Solar options for home in 2022.

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972 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3328556 7-Jan-2025 11:24

RobDickinson:

prob:

Thanks Rob, to save me trawling though this long discussion, can you please summarise your installation to give context?

9.25kw in chc with a pw3

9.25kW of panels? Through what capacity inverter?

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

RobDickinson

1524 posts

Uber Geek

#3328557 7-Jan-2025 11:28

PW3 has a 10kw inverter built in

sibel

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#3328643 7-Jan-2025 14:04

Indeed, I understand that 9.6kwh is the minimum.

We paid 34k for 12.8kwh Sungrow SBR battery, 10kw Sungrow single phase hybrid inverter, and 22 x 440w DAS bifacial panels. CHCH installed.

Shindig:

Thanks for that @Sibel.

I have been told and quoted, that the minimum battery stack size is 9.6kwh. Is this correct information?

Also, any chance of knowing the price you paid please?

Jase2985

13459 posts

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#3328778 7-Jan-2025 17:00

Another day of massive clipping here in Auckland, on such a sunny and cloud free day.

Been sitting at over 246V for most of the afternoon, which has limited export to between 3 and 4 kW.

HarmLessSolutions

972 posts

Ultimate Geek

Subscriber

#3328807 7-Jan-2025 18:16

Jase2985:

Another day of massive clipping here in Auckland, on such a sunny and cloud free day.

Been sitting at over 246V for most of the afternoon, which has limited export to between 3 and 4 kW.

Real frustrating, and the situation will only worsen as more solar is added to the system. We will get a reprieve once the AS/NZS 4777.1:2024 regs are rolled out in a few months and inverter parameters are allowed to be widened but I really have to wonder what effect that added export will then have on grid voltages. Unless the lines companies get their grid voltage regulation better managed the extra export, at higher voltages, is just going to add to the problems we're seeing now in the longer term.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

dantheperson

174 posts

Master Geek

#3328894 7-Jan-2025 22:23

Jase2985:

Another day of massive clipping here in Auckland, on such a sunny and cloud free day.

Been sitting at over 246V for most of the afternoon, which has limited export to between 3 and 4 kW.

Clipping wasn't too bad here, seems better than during the holidays, at the worst point was loosing 500w or 10%

Seeing how consuming my own solar kept the volatage low and output at the full 5kw, i wondered how much is my single solar system contributing to the issue. So i cut power to the inverter and the voltage at the meter dropped almost 10 volts from memory.

Terciops

26 posts

Geek

#3329441 9-Jan-2025 09:01

The inverter sees the local voltage on the house bus. As you say, this can vary a lot and always increases proportionally to your export rate.

This could be a street voltage increase or more likely just the wiring between the house and the street. If you pause export and the voltage drops then it is your wiring resistance. There is not a lot you can do about this, but if your inverter is clipping or dropping off line for voltage, then it is worth looking at at adding a house load to absorb enough of the excess PV to keep the voltage in limits.

There are many ways to do this, but the most effective is the hot water heater element - then at least the power is not wasted. However this is not that easy to manage elegantly. A diverter does this - but they tend to take all the excess PV and the water gets to top temperature pretty quickly and then you are back to square one.

Here is a link to a 'twitter' post I put up recently about a virtual element, along with the C++ code to enable it.

https://x.com/terciops/status/1873497826568949774

How you would implement this depends on where your data on grid and transfer etc come from, but for this voltage application it would be simple just to tie the virtual element size to the perceived house voltage and modulate the element power draw to maintain a set voltage. All it would take is a decent 20A SSR / Heatsink and an Arduino Nano 5v or some such. An ESP32 will take the same code but it is a 3.3v output and that will not reliably trigger an SSR but any 5v arduino will do.

Mains voltage measurement is easy with a $3 module from AliExpress : https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005073105227.html

And voltage data is all you need there is no need to put in anything complex.

This Virtual Element concept is being implemented in the latest Paladin firmware - my problem as the moment is that it is such a flexible and useful idea that I really can't decide just how many options to add in without confusing everyone.

dantheperson

174 posts

Master Geek

#3329443 9-Jan-2025 09:13

Terciops:

https://x.com/terciops/status/1873497826568949774

That seems to be a link to a store about the 737 ...

fastbike

212 posts

Master Geek

#3329444 9-Jan-2025 09:16

dantheperson:

Terciops:

https://x.com/terciops/status/1873497826568949774

That seems to be a link to a store about the 737 ...

Fact checking has been disabled on X

Otautahi Christchurch

MikeFly

148 posts

Master Geek

#3329446 9-Jan-2025 09:20

Try this

https://x.com/terciops/status/1872003392211 701814

fastbike

212 posts

Master Geek

#3329457 9-Jan-2025 10:37

MikeFly:

Try this

https://x.com/terciops/status/1872003392211 701814

Did you see the diverter project in the OpenEnergyMonitor forum.

https://docs.openenergymonitor.org/pv-diversion/mk2/index.html

Hopefully Paladin is standing on the shoulders of giants, rather than building something out of #8 wire, as us Kiwis often do :(

If you are happy with Chinese hardware iammeter.com have a wifi power controller that uses a SCR to phase cut the output so power can be controlled in quite fine grain increments. It has a REST api so any home automation ecosystem (HA, openHAV, nodeRed etc) could be used to divert a variable amount of power to the HWC element depending on line voltage / solar output.

Otautahi Christchurch

keatech

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#3330271 11-Jan-2025 16:21

Some words of warning for anyone who is considering Solar in 2025.

I got installed in Christchurch:

13 x 430W TW (all black) ‘Tier 1’ N-Type Panels

10.1kWh Alpha Smile G3 High Voltage Battery with built-in 5kW inverter

System was installed in September 2024 and has been plagued with issues with numerous days where the whole system fails to produce anything (despite a clear sunny day)

The installer has blamed faulty software. System has major software upgrade resulting in a long outage of the monitoring. My emails and follow up phone calls result in no reply. What is concerning is the lack of support for these systems. They are complex by nature and require a decent level of skill to determine issues. I am now left paying off my green loan for a faulty system. I have no confidence that will ever be repaired. There is no recourse and no agency to complain to. It was fully inspected and the install is deemed compliant.

Interested in anyones thoughts as to what steps I can take?

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3330273 11-Jan-2025 16:33

Does the system have proper monitoring for grid voltage etc?
Could see if there are likely issues with local voltages. Otherwise I suggest getting the invert replaced with a better unit, not heard of that brand.

Jase2985

13459 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#3330274 11-Jan-2025 16:44

keatech:

Some words of warning for anyone who is considering Solar in 2025.

I got installed in Christchurch:

13 x 430W TW (all black) ‘Tier 1’ N-Type Panels

10.1kWh Alpha Smile G3 High Voltage Battery with built-in 5kW inverter

System was installed in September 2024 and has been plagued with issues with numerous days where the whole system fails to produce anything (despite a clear sunny day)

The installer has blamed faulty software. System has major software upgrade resulting in a long outage of the monitoring. My emails and follow up phone calls result in no reply. What is concerning is the lack of support for these systems. They are complex by nature and require a decent level of skill to determine issues. I am now left paying off my green loan for a faulty system. I have no confidence that will ever be repaired. There is no recourse and no agency to complain to. It was fully inspected and the install is deemed compliant.

Interested in anyones thoughts as to what steps I can take?

I suspect its a combination of installer, equipment chosen, and cost that's at play here.

Consumer guarantees act covers you, write a detailed email to the company, including the issues you are having. Give them a month to rectify, if not rectified then you consider the product to be defective and you wish it to be replaced with a new one or something of equivalent value or your money back.

You also have the disputes tribunal or small claims court you can use as a last resort.

Jase2985

13459 posts

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#3330275 11-Jan-2025 16:45

eonsim: Does the system have proper monitoring for grid voltage etc?
Could see if there are likely issues with local voltages. Otherwise I suggest getting the invert replaced with a better unit, not heard of that brand.

Doesnt sound like voltage issues if its not producing at all.

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