Solar Power Thread

Since I purchased, Prof Michel Malengret (emeritus, UCT), founder/owner of MLT, has apparently taken on new investors and partners, and they've divisionalised, apparently.

I did this mainly to reduce dependence on the unreliable state-owned bulk generator.
 
By the way, my one and only regret is that I didn't install more pv panels.

In winter I'm still a nett consumer pulling around 500-600 kWh a month from the grid despite exporting on sunny days.

12kW of pv should be more than adequate for my household and geography (Little Karoo), but it's not.

The main reason is tall trees cutting direct sunlight.

I seem to recall explaining this in more detail some years ago in this same thread.
 
IzZzy said:
Hi all

Does anyone know of any reputable solar PV installers in JHB that could quote on a solar backup or solar as a mains source (with feedback into the grid)?

Many thanks!
Click to expand...
www.solareff.co.za

Ask for Diff or Jaco.

They have down 2 off-grid solutions for houses of mine.

Genius, straight talkers, doers and no frills company.
 
Thanks all for the referrals! I'll update once I've walked down this path a bit more!
 
Does anyone have a feel for installation costs for the below setup. Without the costs of equipment not wires etc

* 16 panels , 8 panels each split between 2 roof structures on either side of the house , approx 10m apart , onto a steel kliplock roof , pitch 2 degrees so almost flat
* cabling from panels to garage where system is situated approx 17m ( length of cable )
* install one inverter with the accompanying batteries (4x) as well as relevant switches , fuses etc ( again all hardware supplied )

Thanks
 
I've received a few quotes and am considering the below system:

12 solar panels on the roof, connected to a 7Kw Lithion Ion battery and an inverter which accepts 2 AC inputs
A single phase diesel generator connected to the inverter.

My main aim is extended power availability during outages, but with a ROI ability. My only concern is a bit of overkill with the battery. I get that it definitely ups my ROI by being able to run battery power at night, every night. The gennie is there for periods of extended outages (I just had 36 hours of no electricity) and with additional solar power during the day, the demand on the gennie should be much less.

In short, I'm trying to weigh up whether a battery backup at this stage is warranted - it gives an additional ROI (by decreasing costs at night) but it's very expensive and doesn't really help on extended outages because it'll be depleted if I run aircons etc. My initial plan was to do away with the battery and use the gennie as a backup solution (but then I don't get free power at night).

Any thoughts?
 
IzZzy said:
I've received a few quotes and am considering the below system:

12 solar panels on the roof, connected to a 7Kw Lithion Ion battery and an inverter which accepts 2 AC inputs
A single phase diesel generator connected to the inverter.

My main aim is extended power availability during outages, but with a ROI ability. My only concern is a bit of overkill with the battery. I get that it definitely ups my ROI by being able to run battery power at night, every night. The gennie is there for periods of extended outages (I just had 36 hours of no electricity) and with additional solar power during the day, the demand on the gennie should be much less.

In short, I'm trying to weigh up whether a battery backup at this stage is warranted - it gives an additional ROI (by decreasing costs at night) but it's very expensive and doesn't really help on extended outages because it'll be depleted if I run aircons etc. My initial plan was to do away with the battery and use the gennie as a backup solution (but then I don't get free power at night).

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Which inverter, panels and battery pack have they quoted on?

The Pylontech 7.2Kwh battery pack only has 6000Wh usable energy, which translates to about 315W per hour, over a 19 hour period. Being winter you could easily look at only having about 5 hours usable solar energy. In sumer it could go upto 6 hours.

If you take the cheaper Axper / Mecer 4Kw or 5Kw inverters, just know that they don't read most battery's SOC (State Of Charge) properly and it's advisable to use a battery monitoring system along with a inverter / solar monitoring system.
 
gimpex said:
Does anyone have a feel for installation costs for the below setup. Without the costs of equipment not wires etc

* 16 panels , 8 panels each split between 2 roof structures on either side of the house , approx 10m apart , onto a steel kliplock roof , pitch 2 degrees so almost flat
* cabling from panels to garage where system is situated approx 17m ( length of cable )
* install one inverter with the accompanying batteries (4x) as well as relevant switches , fuses etc ( again all hardware supplied )

Thanks
Click to expand...

Anything from R5k to R15K, depending on roof type + height + extras needed. Cheaper installations generally lead to problems.
 
IzZzy said:
Agreed that is included
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The Freedom Battery includes its own BMS, so for the Victron side, its likely setup to be as dumb as possible. i.e. Feed till told otherwise.
Even so, given the state of the Victron firmware, I'd want a undervoltage and overvoltage relay at the BMS side.

I wouldn't go with the Victron to be honest, while they are decent, they are quite buggy.
I have 3 Multiplus, less than happy with them overall, have hit bug after bug, that doesn't really get fixed in the newer versions.

I have (had) a very specific setup use case for them, and in hindsight would have been better to go with other options.
Mine are used as basic inverters these days, as they sucked at doing what I wanted.
 
lsheed_cn said:
The Freedom Battery includes its own BMS, so for the Victron side, its likely setup to be as dumb as possible. i.e. Feed till told otherwise.
Even so, given the state of the Victron firmware, I'd want a undervoltage and overvoltage relay at the BMS side.

I wouldn't go with the Victron to be honest, while they are decent, they are quite buggy.
I have 3 Multiplus, less than happy with them overall, have hit bug after bug, that doesn't really get fixed in the newer versions.

I have (had) a very specific setup use case for them, and in hindsight would have been better to go with other options.
Mine are used as basic inverters these days, as they sucked at doing what I wanted.
Click to expand...

No inverter is perfect. And while the Victrons are buggy, they at least charge / discharge better than, say, the Axpert inverters which are half - third of the price. With the Axpert inverters you would definitely need a good monitoring and management system to get the best out of the batteries.
 
So Eskom says we're back in the ****. I'm looking for a good quality inverter that can carry around 2.5kW load, AC input from mains and has the option of hooking up solar.

Suggestions on what to look out for?
 
Messugga said:
So Eskom says we're back in the ****. I'm looking for a good quality inverter that can carry around 2.5kW load, AC input from mains and has the option of hooking up solar.

Suggestions on what to look out for?
Click to expand...
2.5kw, thats a decent kettle.
 
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