RanzB's Solar Install

W@P said:
Question.

I have seen many homes on the KZN coast where the roof looks like yours. Is it paint peeling or moss or dirt or what?
Can one clean/pressure clean it?

Not to offend or anything, I was just wondering.
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I also noticed. I got my roof sorted before putting the panels on.

Its normal for that area though.
 
W@P said:
Ahh ok. Would it not be beneficial to clean that now and again? Or does it accumulate so fast that it's not worth the trouble?
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I haven't been in the complex long. I'm sure it does get cleaned but as mentioned above, rooves are a BC responsibility.
 
As a fellow Durbanite'ish, also took the plunge last year and the quality of life has improved substantially.

I've still not had my consumption (or lack thereof) reflected in my bill, so try to submit your readings to the municipality every month so eventually it can.

I actually had a dude from the Electricity department come to our place and query why our consumption was so low-I just pointed to the panels and he understood XD.

He took our readings and then left, so hopefully our bill reflects the new monthly usage now.
 
Pansyfaust said:
As a fellow Durbanite'ish, also took the plunge last year and the quality of life has improved substantially.

I've still not had my consumption (or lack thereof) reflected in my bill, so try to submit your readings to the municipality every month so eventually it can.

I actually had a dude from the Electricity department come to our place and query why our consumption was so low-I just pointed to the panels and he understood XD.

He took our readings and then left, so hopefully our bill reflects the new monthly usage now.
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Did you do the SSEG reg? Also, how do you submit your readings? On an app?
 
RanzB said:
Did you do the SSEG reg? Also, how do you submit your readings? On an app?
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No i've not done the SSEG reg. I did attempt to research it for a second, saw there was not really enough public info about it, and figured it will be a headache to do. Considering rather buying a crypto miner and putting my excess power to mining crypto during the day.
There is a e-services website you can create a profile and submit readings on or you can email them with your readings and a photo of your meter.
 
Nice install, well done.
Link to the other thread regarding your solar performance?
 
RonSwanson said:
Nice install, well done.
Link to the other thread regarding your solar performance?
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Was just an offhand joke/comment in the monthly stats thread.

Performance has been good since the change in weather. At the moment I'm temporarily simulating a shutdown of service just to see how I'd be able to handle an extended break in electricity services. What I've learned is that I really should have gone with an 8Kw battery. I can make it through the night, but there will be issues on cloudy days or days where I might have an unforeseen extra usage in the evening.
 
RanzB said:
Was just an offhand joke/comment in the monthly stats thread.

Performance has been good since the change in weather. At the moment I'm temporarily simulating a shutdown of service just to see how I'd be able to handle an extended break in electricity services. What I've learned is that I really should have gone with an 8Kw battery. I can make it through the night, but there will be issues on cloudy days or days where I might have an unforeseen extra usage in the evening.
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Cool. You might want to keep an eye on the Powerforumstore Magneto Battery giveaway, its a 7.6kWh 1C beastie, will match the 5k nicely.
 
RanzB said:
I could pair that with the Sunsynk? Thanks bud
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Match made in heaven.
Get another in parallel and you will have over 15kWh, enough to see most households through the night. Another 2kWp worth of panels, and it's literally bye bye Eskom. :cool:
 
1707996544265.png

It's been a month since the installation. Breaking down the import shows an interesting difference between optimising the house for solar and also knowing how to change settings on the fly as needed. Of that 83kWh that I imported of the month, 60 is from the first two weeks, while 20 is from the last 2.

1707996709002.png

1707996734936.png

Another battery would get me off importing completely I think (except for the trickle charge), but that will probably have to wait.
 
Day 3 of no power in my area due to a fault. System has been chugging nicely so far, but I've been using minimal power once the sun starts going down, and been scraping the minimum by the time the PV kicks in.

Another battery would have been perfect. Also annoying that I can't use the non-essentials even with excess PV.
 
RanzB said:
Day 3 of no power in my area due to a fault. System has been chugging nicely so far, but I've been using minimal power once the sun starts going down, and been scraping the minimum by the time the PV kicks in.

Another battery would have been perfect. Also annoying that I can't use the non-essentials even with excess PV.
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Same, especially need to have the geyser shifted over to essential side.
It's only a 2kw element so the 4,5kw array can handle it, as long as the dishwasher or iron arent on at the same time.
 
RanzB said:
Day 3 of no power in my area due to a fault. System has been chugging nicely so far, but I've been using minimal power once the sun starts going down, and been scraping the minimum by the time the PV kicks in.

Another battery would have been perfect. Also annoying that I can't use the non-essentials even with excess PV.
Click to expand...

This was the main reason we went with a 8KWH and no non-essential/essentials split. Our area gets loadshedding at times were we are cooking at night or during peak generation, so essentially we can't cook if eskom is off and the geyser/pool pump sit idle during peak time, and then have to heat up/run only when eskom comes back

The only thing I need now is an extra battery to get to 15KW and then I think we'll be 90% offgrid, barring two or more days of rain.
 
Pansyfaust said:
This was the main reason we went with a 8KWH and no non-essential/essentials split. Our area gets loadshedding at times were we are cooking at night or during peak generation, so essentially we can't cook if eskom is off and the geyser/pool pump sit idle during peak time, and then have to heat up/run only when eskom comes back

The only thing I need now is an extra battery to get to 15KW and then I think we'll be 90% offgrid, barring two or more days of rain.
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I don't have big energy requirements and the 5Kva serves me well. I just didn't think about this situation. I may as well get a sparky in to add it to the essentials as the reason for me getting the backup was for prolonged outages.
 
RanzB said:
Also annoying that I can't use the non-essentials even with excess PV.
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So this passed weekend I got the installers to come out and make two changes.

Due to shading from quite early, one string was basically useless from 2pm during winter.

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This is just after 3pm recently. They were able to move one of the panels to the opposite edge, hopefully this elongates my productivity toward the afternoon.

1727778753672.png

They also moved my geyser onto the essential side. Happy that my geyser will be able to be heated by solar when there's grid outages.
 
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