.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I haven't done any physical testing at the inverter yet, SunSynk support is meant to look at the inverter remotely today to see if they can spot anything. If they can't my next step is some physical checks and I may get our electrician in to help as he also installs SunSynk/Deye kit. If we can't find anything then it may be time to send the inverter to SunSynk to have a look which I am trying to avoid...
 
Neuk_ said:
Switched to mains supply for now, whatever solar is generated can charge the batteries while I try figure this out, I am thinking that something is wrong with the inverter settings and when it tries to reconnect/sync with the mains it is rejecting the mains frequency.
Click to expand...
as far as i have it if you use a genrerator on inverter they recommend the gen port for this very reason
 
I spoke to an installer for a switchover connection so I can isolate the house and run it on the solar trolly. Waiting for the email will see if I can do anything worth doing.
 
After a factory reset and firmware upgrade, with mains supply restored, the inverter is seeing it fine, I am able to use mains to supply loads in the house but not charge batteries :unsure: A few steps forward but not 100% there yet...
 
Neuk_ said:
After a factory reset and firmware upgrade, with mains supply restored, the inverter is seeing it fine, I am able to use mains to supply loads in the house but not charge batteries :unsure: A few steps forward but not 100% there yet...
Click to expand...

I found that the Charge Current Limit is displayed as 0.0A despite the limit being set to 150A so busy investigating...

1738854931189.png
 
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