Solar system - what lifestyle changes have you made

[Steijn1]

My lifestyle changes..............
Well, since Solar, my lifestyle became different from before, waiting through power cuts:

• Started off with a Mecer pure sinewave inverter and deep cycle batteries in Jan 2021
• Mecer’s alarms cannot be switched off, so getting tired of getting up and make it shut up every time Eskom pulls their stunts, I bought a Growatt inverter in March ’21.
• May ’21 added solar panels, and all was well
• July ’21 decided to upgrade to a Li battery and got a Hubble
• Sept’21, the Hubble could no longer hold a charge overnight. My installer was overseas, and I contacted Hubble, but they refuse to assist an end user, rendering their warranty useless if the installer is no longer around
• Oct’21. Got hold of installer and after threats, get him to exchange the Hubble for a Pylontech
• Nov ‘21 to Feb ’22 -try to get the Growatt to communicate with the Pylontech with constant communication between Growatt supplier, my installer and others to get it to work properly and changing settings as they say, yet never actually doing what it should. Even had special communication cables made up.
• Feb’22, one day the Growatt simply switched off and would not work at all. Sent to my supplier, who sent me a message from the importer saying motherboard is broken and will cosy me R5000 to repair, as it is “clearly user abuse.”(!!!!!!!!!!) I call them out and give them 24 hours to honour the warranty or come explain in court how I, the user, had abused and broken the unit. Next day, I get a message that the unit works 100%, they just want to keep it for 3 more days for testing.
• I get fed-up with companies who try to avoid their warranty obligations and buy a Kodak inverter. Due to some circumstances, it gets installed last week only.
• No matter how the installer sets it up, it remains in battery mode and refuses to feed from the PV or utility nor even charge the battery.
• Installer is due back………..

That is where we’re at. Surely most systems seem to work as intended. I must be cursed! (LoL) Yet, lifestyle changes, for sure!

Eish. Good luck with that

 

[rh1]

My lifestyle changes..............
Well, since Solar, my lifestyle became different from before, waiting through power cuts:

• Started off with a Mecer pure sinewave inverter and deep cycle batteries in Jan 2021
• Mecer’s alarms cannot be switched off, so getting tired of getting up and make it shut up every time Eskom pulls their stunts, I bought a Growatt inverter in March ’21.
• May ’21 added solar panels, and all was well
• July ’21 decided to upgrade to a Li battery and got a Hubble
• Sept’21, the Hubble could no longer hold a charge overnight. My installer was overseas, and I contacted Hubble, but they refuse to assist an end user, rendering their warranty useless if the installer is no longer around
• Oct’21. Got hold of installer and after threats, get him to exchange the Hubble for a Pylontech
• Nov ‘21 to Feb ’22 -try to get the Growatt to communicate with the Pylontech with constant communication between Growatt supplier, my installer and others to get it to work properly and changing settings as they say, yet never actually doing what it should. Even had special communication cables made up.
• Feb’22, one day the Growatt simply switched off and would not work at all. Sent to my supplier, who sent me a message from the importer saying motherboard is broken and will cosy me R5000 to repair, as it is “clearly user abuse.”(!!!!!!!!!!) I call them out and give them 24 hours to honour the warranty or come explain in court how I, the user, had abused and broken the unit. Next day, I get a message that the unit works 100%, they just want to keep it for 3 more days for testing.
• I get fed-up with companies who try to avoid their warranty obligations and buy a Kodak inverter. Due to some circumstances, it gets installed last week only.
• No matter how the installer sets it up, it remains in battery mode and refuses to feed from the PV or utility nor even charge the battery.
• Installer is due back………..

That is where we’re at. Surely most systems seem to work as intended. I must be cursed! (LoL) Yet, lifestyle changes, for sure!

Hopefully, you come right.

 

[wetkit]

With my first off-grid solar system and lead acid batteries, I had to make many changes to schedule stuff to only run during the day.
Now with a Hybrid inverter and Lithium bank, no need to care about timing.
Only real problem is the oven as that can suck a battery dry very quickly.

 

[Saba'a]

0.5C is the discharge rate, has nothing to do with capacity.

It just means that your battery will only be able to deliver half the power at any point in time. You still have the full capacity available...

I sometimes use up to 11kw most likely oven and have 3 x 3kw geysers.

So 0.5c is a limiting factor

 

[Saba'a]

My lifestyle changes..............
Well, since Solar, my lifestyle became different from before, waiting through power cuts:

• Started off with a Mecer pure sinewave inverter and deep cycle batteries in Jan 2021
• Mecer’s alarms cannot be switched off, so getting tired of getting up and make it shut up every time Eskom pulls their stunts, I bought a Growatt inverter in March ’21.
• May ’21 added solar panels, and all was well
• July ’21 decided to upgrade to a Li battery and got a Hubble
• Sept’21, the Hubble could no longer hold a charge overnight. My installer was overseas, and I contacted Hubble, but they refuse to assist an end user, rendering their warranty useless if the installer is no longer around
• Oct’21. Got hold of installer and after threats, get him to exchange the Hubble for a Pylontech
• Nov ‘21 to Feb ’22 -try to get the Growatt to communicate with the Pylontech with constant communication between Growatt supplier, my installer and others to get it to work properly and changing settings as they say, yet never actually doing what it should. Even had special communication cables made up.
• Feb’22, one day the Growatt simply switched off and would not work at all. Sent to my supplier, who sent me a message from the importer saying motherboard is broken and will cosy me R5000 to repair, as it is “clearly user abuse.”(!!!!!!!!!!) I call them out and give them 24 hours to honour the warranty or come explain in court how I, the user, had abused and broken the unit. Next day, I get a message that the unit works 100%, they just want to keep it for 3 more days for testing.
• I get fed-up with companies who try to avoid their warranty obligations and buy a Kodak inverter. Due to some circumstances, it gets installed last week only.
• No matter how the installer sets it up, it remains in battery mode and refuses to feed from the PV or utility nor even charge the battery.
• Installer is due back………..

That is where we’re at. Surely most systems seem to work as intended. I must be cursed! (LoL) Yet, lifestyle changes, for sure!

Sunsynk plus pylontech proven tech combo. If possible get Sunsynk as soon as possible? Although Kodaks supposed to be ok.

 

[AchmatK]

Sunsynk plus pylontech proven tech combo. If possible get Sunsynk as soon as possible? Although Kodaks supposed to be ok.

Yes.

Sunsynk combined with pylontech is a very good combination.

They've been serving me well for 20 months now with the only issue being software related and saved me already over R60k.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

I sometimes use up to 11kw most likely oven and have 3 x 3kw geysers.

So 0.5c is a limiting factor

You're not running your geysers off the battery yet so it's not an issue.

Even when you do move it to essentials, just replace the element with 2kW ones so they draw at most 6kW at the worst case if they're all running together. Your battery capacity then should be 12kWh...

 

[Tinuva]

I replaced my geyser elements with 2kW. Works 100%. In fact, also replaced the thermostat. I think the one must have been broken cause it used to run for 2.5hours on a 4kW element. Now the same geyser take 1hour 20minutes on a 2kW element. Heat feels relatively the same in the shower so who knows. I did this even though they are on non-essentials and perfectly scheduled. Most days they run 100% from sun even on my 4.6kW inverter with only 3.9kW panels.

 

[RonSwanson]

My monthly electricity consumption went up from 300-330kWh to 400-450kWh.
I no longer use eco-mode on the dishwasher or washing machine.
I no longer have to watch ESP like a hawk.
I offer free cellphone and battery charging during the day to the people in my HOA.
I keep finding myself thinking about creative ways to use my excess electricity on good solar days (about 33kWh), without impacting my production on cloudy days.

 

[Steijn1]

My monthly electricity consumption went up from 300-330kWh to 400-450kWh.
I no longer use eco-mode on the dishwasher or washing machine.
I no longer have to watch ESP like a hawk.
I offer free cellphone and battery charging during the day to the people in my HOA.
I keep finding myself thinking about creative ways to use my excess electricity on good solar days (about 33kWh), without impacting my production on cloudy days.

Awesome.

 

[ADrunkTeddyBear]

Changed out all AC's to the new samsung windfree models
Changed tumble dryer to a samsung heat pump
Changed fridges to the new A++ models

 

[Snyper564]

Changed out all AC's to the new samsung windfree models
Changed tumble dryer to a samsung heat pump
Changed fridges to the new A++ models

its scary how little the new fridges use - our siemens uses about 30 watts an hour

 

[ADrunkTeddyBear]

its scary how little the new fridges use - our siemens uses about 30 watts an hour

This new fridge is so energy efficient!

I had an old samsung (20+ years old) and it used to chug 200-300w per hour!

 

[Lupus]

This new fridge is so energy efficient!

I had an old samsung (20+ years old) and it used to chug 200-300w per hour!

Yeah we had an old freezer that did the same. Replaced it with a more modern fridge and usage went down.

 

[DuracellBunny]

My lifestyle changes..............
Well, since Solar, my lifestyle became different from before, waiting through power cuts:

• Started off with a Mecer pure sinewave inverter and deep cycle batteries in Jan 2021
• Mecer’s alarms cannot be switched off, so getting tired of getting up and make it shut up every time Eskom pulls their stunts, I bought a Growatt inverter in March ’21.
• May ’21 added solar panels, and all was well
• July ’21 decided to upgrade to a Li battery and got a Hubble
• Sept’21, the Hubble could no longer hold a charge overnight. My installer was overseas, and I contacted Hubble, but they refuse to assist an end user, rendering their warranty useless if the installer is no longer around
• Oct’21. Got hold of installer and after threats, get him to exchange the Hubble for a Pylontech
• Nov ‘21 to Feb ’22 -try to get the Growatt to communicate with the Pylontech with constant communication between Growatt supplier, my installer and others to get it to work properly and changing settings as they say, yet never actually doing what it should. Even had special communication cables made up.
• Feb’22, one day the Growatt simply switched off and would not work at all. Sent to my supplier, who sent me a message from the importer saying motherboard is broken and will cosy me R5000 to repair, as it is “clearly user abuse.”(!!!!!!!!!!) I call them out and give them 24 hours to honour the warranty or come explain in court how I, the user, had abused and broken the unit. Next day, I get a message that the unit works 100%, they just want to keep it for 3 more days for testing.
• I get fed-up with companies who try to avoid their warranty obligations and buy a Kodak inverter. Due to some circumstances, it gets installed last week only.
• No matter how the installer sets it up, it remains in battery mode and refuses to feed from the PV or utility nor even charge the battery.
• Installer is due back………..

That is where we’re at. Surely most systems seem to work as intended. I must be cursed! (LoL) Yet, lifestyle changes, for sure!

Where you based? Perhaps I can see if there is a friend or so with my installer list that i can help you out there, or if you like you can drop me a pm and I can run through some settings with you.

 

[Pax]

Where you based? Perhaps I can see if there is a friend or so with my installer list that i can help you out there, or if you like you can drop me a pm and I can run through some settings with you.

I`m in Langebaan, thanks. The installer`s top guy is out of country till coming weekend . We agreed to shut it down till he can personally attend on 4 April. His techies could not get it right. If more monsters rear their heads, I`ll pm you for help.

 

[DuracellBunny]

I`m in Langebaan, thanks. The installer`s top guy is out of country till coming weekend . We agreed to shut it down till he can personally attend on 4 April. His techies could not get it right. If more monsters rear their heads, I`ll pm you for help.

Sweet, Hopefully you wont need to pm be but all the best.

 

[The Darkness]

My lifestyle changes..............
Well, since Solar, my lifestyle became different from before, waiting through power cuts:

• Started off with a Mecer pure sinewave inverter and deep cycle batteries in Jan 2021
• Mecer’s alarms cannot be switched off, so getting tired of getting up and make it shut up every time Eskom pulls their stunts, I bought a Growatt inverter in March ’21.
• May ’21 added solar panels, and all was well
• July ’21 decided to upgrade to a Li battery and got a Hubble
• Sept’21, the Hubble could no longer hold a charge overnight. My installer was overseas, and I contacted Hubble, but they refuse to assist an end user, rendering their warranty useless if the installer is no longer around
• Oct’21. Got hold of installer and after threats, get him to exchange the Hubble for a Pylontech
• Nov ‘21 to Feb ’22 -try to get the Growatt to communicate with the Pylontech with constant communication between Growatt supplier, my installer and others to get it to work properly and changing settings as they say, yet never actually doing what it should. Even had special communication cables made up.
• Feb’22, one day the Growatt simply switched off and would not work at all. Sent to my supplier, who sent me a message from the importer saying motherboard is broken and will cosy me R5000 to repair, as it is “clearly user abuse.”(!!!!!!!!!!) I call them out and give them 24 hours to honour the warranty or come explain in court how I, the user, had abused and broken the unit. Next day, I get a message that the unit works 100%, they just want to keep it for 3 more days for testing.
• I get fed-up with companies who try to avoid their warranty obligations and buy a Kodak inverter. Due to some circumstances, it gets installed last week only.
• No matter how the installer sets it up, it remains in battery mode and refuses to feed from the PV or utility nor even charge the battery.
• Installer is due back………..

That is where we’re at. Surely most systems seem to work as intended. I must be cursed! (LoL) Yet, lifestyle changes, for sure!

Sounds like you need a Victron inverter.

 

[RonSwanson]

Sounds like you need a Sunsynk inverter.

FTFY

 

[Not_original]

This new fridge is so energy efficient!

I had an old samsung (20+ years old) and it used to chug 200-300w per hour!

So very true. My MIL moved into a flat on property. Granted the flat is smaller than the house, the appliance count is the same and so is her day to day doings. She wanted to bring her old AF fridge and freezer, I noped out and she bought a combo fridge freezer. Her other daughter took both units. Doing what she always did her usage dropped from Rand value R1k (never personally laid eyes on her meter) to merely about 70 kwh on a bad month.

The other daughter's usage shot up.... I wonder why...