Planning a solar system

AchmatK said:
Take your total panel kw and multiply by 5. This will give your an average power day. Note that the daily winter average could be as low as 3 sun hours and summer can go to 7 sun hours depending on panel alignment.

Battery you can look at you base load and divide by the battery capacity.

5kWh battery running a constant load of 500w will last 5 hours from 100% to 0%. So you will need to reduce the time as you don't want your lithium batteries to go below 10%.
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And how do you get the max output at any given time?

I'm reading that a 5kw inverter doesn't give you 5000W of power at any given time, more like 3500W?
 
hj2k_x said:
And how do you get the max output at any given time?

I'm reading that a 5kw inverter doesn't give you 5000W of power at any given time, more like 3500W?
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My 8kw inverter, I can easily pull 8kw and a bit but I don’t.
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maxxis said:
Live life on the rev-limiter.

I've pushed my 5kw to over 6 before with no issues at all. Happy
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Yeah lol, I've sat on 8.5 for a good hour or so before I saw it and almost crapped myself :P
 
hj2k_x said:
And how do you get the max output at any given time?

I'm reading that a 5kw inverter doesn't give you 5000W of power at any given time, more like 3500W?
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If a bit complicated to explain but I'll break it down.

The first part is the inverter. A 5kw inverter can support loads of 5kw with some surge options above this value but only for a limited amount of time.

The second part is the panels and the total kw of the panels is what the inverter will use to supply the loads. If you only hand 3kw of solar panels then the inverter will only support loads of 3kw. If you have a hybrid inverter then it will be able to blend from solar, batteries and grid up to its rated capacity.

If they list it as 5kw it should put out 5kw. Otherwise its not a 5kw inverter.
 
hj2k_x said:
So does it depend on the quality of the different parts? Like good quality battery packs vs poor quality ones? So a good quality 5kw inverter should deliver 5000W output if you really wanted it to?
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Check @AchmatK's response.
 
AchmatK said:
If a bit complicated to explain but I'll break it down.

The first part is the inverter. A 5kw inverter can support loads of 5kw with some surge options above this value but only for a limited amount of time.

The second part is the panels and the total kw of the panels is what the inverter will use to supply the loads. If you only hand 3kw of solar panels then the inverter will only support loads of 3kw. If you have a hybrid inverter then it will be able to blend from solar, batteries and grid up to its rated capacity.

If they list it as 5kw it should put out 5kw. Otherwise its not a 5kw inverter.
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That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm still super excited about all this.

Still saving towards the first part of the install which might just be an inverter and battery, allowing for panels and off grid upgrade later when more cash is available.
 
hj2k_x said:
That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm still super excited about all this.

Still saving towards the first part of the install which might just be an inverter and battery, allowing for panels and off grid upgrade later when more cash is available.
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Don't skimp on panels.
 
AchmatK said:
Not yet.

My daily average consumption is 50kWh so way short in winter.
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Jeepers. That's high. Ours is similar. But everything I'm reading says that the first step to solar should reducing your usage by using gas appliances, solar geysers etc, rather than trying to push out huge daily kwh just from the solar setup.
 
hj2k_x said:
That makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm still super excited about all this.

Still saving towards the first part of the install which might just be an inverter and battery, allowing for panels and off grid upgrade later when more cash is available.
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If you can, get a single battery that can be added to later and the most panels you can afford.

You really only start saving when you are generating. Even just getting enough for one string of panels can save your R1k easily let month from day 1.

I would even delay the battery over first getting panels to start saving.
 
hj2k_x said:
Jeepers. That's high. Ours is similar. But everything I'm reading says that the first step to solar should reducing your usage by using gas appliances, solar geysers etc, rather than trying to push out huge daily kwh just from the solar setup.
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Put the geyser onto your solar, don't waste precious roof space for a solar geyser.
 
hj2k_x said:
How do you mean? The inverter plus battery would at least help during loadshedding until we can afford to add panels (and maybe another invertor and battery if necessary / funds allow)?
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When are your loads at their highest? During the day or night?
 
AchmatK said:
If you can, get a single battery that can be added to later and the most panels you can afford.

You really only start saving when you are generating. Even just getting enough for one string of panels can save your R1k easily let month from day 1.

I would even delay the battery over first getting panels to start saving.
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Ah I see what you are saying (and the poster just above).
 
hj2k_x said:
Jeepers. That's high. Ours is similar. But everything I'm reading says that the first step to solar should reducing your usage by using gas appliances, solar geysers etc, rather than trying to push out huge daily kwh just from the solar setup.
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It's two household including my tenants in the garden flat.

I even sell to them from my solar.
 
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