Ok. I guess it’s time to start posting about my setup. All the work was done by my self. We bought a bigger house and moved in begin of Aug 2021. I took my setup out my house that I sold because to replace the stuff will not be cheap. Plans was to start building the system in September but that plans quickly flew out the window because my with had other plans with the house and needed my hand with it. So I did some stuff between all the other stuff like painting the house and taking the garden out and replacing with a new garden design.
System consist 2 MLT inverters. One is H8.0 and the other one H10.0 It’s the older models of MLT but what I like about them are that they can work with MLT Bridge software so you can run them Online, and they are really robust units and I can send them in for repairs locally, MLT factory is around the corner of my work. And to add, I picked up this units for a good price.
On the MPPTs I went for Victron stuff with all the stuff that go’s with them. Wanted something that I can get stats and do more stuff and a bit of a step-up from Microcare stuff. 250/100 and 150/100 mppts. 250/100 is for my North array and the 150/100 is for my East and West array.
I kept the 600 x 600 enclosures that used for my 140AH lifepo’s on my previous setup and decided to get some more lifepo4 batteries. Bought a 1000 x 600 enclosure and moved the 140Ah to them and the 100ah sells went in the 600 x 600 enclosures. The 140ah is a 16s2p setup now that is 280ah combine and the 100ah sells is a 16s2p setup that gives 200ah per unit. Combine it will be about 36kwh (680ah) storage.
64 100ah sells delivered
Some photos busy building the lifepo4 battery packs.
18 x 330w panels for my East and West array. 9 for East and 9 for West array. This if for the morning sun and afternoon tot late afternoon sun. They will be running on the 150/100 mppt. 9 x 430w panels for the North array on the 250/100 mppt. They way bigger then the 330w in size.
With all the crimping I did in the past and lending a crimper from my one friend and all the crimping I needed to do, I went and bought a Hydraulic crimper, one of the best buys ever.
It crimps really nice crimps
16s2p 100ah sells. Every enclosure is holding 200ah of storage running an Smart Ant+ Bms.
I went for a bigger DB because I split my DB in to two between the two inverters. The H8.0 runs the Garage and geyser and AC in the house. The H10.0 will run the rest of the house with other AC in the rooms. That’s why I got two Et112, one for every inverter that feeds the house so that I can get the reading via the VRM portal. Bottom part will be for extra stuff like for the home automation stuff and for the Shelly Pro4. Still need to add all the Shelly Em clamps in the DB.
I had to make more roof tile brackets out of 5mm flat bar, 52 of them to add with my other 30 I got that I made for the other house. Had me busy for a few days all the cutting and welding. Forgot how bad a arc weld can tan your arms because i’m use to the my father MIG welder.
Before pic:
After pic after all the welding and drilling and sending of galv.
The other bracket design I had from my other house that I made my self.
[/img]https://energytalk.co.za/uploads/default/original/2X/f/fec1e3cacb733706c936df897367b537bd0cce08.jpeg[/img]
Till 2 weeks ago, I finished all my stuff, submitted my forms last year for SSEG at CoCT and new prepaid meter installed from the City side and did my COC and got the go ahead from them that I’m registered at the City and I can use my system.
We where away on holiday over December so didn’t had a lot of time in December to do stuff, we came back in January in that first week when it was so hot. So late in the afternoon I will get on the roof to open the roof tiles to mount the brackets and rails. All done on my own without help.
East and West rails
North and East and West rails all mounted and ready
East panels stacked on a Tuesday 9 x 330w
West panels stacked on the Wednesday 9 x 330w
Panels was later drop a bit lower on the rail because I wasn’t sure with the stacking with the first one on the north facing end will fit when all 9 panels are on the rail because it was a tight fit, but all fitted so I drop them a bit to the correct clamping position on the rails. Did this after I took the Photos.
The Thursday and Friday Cape Town was hit by a heat wave so I stayed of the roof that 2 days. On Saturday I started to stack the last 9 panels, the 430w ones.
In that time I ordered a big wall mount fan for the garage to mount it close to the equipment connected to a TH16 to switch on when the garage started to get warm.
https://energytalk.co.za/uploads/default/original/2X/7/76cd1deafbde85a225d086c8279a4b1c9add2290.jpeg
Here is the end product.
I still need to check in the new 2.80 update to get the ET112 to read correctly. The one that shows Generator is the MLT H8.0 one and the AC Loads one is the combine on the H8.0 and H10.0 output.
All the data can be pulled via the Victron VRM portal and I can check all the inverters stuff via MLT portal.
System consist 2 MLT inverters. One is H8.0 and the other one H10.0 It’s the older models of MLT but what I like about them are that they can work with MLT Bridge software so you can run them Online, and they are really robust units and I can send them in for repairs locally, MLT factory is around the corner of my work. And to add, I picked up this units for a good price.
On the MPPTs I went for Victron stuff with all the stuff that go’s with them. Wanted something that I can get stats and do more stuff and a bit of a step-up from Microcare stuff. 250/100 and 150/100 mppts. 250/100 is for my North array and the 150/100 is for my East and West array.
I kept the 600 x 600 enclosures that used for my 140AH lifepo’s on my previous setup and decided to get some more lifepo4 batteries. Bought a 1000 x 600 enclosure and moved the 140Ah to them and the 100ah sells went in the 600 x 600 enclosures. The 140ah is a 16s2p setup now that is 280ah combine and the 100ah sells is a 16s2p setup that gives 200ah per unit. Combine it will be about 36kwh (680ah) storage.
64 100ah sells delivered
Some photos busy building the lifepo4 battery packs.
18 x 330w panels for my East and West array. 9 for East and 9 for West array. This if for the morning sun and afternoon tot late afternoon sun. They will be running on the 150/100 mppt. 9 x 430w panels for the North array on the 250/100 mppt. They way bigger then the 330w in size.
With all the crimping I did in the past and lending a crimper from my one friend and all the crimping I needed to do, I went and bought a Hydraulic crimper, one of the best buys ever.
It crimps really nice crimps
16s2p 100ah sells. Every enclosure is holding 200ah of storage running an Smart Ant+ Bms.
I went for a bigger DB because I split my DB in to two between the two inverters. The H8.0 runs the Garage and geyser and AC in the house. The H10.0 will run the rest of the house with other AC in the rooms. That’s why I got two Et112, one for every inverter that feeds the house so that I can get the reading via the VRM portal. Bottom part will be for extra stuff like for the home automation stuff and for the Shelly Pro4. Still need to add all the Shelly Em clamps in the DB.
I had to make more roof tile brackets out of 5mm flat bar, 52 of them to add with my other 30 I got that I made for the other house. Had me busy for a few days all the cutting and welding. Forgot how bad a arc weld can tan your arms because i’m use to the my father MIG welder.
Before pic:
After pic after all the welding and drilling and sending of galv.
The other bracket design I had from my other house that I made my self.
[/img]https://energytalk.co.za/uploads/default/original/2X/f/fec1e3cacb733706c936df897367b537bd0cce08.jpeg[/img]
Till 2 weeks ago, I finished all my stuff, submitted my forms last year for SSEG at CoCT and new prepaid meter installed from the City side and did my COC and got the go ahead from them that I’m registered at the City and I can use my system.
We where away on holiday over December so didn’t had a lot of time in December to do stuff, we came back in January in that first week when it was so hot. So late in the afternoon I will get on the roof to open the roof tiles to mount the brackets and rails. All done on my own without help.
East and West rails
North and East and West rails all mounted and ready
East panels stacked on a Tuesday 9 x 330w
West panels stacked on the Wednesday 9 x 330w
Panels was later drop a bit lower on the rail because I wasn’t sure with the stacking with the first one on the north facing end will fit when all 9 panels are on the rail because it was a tight fit, but all fitted so I drop them a bit to the correct clamping position on the rails. Did this after I took the Photos.
The Thursday and Friday Cape Town was hit by a heat wave so I stayed of the roof that 2 days. On Saturday I started to stack the last 9 panels, the 430w ones.
In that time I ordered a big wall mount fan for the garage to mount it close to the equipment connected to a TH16 to switch on when the garage started to get warm.
https://energytalk.co.za/uploads/default/original/2X/7/76cd1deafbde85a225d086c8279a4b1c9add2290.jpeg
Here is the end product.
I still need to check in the new 2.80 update to get the ET112 to read correctly. The one that shows Generator is the MLT H8.0 one and the AC Loads one is the combine on the H8.0 and H10.0 output.
All the data can be pulled via the Victron VRM portal and I can check all the inverters stuff via MLT portal.