Snyper's Solar Farm

zolly said:
Despite the fact that my brother earns almost 3x as much as I do, he doesn't see being independent of a slowly collapsing govt as a priority so getting him to invest in solar is a constantly uphill battle (he owns the house and I rent).
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Chain your inverter to your desk so the next time you're away and the lights go out, he can't have the best of both worlds.
 
zolly said:
Despite the fact that my brother earns almost 3x as much as I do, he doesn't see being independent of a slowly collapsing govt as a priority so getting him to invest in solar is a constantly uphill battle (he owns the house and I rent).
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That's sad, but alternate energy doesn't only have to be solar centric. Decomposition of matter creates energy, think small-scale sewerage compost farm, and burning the resultant methane gas to heat water... the possibilities are very interesting.;)
If you come up with a rational (and believable) plan, I am sure that he may be convinced that solar is not so bad after all, actually a little cleaner?:sneaky:
If all else (on the generation side) fails, then there's always storage, and conversion afterwards to electricity.
 
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Little Mac said:
Do you have a suspended floor? Stick an ASIC under the floor and use some sound proof ducting with a electromechanical valve linked to arduino and a temperature sensor to direct the output from the fan to a grate in the floor for sponsored winter warming. I'm convinced it's the way of the future lol.
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No unfortunately not
 
Ok yesterday would be one of our most power intensive days combination of our domestic using power as she wants and also dinner at home. System performed beautifully used not 100w and had to spare this morning before sun kicked in. Also ran the dishwasher as the PV production was starting no point to wait.

This was yesterday no issue at all.

1636005292102.png Stats since Sunday

1kw is due to roast chicken (but battery SOC has since been lowered so this wont happen in the future) the rest is the trickle charge

1636005402284.png
 
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Awesome installation and looks extra-pro! It's funny how mentioning the cost of a proper solar system to people can get them squirming in their boots and yet, those same people have no issues forking out >R7k per month on a new car :D

Do you have any IoT devices connected throughout the property to help keep the power usage rather flat? IE: if kettle is boiling, microwave is off etc etc
 
Mista_Mobsta said:
Awesome installation and looks extra-pro! It's funny how mentioning the cost of a proper solar system to people can get them squirming in their boots and yet, those same people have no issues forking out >R7k per month on a new car :D

Do you have any IoT devices connected throughout the property to help keep the power usage rather flat? IE: if kettle is boiling, microwave is off etc etc
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As income etc has increased we didnt push up our expenses to match it, still driving my 10 year old corsa lite - we have a very different view of money than most, it buys convenience (time) not things. considered buying a new car but havent even filled mine twice in the last year - just keep up with maintenance. Honestly cant justify it at this point anyway.

Only IOT device is the bneta plug point monitoring my mining rig will consider adding more or sonoff etc.

As I mentioned I went with the 8kw so I dont need to tell my wife switch this one not that etc so it was to "fool proof" the system
 
Congrats on the setup looks awesome. Where are you based and secondly what were you spending a month on electricity?

Ive been looking at a similar sized system for a while now.
 
jezzad said:
Congrats on the setup looks awesome. Where are you based and secondly what were you spending a month on electricity?

Ive been looking at a similar sized system for a while now.
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Used to spend between 2.5-3k a month when geysers were not on evac as well
 
Hi @Snyper564. Nice setup you chose. I am looking at a very similar setup for hopefully next year. One quick question, I was looking at this guide to size the system components, https://solaradvice.co.za/how-to-size-a-pv-array. So the 8kW Sunsynk can handle 8800W input power, and with the 535W panels that is a max of 16 panels. You have installed 12, but also mention that you could add another 14/16 panels in future. Is that just to get more production in winter when the panels won't produce at their max power? What happens in summer then, does the excess power just get lost? The Sunsynk can handle say 12kW as input but will only use 8,8kW?
 
furpile said:
Hi @Snyper564. Nice setup you chose. I am looking at a very similar setup for hopefully next year. One quick question, I was looking at this guide to size the system components, https://solaradvice.co.za/how-to-size-a-pv-array. So the 8kW Sunsynk can handle 8800W input power, and with the 535W panels that is a max of 16 panels. You have installed 12, but also mention that you could add another 14/16 panels in future. Is that just to get more production in winter when the panels won't produce at their max power? What happens in summer then, does the excess power just get lost? The Sunsynk can handle say 12kW as input but will only use 8,8kW?
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Thanks :)

So you are correct I can add another 4 or so to this system. I should have been more specific I can add another inverter then to utilise the other roof space at the moment totally unnecessary but a possibility if I need it.

you can add more panels to the max voltage I think 6-8 would be max then but system would only draw up to 8.8 so the rest is underutilized till winter or overcast days (i think :) )
 
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Snyper564 said:
Even after the intensive use batteries just finished charging

View attachment 1181268
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Congrats on your install. I had a 8KW Sunsynk with 1x Hubble AM2 installed in May and got 9x540w panels added last week. Very happy.

Next time you post this graph, do you mind adding the SOC line too? If you click Parameter next to the date, there is a tick box for SOC.

Here's mine for today. Eskom was off from 22:00 last night and only came back on around 10:15. Ran out of battery at 2:15 (battery was at 50% when power went off) and power turned back on at 7:15 after the sun started doing its thing.

Graph.JPG
 
PhreakBoy said:
Congrats on your install. I had a 8KW Sunsynk with 1x Hubble AM2 installed in May and got 9x540w panels added last week. Very happy.

Next time you post this graph, do you mind adding the SOC line too? If you click Parameter next to the date, there is a tick box for SOC.

Here's mine for today. Eskom was off from 22:00 last night and only came back on around 10:15. Ran out of battery at 2:15 (battery was at 50% when power went off) and power turned back on at 7:15 after the sun started doing its thing.

View attachment 1181294
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Thanks!

As requested

1636022137333.png

1636022161485.png
 
New goal reduce base load - swapped out some of the outdoor lights for 10/20w led lights the more I can reduce that base load the more battery we have left!
 
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This is what our look like now, set DOD to 25%.
5.4kw panels, 3 x 5.5 kw Hubble Lithiums.
1636094075381.png
 
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