I was also looking into purchasing Solar Assistant, but went for this instead:
https://powerforum.co.za/topic/20185-smartdeyedongle-for-5kw8kw16kw-single-phase-deyesunsynk-inverter-available-for-order/page/2/
Full control over the inverter’s settings via Home Assistsant, plus near real time...
Found the Vostoks interesting, so I thought I'd give one a try for something cheap and cheerful.
I quite like it, even though it's smaller than they look in photos. The leather strap is absolute junk, so I'm waiting for my order from Lug2Lug.
Just bought a battery from Romtech - great service, so I can vouch for them.
Also bought and got this going with Home Assistant:
Seriously nice little addition which allows for almost realtime data, as well as automating inverter settings.
Cool. Some good prices at Romtech as well.
I'm not an expert on these things, I've simply been observing what's been working for the people around me and then ended up going with Deye, which has been great so far.
Haven't seen anything similar before, Takealot's got the Ellies one in stock though.
https://www.takealot.com/ellies-eco-smart-surge-power-block-with-tel-coax-protection/PLID42171763
How much, because you can get a Deye 5kw for around 22k now. For me, saving a couple of pennies when spending over R100k in total makes little sense, especially when reading comments such as this(#2)...
Yep, I've got Deye and my parents Sunsynk. They're identical, except the menus are slightly different, and Sunsynk is using their own logger + app, whereas Deye is using the Solarman logger.
I'm using Home Assistant, so none of that really makes any difference to me. The Solarman integration is...
Nice example - geyser on, PV not quite high enough, and schedule set to 90%, so it's pulling from PV and battery
Then SOC reached 90% and it stopped using battery and started blending from the grid:
I usually run it lower during the day(40%), then simply let the sun recharge it.
If you're going to be spending 36k on batteries, you may as well spend it on a proper battery with a proper BMS, canbus, blending, etc.
Mecer/Axpert and those batteries are okay for a simple backup type system, but not something I'd have hardwired into my house.
Also bear in mind that if...
Also have a look at inverter-warehouse.co.za
https://www.inverter-warehouse.co.za/collections/solar-inverters-1/products/deye-5kw-hybrid-inverter
R22950 for a Deye 5kw inverter.