Ronski's Solar & battery DIY build with whole house backup

Couple of more parcels arrived, first was dispatched from China on Monday and arrived today, pretty impressive.

Box-from-Chins.jpg



Then this arrived

Quattro-on-pallet.jpg


It weighs 51kg

Quattro-in-car.jpg
 
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Be worth taking the cover off the Gerbo GX, checking the wifi antennas aren't placed behind the PCB, some have terrible wifi due to them being placed behind the PCB.
Just need rerouting to be in the front of the PCB.

Must feel like Xmas there :)
 
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@Mafia_GF My Cerbo is also just within the affected range, guess I'll be needing a suitable capacitor

@Troop Its better than Christmas, apart from carrying a 51KG box in from the car on my own - daren't ask the wife to help.

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Fuse-Holders.jpg


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Breaker-250-A.jpg

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Got to say the service I received from ZJ Benny was exceptional, order was started on 31 October, and I received them today. All breakers are bi-directional or no polarity as they refer to them.

PS. Voltacon sells some of the ZJ Benny stuff, but for what I paid for all above you couldn't even buy the three large breakers from them - I got 2 x 160A and 1 x 250A
 
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Its a beautiful feeling when it all arrives, and aggee good service Ron from Beny... I few more UK companies could take a leaf out of there book for sure. I have sent back my Cerbo and getting a new one sent out which is not affected. TBH Victron have said they will exchange, If i was you I would get this swapped out Ron to be sure.
 
Ron-ski said:
@Mafia_GF Did you arrange that direct with Victron?
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No mate, sure it said somewhere on that notice they would swap out when stocks are available etc ...
I spoke with my supplier, they asked me to return it and they would order a new "in range" no problem. Interesting though, they said they had a few more that were affected and they will be getting these swapped with Victron. My supplier is a Victron dealer. I only found out about the notice from one of the Victron Forums.
We/Users should not have to go that far, especiually with unused products, I know putting the capacitor in is not a bit deal but we shouldnt have to do that really
 
Ron-ski said:
Yes, installing the frames today/tomorrow, will leave the panels off as not sure when the electrcians are coming and I don't want the open MC4 plugs getting damp.
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You could put the pannels on ready mate.. what I did was to use some sandwich bags with na elastic band to seal off .. yes i know I am mad but it works Ron
 
Ron-ski said:
The days to be spent on the roof, here's a picture from 8:15 this morning.

Morning-Roof.jpg
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Ooh - what size is that Ronski?? I've got an 8.5m x 4.5m flat roof on our garden room that is currently barren of solar panels.....!

Be interested to know how many panels / what size that is. Started thinking about mounting on the flat roof too, but hurt my head too much trying to work out how I'd fit angled panels without shading each other....

I'm really just keen to ensure I've got some options to install some more just to keep ahead of you...... ;)
 
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Just finished about 20 minutes ago in the pitch black, we got all the rails bolted through the roof today, and hopefully sealed. Had one mishap though, rather stupidly I threw a bolt up to my brother, it was too far away for him to catch, and down it came straight on to our old garden table, which after what seemed like a second or two promptly shattered into a gazillion pieces, at least it was the old one.

katie279 said:
Be interested to know how many panels / what size that is.
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Its 6 meters top to bottom, 5.85 meters left to right in the above picture, and I can get 12 panels on there - see first post in this thread.

katie279 said:
Started thinking about mounting on the flat roof too, but hurt my head too much trying to work out how I'd fit angled panels without shading each other....
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It depends on whether the panels can all face one direction, that would save shading each other, how you fix them is also a consideration, if the roof sub structure is strong enough you can use a ballasted system - concrete blocks or paving slabs holds the frame in place.
 
Ron-ski said:
Its 6 meters top to bottom, 5.85 meters left to right in the above picture, and I can get 12 panels on there - see first post in this thread.



It depends on whether the panels can all face one direction, that would save shading each other, how you fix them is also a consideration, if the roof sub structure is strong enough you can use a ballasted system - concrete blocks or paving slabs holds the frame in place.
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Ah yes, apologies - I remember reading that!

Hmm, yes, I'm kinda of annoyingly facing on this - the 4.5m side faces south, so the edges of the longer side are East and West.

Think I'd need to have them set up in a wave shape - not as neat looking as yours I suspect!
 
Ron-ski said:
@katie279 Yes that 4.5m width makes it a bit awkward, but I'm sure some could be squeezed on there one way or another.
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Is there a smart way to calculate this? I'm thinking I could create a series of panels at 30 degrees, but I imagine one would shadow the next, so I'd need to work out the optimal distance between them somehow?
 
There will be a smart way, but we wont have access to the required software. Easy PV should be able to do it, but I could never get it to arrange panels on an angle facing different directions on a flat roof, you can use the Renusol console mounting, but I still cant figure out how to rotate them to face a different direction. Actually if I create a pitched roof, then it gives me the option of landscape or portrait orientation, but for a flat roof you only have landscape offered - the software is rather lacking, and should just give the option to rotate the panel, after all with a Renusol console you can physically place it at any orientation.

But for purely experimental purposes you could draw two roof's at 30 degree angle occupying the same footprint as your flat roof just like you had a pitched roof on your garden room. Realistically though you wouldn't mount the panels at 30 degrees on a flat roof, so it would be best to work out what mounting system you are going to use first, so you know what angles you are dealing with.

Or as I did draw it in Sketchup, which can show shading, but unless you draw the surrounding tree's and houses it doesn't show them, but all that is a steep learning curve, I've been using Sketchup for many years.
 
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