Loadshedding solutions

[TheoG]

33 minutes ago, Schnavel said:

My house was built in the early 1900's and it's almost as though they built it with solar in mind! Roof faces almost due north and the pitch is almost perfect for the latitude required to get optimal solar.

Mine is also facing almost exactly north, single slanted roof to one side, so I have plenty of space for panels.

Roof angle is 17.5 deg, a bit steeper would have been better but I cant complain.  We are 3 units in the complex facing north and the other three are the opposite, facing south.  Would be a big issue for them to go solar .

Blue circled is my house, the 2 geyser panels is shown in blue also, red arrow facing north, so almost perfect for 3 of our complex units.

Edited January 31, 2023 by TheoG

[lechatnoir]

11 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

Due north, in the southern hemisphere, has always been the optimum direction for winter warmth in homes.

My parents property face a few deg NE, when the house was going to be built my dad insisted they angle it exactly north, hence is sits slightly skew on the property. This was more than 50 years ago.

my roof pitch is N/S, so opted for panels west-facing. It does mean i get solar energy until sunset. though that is pretty weak as it sets, it's still something. it means battery is 100% at sunset. 

[lechatnoir]

one more thing, overcast (not heavily) days are good for solar radiation and charging batteries. 

On sunny days, my battery charging picks up from 9ish and ramps up pretty fast (west facing panels), but on cloudy days, that can be as early as 7am. if it stays overcast, it never gets very high as if it was full sun of course.

Spoke to my installer, and we figured out that it was the scattering of UV rays that brings on charging earlier. 

[Hairy]

1 hour ago, lechatnoir said:

one more thing, overcast (not heavily) days are good for solar radiation and charging batteries. 

On sunny days, my battery charging picks up from 9ish and ramps up pretty fast (west facing panels), but on cloudy days, that can be as early as 7am. if it stays overcast, it never gets very high as if it was full sun of course.

Spoke to my installer, and we figured out that it was the scattering of UV rays that brings on charging earlier. 

so we need a bigger hole in the ozone layer for better solar / battery charging performance

[dave303e]

I have a friend, just finished building a R3-4m house in a fancy wildlife eco estate. Solar was an after thought though. His roof pitches are complex with lots of like square domes and then the pitch is shallow by the wall and kicks up steeper to the center. Needless to say he does not have mote than 4 panels on a single roof area. They are split up all over the place and then a long stretch of cable through to the inverter in the garage which is like semi detached from the house. This is a brand new building, they moved into in October.

Older houses it is just luck of the draw and they would never have known. As for the plot shape, I reckon it is a factor that could kill a deal for me, if there was not a good opportunity to put up solar I would find another stand that would allow a house to be orientated correctly. As someone mentioned earlier, a well orientated house will be a lot warmer in GP winters as well.

With our panels being true north at the angle the installer asked for we get our first watts around 5:20 and our last ones around 18:40 at the moment. Makes a huge difference. 

 

On another note after our full first month of grid we had a few things pop up. Within the first week we noticed the fridge was freezing the veggies so we turned it down a bit every week until we couldn't anymore. Turns out the thermostat had blown and the load shedding was acting as the thermostat for heaven knows how long. I changed that and in the process I realised the freezer(20+ years old) had the same issue but it is a bit trickier to spot when it is getting too cold. Anyway new freezer with invertor compressor and fridge with working thermostat and we are on average 10-15% higher battery % in the mornings now. It is quite remarkable what an impact it has. 

In the process we also discovered Defy does a hybrid solar fridge/freezer and a solar chest freezer. So for ±R7k you can get a chest freezer that comes with 3 panels. It runs of the panels all day and external power source only for the night. It is a good first dip into load shedding solutions. It means your freezer is good for longer power cuts and is not affected by daytime load shedding and IMO is very affordable. Just even as an option to reduce an electricity bill it is a good idea.

We went with a very energy efficient freezer because our setup was specced on the old freezer already but it is also very crucial to check what you buy when replacing appliances. Some of them are shockingly bad with energy.

[TheoG]

I noticed SolarAssistant recently added support for LuxPower inverters.  Anyone on here tried and got it working yet?

[Pure Savage]

My wife is loving the solar, when batteries are full and we have excess solar, she throws the towels in the tumble dryer guilt free without dimming the lights in the neighborhood. 

I think I also saw her turning on panel heaters...

[RatX]

2 hours ago, TheoG said:

I noticed SolarAssistant recently added support for LuxPower inverters.  Anyone on here tried and got it working yet?

Do you have a LuxPower?  How you finding it?  I've gone back and forth a million times looking at all models from the endless variations Mecer/Axperts through to Sunsynk/Deye.  I just can't stomach spending R25k+ for a 5kW inverter to address what is ultimately an inconvenience.  LuxPower seems to strike a good balance of features and price, whereby you can put together a more affordable but not junk system for immediate need and add solar later to have it actually yield you some savings.

[Schnavel]

I don't have a Luxpower unit, but I have installed a 3kW unit at my friend's place. 

They seem to be decent quality and are built on similar software to the Axpert units. The unit has been running for the past month with no issues and load shedding is now a thing of the past for him (he lives in an apartment).

[TheoG]

8 minutes ago, RatX said:

Do you have a LuxPower?  How you finding it?  I've gone back and forth a million times looking at all models from the endless variations Mecer/Axperts through to Sunsynk/Deye.  I just can't stomach spending R25k+ for a 5kW inverter to address what is ultimately an inconvenience.  LuxPower seems to strike a good balance of features and price, whereby you can put together a more affordable but not junk system for immediate need and add solar later to have it actually yield you some savings.

I am very happy with it so far.  Two of my neighbors also have and no issues for any of us so far.

Support is difficult because I bought from a company in vd Bijl and I'm in Alberton, I literally have to beg them but eventually they do respond.  All of these solar suppliers/installers are to busy making money at the moment to provide proper backup support.

Besides that, the Lux-Power inverters is for sure excellent value for money and the quality is also excellent.

The monitoring/managing software is sufficient for most people but too basic to me, that's why I'm looking at Solar-Assistant to get an upgrade on this.

Edited January 31, 2023 by TheoG

[TheoG]

Just now, Schnavel said:

I don't have a Luxpower unit, but I have installed a 3kW unit at my friend's place. 

They seem to be decent quality and are built on similar software to the Axpert units. The unit has been running for the past month with no issues and load shedding is now a thing of the past for him (he lives in an apartment).

I had a Axpert variant before the Lux-Power, they are very different imho.  Lux-Power is much much better.

[Schnavel]

1 minute ago, TheoG said:

I had a Axpert variant before the Lux-Power, they are very different imho.  Lux-Power is much much better.

Yes and no. I agree that they are much better than the Axpert units of old, but they are remarkably similar to the new Axpert units (the 2nd gen units with the round screens).

I don't think you can go wrong with a Luxpower unit TBH.

[RABUBI]

Best loadshedding solution ever.

 

Drunk guy totalled our substation. instead of replacing it, they bridged to another line.

 

havent had loadshedding in more than a month

[Swift01]

Hi,

I have a Mecer SOL-I-AX-5P64 Inverter and have the Shoto SDC 10-Box5 5.12kw lithium battery. I am looking for some guidance on the settings on the inverter side. I have attached the screenshot of the Battery manual, and the inverter plate. Some I think are correct. Currently I am using it for pure backup (no panels). I also have it connected to a Raspberry PI and using Solar Assistant software. I know 12 and 13 are not taking into consideration when set to UEI on 01 setting.

Currently set to the below settings, but I assume something is too low on the charge side as the inverter thinks the battery is fully charged, but the Solar Assistant says 79% charged, All the lights on the battery show all green for charged, so there is definitely a disconnect somewhere.

 

Thank you very much.

Mecer Inverter settings 

01 = UEI (Utility first the Battery)

02 Max Charge Current = (30A)

05 Battery Type = (USE)

--12 Setting Voltage point back to Utility (SBU priority) = (48v)

--13 Voltage point back to battery mode when using SBU in 01 = (51v)

26 Bulk Charging Voltage = (54v)

27 Floating Charging Voltage = (54V)

29 Low DC Cut Off Voltage = (47V)

 

Battery Manual

DOC = 80%

Charge Voltage = 54v - 56.4v

Discharge Voltage = 45v - 48v

Nominal Voltage = 51.2v

Charge Discharge Current = 50A

[Schnavel]

You problem is setting 27 - float charge voltage. You need to drop this to 51.2V (nominal voltage).

As it presently stands, the bulk and float voltages are the same, meaning that the inverter "thinks" the battery is fully charged, even though it isn't.

In addition to this, why are you allowing the inverter to control the system? Plug both the battery communication cable and the inverter USB cable into the Raspberri Pi and let Solar Assistant tell the inverter what to do.

[LazyTrailRider]

**** off Eskom.

It remains to be seen if 3 days of rain in the middle of winter will force me to retract this, but here’s 28.6kWh (cabling still needs to be neatened up) of overkill from a financial perspective, but YOLO.