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Solar install, thread

Done!

They arrived about 10am, and just left now about 6pm. Four guys doing the install. We have 10 panels, five on the front and five on the back of the roof so should get good coverage, and a 5.5kW lithium battery. Alas they finished as the sun was going down so there was barely time for it to charge, but the battery did charge to 20% while they were hooking things up to it. We also have an app to check everything.

(cont)

#Solar #RenewableEnergy

Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Before he started, he said he'd keep the hot water geyser (heater) and the stove on the grid, they usually don't hook those up to the panels at all because they're such big power draws. Then while they were hooking everything up he noticed that we barely have anything running and suspected there would be plenty of excess from the panels to handle them, if we manage them with sunlight levels, so he's put them onto the inverter. He then also noticed that our geyser was -
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

- barely drawing any power, so I said we both had showers yesterday then I had a bath last night, and it heat up the water since then and once the water's hot it stays hot for a few days and doesn't use much power after, and he was amazed at that :D So yeah, we can just turn the geyser on to heat the water when the panels are in full sunlight.

The battery charges with a trickle from the grid when there's nothing coming from the panels, if the battery isn't full -

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

- but we can also turn that off, or tweak the settings, etc.

The app isn't quite real time but refreshes every 10 minutes or so, which is near enough real time for us to get good metrics of use from it :) (Or we can just look directly at the screen on the inverter, which is real time.)

The battery is set to never go lower than 20%. It's currently 25% and we have loadshedding at 8pm so we'll see how it does with the lights :)

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

We're also just going into winter, and we have a mountain near us that shaves about 30-60 minutes off sunrise time in the mornings, then houses close behind us that hide the sun close to sunset, but also this is South Africa and even in winter it can be heckin' sunny most days. We don't have much rain forecast this week, a little bit Sunday morning and a bit Wednesday afternoon, with a 'partly cloudy' forecast throughout, so we'll see how it does. :D

I'm excited!

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Ooh, also interesting - this is getting so big here now that all the solar companies are fighting for components. The batteries and inverters are made in the Western Cape, but then they're shipped to this company's HQ which is in Joburg on the other side of the country, and the installers on this side have to beg for them back. He said AC components are easy to get, but DC components they're waiting on them every day on a day-to-day basis -
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
- this morning they were late showing up because they were literally waiting for the parts delivery that was supposed to get to them at 7am ready for them to start installs at 8 - 9am, and then they left part way into the day to go scouring the local hardware shops for something else they needed. Which is great, I guess it means it's creating loads of jobs here!
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
The battery charged to 45% on a trickle from the grid in about two hours, then the power went off for loadshedding. It's been running the fridge/freezer, air purifier, lamp, and my desktop with one monitor on watching TV, for an hour and the charge dropped 1%. Now Jaco's turned his puter on for the second hour, we'll see how it does. ^.^
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

Look at it gooo

It started at 7:40am when it was barely light out, making 11 little watts, now it's picking up :D

โ˜€๏ธ

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
The (not so) little solar panels that could!
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
I'm running the washing machine now, and got my PC on. It's set to draw from the grid if our consumption exceeds the solar input, so that the battery stays charged (you can configure all those paramaters, but they set it up to make sure the battery is always full because we're having some 4 hour loadshedding slots). I can also just flip the grid switches off so it never pulls from the grid, but want it to keep doing it while we manage the system.
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
9am, the sky is partly cloudy with thin hazy clouds, and solar production is up to 310W. Consumption is fluctuating between around 300W and 2.5kW, spiking when the washing machine heats water. It's drawing a teeny 18W from the grid to manage everything and keep the battery charged. \o/
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
This is the state after "pakidg pakidg pakidg" where you got the thing and you keep looking at it while shouting "dater dater dater"
in reply to Moved to @bean@twoot.site

Solar install, thread
*Johnny 5 voice* more input, Stephanie! ๐Ÿค–
Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Sun has broken through the clouds and we've shot up to 1.34kW production at 9:30am :D (The capacity of the panels on the SE-facing side of the roof is about 2.2kW, but the roof's slope is shallow and when the sun gets high enough it'll start hitting the ones on the other side too. \o/)
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Not just eco friendly, but there's "how much will the other side generate" drama too! ๐Ÿ˜ I worked with someone based in CT recently who had a complicated solar / generator setup. Does it look like the supply problems will ever be fixed? He said he thought it would take years.
in reply to Murad

Solar install, thread
@ElHadjiMurad I can't see it right now. They're building two new coal plants (ugh coal), but apparently the buildings are terrible, the design is terrible, they're already falling behind and facing delays because of shoddy build quality and shoddy design - it's a farce. Meanwhile there's talk of implementing increased stages up to stage 16 - currently stage 8 is the highest planned stage, but we've only gone as high as stage 6 which is 12 hours out in a 24h period
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
woah! I dread to think what stage 16 is. You have to supply them with power for 24 hours???
in reply to Murad

Solar install, thread
@ElHadjiMurad The local joke is they come to your house and blow out your candles. XD
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

Ha!

Someone reading this in the government right now is going "wait a minute..."

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Anyway, this system looks great, more power to you! (Excuse pun)
in reply to Murad

Solar install, thread

@ElHadjiMurad Jaco in work meeting this morning: "so yeah yesterday wasn't very productive what with the solar people here, but on the bright side -"

Me: -.-

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

@ElHadjiMurad

Sunshine energy!

My house catches the sun most of the day. Ideally I'd have solar panels too.

I'd at least like portable solar to charge some devices.

Any suggestions (I'm in the UK)?

P s. I read this week that UK wind farms are now supplying slightly more energy than gas to the UK National Grid.

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

This is all really cool to see, especially the breakdown!

We've got a small solar installation, but no battery or fancy visualisation, so I'm getting bright ideas ๐Ÿ˜Ž

in reply to Rob Haines

Solar install, thread
@rob_haines :D The app we use is provided by the people who installed for us - I created an account with my email address, then they found my account and set everything up on it, then on their side as admins they can see everyone's installs to see how they're working and gather metrics / look for problems etc. :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Right, washing machine finished, we run the coffee machine (it's a big commercial one that heats the water with an element so it's high power use for the 10 mins it takes to heat the water), and Jaco ran the kettle to heat water for porridge - battery dipped to 95% while the washing machine was pulling a lot, and we pulled some from the grid, but now that those are out of the way, we're generating 3x more than we're using so I've turned off the grid entirely.
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Here are our metrics for the morning. Red is consumption, blue is solar generation. The big red spikes are the washing machine heating water, the last thin red spike farthest to the right is the coffee machine running for the second time. The left flat red section is when just my PC was on, then when that red baseline climbs higher it's when Jaco turned his puter on too. We're averaging about 350W consumption right now, and generating 1.7kW.
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Now that we've stopped running the coffee machine and washing machine, and the sun is higher and clearing the cloud, or production has outpaced our consumption so much and on 100% battery that we've turned on the hot water geyser, and our battery is staying stable at 100%. :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
That's great news. More juice to run more birbcams? ๐Ÿ˜‚
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Had the hot water heater on for an hour and it drained the battery to 75%, then turned it off and the battery recharged to full in 40 minutes ^.^
Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
So the hot water heater took about 1h30m to fully heat the tank, at which point it stopped drawing power. During the first half of that it drained the battery to 75%, but then the clouds cleared and the battery recharged back up to 100% for the last part. We know it keeps water hot for 2-3 days, so we can just have it on for two hours during the day when it's sunny and that's our hot water sorted \o/
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
following this thread since yesterday is somewhat "living through others positive experiences"
thanks for that :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

Fun statistic that's shown on our solar graphs: 'trees planted'. We've planted 0.5 trees today :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

@cypnk Here's another example of someone installing a solar system with accurate figures for the power use, and the energy generated at their latitude. :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

I should actually plant the seed I grabbed from a tree last year at some point.
in reply to Cont Bratula

โ˜บ๏ธ we're at 87 trees since beginning of April.
in reply to Cont Bratula

how does one convert solar energy into planted trees. I get that trees use the sun's energy, too, but that doesn't make it make more sense to me. Do they plant trees on your behalf as a bonus program? Are you allowed to visit your 0.5 trees?
in reply to Alina Yossimouse

I have no idea XD I don't know if it's 'you've prevented as much C02 as a tree would have absorbed' but presented as trees planted, heh
Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

fast forward to next week when you see the tips of trees peeking over the edge of your roof
in reply to Cont Bratula

I just keep wondering how half a tree looks, physically.
in reply to Ellen

@starry1086 like in Minecraft when you chop the trunk out but leave a floaty
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

An interesting thing has happened. There's still sun on the back panels but it has stopped producing, more or less. The battery is staying full, though, and our consumption is a stable 400W. So it must be something that just stops it pulling in when there's excess that has nowhere to go, since it doesn't go back into the grid.

Edit: confirmed with solar peeps, yeah, if there's no load and the battery is full the panels won't produce ^.^

Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Now you need an e-bike to use the surplus of energy ๐Ÿ˜„
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
I don't know if anybody said it yet but thank you for sharing all this! It's really inspiring. Something in my mind switched from "solar is a good thing people should do" to "solar is a thing people ARE doing, I should be one of them!"
in reply to Bryan Ginger

solar thread
@bcgoss Woooh! We were only able to do it because we found a company that does rent-to-buy with no downpayment, otherwise I think it's financially unfeasible for a lot of people, needing to fork out that much money for a full install :(
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
I make software for a big company so I should be ok, plus I have heard of subsidies in my area. Thanks for making sure I have the full picture, I will do all the research before I make big decisions.
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

We went to bed at 10pm-ish, at which point the battery was 70%. At 7:30, when I got up, it was at 51% and the panels were just starting to produce again. ^.^

So - yay! We've got some leeway to do some extra stuff in the evenings, or on cloudy mornings :)

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

This is fun, these are the fridge-freezer spikes :D

I had turned the temperature of the fridge-freezer colder to compensate for being off for a few hours several times a day during loadshedding (and stopped keeping things in the freezer entirely) - it was nice being able to turn it back to normal yesterday, AND now I can start keeping things in the freezer again: O

Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

interesting!

I got myself a watt meter to check what my appliances need and now I'm low level obsessed.

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

Much cloudier day today than yesterday, and a power hungry morning with the garden here running the strimmer which used up to 1kW-ish, in bursts. We've turned the grid trickle on to compensate just to help charge the battery until there's loadshedding at 12, then we'll turn it off and rely on solar.

We're producing about a third to a half of what we were yesterday with the extra clouds.

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

Despite it being much cloudier overall today, we produced more solar energy o.o It cleared up pretty well in the afternoon and we were almost producing at max capacity for a couple of hours.

As Jaco pointed out, this graph also nicely shows Eskom the middle finger XD

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

Heavy rain overnight, and as the sun came up it was still drizzling a bit. We went to bed an hour later last night, and the battery was at 60% compared to the previous night's 70%, but getting up at the same time this morning, the battery was 45% so it drained less over night.

Not much production this morning due to the cloud, but we were still out-producing the house's baseline needs (idling fridge/freezer and the air purifier) - consuming 34W and producing 50W :D

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

And now at 8:40am we're producing 130W, which is just barely enough for the fridge/freezer, air purifier, *and* one of the desktop computers.

We've turned the grid trickle back on as it's forecast heavy cloud all day, just to recover the battery and while we make morning coffees.

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
weโ€™re still barely managing 80W here next to Signal Hill even though the clouds have lifted. I see the same kind of difference compared with familyโ€™s installation not far from where you are. I think itโ€™s a combination of newer panels and just much better light over there generally.
in reply to Stefan Ferreira ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ

solar thread
@stefanf28 Oh interesting! I wonder if the smog in Cape Town is having an influence - when I walk on the beach here in the mornings there's almost always a layer of smog over CT and I can't imagine it helps solar production :/
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

I think so yes, but also sometimes the low fog from the Atlantic that covers the City Bowl, or the edges of the table cloth when it gets big.

It always strikes me just how much crisper the light seems when I visit Som West. Now we have data! ๐Ÿ˜

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Our morning graph. Started rainy, the clouds have been gradually clearing up, but that spike at 10:40am there was direct sun on the roof for a bit and production soared to 2.54kW, which is a good indication of what we can expect to be generating on clear days :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

Trying something new today. Instead of only running the hot water heater to heat it up fully then turning it off until the next day, we're keeping it turned on, because when it's not heating it actually uses zero electricity.

Points described in the alt-text. You can see that once the water is done heating the heater doesn't use power, and now our production (blue) is high above consumption. Need to see how often the geyser turns on to heat the water again, and how long it takes.

Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
just by guessing I would assume, that โ€žkeepingโ€œ the is more cost effective than reheating completely. Iโ€˜m looking forward to your numbers
in reply to Zacharias Fuchs

solar thread
@ZachariasFuchs Yeah - my thinking behind doing it this way is, if it needs to stay on for 1-2 hours to fully heat the whole tank from cold, the high power usage outstrips what the solar can manage. But by keeping it constantly on such that it only needs to reheat for brief bursts, it's a more manageable power draw that the solar can cope with.
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

Forgot to include the reasoning and I just replied this to someone else so I'll put it here too -

My thinking behind doing it this way is, if it needs to stay on for 1-2 hours to fully heat the whole tank from cold, the high power usage outstrips what the solar can manage. But by keeping it constantly on such that it only needs to reheat for brief bursts, it's a more manageable power draw that the solar can cope with.

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
We've had solar for a few years, and figure out what your system can support during different seasons for maximum effect is definitely a puzzle. In winter we avoid running multiple major appliances at once and boost the solar hot water system from battery power at night .. works better than having to fully reheat in the AM.
in reply to Pixelcatsโท

solar thread
@pixelcats Yeah - we're in South Africa and in wintertime now, and I can already see that in summer when we have perfectly clear skies from 5-6am to 8-9pm we're going to be Power Barons ๐Ÿ˜‚
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
We're in Canberra, Aus which is a bit cold right now, but same for us in summer .. overlords pushing power back into the grid .. although the electricity company doesn't pay us very well for it, it means we manage to save summer credits to offset the power we do need to use from the grid in the dead of winter.
in reply to Pixelcatsโท

solar thread
@pixelcats The power company here doesn't even let people send excess back into the grid :(
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
I'm expecting it will likely go the same way here eventually .. we think we'll invest in more batteries in the next year or two so we're ready.
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
For the second day (since last Thursday) we've reached the point in our production again, with a battery that's been at a stable 100% for a few hours and the panels producing far more than our consumption, where the panels have gone 'Eh, you got this, we're gonna sleep for a bit'. ^.^
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
seems like there should be a system where you can export excess power production to the grid...
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

โœจ

Around this point, I put all my power-banks and other rechargeable batteries to charge.

Also, good time to heat the water instead of first thing in morning?

in reply to Harshad Sharma

solar thread
@harshad We've had the geyser on all day, see the two posts just above ^.^ And everything is charged ๐Ÿ˜ญ I should sell use of an extension cord to the neighbours ;p
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
gotcha! btw, does your grid have the option to sell energy back? we're getting that option in some places but not yet where i am.
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Sounds like maybe you could get a plugin hybrid car and charge it with your excess power? I don't know whether you frequently drive long distance of course but I could imagine that you might be able to safe a lot of fuel and money that way...
in reply to Stephan Lichtenauer | ื ื— ืกืชื•

solar thread
@hnygd We barely drive at all, both work from home, have everything delivered, etc. And we currently own our car outright so we're not paying anything on it. XD
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

Solar has been 'fun' today.

We woke up to about 25% battery, which is fine - the geyser came on overnight to heat the water tank and used battery power, but we wanted it to do that to see how much it used, so this is good.

Charged the battery up to some 30%, solar production was great, then Jaco turned the coffee machine on and I guess we under-estimated how much battery it would eat, and it shut off at point 1 at 0%. (Continued in alt text)

Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
wow, and that's like 100 times smaller than a microwave running if im reading this correctly
in reply to Efi (nap pet) ๐ŸฆŠ๐Ÿ’ค

solar thread
@efi the figure on the left is kW - our micro used 2ish if I recall? The water heater is just over 3, same as the washing machine heating the water.
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
ah, I misremembered the wattage of my mw it's 800W, not 800kW
in reply to Cont Bratula

re: solar thread
Interesting. Batteries not only have a certain capacity but also a limit of how much current you can pull out of it at a time. I guess that's the limit you hit? I wonder if you can find documentation on that. I just tried to find that value for our (larger battery) but couldn't ๐Ÿ˜ž
in reply to Andreas Gohr

re: solar thread
@splitbrain Yeah I have no idea XD There must be something though.
in reply to Cont Bratula

re: solar thread

not sure what kind of inverter / battery set-up you have but ours did the same โ€” would suddenly shut off at lower percentages when we though there should still be plenty of juice left to cover our usage.

On ours it turned out that there was a cutout low voltage which needed to be changed because it was set too high on the inverter (i.e our batteries can cope with lower than the inverterโ€™s default setting).

Iโ€™ll try to find the video that helped me.

in reply to Stefan Ferreira ๐Ÿณ๏ธโ€๐ŸŒˆ

re: solar thread

here you go: youtu.be/UQPtwkWgpEQ

(Hopefully yours has similar option somewhere).

I checked the recommended minimum voltage on our battery manufacturerโ€™s site and then set accordingly. And weโ€™ve never had that problem again.

in reply to Cont Bratula

re: solar thread

collapsed to zero which didnโ€™t make sense because there would be no way that what had been on could have consumed % that was left.

But then it would jump straight back up after a bit of Eskom charge (which is when the voltage reaches the threshold I guess).

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Production on a 100% clear day vs production on a scattered clouds day :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread, passive food mention

Got the oven on today for the first time since getting solar. Slow-cooking a casserole on low for a few hours. The spikes at the start are the oven getting up to temp, and it was turned off a couple of times for Jaco to run the coffee machine (not to draw too much power), but once it got to temp it's been idling at a very low power use ^.^

We haven't had the grid on all morning and our battery is still charging even with this load.

Questa voce รจ stata modificata (1 anno fa)
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread, passive food mention
neaaat, these graphs would be better if the battery level was also in there
in reply to Efi (nap pet) ๐ŸฆŠ๐Ÿ’ค

solar thread, passive food mention
@efi Unfortunately I can't change the colour and it's close to the power usage colour so looks a bit messy, but that's SOC of the battery, values on the right
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread, passive food mention
it lived! so the problem with it shutting down is not the charge? it's just too much draw? I can't help but think it might not be your fault
in reply to Efi (nap pet) ๐ŸฆŠ๐Ÿ’ค

solar thread, passive food mention

@efi Aye, see mastodon.social/@stefanf28/110โ€ฆ - we'll be inputting the correct voltage values for our battery later on ^.^


not sure what kind of inverter / battery set-up you have but ours did the same โ€” would suddenly shut off at lower percentages when we though there should still be plenty of juice left to cover our usage.

On ours it turned out that there was a cutout low voltage which needed to be changed because it was set too high on the inverter (i.e our batteries can cope with lower than the inverterโ€™s default setting).

Iโ€™ll try to find the video that helped me.


in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread, passive food mention
aha! im glad, cos I don't like saying wrong things to cute girls
in reply to Efi (nap pet) ๐ŸฆŠ๐Ÿ’ค

solar thread, passive food mention
@efi ๐Ÿ˜‚ Might calligraphy that, 'Don't say wrong things to cute girls' XD XD
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread, passive food mention
๐Ÿพ๐Ÿพ๐Ÿพ๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’•
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Big day today - producing more than we've consumed. :D Especially impressive as we've also had the oven on for two hours, the hot water heater on which heat the water once when we turned it on and then again after Jaco showered, and the coffee machine has run twice.
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread, passive food mention

Fans of this thread may want to have a listen to a podcast episode we did on this install

distributedfutu.re/episode84.hโ€ฆ

(transcript available too if you prefer)

It was quite the eye opener for me.

Cont Bratula reshared this.

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Why are the graphs marked as sensitive, though? Confidential information?
in reply to ร–lbaum

solar thread
@oscherler Ah no, it's not specifically the graphs but I'm placing the whole post under a content warning just because they take up a lot of space in people's feeds otherwise , as I'm posting about it a lot :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Very much enjoying these updates! Iโ€™m not sure we consistently get enough sun here (Ohio, US) to justify the upgrade, but sunny summer days have me feeling like we could at least make a dent on our impact.
in reply to Belle (she/her)

solar thread
@RavynWitch We've found with ours so far that if there's daylight, they're producing, even through heavy cloud. Not as much obviously, but it's enough for some low-use things!
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
Have you had chance to see if it gets you through loadshedding yet?
in reply to avatastic :enby_rebel:

solar thread
@avatastic Yeah, we were off the grid all day yesterday from 9am and all night - never mind loadshedding, we didn't need the grid at all ^.^
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
I love staring at these graphs in the basement. Congrats :)
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Solar is fun! I love checking all the metrics, but caused myself some confusion when I messed with the maximum battery rates. If we lost the grid while running too much (the dryer) the inverter would cut us off for thirty seconds, but then everything hungry was off and it was fine.
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
that's great you can turn the grid off ๐Ÿ˜Š
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
woohoo! It finally happened! May the sun shine bright tomorrow and charge up the batteries to 100%!
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
wow exciting stuff! We're looking into the options, at the moment I'm not sure if the renting version will work for us. We'll probably try to only get enough to run some of our appliances. We've got gas heating our water, and we're super low use already so...
in reply to Zumbador

Solar install, thread
@Zumbador The company that did the install for us is Fynbos Solar (fynbossolar.co.za), in case you want to contact them - he said they spend a great deal of their time fixing shitty installations that other hack companies have done, and I'm really impressed with the work they did here, so I can recommend them, but obviously only if you end up wanting something that they can provide ^.^
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
thank you . I'm collecting recommendations. I've heard quite a few stories of bad operators.
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
my father has had his solar for a few years now and you can expect a few days in winter where there won't be enough sun
in reply to cuan_knaggs

Solar install, thread
@mensrea Yeah, I'm expecting that the battery won't see us through those times when there's like a few days of solid rain
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
just heavy overcast does it but it's minimal. but a solar geyser is fantastic, I haven't turned mine on for a year
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
So hopefully no more power outages for your house!
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

That is exciting! No more load shedding for you. Maybe if enough solar is deployed, there is less need for load shedding? It's strange that a country that has such ample sunshine needs it at all.

We have a similar climate here in the SF Bay Area and I would love to get solar on my roof too.

in reply to Cont Bratula

re: Solar install, thread
this is so cool, congrats โ˜€๏ธ :bsunglasses:
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

If done right, your hot water heater is just one more place to store energy.

A lot of the apartment blocks I visited in China had solar water heaters on the roof. It didn't get the water quite to shower temps, but a lot warmer than the tap. They had small electric flash vaporizers on the showers themselves.

in reply to Infoseepage #StopGazaGenocide

Solar install, thread
@Infoseepage Yeah, we were planning on replacing the geyser with a solar water heater, but if this one can be incorporated to run off our solar install then we won't need to ^.^
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Very cool! Working on in-home ESS like this is actually my day job so it's cool to see it being used in the real world.
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
I am thinking about isolating my hot water reservoir a bit more mine is loosing 2,3 kwh each day. There are better ones out there but I think some extra insulation would not harm.
in reply to zem

Solar install, thread
@zem Ours is ancient, at least 15 years old and I've never actually been up into the attic to look at it but it retains heat like a boss. Also we're in South Africa which helps. XD
@zem
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@c0debabe Says in the first toot, 5.5kW battery ^.^ The ideal is that we will never have to touch the grid, with the panels alone seeing us through the day without touching the battery, and the battery providing enough for our usage at night, but we'll see how it does - might not quite hit that in winter, almost definitely will in summer, with excess even.
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@kelluri Yeah, it helps that we both work from home so we can adjust our schedules as necessary - we already often just run the geyser until the water's hot then turn it off for a few days, etc.
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@c0debabe Yeah! :O :O *runs around in circles*
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@kelluri Also our house is tiny and compact and everything was getting set up immediately next to our circuit box so they didn't have to run wires far or anything; he said they've done bigger installs that take two days or more.
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@kelluri Hah, yeah we both have chonky desktop PCs with 750W PSUs in them - without those on our usage was something like 100W, then with them both on (but not running anything intensive) it went up to 400W. Right now we're consuming 380W; that's the fridge/freezer, both desktops, a lamp, an air purifier, and a laptop charging. He said he's done installs our size for households that use 1kW baseline, so we're over-geared. :D
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@kelluri Aye \o/
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@GoblinQuester Hah yep. I'm amazed it's not already more commonplace here - I think the govt does provide solar water heaters for the people in the townships and low income housing, but not panels and inverters for providing electricity.
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@GoblinQuester Yeah, I'm also surprised that the govt (or Eskom at least, the electricity monopoly company here) haven't imposed fines or outright blocks on people getting electricity outside of Eskom, heh.
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
this whole thread is so dope! i hear about solar stuff all the time for work but it's mostly from the utility's side of things, it's cool to see people on the receiving end getting it set up and maybe potentially getting to be totally off the grid. i hope it works out without any trouble!
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Well, aside from the reason WHY solar is so popular there, having a hard time getting parts because there are so many installed going in is a great problem to have. :)
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@avantgeared South Africa. Wood-burning fireplaces are the usual way houses are heated here; the houses are built to stay cool in summer and as a Brit I don't really need more heat in Winter here than a few layers and a blanket can provide; even in the heart of winter here, it can hit 25C when the sun's out. We haven't used our wood fire in years.
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@avantgeared I'm not after advice :)
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Congratulations! We just got a 5kW array a few months ago and I've been *obsessed* with watching the analytics.
in reply to Alan Tupper, Alleged Artist

Solar install, thread
@ThatTupperKid Haaah, I've heard the same thing from others who've gotten one - and yeah we were both very much looking forward to obsessing over the analytics :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

congratulations!

I really enjoyed the process of figuring out how to get the most of our set-up. Lots of checking graphs and figuring out when best to run more energy m hungry things. But when you get that balance right life is sweet.

Iโ€™m sure you wonโ€™t miss loadshedding ๐Ÿ˜

in reply to Cont Bratula

@WelshPixie, ShadowFigure out of curiosity: is your system set up so that any excess will go into the grid? Or with the whole loadshedding situation that's not an option for SA?
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@cefiar We have 10 455Watt panels ^.^ I think the inverter can handle something like 7kW though if we wanted to add more, and the battery is 5.5kW
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

Wait

does this mean that birbweb will be 24/7? It's free? It no longer exists, subservient to the whims of the boys at South Africa Eskom, who do be shedding their loads all over the place?

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Asking the important questions! ๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿฆ๐Ÿ“ท
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
hey that solar panel rig is cool and all but IS THAT ACTUAL BIRBCAM???!
in reply to Kev

Solar install, thread
@alisca That is birbcam on the right yes :D :D The feeding station isn't in this shot, they moved it out of the way while they had ladders on the roof and I only moved it back this morning
@Kev
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
that's ok - just seeing birdcam irl is enough #starStruck
Unknown parent

Foggy brain
Solar install, thread
Also, I find it amazing how much you can get, even when it's cloudy. We have complete cloud cover at the moment, but not heavy cloud, and I'm getting 750W (from 2.5kW of panels). Only time generation completely shuts down is at night or in heavy rain with thick dark clouds. I love our solar!
in reply to Foggy brain

Solar install, thread
@mindfog Yeah! It was cloudy this morning and we were still generating enough to cover our basic morning use :D
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread

@mindfog yes :D :D

We don't have loadshedding until 8pm tonight so even if the geyser takes a dent out of the battery, it's still got time to charge again before sunset

Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@mindfog I wish I could view the app on my desktop though XD
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@mindfog Yeah I need to find one that runs on gnome, will look later - might have found one ^.^
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
re: Solar install, thread
@kayttaja No, the power company here doesn't allow that right now :(
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
We're looking at almost the exact same setup. Pulled the trigger today, now we see how long the wait is.
in reply to Danny Day

Solar install, thread
@dislekcia Ooh cool! :D :D We signed the forms in March and had to wait two months for them to have a space free to install :/
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
@mindfog Discovered that the app has a website you can log into that shows all your data with a couple of miutes delay \o/
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@A_C_McGregor yup! It's been partly clouddy today and we managed fine with no grid ^.^
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@LaPenguin Take control how?
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@withaveeay Hah :D :D Yep!
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@sps Yeah! It's the kind of thing I wished I'd had, haha. So I'm glad it's useful :D
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread

@athairbirb Yeah, it's a modular system so if we need to we can stick another bappery on and it'll just increase our monthly repayment a bit :)

And yeah - the first day we had it, it was a mostly clear sunny day and we had the grid off for a full 24h. :D

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread
Great thread and very interesting to see how far you get with it even when powering the full household! How big are the panels? Thinking about having something like this installed in #Johannesburgโ€ฆ
in reply to Stephan Lichtenauer | ื ื— ืกืชื•

Solar install, thread
@hnygd Physical size or wattage size? Physical size there's a photo in the very first post in the thread of five of them on the front of our roof - I don't know the measurements but they're a fair size. Wattage, I think 455W each. The company we went through is GoSolr, they're based in Joburg :)
in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

I meant the physical size as I was thinking about how much space we need. :)

Thanks a lot about the hint regarding the company, since there are so many out there a recommendation is worth a lot..

in reply to Stephan Lichtenauer | ื ื— ืกืชื•

Solar install, thread

@hnygd Apparently they are 2094 x 1038 x 35mm :D

GoSolr do packages that start at a minimum size, and I think it's eight panels smallest (we chucked an extra two on, we have 10). Then they outsource the installation to accredited solar installers in the area. So if their smallest package is too big for you, it might be worth asking them who they go through to see if they can provide something smaller ^.^

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread, silly

@WelshPixie, ShadowFigure how is the photo going to help? we don't know how big your house is, it could be 60 cm tall, if it's sized for pixies :D

(sorry, not sorry)

in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread
@athairbirb Genuine question, why are these collapsable under the 'solar thread' button? Still new to mastodon
in reply to MuffinJets

solar thread
@muffinjets @athairbirb I I put them under the 'content warning' feature (which is more of a content wrapper than a warning) so that they take up less space in people's feeds, since they're mostly long posts and I'm posting about it a lot :)
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@LaPenguin Hahaha yep! It's really fun looking at the metrics and the weather in comparison, and then going 'Okay the sun's probably going to come out around noon so we'll heat the water then' or 'we can put the coffee machine on now and it'll take 2% off the battery but our production is currently double our base consumption and increasing so we'll make it back up easily' :D
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread

that's impressive! my folks have a solar set up too but I am unsure how much they are able to mess about with it, so I am quite interested in how you're managing.

Summer will be interesting to see how that goes!

in reply to Rรญ Rua

solar thread

@athairbirb I anticipate that in summer our solar production will be 'through the roof', ohohoho :D

There's a bunch of paramaters we can play with on the inverter but we haven't touched it, just left it at the params they installed it with. We can also add on batteries and panels if we need to.

Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@electrocutie Sure, but with disclaimers that a) the geyser is already very well insulated, and b) were also semi-considering replacing it with a solar hot water heater, we're just seeing how this electricity-powered one does meanwhile
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@electrocutie Ah yeah :D I'm sure we can do that but we never actually go up into the attic and haven't touched the geyser in about 15 years and I'm not sure what horrors we'd find up there XD
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@libroraptor Well we won't have the icing problem here at least, in South Africa :D (We get snow on the mountains but it doesn't drop below zero where we are next to the coast)
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@Tehiverse Yeah, I'm waiting for our first geyser 'top up' spike now to see how long it goes before needing to do it, and how long it lasts when it's doing it. :D
Unknown parent

For Pete's Sake
Solar install, thread

That''s not ideal as we have flats right behind the house but would still get ample sunlight over the course of a day. However we could put a few panels on the roof of the annex, have the battery in there too and hook into the mains for the house. There's already electrical connections from the annex to the main house. That may need upgrading though

Still, got loads on our ToDo list before then. New Kitchen (and new boiler), New Bathroom and underfloor heating!

Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread, passive food mention
@wmd We can't, the grid doesn't accept it :/
in reply to Cont Bratula

solar thread, passive food mention
@wmd technically you could, but you surely won't get paid for it
in reply to Zฬˆoรฉ โ›ต

solar thread, passive food mention

@uint8_t @wmd Yeah, the grid will definitely accept it in the narrow, technical sense. If it's not illegal, you might consider doing so if you find yourselves with excess production.

Do you have modern digital metres or the old kind that turn? Sometimes the older ones will turn backwards if you inject into the grid, which would even be financially interesting

in reply to Thomas

solar thread, passive food mention
@tfb @uint8_t @wmd Digital, it's a prepay box that shows the units we have available that we've bought
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@JacquesMusic77 Eskom doesn't accept any excess :( We have a battery though, yeah, we run on that through the night and when it's cloudy/rainy.
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@ianjago ๐Ÿ˜‚
Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
solar thread
@byteborg @JacquesMusic77 I don't know, hehe. I don't think they're competent enough to do anything to actually reject it beyond just not paying for it.
in reply to Cont Bratula

that is superfast! We have 18 panels + 5 kWh battery. It took them 3 visits to get it all together. It was partly because the parts weren't all available at once. I *love* having solar. Enjoy!
in reply to Edward Gomez

@zemogle They did rock up an hour late because they had to wait for some stuff to get delivered to them first, and they sent one of their guys out mid-day to go scour the hardware stores for some stuff XD
in reply to Edward Gomez

@zemogle Don't think so - one big inverter, one battery, two switch boxes ^.^
in reply to Cont Bratula

does your solar charge the battery first or power the sockets?
in reply to Edward Gomez

@zemogle Sockets first I *think*. We also have toggle-able grid and that can either be set to prorit grid, or backup grid; we only have it on backup grid where the grid will only provide the excess for when solar generation isn't high enough to cover our consumption.
in reply to Cont Bratula

our install is quite a bit different sounds like. The bit I enjoy the most is checking the output on the app. You're much closer to the equator so youll actually get some power in winter too - unlike us in Wales ๐Ÿ˜‚
in reply to Edward Gomez

@zemogle Yeah, even on cloudy days our generation in winter is high enough to cover our base load (two computers, fridge, air purifier) then we just pull from the grid for the hungry things like the coffee machine.

I'm excited because it's the solstice today and thus begin our journey to becoming power barons in the summer XD

in reply to Cont Bratula

Solar install, thread

That is so cool, srsly jealous. I want solar, but we have ~75 yo oaks to the south of the house. So lots of shade, no direct sun on our roof-ever. They also lean away from the house.

So low aircon cost, but I wanna join the solar club

I haz a sad - sad lol

Unknown parent

Cont Bratula
Solar install, thread
@cass_m We're renting the whole system, we haven't bought any of it, but they're about R30,000 for a 5.5kw battery here

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