@@MMMM2MMMM2MMMMwhy would you put solar on the roof when you can built them right into the road…. I hear they’ve had great success with this concept overseas…..
At work we once had a "security consultant" who came to audit our IT systems and plugged a laptop infected with a well known trojan malware into our management network...
I tried to install computers and phones at an office three imes and every time I found a bunch of outlets that didn't work. The last time I was still there when then electrician showed back up. He was mad and trying to blame it on other people. He started going around "testing" each outlet with a none contact ac voltage detector. He "tested" one of the outlets that I knew didn't work and kept going. I stopped him and asked if what he was doing was actually testing if the outlet worked. He said of course see when it beeps there is voltage. He waved it over the outlet again and said see voltage. I responded yes but is the neutral hooked up. He was like of course it is I did this one one myself. I plugged an actual outlet tester pointed to the results and said are sure about that. A few minutes later I hear different beeping and I wanted to see what he was doing. He was walking around with a multimeter testing each outlet. Not sure why it was beeping. He did manage to fix all the outlets i needed. I still wonder if he was just lazy or an idiot.
Australia is located within the southern hemisphere & pointing solar panels generally north increases the available sun hours on them. Pointing solar panels south in Australia is counterproductive, since that is where the south pole is & attracts the least amount of sun hours, especially during midday
@@mondotv4216 my wild guess is that the enclosure and panel blend was reused from a 3-phase model, or the markings don't denote phases but LEDs (LED 1, 2, 3 instead of live 1, 2 and 3).
An electrician asking me to borrow a multimeter would be an instant "You can leave now." moment for me. Then again, it sounds like a bunch of amateurs got sent out to you. I'd name and shame them if I were you.
Agreed, sounds very much like Dave’s employed a bunch of half-trained, monkeys, for this job..! If I was him, I would be ..demanding, to see all, of their ‘Trade Licenses’ …! 🙄
Except they only last 20 years because of UV and heat damage... and then they can't be recycled... and they're not sustainable because the high-quality quartz is mined just like coal, except there's much less of it and when we run out it's bye-bye silicon wafers for chips and therefore civilisation.
Panels don't usually fail, however despite not moving, wires, connectors, junctions, fuses/breakers, switches and chargers/inverters do fail, even more so if it's done on the cheap such as a full DIY system from aliexpress parts.
What?! The sparky didn't have a multimeter because someone else had it? Come on guys, what outfit doesn't have spares, even if they are just basic meters not multifunction whizz bang meters. Who turns up to a job without a meter!
right? I'm not even a sparky but I have like 3 meters and a portable scope-meter. they're not very expensive. most clamp meters do double-duty as a multimeter as well, so you'd expect them to have at least 2.
Sounds like Dave got caught by the racket of solar cowboys given the dumb mistakes, undertooled, and unprofessionalism of showing up unannounced onsite after hours.
He was shocked at the costs of what I was quoted for installation. He said he was able to do his original system for well under $10K AUD. His system in my neck of the woods is WELL OVER $35K, and I need nearly double what he has thanks to shading, being in the north, and full load requirements. Maybe that "cheap" install isn't so cheap after-all...
Look at 19:37, they just chopped off one of the AC cables right off that microinverter connector and left the bare copper exposed. This is shoddy and a fire hazard at best!!!
It's unbelievable that they didn't double check the installation. They should have label the two pv string and measure them to verify that they are connected and the polarity is right. The same for the micro inverters, they should have verify they are connected to the grid.
I have been following you since 2011. I have also seen your previous videos of solar panel installation. I got a lot of information and enjoyed watching .
Dave we live in the same part of town. I had a 10kW solar system installed a year ago (I requested generator backup but was denied I saw the option on your gear). I went solar to fight off $1000 per 1/4 bills from Energy Australia. I have had 4 bills now and I've been shafted. First 3 bills were only $150 per 1/4, but 4th jumped up to $400, all of a sudden the grid buy back was slashed to FA. I had heard how many other people were affected but it was a huge slap in the face. Only solution now is to strap on a home fire hazard battery. My neighbour has a different / similar story, he's with Origin Energy and had a Medium size battery that's already been replaced twice in 4 years (defective batteries). He use to get $200 credit per 1/4, he's now down to $12 credit per 1/4 because his buy back rate is peanuts like mine. I just wonder when there will be a royal commision into the rogue power companies who make it impossible to get any leverage to control the out of control pricing. With the buy back rate so low now putting a battery on makes absolutely no economic sense. Honestly going off grid is what i'm looking at now.
@@SomeMorganSomewhere Also seems odd to have the AC cut off rather than a breaker. The inverter is a power source and the conductor is unfused the whole way to the breaker panel.
@@robertalabla yeah, that's a bit odd too since the point is to protect the wiring. Personally if I was to hypothetically (because I'd totally NEVER do that because I'm just a EEE and I don't got the schoolin' for this electrimacicianing) install a submain, I'd install MCBs at both ends because it's a really convenient way to provide an isolator AND overcurrent protection.
Orange circ in Australia is UV rated. It is commonly used in industry in full sun. We have some parts of our plant with 40 year old orange circ in full sun still in use and it's serviceable despite some chalkiness discolouration.
Geeze the extra expense for enphase iq8A would be forgotten long before the pain of this install fades. :):) I love the ones I have and trina 440s on my roof and your video has convinced me that it was the right option for us now.
Sometimes when you're blue collar busy, stuff can happen. My truck bed gets messy sometimes, especially near the end of a larger job. I've asked to borrow a screwdriver from a client before, despite having $1000's worth of other tools on me sans a #2 phillips. OTOH, silicone caulk sealed roof jacks, plus what appears to be a significant chunk of troubleshooting time with no result? That is where it gets a bit shady to me.
Really poor install processes - earth cable in the wrong place, labelling over the removable panel... sheesh! Are they class 2 screws they used on the conduit clamps? For a hybrid - you should ALWAYS install the CT cable & backup/emergency cables back to the mains panel, the sparkys dont want to - as they can charge you for another visit. You bought a hybrid for a reason - so do it up front & do it once!
Screw missing on the conduit saddle to the AC isolator too. I also don't like that orange flex cable being looped like that too. Doesn't look like enough mechanical protection and I'd also question the UV rating?
@@netbootdisk @netbootdisk I've seen loops put in as "drip" loops - if there's any water/moisture, then it doesnt travel from one enclosure to the next. With you on the lack of grey UV conduit though! It should be in the shade (inverter location)... but still - i want more mechanical protection. #strayatradie
Solar Assistant is great, I've been using it for just over a year now. Just be sure to make regular backups and if you can connect a small SSD to install it to would be recommended as micro-SD cards are prone to fail (like it did with me). If you have Home Assistant you can easily integrate it there too which is nice as I rarely have to use the Solar Assistant interface as everything I need for the house is in Home Assistant.
Dave, you're no longer a spring chick. If you don't know by now, that if you want it done right, then you have to DIY, then I don't know what to tell you.
Last I recall, you have to be certified to do any electrical/solar work in Aussie land, plus it doesn't matter he's already paid to have someone do it, so now you nag them to do it right or threaten to charge back.
I installed my home battery last week. I use Enphase micro inverters and a Victron multiplus 2 GX for charging the Lifepo4 batteries and regulate the usage and export to the grid. So far i am pretty pleased with the results.
Don't worry, Dave. You'll soon need one more current clamp, with a 2 Din rail unit device for it, with a 485 twisted pair back to the inverter from the meter box. Once you get it: A: Switch to 'Zero export to CT' B: Activate 'Solar Sell' if you'd like to export after that. C: Enable grid peak shaving and set its wattage to the maximum you want imported. D: Consider using the LOAD output (get a contactor for the earth neutral bond). E: If you wanna export from battery for some reason, you'll need sell first AND disabled grid peak shaving AS WELL AS a target to sell down to in the schedule. D: Be sure to enable MPPT multi point tracking under advanced. Cheers from someone who installed a Deye 6k hybrid in Europe last November!
Hello Dave, if you think to it one more time, it will appear clear that it's normal that you will have to pay for injecting power to the grid : not only you still profit of the grid infrastructure when you need power, but by injecting you actually generate costs for the grid company that has to adapt the infrastructure to a very different topology in terms of grid load. The price of grid electricity includes the infrastructure, compuded in a sort of shared cost where everybody contributes a bit. Therefore, with big power injection this equilibrium gets messed up.
Not a fan of wi-fi connections. When we had Tesla Powerwalls and Gateway installed (along with solar), I ran network cables for the installer to connect. Annoyingly the Gateway and first Powerwall each require their own network cable, but the second Powerwall takes its data connection from the first. There is an option for wi-fi connection but cables are very reliable.
For monitoring I’m a big fan of Home Assistant. I have it connected to the P1 port (serial) on my power meter so it can log power usage and the energy being exported to the grid. I have a solar edge inverter and use their modbus interface via the inverters LAN connection to monitor my solar power production. Home Assistant correlates all the information to show me all the information in a nice interface. Can’t recommend it enough, and it’s free if you don’t want/need external access. Of course power meters with a serial connection are not available everywhere but I’m glad it saves me extra hardware and cost. Definitely a lot of things went wrong with the install of your new system. Damn Murphy 😅
There are multiple ways to get external access for free as well. The easyest is probably using the Tailscale Addon. (Personaly i use the HomeAssistant cloud tho, to support the team.)
I have 24 of those exact same 440W Trina panels recently installed. Runs great, or at least as well as Victorian winter weather will currently allow :) And I spent extra and got a battery, and have all sorts of nice monitoring running on it. I jury rigged my own monitoring, as the Sungrow inverter and Powerwall have web interfaces which I can scrape data from. But I feel lucky, I have no dramas with my install.
I need to say the ground (Earth) cable from the roof PV array should have run independently straight to be onnected to the common earth bar (common AC grounding connection point) of your building's electrical installation point, And NOT "looping" through inverter as they did. Then they should install another inverter grounding cable between inverter and run it all the way to the common AC grounding point of the building AC installation. This arrangement is known as "Equipotential Bonding". The various grounding cables from each section run with separate cables and these cables finally "meet" or join up only at the grounding busbar or pint of the Ac installation. NOTE: It's is also advisable to have a backup earth cable connection wired on the outside of the inverter casing again running it al the way to grounding terminal. This is for touch protection Incase the primary earring inside inverter were to fail or come loose.
(22:00) It is not convenient without DC isolator. Hybrix inverters are more complex and more prone to fault, so it is much more convenient to have an outer DC isolator (but not inbuilt). So, I don't understand why they removed it.
Thanks Dave, finally got around to watching this video, and my takeaway is basically I should tell my parents not to bother installing a solar system unless they can use all the energy they generate, otherwise it'll be costing them to make electricity. Sounds like they're better off finding some renewable energy investments to put their money into, since they're far more likely to actually deliver a financial benefit than a solar system on their roof.
Yes, many/most inverters offer a no-export option. Though that does require a CT to measure your demand so it knows how much to output to cancel it out.
Looking at the installation manual for that Deye inverter, the grounding point is on the rear right behind the grid hole. Installer didn't RTFM I guess.
So a few things to Note... 1. on the Deye inverter, the earth lug is on the RHS at the outside bottom next to the grid output... 2. microinverters probably won't work as they need to see grid to fire up? 3. deye does hook up to Home assistant as it has a hac 4. Sooooo,, for a correct CofC, systems usually need to have current approved panels, so even may incluse your old ones are getting reinstalled , so make sure you get that from your sparks before they realise! (Correct me if I'm wrong)
Look into vertical hanging your panels, like on a garden wall etc, as I'm amazing how well they work in winter, you could use them old panels maybe, as it will give you power when you really need it.
Um... wait. What? Did I understand Dave that instead of the hydro people paying the customer something for feeding the grid the customer is now charged a fee for doing so? That doesn't make sense and completely changes the situation about getting a solar system and the payback period.
I’ve been running my Deye hybrid with Solarman flawlessly for three years. However, last year, I had to update the data logger firmware to keep it functioning. The update was carried out via Deye’s support email through an over-the-air operation. Interestingly, they restarted the inverter at 11 PM without prior notice a day after I requested support. After that, the logger was back in action.
I'll give your setup a rating of "got the job done with existing tools"/11 I love my PoE powered Raspberries and Arduinos around my house. Hitting "2 flies with one clap" like we use to say in German ;) All are powered by some old 100Mbit PoE switch next to my regular 1Gbit switch in the basement. I like to pull 2 cables everywhere, so I'm flexible if I want a second PoE or a Gbit if I need another connection. This was really handy when I bought a buch of PoE cameras a few month ago. They came with their own DVR with internal Gbit PoE switch, but since its all central I could patch that easily to the unused existing cables :)
Not sure about AU code, but there is a grounding location on the bottom side of the Deye inverter that is mandatory to connect at least according to EU spec.
The EU variants differ slightly, we also (case grounding aside) have 3 terminals for load/grind/generator, they all carry their PE respectively. We installed a SUN-3.6K-SG03LP1-EU recently.
Remember to email Deye and ask them to change the wifi logger dongle update time from default 5min to 1min update intervals.Or it will only update every 5min to web interface/ monitoring.The setup is pretty simple to link to solarman assist / Deye Cloud
PV installing electrician from Austria here: These PV installers have done an absolute shoddy job! The Earthing is supposed to terminate on the outside of the DEYE (there is a screw on the underside) The earth bar inside the device is only for the GEN LOAD and GRID cables not for Panel earthing. I would have installed a separate earth bar under the DEYE. Also where are the Lightning Surge Arresters? I would really install an Arrester Box before the DEYE to be safe!
Nearby lighting strike will have potential to mess up that system for sure, that's a ground loop into the wrong place. Panels are supposed to have separate grounding of the frames straight to the ground rod + bonded at mains box, I don't see any string surge varistor packs installed either. There should be a panel installed with surge protectors and DC fuses, two for each string. Very odd installation practice indeed.
Looks like there is a designated port/gland for the earth (CPC) cable at the back right position. Funnily enough this is close to the internal earth bar. Who would have thunk it. The ever-changing government, energy regulator and energy supplier's policies and export in rates is not unique to Aus. We use the same sun as you guys but you would think we didn't share the same planet when it comes to solar policies. At the moment we can get a reasonably good export rate from a couple of suppliers so the days of trying to use everything we generate are, at least for the moment, behind us. Of course that could change again but at least for now it makes no sense to use solar excess to heat water. Less than 2 years ago that would have been a no-brainer to fit a solar diverter but now my export pays for all my electric import for the year and for most months pays the gas bill too. In the summer I even make a profit. Again, very different to a few years ago. Fitting a battery has become something of an essential task to maximise the energy of the random UK weather. For me, adding another battery makes no sense at all as it would not pay for itself. Again, that is a relatively recent change. In reality that is the real gripe with solar - government and energy policies keep shifting around and can easily kill an investment at a stroke of a pen. In the UK we have an energy regulator who stumbles in the dark and takes the energy industries word for it. Whilst most of the world now understand that we need to use less energy our UK regulator has allowed the fixed daily tariff (standing charge) to treble (in my case) making this fixed rate dominate the bills of average or below average domestic users. Even if you use zero energy you still get a hefty bill which undermines the 'green' message. It must be nice for the billionaires living in mansions down south who pay a third of my standing charge, even when they use a massive amount of energy. Tax policies for green energy seem to go in circles too. Here in the UK we have only recently dropped VAT (sales tax) on home batteries even though the rest of a solar PV system has been zero-rated for years. Yet the UK government still requires VAT on EV charge points (albeit this can be avoided if fitted at the same time of a PV system or upgrade). Meanwhile the tax exemption for luxury EV cars is incredibly generous. Nothing is coherent in the UK but the idea of charging for solar export in Aus shows that things could actually get much much worse!
The standing charge went up because they had to hide the cost of the failed providers ( which they licensed) whose debts were passed on to the company they forced to take on the customers of the failed customers. The remaining power companies were allowed to increase the standing charge to pay for the loss they had to absorb ( have email from Ofgen confirming this from when I complained increase in standing charge was much much more than inflation)
You can hardly complain about government regulations, while it is the government that enables you to steal money from the public with the various green scam. It is unlikely that any energy provider would pay for your unreliable and fluctuating solar output -or at least significantly less- without the government green scam. The same goes for the various subsidies that enables you to buy you solar plant in part on the taxpayer's dime. You earn your money through stupid government idiosyncrasies - you than of course suffer the same idiosyncrasies while doing so. Just as in the old saying: Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Funny thing is, the old Sunnyboy has a DC isolator built in, so the external one you had was pointless. The Sunnyboy's isolator is the black lump that sticks out the bottom - you just pull it down and the whole lump comes out, it's like a massive jumper cap. My TL5000 Sunnyboy is just about to hit 60MWh after 11 years (6.5kWp of panels).
Your setup is 10 out-a 10, for sure! My rent has increased by 250%, so I'll be living off grid in my RV soon. So, I'll need to put together a decent solar system with batteries and backup genie. I don't think my government will give me a rebate if I'm off grid in my RV ; (
Why people 'choose to be homeless'. :'( Good luck dude, van life can be awesome - some days you wake up to a view and think even a billionaire couldnt pay for it. But its also really challenging.
Hi Dave, as far as I know the way to install this inverter you should have your grid line connected to its grid input, the load as being your house main panel input to the inverters load pins, once you do this in hybrid mode as in with battery the inverter would internally connect load with grid to perform injection to the grid, you will need the CT installed to measure what goes in and out, without battery it will behave the same way, once you have the battery and set it properly to charge and export the excess if you lose the grid it goes in off grid mode and you still have power. The way it was connected for you its the worst way, it limits the inverter alot in terms of what you can do with it. Do make sure the installers or you if allowed connect it in hybrid mode, main grid line to grid , your loads/ entire house if that power covers your needs. My brother has one , the 8kw version and it works very well as I have described above. Good luck and I hope it last at least as the old sunny boy.
I did almost the same thing as Dave. Mix of DC Enphase microinverters + LG panels on the Southwest roof and old Sharp panels and Fronius string (DC) inverter on the Southwest. This mix seems to maximize production throughout the day. Only 7.2 kW peak total, but I have a small(ish) home.
New Trinas: all electrons fell out, but the neutrinos sticked. As for meters, I never thought someone would still install an electromechanical meter in the 2010s! Here in Poland most of the meters are electronic, the old electromechanical ones (that could be tricked with a neodymium magnet) are phased out in utilities and used mainly as sub-meters for monitoring the energy use in parts of wiring. It's still mainly found in the older wiring - DIN rail mounted meters conforming to MID (measurement instrument directive) are preferable because they're so much smaller and more practical. Smart meters (as opposed to electronic meters) are being deployed, but this is hampered by lack of infrastructure as these things use power-line communication and need transceivers in transformer stations. I have a 1939 made meter waiting for restoration in my lab... that's gonna be quite a project! An electrician with no moldymeter on a friggin' job site... WTF? I hope it was just a Fluke. Beefier, weird requirements, not your Joe Average... Same here. Nerds gonna nerd and sometimes push the limits of tech. To boldly go where no one has gone before...
I think they should have placed your top row up towards the peak a little further so that you could walk between the two rows.. Which would help a lot for cleaning.. Unless they are strong enough to walk on-- ??? Which I don't know the answer to
How can an electrician not have a meter and still perform the mandatory tests to comply with 8.3.3 of the AS3000. Without testing earth continuity, polarity and Insulation resistance your system could be unsafe and dangerous.
If there's more than one electrician then the other one would perform the tests. If there's only one electrician they could make another trip back before switching it on.
You said you don't have a CT connected on the grid side, how do you prevent the inverter from exporting to the grid and more importantly how do you prevent your inverter from exporting when you have a power failure and don't kill one of the linemen working on a fault. Just wondering
The inverter is connected to the mains and is constantly measuring it. If it falls out of spec the inverter shuts down. It's required by Australia/New Zealand Standard 4777 which all inverters must adhere to.
As the other comment said, all Australia compliant inverters must disconnect from the grid if ti goes down. Don't need a clamp for that, it just measures the grid voltage is there.
We live off grid and if your feeling generous we have to run the generator every night this time of year! Not surprised with the quality of the installation, so many shonky people out there with no pride in workmanship. Personally i take great pride in my work and want the next guy who has to work on it think so.
I wanted used panels as a start for my house, no way I pay the same price as new 400 watt panels. People are crazy here in Germany. To the Deye Inverter: I use Hoymiles with OpenDTU/AhoyDTU, running on an ESP8266 or ESP32 and wireless gets the data from the microinverters and push it into my Home Assistant and the home automation system.
Thanks for the insight. But what a pity to replace a good old German SMA with a Deye :-( . I am actually done with Deye. First, they "forgot" the security relay #relaygate. And I already had one defective micro-inverter from them.
Yes I heard about that as well and at one stage you would be paid a pittance for it but that would be better than having to pay. we pay enough down under for it all ready. Next they will charge us to breath the air.
In most of Australia, wholesale power prices go negative in the middle of the day. Solar is feeding power in, wind is there, Gas turbines and hydro are both practically off and coal is ramped down to as low as they can be, and there is still too much power on the grid. All they can do is let the voltage drift up until home solar plants start shutting off. They are working on pumped hydro to absorb some power, but large construction projects take time.
Generally you do have to pay someone money to take something they don't want. So much rooftop solar in Aussie now that there's more generation than demand. So you're basically paying them to dispose of it.
@@LB-fx1kn We have so little power during the summer at mid day the power company is telling everyone to get solar. They also charge to feed back to grid. They can't fix black/brown outs due to low power production but they still want to charge to take it and sell it...
Btw. without 24hr shade that screen will degrade in the sun being mounted outside. That is not a warranty issue. Would be better to mount the inverter INSIDE.
I'm not sure it is good idea to use invertor earth tefminal as Earth for panels (29:00). I guess it is better to have a separate earthing system built for panels only (because of lightning etc).
The mc4 connectors can clip in and have the metal end inside press back into the wire which will cause an open circuit. Luckily most of the mc4 connectors pull apart and can be fixed without needing a new one.
there must be some power coming out of that connector that is used for the wifi dongle the problem with the solar analytics system was the 4G network crapping out
Oh Dear. I have installed several of these DEYE inverters. I have had no issues. Your installer did not connect it property. They used the generator port for the mains AC input. Your mains AC input is not connected. Then these guys charge for a service?
@@DooMMasteR I think they have got different connection boards for these inverters. The right most ports are Load, Center one is Generator and then Grid. So I see where my confusion came in. I had to double check the manual there. Standards. Makes it hard for out of country folk to help troubleshoot.
@@DooMMasteR I see. Those terminals are not what I have installed. I have a SUN-8K-SG01LP1-EU. Installed. I have an extra 3 port connection teminal and each one has to have its own earthing terminal. Seems like ausie electrics are either safer because of the lesser earthing or we have poor electircal grid with more earthing requirements.
That is an amazing install. I remember when I had solar fitted (Australian made 7x285W Black Sapphire panels) I get about 1.6Kw out on a good day. I live in UK in a small roof terrace house, so no room for more. I have 2 silly roofs on the SSE facing roof, so my panels are split between SSE and W, which isnt ideal but it works. I had to go into settings on Solax inverter because some voltage settings were wrong and my system would keep cutting out when the sun was at its brightest and giving me the best return, so in theory this made the system stupid and pointless. I fixed the issue with the higher AC line voltage set too low, below what the normal supply voltage is here in UK, my meter was showing supply of 245V and threshold was set to 220V so anything above that was causing the inverter to stop inverting lol. I did check all online documents for the inverter and its specs so the setting of 250V I set was within its tollerances, so now the inverter stays on untill there is a drop below about 60V from the panels. My system is about 4 years old now and still works great, and it was all I could afford at the time (paid for outright, not on finance or 'rent a roof' system) Just wanted to add, while your your birds were chirping away, they were driving my budgie mad, he keeps trying to talk back to them LOL 🤣😂
As a comparison, I have 12x330w (4kw) that is nearly 4 years old and I get 30kw on a good day in the summer and only 1kw on the worst possible day in winter when its dark and drizzling.
For another UK comparison. I live in the Southwest, about 40 east of Lands End. I have a 3.78kWp system consisting of 9 X JA solar 420W panels, SSW facing and a Solis inverter. In summer on a variable weather day, I see about 18 kWhr of generation, and about 25 kWhr on a full sunny day. In the summer I'm generating from 5am to almost 10pm, which is pretty impressive IMO.
IDK about technician labour costs in australia, but I imagine installation costs of such a change are not low and need to be factored in to see if a change is worthwhile. I feel like it's often better to leave a system running until it breaks, also in terms of embodied energy (although I understand you had your roof worked on independend of this)
Here in rainy UK I installed a 2.4kw (8 panel) system two years ago on my workshop,cost me £1278 for new Canadian panels and second hand growatt 3.6kw gti , I'm a sparkie so no instal costs , thanks to the ridiculous price of electricity at the time the payback was well under a year. I just got 4 more 250w panels with another growatt gti for a bargain £80 from a guy who's upgrading...that's my next small project. Solar doesn't have to cost big £££ to save big £££.
"Hey Mr Jones, we forgot to bring our multimeter, do you happen to have one laying around?" 😀😀😀
Mr Jones ... "Ripper ... got one I can sell you mate."
🤣🤣🤣🤣 This comment is so underrated
Brings out the one from the 1920's made with tubes.
Bring out the biggest scope. "Couldn't find mine either but this will tell you the voltage".
Mr Jones: "Sure, here is my analog meter I had when I was a kid"
No more roof space -- put your old 250 watt panels on your driveway. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Solar FREAKING driveways??
Solar Freakin Driveway
Those failing drive-over panels were certainly FAKE NEWS
Never heard of a carport?
@@MMMM2MMMM2MMMMwhy would you put solar on the roof when you can built them right into the road…. I hear they’ve had great success with this concept overseas…..
An electrician without a multimeter, is unheard of. That grinds my gears.
And YOU are paying THEM to install the system!!!!!
At work we once had a "security consultant" who came to audit our IT systems and plugged a laptop infected with a well known trojan malware into our management network...
@@pomonabill220 should've charged them rental on the borrowed multimeter ;)
I tried to install computers and phones at an office three imes and every time I found a bunch of outlets that didn't work. The last time I was still there when then electrician showed back up. He was mad and trying to blame it on other people. He started going around "testing" each outlet with a none contact ac voltage detector. He "tested" one of the outlets that I knew didn't work and kept going. I stopped him and asked if what he was doing was actually testing if the outlet worked. He said of course see when it beeps there is voltage. He waved it over the outlet again and said see voltage. I responded yes but is the neutral hooked up. He was like of course it is I did this one one myself. I plugged an actual outlet tester pointed to the results and said are sure about that. A few minutes later I hear different beeping and I wanted to see what he was doing. He was walking around with a multimeter testing each outlet. Not sure why it was beeping. He did manage to fix all the outlets i needed. I still wonder if he was just lazy or an idiot.
@@AdrianSchwartzmann Most of them are both. Wait until you call a linesman to fix a broken neutral. He will seem like a genius after that.
You silly Australians, pointing your solar panels to the north!
Australia is located within the southern hemisphere & pointing solar panels generally north increases the available sun hours on them.
Pointing solar panels south in Australia is counterproductive, since that is where the south pole is & attracts the least amount of sun hours, especially during midday
@@johnathanasiou9284that's the joke
It is to counteract the Coriolis force.
@@johnathanasiou9284 It was an obvious joke bud
@@johnathanasiou9284lol
Would have been funnier if you gave the electrician a meter with your face on it.
Nah, give him the "Babies first multimeter". The one that super pinky swears it's cat3 but uses smd fuses.
"Here, take this Brymen 235 as a consolation prize..."
Doesn't the L3 light flashing indicate a problem with phase 3? ie voltage is either disconnected or running at the wrong frequency on phase 3.
@@mondotv4216 my wild guess is that the enclosure and panel blend was reused from a 3-phase model, or the markings don't denote phases but LEDs (LED 1, 2, 3 instead of live 1, 2 and 3).
An electrician asking me to borrow a multimeter would be an instant "You can leave now." moment for me. Then again, it sounds like a bunch of amateurs got sent out to you.
I'd name and shame them if I were you.
Agreed, sounds very much like Dave’s employed a bunch of half-trained, monkeys, for this job..! If I was him, I would be ..demanding, to see all, of their ‘Trade Licenses’ …! 🙄
I understand they did not provide panels and inverter but leaving without even checking the system is producing...
Back of the truck and no MM makes me confident there will be a follow up "solar install fail" vid 😂
I smile when I see panels on roofs. They look beautiful to me. I see silent self-sufficiency with no moving parts to fail.
They fail slowly each year
Parts do not have to move to fail ...
Except they only last 20 years because of UV and heat damage... and then they can't be recycled... and they're not sustainable because the high-quality quartz is mined just like coal, except there's much less of it and when we run out it's bye-bye silicon wafers for chips and therefore civilisation.
I see alot of broken ones too, hail storms are very common here as are they in Australia I hear.
Panels don't usually fail, however despite not moving, wires, connectors, junctions, fuses/breakers, switches and chargers/inverters do fail, even more so if it's done on the cheap such as a full DIY system from aliexpress parts.
What?! The sparky didn't have a multimeter because someone else had it? Come on guys, what outfit doesn't have spares, even if they are just basic meters not multifunction whizz bang meters. Who turns up to a job without a meter!
right? I'm not even a sparky but I have like 3 meters and a portable scope-meter. they're not very expensive. most clamp meters do double-duty as a multimeter as well, so you'd expect them to have at least 2.
Worst company ever
They know it's Dave. He has tons of em laying around.
In my home i have 3 floors and have one in each and 2 bonus ones in the livingroom 😅
Sounds like Dave got caught by the racket of solar cowboys given the dumb mistakes, undertooled, and unprofessionalism of showing up unannounced onsite after hours.
Jesus these installers are a clownshow
The installation that was carried out for you Dave was piss poor to say the least I would suggest you have an independent inspection carried out.
Ya buy cheap, ya buy twice.
@@Jimmeh_Byou can also buy expensive inexperienced
Even if installation went more than perfectly fine, some idiots later guaranteed will mess something up
He was shocked at the costs of what I was quoted for installation. He said he was able to do his original system for well under $10K AUD. His system in my neck of the woods is WELL OVER $35K, and I need nearly double what he has thanks to shading, being in the north, and full load requirements. Maybe that "cheap" install isn't so cheap after-all...
Look at 19:37, they just chopped off one of the AC cables right off that microinverter connector and left the bare copper exposed. This is shoddy and a fire hazard at best!!!
26:48
Wild external earth connection spotted at the far right, back.
No reason to have it going into the unit
It's unbelievable that they didn't double check the installation. They should have label the two pv string and measure them to verify that they are connected and the polarity is right. The same for the micro inverters, they should have verify they are connected to the grid.
I have been following you since 2011. I have also seen your previous videos of solar panel installation. I got a lot of information and enjoyed watching .
Dave we live in the same part of town. I had a 10kW solar system installed a year ago (I requested generator backup but was denied I saw the option on your gear). I went solar to fight off $1000 per 1/4 bills from Energy Australia. I have had 4 bills now and I've been shafted. First 3 bills were only $150 per 1/4, but 4th jumped up to $400, all of a sudden the grid buy back was slashed to FA. I had heard how many other people were affected but it was a huge slap in the face. Only solution now is to strap on a home fire hazard battery. My neighbour has a different / similar story, he's with Origin Energy and had a Medium size battery that's already been replaced twice in 4 years (defective batteries). He use to get $200 credit per 1/4, he's now down to $12 credit per 1/4 because his buy back rate is peanuts like mine. I just wonder when there will be a royal commision into the rogue power companies who make it impossible to get any leverage to control the out of control pricing. With the buy back rate so low now putting a battery on makes absolutely no economic sense. Honestly going off grid is what i'm looking at now.
You should just install them in the pavement instead 😂
Solar Freakin' Driveways!
Would have thought the orange grid cable would be in conduit as the orange is not normally UV rated.
Worse than that, no fixed wiring is permitted to be installed without physical protection in Australia.
yeah, orange circ is NOT UV rated, and should be in conduit in any case
@@SomeMorganSomewhere Also seems odd to have the AC cut off rather than a breaker. The inverter is a power source and the conductor is unfused the whole way to the breaker panel.
@@robertalabla yeah, that's a bit odd too since the point is to protect the wiring. Personally if I was to hypothetically (because I'd totally NEVER do that because I'm just a EEE and I don't got the schoolin' for this electrimacicianing) install a submain, I'd install MCBs at both ends because it's a really convenient way to provide an isolator AND overcurrent protection.
Orange circ in Australia is UV rated. It is commonly used in industry in full sun. We have some parts of our plant with 40 year old orange circ in full sun still in use and it's serviceable despite some chalkiness discolouration.
Geeze the extra expense for enphase iq8A would be forgotten long before the pain of this install fades. :):) I love the ones I have and trina 440s on my roof and your video has convinced me that it was the right option for us now.
Gov "you must have your system installed by certified installers". Certified installers "solar is not working, not my job we just fit it"
I love that as much as possible is reused.
Sometimes when you're blue collar busy, stuff can happen. My truck bed gets messy sometimes, especially near the end of a larger job. I've asked to borrow a screwdriver from a client before, despite having $1000's worth of other tools on me sans a #2 phillips. OTOH, silicone caulk sealed roof jacks, plus what appears to be a significant chunk of troubleshooting time with no result? That is where it gets a bit shady to me.
I have trina TSM-500DE panels in a home 24V Lithium setup. I'm very happy with these panels, work well in low light.
Really poor install processes - earth cable in the wrong place, labelling over the removable panel... sheesh! Are they class 2 screws they used on the conduit clamps?
For a hybrid - you should ALWAYS install the CT cable & backup/emergency cables back to the mains panel, the sparkys dont want to - as they can charge you for another visit. You bought a hybrid for a reason - so do it up front & do it once!
Screw missing on the conduit saddle to the AC isolator too. I also don't like that orange flex cable being looped like that too. Doesn't look like enough mechanical protection and I'd also question the UV rating?
@@netbootdisk @netbootdisk I've seen loops put in as "drip" loops - if there's any water/moisture, then it doesnt travel from one enclosure to the next. With you on the lack of grey UV conduit though! It should be in the shade (inverter location)... but still - i want more mechanical protection. #strayatradie
And did you see the empty plug, back right corner, marked with an earth symbol?
Look at 19:37, they just chopped off one of the mains AC cables off that microinverter and left it like that, that's shocking, literally.
@@netbootdisk yeah, too tight and not UV rated.
Solar Assistant is great, I've been using it for just over a year now. Just be sure to make regular backups and if you can connect a small SSD to install it to would be recommended as micro-SD cards are prone to fail (like it did with me). If you have Home Assistant you can easily integrate it there too which is nice as I rarely have to use the Solar Assistant interface as everything I need for the house is in Home Assistant.
Yeah, I figured I'd have to backup. Was hoping it would have cloud dumped it?
@@EEVblog unfortunately no cloud backup (I’d love that too). You have to manually do it and then upload the file to your backup location of choice.
Dave, you're no longer a spring chick. If you don't know by now, that if you want it done right, then you have to DIY, then I don't know what to tell you.
Last I recall, you have to be certified to do any electrical/solar work in Aussie land, plus it doesn't matter he's already paid to have someone do it, so now you nag them to do it right or threaten to charge back.
Oh Australia 🤣
Now that's a pro RUclips thumbnail!
I installed my home battery last week. I use Enphase micro inverters and a Victron multiplus 2 GX for charging the Lifepo4 batteries and regulate the usage and export to the grid. So far i am pretty pleased with the results.
Don't worry, Dave. You'll soon need one more current clamp, with a 2 Din rail unit device for it, with a 485 twisted pair back to the inverter from the meter box.
Once you get it:
A: Switch to 'Zero export to CT'
B: Activate 'Solar Sell' if you'd like to export after that.
C: Enable grid peak shaving and set its wattage to the maximum you want imported.
D: Consider using the LOAD output (get a contactor for the earth neutral bond).
E: If you wanna export from battery for some reason, you'll need sell first AND disabled grid peak shaving AS WELL AS a target to sell down to in the schedule.
D: Be sure to enable MPPT multi point tracking under advanced.
Cheers from someone who installed a Deye 6k hybrid in Europe last November!
Hello Dave, if you think to it one more time, it will appear clear that it's normal that you will have to pay for injecting power to the grid : not only you still profit of the grid infrastructure when you need power, but by injecting you actually generate costs for the grid company that has to adapt the infrastructure to a very different topology in terms of grid load.
The price of grid electricity includes the infrastructure, compuded in a sort of shared cost where everybody contributes a bit. Therefore, with big power injection this equilibrium gets messed up.
I hope this reaches you, because I think it's important
How is it 11 years ago? I remember watching that video like it was 3 years ago 😭
I was thinking the same! Time goes by too fast these days.
You could have put the 250w panels hanging off the edge of the roof like a porch overhang.. A little sun shade and more power
Your requirements are not that far out and Im a little shocked at the incompetence or at least lack of communications.
Solar installers are specially licensed, so they charge through the roof and employ monkeys.
Not a fan of wi-fi connections. When we had Tesla Powerwalls and Gateway installed (along with solar), I ran network cables for the installer to connect. Annoyingly the Gateway and first Powerwall each require their own network cable, but the second Powerwall takes its data connection from the first. There is an option for wi-fi connection but cables are very reliable.
They're ending the Solar Feed-In Tarrif in NSW and Vic.
So its point-less to export it.
Even considering the unique nature of your configuration, you have to ask about the state of installation techs and this fly by night solar industry.
For monitoring I’m a big fan of Home Assistant.
I have it connected to the P1 port (serial) on my power meter so it can log power usage and the energy being exported to the grid. I have a solar edge inverter and use their modbus interface via the inverters LAN connection to monitor my solar power production. Home Assistant correlates all the information to show me all the information in a nice interface. Can’t recommend it enough, and it’s free if you don’t want/need external access.
Of course power meters with a serial connection are not available everywhere but I’m glad it saves me extra hardware and cost.
Definitely a lot of things went wrong with the install of your new system. Damn Murphy 😅
There are multiple ways to get external access for free as well. The easyest is probably using the Tailscale Addon.
(Personaly i use the HomeAssistant cloud tho, to support the team.)
I have 24 of those exact same 440W Trina panels recently installed.
Runs great, or at least as well as Victorian winter weather will currently allow :)
And I spent extra and got a battery, and have all sorts of nice monitoring running on it.
I jury rigged my own monitoring, as the Sungrow inverter and Powerwall have web interfaces which I can scrape data from.
But I feel lucky, I have no dramas with my install.
I need to say the ground (Earth) cable from the roof PV array should have run independently straight to be onnected to the common earth bar (common AC grounding connection point) of your building's electrical installation point, And NOT "looping" through inverter as they did.
Then they should install another inverter grounding cable between inverter and run it all the way to the common AC grounding point of the building AC installation. This arrangement is known as "Equipotential Bonding". The various grounding cables from each section run with separate cables and these cables finally "meet" or join up only at the grounding busbar or pint of the Ac installation.
NOTE: It's is also advisable to have a backup earth cable connection wired on the outside of the inverter casing again running it al the way to grounding terminal. This is for touch protection Incase the primary earring inside inverter were to fail or come loose.
"Naaah can't clean the panels while we are up there because we didn't supply 'em" Great customer service solar install company, Bangin
Welcome to the world of SolarAssistant!
(22:00) It is not convenient without DC isolator. Hybrix inverters are more complex and more prone to fault, so it is much more convenient to have an outer DC isolator (but not inbuilt).
So, I don't understand why they removed it.
Thanks Dave, finally got around to watching this video, and my takeaway is basically I should tell my parents not to bother installing a solar system unless they can use all the energy they generate, otherwise it'll be costing them to make electricity. Sounds like they're better off finding some renewable energy investments to put their money into, since they're far more likely to actually deliver a financial benefit than a solar system on their roof.
When they start charging to put money into the grid, then in that case will the system offer any options to prevent power from being sent to the grid?
Yes, many/most inverters offer a no-export option. Though that does require a CT to measure your demand so it knows how much to output to cancel it out.
Looking at the installation manual for that Deye inverter, the grounding point is on the rear right behind the grid hole. Installer didn't RTFM I guess.
In my country, Ginko and Trina solar panels are sold with capacities of 575 watts and 590 watts.
So a few things to Note...
1. on the Deye inverter, the earth lug is on the RHS at the outside bottom next to the grid output...
2. microinverters probably won't work as they need to see grid to fire up?
3. deye does hook up to Home assistant as it has a hac
4. Sooooo,, for a correct CofC, systems usually need to have current approved panels, so even may incluse your old ones are getting reinstalled , so make sure you get that from your sparks before they realise! (Correct me if I'm wrong)
Hi Dave, the ground connection (or input) it's below on the right side, close to the GRID cable input 26:40
Look into vertical hanging your panels, like on a garden wall etc, as I'm amazing how well they work in winter, you could use them old panels maybe, as it will give you power when you really need it.
Um... wait. What? Did I understand Dave that instead of the hydro people paying the customer something for feeding the grid the customer is now charged a fee for doing so? That doesn't make sense and completely changes the situation about getting a solar system and the payback period.
We need a show explaining the solar and wind powered Hills Hoist to the non-Aussies.
I’ve been running my Deye hybrid with Solarman flawlessly for three years. However, last year, I had to update the data logger firmware to keep it functioning. The update was carried out via Deye’s support email through an over-the-air operation. Interestingly, they restarted the inverter at 11 PM without prior notice a day after I requested support. After that, the logger was back in action.
I'll give your setup a rating of "got the job done with existing tools"/11
I love my PoE powered Raspberries and Arduinos around my house. Hitting "2 flies with one clap" like we use to say in German ;)
All are powered by some old 100Mbit PoE switch next to my regular 1Gbit switch in the basement. I like to pull 2 cables everywhere, so I'm flexible if I want a second PoE or a Gbit if I need another connection. This was really handy when I bought a buch of PoE cameras a few month ago. They came with their own DVR with internal Gbit PoE switch, but since its all central I could patch that easily to the unused existing cables :)
Not sure about AU code, but there is a grounding location on the bottom side of the Deye inverter that is mandatory to connect at least according to EU spec.
The EU variants differ slightly, we also (case grounding aside) have 3 terminals for load/grind/generator, they all carry their PE respectively.
We installed a SUN-3.6K-SG03LP1-EU recently.
Remember to email Deye and ask them to change the wifi logger dongle update time from default 5min to 1min update intervals.Or it will only update every 5min to web interface/ monitoring.The setup is pretty simple to link to solarman assist / Deye Cloud
Nice setup I am converting my hydroponics system to solar, which should be decent in Arizona. Dave hope your upgrade works for you.
PV installing electrician from Austria here:
These PV installers have done an absolute shoddy job!
The Earthing is supposed to terminate on the outside of the DEYE (there is a screw on the underside)
The earth bar inside the device is only for the GEN LOAD and GRID cables not for Panel earthing.
I would have installed a separate earth bar under the DEYE.
Also where are the Lightning Surge Arresters?
I would really install an Arrester Box before the DEYE to be safe!
Nearby lighting strike will have potential to mess up that system for sure, that's a ground loop into the wrong place. Panels are supposed to have separate grounding of the frames straight to the ground rod + bonded at mains box, I don't see any string surge varistor packs installed either. There should be a panel installed with surge protectors and DC fuses, two for each string. Very odd installation practice indeed.
Looks like there is a designated port/gland for the earth (CPC) cable at the back right position. Funnily enough this is close to the internal earth bar. Who would have thunk it.
The ever-changing government, energy regulator and energy supplier's policies and export in rates is not unique to Aus. We use the same sun as you guys but you would think we didn't share the same planet when it comes to solar policies. At the moment we can get a reasonably good export rate from a couple of suppliers so the days of trying to use everything we generate are, at least for the moment, behind us. Of course that could change again but at least for now it makes no sense to use solar excess to heat water. Less than 2 years ago that would have been a no-brainer to fit a solar diverter but now my export pays for all my electric import for the year and for most months pays the gas bill too. In the summer I even make a profit. Again, very different to a few years ago.
Fitting a battery has become something of an essential task to maximise the energy of the random UK weather. For me, adding another battery makes no sense at all as it would not pay for itself. Again, that is a relatively recent change. In reality that is the real gripe with solar - government and energy policies keep shifting around and can easily kill an investment at a stroke of a pen.
In the UK we have an energy regulator who stumbles in the dark and takes the energy industries word for it. Whilst most of the world now understand that we need to use less energy our UK regulator has allowed the fixed daily tariff (standing charge) to treble (in my case) making this fixed rate dominate the bills of average or below average domestic users. Even if you use zero energy you still get a hefty bill which undermines the 'green' message. It must be nice for the billionaires living in mansions down south who pay a third of my standing charge, even when they use a massive amount of energy.
Tax policies for green energy seem to go in circles too. Here in the UK we have only recently dropped VAT (sales tax) on home batteries even though the rest of a solar PV system has been zero-rated for years. Yet the UK government still requires VAT on EV charge points (albeit this can be avoided if fitted at the same time of a PV system or upgrade). Meanwhile the tax exemption for luxury EV cars is incredibly generous. Nothing is coherent in the UK but the idea of charging for solar export in Aus shows that things could actually get much much worse!
The standing charge went up because they had to hide the cost of the failed providers ( which they licensed) whose debts were passed on to the company they forced to take on the customers of the failed customers. The remaining power companies were allowed to increase the standing charge to pay for the loss they had to absorb ( have email from Ofgen confirming this from when I complained increase in standing charge was much much more than inflation)
You can hardly complain about government regulations, while it is the government that enables you to steal money from the public with the various green scam. It is unlikely that any energy provider would pay for your unreliable and fluctuating solar output -or at least significantly less- without the government green scam.
The same goes for the various subsidies that enables you to buy you solar plant in part on the taxpayer's dime.
You earn your money through stupid government idiosyncrasies - you than of course suffer the same idiosyncrasies while doing so.
Just as in the old saying: Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Super interested to hear what you’re thinking about batteries Dave.
Funny thing is, the old Sunnyboy has a DC isolator built in, so the external one you had was pointless. The Sunnyboy's isolator is the black lump that sticks out the bottom - you just pull it down and the whole lump comes out, it's like a massive jumper cap. My TL5000 Sunnyboy is just about to hit 60MWh after 11 years (6.5kWp of panels).
Your setup is 10 out-a 10, for sure!
My rent has increased by 250%, so I'll be living off grid in my RV soon. So, I'll need to put together a decent solar system with batteries and backup genie. I don't think my government will give me a rebate if I'm off grid in my RV ; (
Why people 'choose to be homeless'. :'(
Good luck dude, van life can be awesome - some days you wake up to a view and think even a billionaire couldnt pay for it. But its also really challenging.
you can get concessions for self generation (off grid systems) atleast in south australia from what ive seen getting grid pwr concessions
Buy them for your house with the rebate and then take it with you when you move out.
You may be homeless, but you can sleep easy knowing that illegal immigrants are being housed in nice warm 5* hotels
Not sure if it's noted. But check the broken roof tile at 11.15.. could do with a dollop of silastic or replace the tiles.
Hi Dave, as far as I know the way to install this inverter you should have your grid line connected to its grid input, the load as being your house main panel input to the inverters load pins, once you do this in hybrid mode as in with battery the inverter would internally connect load with grid to perform injection to the grid, you will need the CT installed to measure what goes in and out, without battery it will behave the same way, once you have the battery and set it properly to charge and export the excess if you lose the grid it goes in off grid mode and you still have power. The way it was connected for you its the worst way, it limits the inverter alot in terms of what you can do with it. Do make sure the installers or you if allowed connect it in hybrid mode, main grid line to grid , your loads/ entire house if that power covers your needs. My brother has one , the 8kw version and it works very well as I have described above. Good luck and I hope it last at least as the old sunny boy.
I did almost the same thing as Dave. Mix of DC Enphase microinverters + LG panels on the Southwest roof and old Sharp panels and Fronius string (DC) inverter on the Southwest. This mix seems to maximize production throughout the day. Only 7.2 kW peak total, but I have a small(ish) home.
Your installers are the reason so many untrained people hate electrical installers.
That earth cable routing is the mark of a true amateur.
OH NO! Dave's going to have to pay money to the electric company!🤣Great video Dave, I'll be looking forward to what was the fault.
I would LOVE to see a teardown video about your Sunny Boy inverter.
Great video. Go Sunny Boy!
Interesting roof tiling, I've never seen anything like it here in Holland
New Trinas: all electrons fell out, but the neutrinos sticked.
As for meters, I never thought someone would still install an electromechanical meter in the 2010s! Here in Poland most of the meters are electronic, the old electromechanical ones (that could be tricked with a neodymium magnet) are phased out in utilities and used mainly as sub-meters for monitoring the energy use in parts of wiring. It's still mainly found in the older wiring - DIN rail mounted meters conforming to MID (measurement instrument directive) are preferable because they're so much smaller and more practical. Smart meters (as opposed to electronic meters) are being deployed, but this is hampered by lack of infrastructure as these things use power-line communication and need transceivers in transformer stations.
I have a 1939 made meter waiting for restoration in my lab... that's gonna be quite a project!
An electrician with no moldymeter on a friggin' job site... WTF? I hope it was just a Fluke.
Beefier, weird requirements, not your Joe Average... Same here. Nerds gonna nerd and sometimes push the limits of tech. To boldly go where no one has gone before...
Long runs of DC and AC wire together. Great idea.
You should have a look at Home Assistant!
I have 2 sunnyboys 14 years old and still going although i didnt want them in the loft so they have not been subject to high temps
I think they should have placed your top row up towards the peak a little further so that you could walk between the two rows.. Which would help a lot for cleaning.. Unless they are strong enough to walk on-- ??? Which I don't know the answer to
How can an electrician not have a meter and still perform the mandatory tests to comply with 8.3.3 of the AS3000. Without testing earth continuity, polarity and Insulation resistance your system could be unsafe and dangerous.
If there's more than one electrician then the other one would perform the tests. If there's only one electrician they could make another trip back before switching it on.
You said you don't have a CT connected on the grid side, how do you prevent the inverter from exporting to the grid and more importantly how do you prevent your inverter from exporting when you have a power failure and don't kill one of the linemen working on a fault. Just wondering
The inverter is connected to the mains and is constantly measuring it. If it falls out of spec the inverter shuts down. It's required by Australia/New Zealand Standard 4777 which all inverters must adhere to.
As the other comment said, all Australia compliant inverters must disconnect from the grid if ti goes down. Don't need a clamp for that, it just measures the grid voltage is there.
Imagine how long it would it would take even if you only had one system if you were not tech savy? Being handy / a techy is a real time saver.
We live off grid and if your feeling generous we have to run the generator every night this time of year! Not surprised with the quality of the installation, so many shonky people out there with no pride in workmanship. Personally i take great pride in my work and want the next guy who has to work on it think so.
I wanted used panels as a start for my house, no way I pay the same price as new 400 watt panels. People are crazy here in Germany. To the Deye Inverter: I use Hoymiles with OpenDTU/AhoyDTU, running on an ESP8266 or ESP32 and wireless gets the data from the microinverters and push it into my Home Assistant and the home automation system.
Thanks for the insight. But what a pity to replace a good old German SMA with a Deye :-( . I am actually done with Deye. First, they "forgot" the security relay #relaygate. And I already had one defective micro-inverter from them.
shady power company there!
Getting a solar panel system installed next week. Sure as heck hope it goes better than this.......
Yeah but geez dave you have to pay the power corporation for giving them free power now!
Yes I heard about that as well and at one stage you would be paid a pittance for it but that would be better than having to pay. we pay enough down under for it all ready. Next they will charge us to breath the air.
In most of Australia, wholesale power prices go negative in the middle of the day. Solar is feeding power in, wind is there, Gas turbines and hydro are both practically off and coal is ramped down to as low as they can be, and there is still too much power on the grid. All they can do is let the voltage drift up until home solar plants start shutting off.
They are working on pumped hydro to absorb some power, but large construction projects take time.
Generally you do have to pay someone money to take something they don't want. So much rooftop solar in Aussie now that there's more generation than demand. So you're basically paying them to dispose of it.
bent over to power company, also here in USA
@@LB-fx1kn We have so little power during the summer at mid day the power company is telling everyone to get solar. They also charge to feed back to grid. They can't fix black/brown outs due to low power production but they still want to charge to take it and sell it...
For correct operation of an Deye the CT should ALWAYS be installed, and correctly. Pointing to the inverter. On your LIVE in AC cable.
Btw. without 24hr shade that screen will degrade in the sun being mounted outside. That is not a warranty issue. Would be better to mount the inverter INSIDE.
I'm not sure it is good idea to use invertor earth tefminal as Earth for panels (29:00). I guess it is better to have a separate earthing system built for panels only (because of lightning etc).
The mc4 connectors can clip in and have the metal end inside press back into the wire which will cause an open circuit. Luckily most of the mc4 connectors pull apart and can be fixed without needing a new one.
there must be some power coming out of that connector that is used for the wifi dongle
the problem with the solar analytics system was the 4G network crapping out
Your 4G issue may be due to the 3G+4G shutdown (the shutdown includes various 4G technologies too)
Mate, definitely
hows your father/10
that pi install is golden
God I feel old, I remember when you installed the first set.
Gpd?
@@Look_What_You_Did huh?
Oh Dear. I have installed several of these DEYE inverters. I have had no issues. Your installer did not connect it property. They used the generator port for the mains AC input. Your mains AC input is not connected. Then these guys charge for a service?
That part they did alright, on this model the rightmost terminals are the GRID, center is LOAD and leftmost is GENERATOR.
@@DooMMasteR I think they have got different connection boards for these inverters. The right most ports are Load, Center one is Generator and then Grid. So I see where my confusion came in. I had to double check the manual there. Standards. Makes it hard for out of country folk to help troubleshoot.
@@Kaballasx yeah at 29:29 you can read the labeling.
ours looks different inside: ruclips.net/video/k7ueo_bGz_M/видео.html
@@DooMMasteR I see. Those terminals are not what I have installed. I have a SUN-8K-SG01LP1-EU. Installed. I have an extra 3 port connection teminal and each one has to have its own earthing terminal. Seems like ausie electrics are either safer because of the lesser earthing or we have poor electircal grid with more earthing requirements.
That is an amazing install. I remember when I had solar fitted (Australian made 7x285W Black Sapphire panels) I get about 1.6Kw out on a good day. I live in UK in a small roof terrace house, so no room for more. I have 2 silly roofs on the SSE facing roof, so my panels are split between SSE and W, which isnt ideal but it works. I had to go into settings on Solax inverter because some voltage settings were wrong and my system would keep cutting out when the sun was at its brightest and giving me the best return, so in theory this made the system stupid and pointless. I fixed the issue with the higher AC line voltage set too low, below what the normal supply voltage is here in UK, my meter was showing supply of 245V and threshold was set to 220V so anything above that was causing the inverter to stop inverting lol. I did check all online documents for the inverter and its specs so the setting of 250V I set was within its tollerances, so now the inverter stays on untill there is a drop below about 60V from the panels. My system is about 4 years old now and still works great, and it was all I could afford at the time (paid for outright, not on finance or 'rent a roof' system)
Just wanted to add, while your your birds were chirping away, they were driving my budgie mad, he keeps trying to talk back to them LOL 🤣😂
As a comparison, I have 12x330w (4kw) that is nearly 4 years old and I get 30kw on a good day in the summer and only 1kw on the worst possible day in winter when its dark and drizzling.
For another UK comparison. I live in the Southwest, about 40 east of Lands End. I have a 3.78kWp system consisting of 9 X JA solar 420W panels, SSW facing and a Solis inverter. In summer on a variable weather day, I see about 18 kWhr of generation, and about 25 kWhr on a full sunny day.
In the summer I'm generating from 5am to almost 10pm, which is pretty impressive IMO.
Current Clamps for dayssss....
But Solar Analytics system is 11/10 Perfectly balanced and way better than those installers job
IDK about technician labour costs in australia, but I imagine installation costs of such a change are not low and need to be factored in to see if a change is worthwhile. I feel like it's often better to leave a system running until it breaks, also in terms of embodied energy (although I understand you had your roof worked on independend of this)
Should have just done it right in the first place. You have made it way more complicated than it needs to be.
Hello, can you do a video on capacitor forming and reforming, love the vids btw
Here in rainy UK I installed a 2.4kw (8 panel) system two years ago on my workshop,cost me £1278 for new Canadian panels and second hand growatt 3.6kw gti , I'm a sparkie so no instal costs , thanks to the ridiculous price of electricity at the time the payback was well under a year.
I just got 4 more 250w panels with another growatt gti for a bargain £80 from a guy who's upgrading...that's my next small project.
Solar doesn't have to cost big £££ to save big £££.
On the right bottom side of the deme is the place for grounding. There is the place for the screw near by the grounding symbol… Ner the orange cable.
Seeing the back of that installer's truck, it's no surprise they forgot to connect the power cables.
You should try and do a series on videos on the new install, would love to see you install, and do a real series on the install and setup