To which you respond, excuse me, what!?
And then she says… (and we all know this): Nothing!
The Marriage Anonymous therapy group… 
Groetnis
@plonkster … I had a few days of tantrums, no clubs in the house, tools safely in my “control”, slept with one eye open too, and just kept staring into nothingness thinking about … “nothing”.
Walk the talk they say … she says “Nothing”, I do “nothing”.
It worked … this time.
There you go @bobbenoster. Spend on more panels, in the long run, it is cheaper. 5Kva with a 3kw, 2kw if your loads demand it, works fine on a 5kw array IF your daytime loads fit into that nicely. Mine does.
Had a 2kw element installed then the geyser popped and the new unit under warranty has a 3kw element so I thought, bugger this, leave it. It is cents on the rand to heat it faster, the thermostat will switch off at 70deg.
My next step.
Got a 2P Hager NC relay to be controlled by a Shelly. Will now get the temp sensors mounted, and let the Shelly switch the geyser on/off at designated times. Ps. Already blew one Shelly. No idea how though.
Thereafter to figure out the automation with NodeRED on Venus Large, switch the geyser on based on the panel wattages ie if >3.1kw is going into the batts, switch on the geyser between 10am - 2pm.
Thereafter if by 3pm the temp is below say ie 40, bad weather day, use Eskom to top it up to 50 using Eskom. Rather recharge the batts than heat a geyser.
Obviously with manual override for “them”.
Geysewise with the Tuya Wifi display panel just annoyed me.
When I origianally read the heading of this thread I did not think it was about marriage counceling. Who new? 
Back to the other topic: I like to say that most things cost the same. Either way you are going to pay.
If you buy an older car the capital cost will be lower than a new car, but you will need to do a bit more repairs and maintenance which does cost money, but also time where you cannot use the car.
All this you need to factor into your risk profile, budget, time, skill, etc. In the end you are going to pay.
If you buy something with a higher upfront cost, but with reduced usage cost it would work out around the same cost as buying a cheaper device with higher usage cost. You need to find the profile that fits your needs.
For me going the heat pump option meant that when I installed solar I could buy the 3kVA model instead of the 5kVA model. That there saved me al the money I spend on buying the heat pump.
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That heavily depends on the older car you buy. There is no chance, even with a full engine replacement, that Suzy will ever get to a new car price, after saving on her for going 23 years now.
By a 2nd hand BMW or some such, yeah, then rather buy new.
Two things jumped at me:
- 3kVA vs 5kVA is cheaper than a heat pump/EV tubes by quite a few bucks.
- The repair/maintenance/replacement of heat pumps/EV tubes etc are to be factored in vs a “stock standard Suzi” with limited maintenance if any.
Guys, I’m not against heat pumps/EV tubes and all that. They work exactly as advertised the first time you put them up to save some serious dough.
But oh boy, when they need to be serviced regularly, when they need to be replaced EOL, THAT is when you sit back and think twice the 2nd time round.
Sometimes it is an insurance claim, sometimes it is not.
EDIT: If you have the B-rated geyser, showering times and lengths are planned, a 150l geyser can easily be heated once a day, for 4.2 people.
The geyser, no-one has mentioned that once, is the key, to how well it holds its temp.
To add to that, a geyser takes but a couple of hours to get to wot, 55/60, from 20/30, rest of the time the panels can power everything else.
How about a 2nd hand Alfa?
For me to do this realistically I’m more likely looking at the 8kva inverter… Because off grid water… Borehole + boosters… That’s a lot of juice… Or 5kva with just the booster feeding the house hooked up as a start? But then we’re heading for that parallel system…
No thoughts on those FW batteries? Just add a stack of pylons?
How daring are you?
Import some cells and a BMS, being Victron get 17/18 cells (as “warranty” cells) all installed in a 48v bank, and save a ton of money compared to FreedomWon?
“Warranty Cells”:
If you have 18, one fails, you have 17, another one fails, have 16 left, and IF the last one fails, you can still run on 15.
Start with one, see how it goes. Nothing beats having it and seeing it actually work live.
If you run short, get a 2nd 5kva, run the pumps then on it, no Eskom connected to it.
Also serves as a backup in case of a problem.
Well as I have one pylontech already this would be the “cheap” option. I do like the higher discharge rates the fw’s support. Installation seems less DIY friendly… But I’ve already made peace with not doing DIY this round (first round/old house was DIY and I reckon it’s a good install but I only did backup, no solar).
Must also mention that I have a colleague with a mpii 3kva, showed me his logs before I bought and he regularly runs 3.5kw loads for extended periods. He does however have a 16s battery vs my pylon.
The FW is a very good battery. But if you already have Pylontechs then that might be the easier option to just add more. It’s not easy to mix and match battery types. And if they use different voltages (15S vs 16S) you can’t mix them.
You do potentially loose a little bit of watts with the lower voltage battery (15S vs 16S) but that does depend on what MPPT you are using and if your battery current limit is low. Ignoring the battery current limit, then it is only an potential issue if you are near your current limit for the MPPT.
So if you have a 150/35 MPPT that will give you max 35A at the battery voltage.
For 15S @ 51.75V that will be max 1811.25W
For 16S @ 55.20V that will be max 1932.00W (or 121W more)
But this is only the case if you have 1900W+ PV panels and a 35A MPPT. If for instance if you had 1900W PV with a 45A MPPT you would get the 1900W into the 15S battery as well.
So a 15S has the same energy capacity if the amps is not the issue (battery amps and MPPT)
No intentions to mix, the idea would have been to sell the old kit, get fresh kit… I do like the simplicity of the pylons… I see a lot of the other brands are going the same route these days.
Was thinking for a decent number of panels one of the new Smartsolar RS mppts would be a good option… the idea of 450V DC is a little bit scary… That’s a lot of bite.
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And so here is the update… Perhaps not a super exciting one…
- Added a second US3000C
- After many noise complaints from my wife I took the rather difficult decision to switch the victron for a sunsynk.
No solar panels as yet (many many many things taking all the money on this new house)
So the takeaways
- Yes the sunsynk is quiet (bar that high pitch noise when it’s under load… The door seems to stop that)
- It’s easy to setup … But I found the victron a little more sensible with options split in ways that makes it a lot more flexible.
- Integration… Without doing some interesting workarounds - none.
- I’m looking for someone that can add panels to this setup… Recommendations for someone you’ve dealt with in the Gauteng area are welcome.
- Has anyone used one of the new victron RS inverters?
- Is anyone looking for a lightly used multiplus ii 3kva gx?
Also …
Bonding relays… Eish.
The regulations around the earth neutral bond seen seems to be widely ignored or misunderstood.
While the setup for the binding relay is relatively simple with the sunsynk… I was seriously spoilt with the fact that this is already built into the victron.
Not truly misunderstood. Is more a case of conveniently forgotten / bluntly ignored. It’s a Sans requirement… But sunsynk premotes bonding the incoming neutral to the supply neutral as they have to many rma’s caused by installers using the cheapest relays they can find, failing prematurely and causing problems as well as safety issues
Tried to give them the benefit of the doubt… But there’s even guys out there claiming that relay/contactor based bonds are illegal…
Neatral / Eartning relays has been used for many many many years… Long before Inverters were even a thought… Who ever told you that went to the wrong school…
I agree with Jaco here. Well, it is still “misunderstood” but I think at some point it becomes vincible ignorance. People don’t know because they don’t want to.
If you take your circuit, and you can find a way for working current to go back to the supply transformer on an earth wire… then you did something wrong. As they said in physics class: Basic principles. That’s what it is about. The earth wire should not carry any current unless there is a fault.
So the latest…
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The bonding contactor and the new earth leakage are friends. We no longer have random dim LED floodlights.
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Looking to add solar panels… Got one quote so far… The price looks “ok”… But two things bug me
Sizing panels on the sunsynk (installer says max 460W because operating current)
And he wants to run a double earth… Big cable to a spike and a smaller cable back to the house/eskom earth… Sounds like a good way to get lightning damage. (I’m not an expert on this subject so hoping someone can guide me)