Solar Journey House

Why Solar was selected for this project.
System to run during night and day. Battery capacity should be sufficient.
Load shedding for and fore most. Depending who cuts power first Eskom or Council. (infra structure from council side.) The other day we had 7 day outage in Springs town. We were 3 days off in this stint.

All 12 panels will phase west. May the early noon sun and after noon thrive on those solar panels. Assume the batteries will all be recharged before night sets in. I will monitor the setup for next couple of weeks.

It also seems one tree needs some trimming but late afternoon. Shadow comes into play here. Will monitor this as summer progresses.

The property does have a 3-Phase supply. (One phase Flat with 5kW inverter, the other two phases supply home.
My aim is to split up current DB in house.
1) One phase to supply Stove and Geyser. ( Stove not used cooking done in flat and Geyser switched off) Using gas for hot water supply to shower or bath.
2) Other phase with inverter to supply the rest of the house.
a) Plugs ( Routers and Cameras)
b) Lights (Mostly all energy lightning)
c) Heater in bath room (not used)
d) Gate motor
e) Outbuilding Garage, Garage door and Electric fence. Plugs and lights. Front light at gate.

Not at all power hungry equipment installed that needs to power house.
Thinking after this install some saving should come to our side. This will save some Mulla.
Also looking at electricity prices are booming the next couple of years. Should be great savings here.

Also to take note when Garden service arrives Wednesday with there electric lawnmower. See how system will cope.

I checked usage should be same as flat.

Will update as time go on.
Update 07/08/22
After the installer left my place.
Punch list for not being completed.
1) Electric contractor did not listen to me what I wanted. Stove and geyser on one phase other phase all others.
Now I have garage electric fence and garage door motor on Eskom, not what i wanted. Load Shedding.
2) Coms cable between inverter and Pylontech batteries. I had one made up for now. To see what currently the state of the batteries bms.
3) Earth spike not completed and wired.
4) Wrong size fuse 100A instead of 160A.
5) MPPT SPD 1000V vs 500V
6) Applying app to cell phone.
6) COC copy of certified person (white) and copy of COC yellow. Need this for insurance purpose.
I will keep the 30% retainer till above outstanding issues are resolved
You cant keep throwing money away. Agree or disagree.
 
Last edited:
Some pics ask questions later.
If you have seen one install you have seen them all.

As you can see House DB did not have more space in Conduit. Interface cable between House DB and Inverter install.
DB needed to be extended, to make space
House DB.jpg
My UP5000
UP5000 Bat Install.jpg
Install 1 8kW Sunsynk inverter. You can see my coms cable to batteries. Blue ethernet cable. The other one is already in place need to be terminated.
Install PIC 2.jpg
Install 2 8kW Sunsynk inverter with Solar DB and Switch over DB.
Install PIC 1.jpg
Solar Panels mounted. Canadian 545W solar panels.
Solar Panels.jpg
 
Last edited:
HowTo said:
They are busy. Put up most panels today. By Sunday I should post some pics.
They said job will be completed by Saturday.
Click to expand...
Busy pics are also good.

Well done on getting stock. It's an interesting install, being one phase of 3, and West facing panels only.
 
Congratulations.
Our suburb was also out because of the substation fire in Springs but we had solar and battery. Used the generator to heat up the geyser and top up the batteries the days that were cloudy.
 
RonSwanson said:
Busy pics are also good.

Well done on getting stock. It's an interesting install, being one phase of 3, and West facing panels only.
Click to expand...
@RonSwanson jip agree single phase.
Remember property does have 3-Phase supply.
Flat using one phase.
House other two phases.
I cant join into a three phase system. Length are to long away. Then MPPT becomes a problem and messy.
See attached pic. Look at Green handle breakers. That is were the two phases come in.
This were the splitting of DB comes in. As I explained under #1
 

Attachments

  • 1659373087240.jpg
    1659373087240.jpg
    317.8 KB · Views: 89
Interested in your setup because I am busy with similar set up. CTC approved 40amp 3 phase elec, one phase going to a flat and the other 2 will feed main house, going to be renovated house. I need to learn from you, especially why you did what you did.
 
RonSwanson said:
Busy pics are also good.

Well done on getting stock. It's an interesting install, being one phase of 3, and West facing panels only.
Click to expand...
As said and by request Mr @RonSwanson two and more pics.
Culprit tree.
Only effects panels close to five 'o'clock. That is why I will monitor the effect. In summer at end of day will be still westerly positioned. To the left side of tree.

Also a picture panels facing West. I just want batteries to be charged. Lets see how this pans out.
You will see top row panels came out to short on right hand side, 6th panel 5cm short.
Bottom row, one panel shows how much is required so that panel six will fit top row.
You can see how much rail they need to cut off. Half a meter or so.
So the five panels on the top row need to move a bit left.

First contractor person that said he needs to get paint to paint roof tiles were they were moved.
I said to him not required got roof paint with first installer.

The first installer I had said it will way better if all panels face West. Production will be much grater. I agree with his statement.
He said early morning sun will suffice better in solar production.

Earth spike position. Position between gutter and Tap.
 

Attachments

  • House PV panels.jpg
    House PV panels.jpg
    348.1 KB · Views: 133
  • Panels position diff. view.jpg
    Panels position diff. view.jpg
    322.4 KB · Views: 120
  • Culprit.jpg
    Culprit.jpg
    321.4 KB · Views: 137
  • Earth spike pos.jpg
    Earth spike pos.jpg
    530.9 KB · Views: 136
Last edited:
RonSwanson said:
Busy pics are also good.

Well done on getting stock. It's an interesting install, being one phase of 3, and West facing panels only.
Click to expand...
As said and by request Mr @RonSwanson two pics.
Culprit tree.
Only effects panels close to five 'o'clock. That is why I will monitor the effect. In summer at end of day will be still westerly positioned. To the left side of tree.

Also a picture panels facing West. I just want batteries to be charged. Lets see how this pans out.
You will see top row panels came out to short on right hand side, 6th panel 5cm short.
Bottom row, one panel shows how much is required so that panel six will fit top row.
You can see how much rail they need to cut off. Half a meter or so.
So the five panels on the top row need to move a bit left.

First contractor person that said he needs to get paint to paint roof tiles were they were moved.
I said to him not required got roof paint with first installer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: W@P
HowTo said:
As said and by request Mr @RonSwanson two and more pics.
Culprit tree.
Only effects panels close to five 'o'clock. That is why I will monitor the effect. In summer at end of day will be still westerly positioned. To the left side of tree.

Also a picture panels facing West. I just want batteries to be charged. Lets see how this pans out.
You will see top row panels came out to short on right hand side, 6th panel 5cm short.
Bottom row, one panel shows how much is required so that panel six will fit top row.
You can see how much rail they need to cut off. Half a meter or so.
So the five panels on the top row need to move a bit left.

First contractor person that said he needs to get paint to paint roof tiles were they were moved.
I said to him not required got roof paint with first installer.

The first installer I had said it will way better if all panels face West. Production will be much grater. I agree with his statement.
He said early morning sun will suffice better in solar production.

Earth spike position. Position between gutter and Tap.
Click to expand...
It's a pity about the tree, it's a nice evergreen one. If you trim it to about 1/3 of its current height, it will shoot out again and still look good, giving some privacy from the neighbor.
 
RonSwanson said:
It's a pity about the tree, it's a nice evergreen one. If you trim it to about 1/3 of its current height, it will shoot out again and still look good, giving some privacy from the neighbor.
Click to expand...
Currently I draw very little power from the house. At 19:00 house was drawing very little power SOC was at 99%
I did a test at 14:00 with a heater 2kW load strings each up there game with 1kW each.
This gave some sort of indication that both strings are working nicely.
At that rate batteries will be quickly replenished to 100% SOC
 
HowTo said:
Currently I draw very little power from the house. At 19:00 house was drawing very little power SOC was at 99%
I did a test at 14:00 with a heater 2kW load strings each up there game with 1kW each.
This gave some sort of indication that both strings are working nicely.
At that rate batteries will be quickly replenished to 100% SOC
Click to expand...
Well if it's ok in winter it will be better in summer because the sun is higher.
The only problem is that it isn't getting shorter, it grows every day. Trimming it today (and every year) is cheap compared to getting an arborist out to remove it in 3 years.
 
RonSwanson said:
Well if it's ok in winter it will be better in summer because the sun is higher.
The only problem is that it isn't getting shorter, it grows every day. Trimming it today (and every year) is cheap compared to getting an arborist out to remove it in 3 years.
Click to expand...
" arborist" nice word for tree trimming. (Spelling I always got a hiding in school) Language was not my strong
suite.
To close to the neighbour boundary.
 
HowTo said:
" arborist" nice word for tree trimming. (Spelling I always got a hiding in school) Language was not my strong
suite.
To close to the neighbour boundary.
Click to expand...
If it's too close to the neighbour to trim, then that's when you need a proper arborist, they've got insurance to cover whatever gets damaged.
 
Updated some under #3 added some pics. Half backed Earth install file to big.

I have done the setup for Batteries and System Mode 1 & 2. only Difference Wattage changes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X