Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

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juk
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Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by juk »

A friend of mine has a tesla, 5kW of solar, and a single phase connection.

Apparently he cannot expand his system even with export limiting as Synergy have a rule against it, without going to a battery, or three phase.

Does anyone know if there's a way around this or an exemption for those with an electric car and a hard wired charger?

thanks.
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jonescg
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by jonescg »

Google guerrilla solar ;)
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brendon_m
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by brendon_m »

I spoke to synergy a while back about this sort of thing, what they say is that you can't have more than 5kw but the fine print is that you actually can but if you go over 5kW then you'll lose the rebate (7c/kWh).
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by jonescg »

I plan on going 10 kW 3-phase (but with 8 kW of solar on the roof).
I care not for 7c.
I care not for subsidy.
I care to charge my EV and home storage battery for free :)
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juk
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by juk »

Thanks for the reply guys, if there's any more information, keep it coming.

Any tips for getting a home battery for the right price, apparently if you do, they will let you have 8kW.
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by jonescg »

If you do buy Joe's battery (and you should, that's a cracking good deal) you will probably need to get yourself an AC coupled inverter - quite a few folks around Australia have done this to great effect.
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by juk »

Would Joe's battery, which is great, really great, be able to satisfy synergy?

I have a victron multiplus 3kVA, which i could donate to the project.
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by jonescg »

So long as the inverter can run from a 48 volt battery it will store that sunshine otherwise spilled. Synergy won't care either way.
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by reecho »

juk wrote: Wed, 26 Feb 2020, 16:53 A friend of mine has a tesla, 5kW of solar, and a single phase connection.

Apparently he cannot expand his system even with export limiting as Synergy have a rule against it, without going to a battery, or three phase.

Does anyone know if there's a way around this or an exemption for those with an electric car and a hard wired charger?

thanks.
The limit with Western Power is the inverter size, not the number of PV panels. You can therefore overdrive with additional panels up to 6.6kw. That is very common with new installs.

Cheapest option for off grid storage is to grab the AVASS cells, A ZEVA BMS, isolator, and display... https://www.zeva.com.au/index.php?product=140 and a AC retrofit inverter like the Goodwe 5000S-BP. It will of course need to be installed by a licensed sparky and requires a bit of DIY. for 22kwh it will work out quite cheap.

I have this exact setup on a test rig at home and have no trouble charging my EV.

Not keen on DIY?. Yeah the Tesla Powerwall 2 is a compelling product. Tesla also have recently released a WiFi version of the HPWC so I get the feeling they will all talk..
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by antiscab »

the 6.6kw limit on a 5kw inverter is just a CEC thing (no more than solar 1.33x inverter size)

you can go bigger solar (but still same 5kw inverter), but you don't get to claim STCs on the additional panels
If adding a battery, you can go much larger on solar while claiming STCs while staying with a 5kw inverter

going bigger inverter and you lose your 7c per kwh.

You could also keep the 6.6kw solar and 5kw system as is, and install a second stand alone off grid system with batteries. Downside there is you will likely waste solar power in summer.

That's all the legal options.

using 2nd hand panels off gumtree doesn't quite pan out money wise, if you use a solar contractor to install, as the STC's just about pay for new ones.
2nd hand panels work out when doing DIY, but then you're limited to ELV without breaking a bunch of laws (still doable though)
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by lobster »

reecho wrote: Sat, 29 Feb 2020, 08:52
Cheapest option for off grid storage is to grab the AVASS cells, A ZEVA BMS, isolator, and display... https://www.zeva.com.au/index.php?product=140 and a AC retrofit inverter like the Goodwe 5000S-BP. ...
I have this exact setup on a test rig at home and have no trouble charging my EV.
Reecho, my 220Ah AVASS cells are still waiting for a Zeva BMS to be fully CAN bus compatible with the Goodwe 5000S-BP.

This "new" Zeva BMS16 v3 looks much more suitable than Ziva's original battery mounted modules.

Is your test rig running beta CAN bus software, or would you say that it is a customer ready system?

Do you or someone at Zeva have a complete parts list and circuit diagram to complete this AVASS / Goodwe 5000S-BP system?

Cheers, Steve
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by rhills »

lobster wrote: Mon, 02 Mar 2020, 18:50 ... or someone at Zeva ...
Uh, that would be @zeva I'd guess :-D
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by brendon_m »

I was looking for prices of the goodwe 5000S-BP and stumbled across the goodwe 2500-BP. Seems like a good idea to solve the inverter size cap. It sits inline between the solar panels and the original inverter and diverts power to a battery /discharges back into the pv input of the original inverter. Its not AC coupled and isn't an inverter so it doesn't count to the 5kW limit.
Downside is its only 2.5kW and only has 1 input/output so you would likely need 2 to take full advantage of most solar installs.
I couldn't find any solid costs except for one which was $1200
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Re: Perth Single Phase 5kW solar limit

Post by reecho »

lobster wrote: Mon, 02 Mar 2020, 18:50
reecho wrote: Sat, 29 Feb 2020, 08:52
Cheapest option for off grid storage is to grab the AVASS cells, A ZEVA BMS, isolator, and display... https://www.zeva.com.au/index.php?product=140 and a AC retrofit inverter like the Goodwe 5000S-BP. ...
I have this exact setup on a test rig at home and have no trouble charging my EV.
Reecho, my 220Ah AVASS cells are still waiting for a Zeva BMS to be fully CAN bus compatible with the Goodwe 5000S-BP.

This "new" Zeva BMS16 v3 looks much more suitable than Ziva's original battery mounted modules.

Is your test rig running beta CAN bus software, or would you say that it is a customer ready system?

Do you or someone at Zeva have a complete parts list and circuit diagram to complete this AVASS / Goodwe 5000S-BP system?

Cheers, Steve
Ah yeah the BMS16v3 has been working fine for a while now. The main thing is that the CAN bus speed for both the BMS and display needs to be set to 500kbps to match the inverters. You can also option the digital outputs inverted to control a shunt trip or contactor. I select the LG RESU battery in the Goodwe setup and it's happy as Larry. The 2 main options are Max charge Voltage and Max charge Current in the display. Set the min and max cell voltages and it responds to this immediately.
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