Just to add to my previous comment / proposal, i love the fact that a South African comes up with this vid in the reality of our loadshedding environment. 👏👏 I, as i asume 95% of all normal non-electricians, have some basic questions, too many to post here, but as an e.g., i notice you also have a Jo-Jo water tank installed (that is going to be the nirm for 90% of houses in SA over the nxt 2 years due to our water problems), the pump/motor most probable switches on and off every 5 mins, which means the start-up current is a factor of 4x / 6x? the rated voltage on start-up and will have a dramatic impact on your power source ( e.g. a 1kw motor might draw 4kw / 6kw on start up for a couple if secs) so your inverter set-up should be able to handle that. How do you spec your system to cater for such peaks?
First I used a DAB 2.5bar smart switch pump who was rated 600w. It didn't affect the system at all. Now I have a DAB VSD (variable speed pump) which adjusts the power according to demand.
Thanks brother. Really enjoy your videos. They have been really educational. I have no choice but to now install a solar setup. Last week we were 7 days without power. Due to an attempted cable theft by illegal miners. Theses outages have been occurring monthly in our area and to be honest it's only gonna get worse. If there's 2 or 3hrs loadshedding fine you can make peace with that but being cut off 7 days at a time? It's rediculous. Solar is the only way to go right now. I'm learning so much about solar and what to look for when going this route. Keep up the great work!! Your content is awesome!!
Great video, just what I was looking for as I am moving house. New house has 3 phase and this is the inverter I was already looking at. Please can you do a review after a year? I would like to see your graphs as these inverters and batteries represent a notable capitol investment.
@@ElecAndAll i also noticed that you dont have any timer set on the inverter . . . Or a gyser timer. Based on that setup alone the max power you should be importing is 5kw. Id say have your gysers running at a higher temp during the day and perhaps blanket them the solar power you getting during the day should be high enough to warm up the gysers and it would be warm throughout the night...
@@tsheponnene457 remember that that it depends on the number of people in the house that creates a higher demand. This is not possible during winter in Joburg since the water almost freezes. Each time hot water is used, ice cold water enters the geyser and rapidly decreases the temperature of the water. Watch this video where you will see what I mean. th-cam.com/video/_xClSxBWfqs/w-d-xo.html. I have a timer for geyser.
I like how you say you have different facing panels like west and north. I have south right now 9400 watts and will add 1800 facing east. This is because in winter the sun is bright and sunny in the am in Michigan then around noon clouds roll in that is when my south panels should be at their highest production. I need that morning sun to help me out 4-5 kw a day. And I should get that.
Great video and very informative. My question is why did you decide to go full on 3 phase? I mean why didn’t you just stick with single phase and just buy a biggger inverter like 16 kva. What is the advantage of using 3 phase over a single phase because city power charge a monthly network optimisation fee?
I am just starting this journey.I am interested to know if you have installed your system yourself or if you use an installer.Did you choose and buy the hardware yourself.I do notice that buying the equipment yourself can work out cheaper but my concern is about warranty claims if something has to go wrong with the equipment.
Hey Phil, Had everything professionally installed. I procured the panels, inverter and switchgear myself. That is a valid concern. You need to work whether the cost savings warrant the associated risk.
Why do you not use solar to heat your boilers? You could have used PVT panels to heat your boilers and heat the house by floorheating from the solar boilers too. Even the winters un SA have plenty of sunshine. (Been there)
1 14 kw battery and 8kw more solar panels and you would be off grid 10-11 months a year. those other panels could be Grid tied inverter so first it would charge and supply loads but when batteries are full and loads are met by other inverter it could sale to the grid and when you need extra it comes off your credit so you would never have a bill again.
Once I had a situation were I left work coz there was Stage 5 loadshedding. Only to try and work from home. By the time is reached home. Now our area has loadshedding. Lol It's madness.
Your batteries seems to have a low C rating You should be able to draw almost 300 Amps from three 5.3 kWh batteries with a C rating of 1 But yours seems to only have a C rating of 0.5 I think that this is why your inverter tripped with the geyser Also you didn't need to take your current transformer to your Eskom meter box Your could have just put it on the incoming side of your main switch in your main DB
No. The inverter has a current limit on AC side of 23Amps. 4kw element pulls abt 17amps. If another load comes on then that's a shortcoming on this inverter. I have 2 phases feeding from the main feed on the boundary. There's no way the CT will detect and supplement those from the house DB. Correct, batteries are 0.5c. I don't need more than that for this bank. I'm not using the max power from the panels. Also 1C have their own shortcomings. We limited the current draw to 200amps from the bank of which we haven't reached. ☺️☺️
These batteries do have a 1C rating, and he has flats on the property as well. That is why he took the CT to the main incomer, so the power the consume can also be fed by solar to an extent.
@@andriesappelgryn6517 the regulations here are that you may only have one main switch So your main switch would then normally be in the main house ESKOM supply is not a main switch The only time that you are allowed to take seperate supplies directly to separate buildings is if they are on a separate ESKOM or Council meter If there is only one Eskom meter for the property, then you may only have one main switch The supply must go from the Eskom meter box to the main DB with the Main Switch This in theory could be right next to the Eskom meter box, but not inside it
Also if you look at the specs if the battery, it says max discharge of 100 Amps, which on a 5,3 kWh battery is just under 1, but more importantly, it says that the recommended discharge current is only 50 Amps for one battery and 100 Amps for batteries in parallel I don't have any experience with this particular battery, but on some batteries, the 100 Amps limit is because of the proprietary battery cable supplied with the battery that only has a rating of 100 Amps So for three batteries, if you were making use of the proprietary cables, you would have to run two sets of cables back to the inverter to use more than 100 Amps if you had 3 or more batteries Same limit as for Pylontech. Thanks why when using many Pylontech batteries together, it is then better to run each battery to a busbar and then much thicker cable, depending on current rating of the inverter, back to the inverter
Brilliant video. Very informative and well spoken
Just to add to my previous comment / proposal, i love the fact that a South African comes up with this vid in the reality of our loadshedding environment. 👏👏
I, as i asume 95% of all normal non-electricians, have some basic questions, too many to post here, but as an e.g., i notice you also have a Jo-Jo water tank installed (that is going to be the nirm for 90% of houses in SA over the nxt 2 years due to our water problems), the pump/motor most probable switches on and off every 5 mins, which means the start-up current is a factor of 4x / 6x? the rated voltage on start-up and will have a dramatic impact on your power source ( e.g. a 1kw motor might draw 4kw / 6kw on start up for a couple if secs) so your inverter set-up should be able to handle that. How do you spec your system to cater for such peaks?
First I used a DAB 2.5bar smart switch pump who was rated 600w. It didn't affect the system at all. Now I have a DAB VSD (variable speed pump) which adjusts the power according to demand.
Thanks brother. Really enjoy your videos. They have been really educational. I have no choice but to now install a solar setup. Last week we were 7 days without power. Due to an attempted cable theft by illegal miners. Theses outages have been occurring monthly in our area and to be honest it's only gonna get worse. If there's 2 or 3hrs loadshedding fine you can make peace with that but being cut off 7 days at a time? It's rediculous. Solar is the only way to go right now. I'm learning so much about solar and what to look for when going this route. Keep up the great work!! Your content is awesome!!
Thanks for watching and for feedback bhaya
Great video, just what I was looking for as I am moving house. New house has 3 phase and this is the inverter I was already looking at. Please can you do a review after a year? I would like to see your graphs as these inverters and batteries represent a notable capitol investment.
May God continue to bless you sir. Amen.
Thanks for the prayers. Ameen
so why did you not connect the ct coil from the input on the db box ?
Cos if I did, I wouldn't have been able to send excess power to the other 2 dwellings. Those dwellings are fed from the boundary main breaker.
@@ElecAndAll i also noticed that you dont have any timer set on the inverter . . . Or a gyser timer.
Based on that setup alone the max power you should be importing is 5kw. Id say have your gysers running at a higher temp during the day and perhaps blanket them the solar power you getting during the day should be high enough to warm up the gysers and it would be warm throughout the night...
@@tsheponnene457 remember that that it depends on the number of people in the house that creates a higher demand. This is not possible during winter in Joburg since the water almost freezes. Each time hot water is used, ice cold water enters the geyser and rapidly decreases the temperature of the water. Watch this video where you will see what I mean.
th-cam.com/video/_xClSxBWfqs/w-d-xo.html.
I have a timer for geyser.
Nice video. How loud is the fan and at how many kw power draw/production does it come on?
Loud enough to cause a nuisance. By 10am it's on while charging the battery around 9 kw's.
I like how you say you have different facing panels like west and north. I have south right now 9400 watts and will add 1800 facing east. This is because in winter the sun is bright and sunny in the am in Michigan then around noon clouds roll in that is when my south panels should be at their highest production. I need that morning sun to help me out 4-5 kw a day. And I should get that.
That makes perfect sense, being in the US and northern hemisphere. That will be similar to mine then being in the southern hemisphere
Great video and very informative. My question is why did you decide to go full on 3 phase? I mean why didn’t you just stick with single phase and just buy a biggger inverter like 16 kva. What is the advantage of using 3 phase over a single phase because city power charge a monthly network optimisation fee?
Ndaa, baramin.
I'll explain why, I'm preparing another video.
I am just starting this journey.I am interested to know if you have installed your system yourself or if you use an installer.Did you choose and buy the hardware yourself.I do notice that buying the equipment yourself can work out cheaper but my concern is about warranty claims if something has to go wrong with the equipment.
Hey Phil,
Had everything professionally installed. I procured the panels, inverter and switchgear myself.
That is a valid concern. You need to work whether the cost savings warrant the associated risk.
Install it yourself at your own risk. Your insurance will sort you out when the time comes.
@@zaydpeer correct advice. Let's showcase your setup.
Why do you not use solar to heat your boilers? You could have used PVT panels to heat your boilers and heat the house by floorheating from the solar boilers too. Even the winters un SA have plenty of sunshine. (Been there)
Hello thanks where are you from?
I do use solar to heat the water. Watch this video.
th-cam.com/video/_xClSxBWfqs/w-d-xo.html
1 14 kw battery and 8kw more solar panels and you would be off grid 10-11 months a year. those other panels could be Grid tied inverter so first it would charge and supply loads but when batteries are full and loads are met by other inverter it could sale to the grid and when you need extra it comes off your credit so you would never have a bill again.
Watch this space, I'll show you an alternative without building on solar capacity
Once I had a situation were I left work coz there was Stage 5 loadshedding. Only to try and work from home. By the time is reached home. Now our area has loadshedding. Lol It's madness.
That's unlucky bhaya!
Your batteries seems to have a low C rating
You should be able to draw almost 300 Amps from three 5.3 kWh batteries with a C rating of 1
But yours seems to only have a C rating of 0.5
I think that this is why your inverter tripped with the geyser
Also you didn't need to take your current transformer to your Eskom meter box
Your could have just put it on the incoming side of your main switch in your main DB
No. The inverter has a current limit on AC side of 23Amps. 4kw element pulls abt 17amps. If another load comes on then that's a shortcoming on this inverter.
I have 2 phases feeding from the main feed on the boundary. There's no way the CT will detect and supplement those from the house DB.
Correct, batteries are 0.5c. I don't need more than that for this bank. I'm not using the max power from the panels. Also 1C have their own shortcomings. We limited the current draw to 200amps from the bank of which we haven't reached.
☺️☺️
These batteries do have a 1C rating, and he has flats on the property as well. That is why he took the CT to the main incomer, so the power the consume can also be fed by solar to an extent.
@@andriesappelgryn6517 the regulations here are that you may only have one main switch
So your main switch would then normally be in the main house
ESKOM supply is not a main switch
The only time that you are allowed to take seperate supplies directly to separate buildings is if they are on a separate ESKOM or Council meter
If there is only one Eskom meter for the property, then you may only have one main switch
The supply must go from the Eskom meter box to the main DB with the Main Switch
This in theory could be right next to the Eskom meter box, but not inside it
Also if you look at the specs if the battery, it says max discharge of 100 Amps, which on a 5,3 kWh battery is just under 1, but more importantly, it says that the recommended discharge current is only 50 Amps for one battery and 100 Amps for batteries in parallel
I don't have any experience with this particular battery, but on some batteries, the 100 Amps limit is because of the proprietary battery cable supplied with the battery that only has a rating of 100 Amps
So for three batteries, if you were making use of the proprietary cables, you would have to run two sets of cables back to the inverter to use more than 100 Amps if you had 3 or more batteries
Same limit as for Pylontech.
Thanks why when using many Pylontech batteries together, it is then better to run each battery to a busbar and then much thicker cable, depending on current rating of the inverter, back to the inverter