Solar power one week in - how much money we saved

I’m interested in this statement @Jan.

Nevertheless, we opted to keep it at 0.5C just to be on the safe side.

How did you accomplish this since these batteries manage themselves internally via BMS and the Inverter has no control over it.

Unless you forced it into AGM mode?
 
So if there is no a single cloudy day, you would pay back the system in 10 years.
Wonder what interest you could have gotten on the 70k+ over 10 years.
 
So if there is no a single cloudy day, you would pay back the system in 10 years.
Wonder what interest you could have gotten on the 70k+ over 10 years.

Precisely and they probably did not mention what is paid in insurance fees.
This is nothing more than another Tax and I hate paying another tax when the money could have been invested into something better.
 
I’m interested in this statement @Jan.



How did you accomplish this since these batteries manage themselves internally via BMS and the Inverter has no control over it.

Unless you forced it into AGM mode?
So I am very much still a power noob, to be honest, but the Max Discharge and Max Charge Amps for our batteries are set to 50A in the Deye inverter's settings.

The Dyness battery has a 100Ah capacity, so I believe this keeps its charging and discharging rate at 0.5C.

Since changing, the maximum draw from the battery has been between 2.5-2.6kW, roughly half the 5.12kWh capacity.

Before that, the battery had in certain cases discharged at over 3kW.

I think it would be impossible to go over the 1C rating but limiting it with the Amps setting seems to be working.
 
So I am very much still a power noob, to be honest, but the Max Discharge and Max Charge Amps for our batteries are set to 50A in the Deye inverter's settings.

The Dyness battery has a 100Ah capacity, so I believe this keeps its charging and discharging rate at 0.5C.

Since changing, the maximum draw from the battery has been between 2.5-2.6kW, roughly half the 5.12kWh capacity.

Before that, the battery had in certain cases discharged at over 3kW.

I think it would be impossible to go over the 1C rating but limiting it with the Amps setting seems to be working.

My point is those settings on the inverter doesn’t actually do anything since the battery manages itself. At least with the Sunsynk, but I expect Deye to be identical.

You can see this by opening the LiBMS screen and monitoring how it changes it constantly as it sees fit, for the very reason that it will protect itself and now allow you to go over capacity.

The giveaway is usually after load shedding when it charges from grid and goes flat taps.

Basically it’s how they maintain that warranty.

However if you set it up as AGM and don’t use the BMS and instead control it with voltages then you can override this but I do believe you’ll have some warranty fights on your hands.

But who knows maybe if you set it to a minimum it will limit it. Mine is set to 185 Amps and I believe this value is multiplied because of 4 batteries but if you sit and watch the LiBMS screen it changes the values constantly as it sees fit.
 
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My point is those settings on the inverter doesn’t actually do anything since the battery manages itself. At least with the Sunsynk, but I expect Deye to be identical.

You can see this by opening the LiBMS screen and monitoring how it changes it constantly as it sees fit, for the very reason that it will protect itself and now allow you to go over capacity.

The giveaway is usually after load shedding when it charges from grid and goes flat taps.

Basically it’s how they maintain that warranty.

However if you set it up as AGM and don’t use the BMS and instead control it with voltages then you can override this but I do believe you’ll have some warranty fights on your hands.

But who knows maybe if you set it to a minimum it will limit it. Mine is set to 185 Amps and I believe this value is multiplied because of 4 batteries but if you sit and watch the LiBMS screen it changes the values constantly as it sees fit.
The Sunsynk and Deye inverters still respect the max current draw that you set (for the batteries and for the grid). They will use the lesser of the max specified and what the BMS allows.
 
The Sunsynk and Deye inverters still respect the max current draw that you set (for the batteries and for the grid). They will use the lesser of the max specified and what the BMS allows.

Aah so it’s more of a limiter setting within which the BMS operates, not a static value it adheres to.

Got it.

But my understanding is correct that the setting is shared over X amount of batteries right? Because I remember it was an issue that I couldn’t get the full discharge current when I added a fourth battery as it won’t go over 185A, but makes sense thinking about it now as that would be more than the inverter can invert.

I’m very much of a mind use these things to the max and get what you paid for out of them. I don’t want to struggle with overloads during Load Shedding because I restricted it to a low discharge.
 
How much money we saved with a week of solar power

We saved over R150 in electricity expenditure within one week of using our entry-level solar system in Pretoria.

And if you're on Eskom that will be magically bumped up to R170/week this week (higher tariffs).

Does feel a little low though. 3kW panels x say 5 effective hours you may have been able to get you just over 100kWh in a week. Judging by the time of day you were charging, you may want to explore slightly more aggressive use of the batteries.. I. E. Using them up more and charging all day, but of course there is a balance between that and load shedding protection. They almost need a good ESP tie in to shift from load shedding safety to use most solar settings...
 
How much money we saved with a week of solar power

We saved over R150 in electricity expenditure within one week of using our entry-level solar system in Pretoria.

Our 3.3kWp JA solar panel array, 5kW Deye hybrid inverter, and 5.12kWh Dyness battery were installed at our home on Monday, 25 March 2024.
So roughly R600 a month. I bought about 310 units last month and I have a solar geyser, so could be quite a saving
 
Ps. Sorry just saw Tshwane. So really you should use the block 2 price as that is where you are saving?

Any idea what the budget increase is in July yet?
 
am curious to when the greedy government will go nuts and start demanding people pay for this Solar and inverters and backup power solutions
due to their own incompetence.

I mean its not a Cheap solution, but if it solves an issue, thats been created by them, Id expect them to leave people alone.
 
Maybe I should go dig up the old solar threads where I said its just convenience and you not going to save money, and you and other claimed otherwise?
Some people will save money and some will not. I'm one of the ones who have already saved lots of money.

Reducing dependence on government services has undoubtedly enhanced my quality of life.
 
@Hanno Labuschagne. I’m curious about your geyser timer. Could you share the details if possible?
I switch our geyser via Wi Fi. 2 hours per day is usually enough for a family of three. I had a timer fitted before the Wi Fi switch, and I found it difficult to set the timer.
 
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