Solar Diverter

[CrofterMannie]

I currently have an IBoost diverting to my hot water tank. As the tank is quite big it has a 6kw immersion heater in it (which actually consists of 3 X 2kw elements). As the IBoost is only rated for 3.68kw it is only connected to one element - and even then the max power it diverts is only about 1.2kw.

I've not bothered too much about optimising this up until now but am about to put an extra 4kw of panels on the roof so it would make sense to divert more.

One option is to replace the immersion with a 3kw one but that is quite a big job (draining a 2000 litre tank etc) for relatively little gain.

The other option is to replace the diverter with one that can cope with higher loads. Unfortunately (as I have a zappi and it would have been nice to integrate everything) the myenergi one is also only rated to 3.68kw).

Does anyone make a solar Diverter that can cope with a 6kw load?

[Tinbum]

Pretty sure you should just be able to add another diverter.

[Stig]

You could get 3kW by wiring elements 2 & 3 in series and putting that in parallel with element 1. Won't use all your new 4kW but it's a cheap upgrade.

[nowty]

An expensive way is to buy 2 or even 3 Eddi's which can work in master and slave configuration with the single CT clamp. So all immersions can be powered at the same time.

I do this with my 2 x Immersuns on my twin immersion heaters so I can divert 6kW.

[Gareth J]

See my other thread regarding using a Solic and iboost together. Seems to be working.

I know those 3x2kW elements. Can be used on three phase too.

Another option, though slightly riskier, is to ensure that the diverted power never exceeds the 3kW rating that the diverter can handle. I've done this with an old storage heater circuit (say, ~7kW of load) and a phase with only 2.5kW of generation on it. Has not been an issue although any "boosting" is obviously off the cards.

In your situation, your inverter might have the functionality for export limitation. You might be able to use a clamp meter connected it to cap "export" to, say, 2.8kW. but instead of clamping the in/out wire of the DNO meter, you'd clamp the wire going to the iboost. Therefore, if the inverter saw more than XkW going to the iboost, it'd ramp down production.

Edit, this setup was with a Solic, I can't confirm how an iBoost would behave.

[Stinsy]

The Eddi can control a contactor. Could you have two of the immersions powered by that (just on and off) and the other one connected to the variable diverter?

[Countrypaul]

An Eddi can have a relay board that will control 2 devices upto 230V 16A each. The relays are isolated so could equally well be 12V 0.1A. There are also settings so that the relay could be triggered once a certain level is hit, so for example, 2kw being exported, or 2kW being export and diverted. Haven't used these myself yet, but have read the manual about them and plan to do so shortly to trigger a HP.

[nowty]

See my other thread regarding using a Solic and iboost together. Seems to be working.

For CrofterMannie info, this is the the thread Gareth J was talking about.
https://camelot-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/view ... 774#p11774

[Marcus]

This isn't answering the question you asked but:

I'm slightly mystified as to why your existing setup only diverts up to 1.2kw into a 2kw immersion - do you know why this is? Are you sure it's a 3 x 2kw immersion? You coukd try the other elements, and if they also top out at 1.2kw then 2 or even 3 together would fall within the 3.68kw rating.


My other thought is that if the rating on the iboost is 3.68kw, then that is actually 16A at 230v nominal, or 4kw at 240v, so if your element is rated 3 x 2kw at 240v, then in principle 2 x 2kw elements are (just) within the rating of the iboost. Although i won't advise another person to try pushing it to its limit, I'd be tempted myself to just try it and see.

[Gareth J]

I'm sure Marlec's blurb suggests the max rating for the iBoost is 3kW.

And, as above, I'd expect to see 2kW of diversion, if you have enough solar to produce it if that's the rating of the element. Probe the element resistance with a multimeter? Or temporarily put a plug on and use a plug in power monitor to check?