bobmabena

I live in Randburg. The specific company I'm thinking of is in Kyalami. Both locations are a long way from George. Though if people want service badly enough...
As I have told many times, I used to work on a bench for a distributor of electronics goods. One day a man arrived and asked if I could look at his electronic organ straight away. I was warming up for the usual speech about how there's a backlog etc, but then he told me he'd come from Zambia and he needed the organ for a church service this coming Sunday. And he said he'd wait whilst I did my investigations. So you help out a guy who is in that sort of position (he showed me the stamp in his passport as proof that he wasn't just taking a chance).

After I'd dislodged many insects and spiders and a scorpion, and blown all the dust and webs out, I found a blown transistor. I had to impose the minimum charge of one hour's labour, but he was happy enough, loaded the organ back onto his bakkie and set off on the return trip.

Howzat, I got my mum a EcoFlow River Pro last year...using it predominantly for a 32" LED TV and DSTV Decoder. She will also charge her phone from it at times. She got 11hrs from this device running these two devices and the odd phone charge within that 11hr period. Its been running for about 8-9months or so now and have not had any issues. I use the EcoFlow app to monitor it remotely.

So for your use case adding the router and ONT as well...you will comfortably get 4hrs from it.

My mom was also using the Mecer unit and it worked very well for a good couple of years.
They have now via a supplier in CPT upgraded the system to a Mecer 1.5kva with a 12v 100AH LiFePO4 They used the old metal battery box and just bolted the new inverter to it.  Happy as can be and they easily run for thr 4 hour loadshedding sessions.
The above option is WAY WAY WAY cheaper than the EcoFlow type solutions out there.  And it is way more power for the price.
I can put you in touch with these guys if you want - they in CPT though.
Cheers
Douw

This is one of the items Estimated Value R18000.00 
Phoenix Inverter 48/3000 - 230V VE.Bus
Storage Systems - Battery Inverter
The Victron Phoenix inverters is powerful off grid inverters and can be used in parallel or 3-phase configurations
Heavy duty pure sinewave inverters
Extra start-up power to power up heavy loads
3-phase and parallel operation
Fully programmable

Datasheet-Phoenix-Inverter-1200VA-5000VA-EN.pdf

Look into the BluSky SCC, there are a thousand variants so you should be able to find one locally without issue. My usual supplier just got some in, no prices yet but drop me a DM and I'll send you my suppliers details 👍

Agreed, having a dedicated circuit for the inverter and one of non-essentials is your best bet...
Indeed, depending on what you get you should be able to use grid to charge the batteries and many small inverters have PV capability. The reason I like to recommend the BluSky inverters is that they come with a SCC (Solar Charge Controller) variant. These are low power solar chargers that run off a single large panel or a couple small panels, letting you continue charging even when grid isn't available. My uncle has one and a 550W panel mounted to the caravan, he pops it out once setup and has a section of the caravan running off grid permanently. 

Thanks guys... It's super simple to rather have 2 lines in a caravan, rather than a "massive" inverter, or a "popping" inverter.
Can still charge the batteries from a smaller inverter.

Good point. However, even if the unit had infinite pass through, using inverters in this way is a recipe for disaster... You should never have an inverter connected to a load beyond its ability to support, even if it had limitless passthrough. The problem is that if they loadshed or if something happens to the mains the entire load will end up falling onto the inverter and will burn it DEAD! You would be better off installing the unit into a cupboard and having it run small essential loads below it's limits. Hell if you're feeling fancy you can have a couple lights connected to it too (50W won't make a difference at all), but better that than have it running to the caravan supply and liable to explode the second it has to handle the entire load of the system.
Otherwise, you are going to have to look into large inverters that are like 2,5kW-5kW so the entire load can be safely supported. 

Hey, well the Axperts VM1 is an ok option you can also look into the BlueSky series inverters. They come in 900W and 1600W with PV input, so if installed in the caravan right with a little panel you can have the batteries charged without needing grid connection... 

Dear all. 
Firstly I would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday break. I appreciate every single member and their contribution to making this a great, peaceful and happy platform to enrich each other with knowledge and advise. This was the goal when I started in 2013 with myself as 1 member.
As the aviation industry is a very uncertain career I started the powerforum store about 2 years ago. I don't and will never request any member of this forum to be obligated to purchase from the store. There are many other commercial suppliers that offer just as great service.
Since the beginning in 2013 , every member that has joined has been checked and manually been clicked on to be accepted to the community. There are so many spam individuals out there that want access to post unsavory topics. 
Some of these individuals sometimes get through as they have a perfectly looking Gmail email addresses and locations.
I have tried many different types of automatic spam filters but none are as good as checking with the human eye.
Okay to the point 🤣 : if any members notice a scam or spam member posting I ask you to make use of the report button. Please see the attached image. I require two members to report the post to be automatically hidden for moderation.
The members who have reported the post are also logged. So don't go reporting and hiding a freindly debate. ;D !
This will help me greatly as I constantly have my phone in my pocket checking for scammers to protect our community.
I would like to say thank you again for making this community great and also we nearly at 20 000 members!
Have a safe and restful holiday break.
Thank you all.
Sincerely
Jason Back
 
 

Hi Guys so here is another GIVE AWAY!
We are busy with a test and review of the Greenrich 1.5C 3.686 kWh Lithium Battery 
Yes we will be giving one away to one lucky Power Forum Member in a Lucky Draw 
I will post details on how to qualify for this GIVE AWAY soon watch this space!
Sponsored by Elleyhill Power (PTY) LTD
So some information to wet your appetite about these batteries 
Greenrich batteries have been in the market for some time now and so far we have had mostly positive feedback from installer and end users alike.
What makes the battery desirable is the 1.5C Rating this means the battery can discharge at 1.5 times its capacity rating.
Why would that be so great?
Here is why if you have a 5KW inverter discharge the battery at 5kWh then this 3.686 kWh battery will be able to absorb a charge rate between 0.5C & 0.75C and a discharge rate at 1.5C without tripping the benefits of that is that when you start of on your solar journey you don't have to break the bank with just one 3.686kWh Greenrich Battery because your 5KW inverter can never reach the discharge rates of the battery. 
The 3.686 kWh is also inter compatible with the 4.95 kWh Greenrich Lithium if you require to expand to larger capacity.
This Lithium battery is the only Lithium battery in the market that offers true 1.5C discharge ratings. With 1.5C discharge rates, the Greenrich lithium battery has a much higher power output compared to other 0.5C or 1C lithium batteries. 
The cell technology in the battery is LFP cylindrical high density cells which can do up to 2C however for longevity the BMS limits the discharge  to 1.5C and charger rates to 0.5C continuous and boost charge rate for 5 minutes to 0.75C
Battery specifications:
Weight: 41.5kg
Battery Type: Lithium Ion
Nominal Energy: 3686 Wh
Depth of discharge: 95.00 %
Voltage: 51.2v
Continuous Discharge Rate (Normal Use): 5000 W
Maximum Discharge Rate (5 Minutes): 5500 W
Surge Discharge Rate (15 Seconds): 6144 W
Maximum Charge Rate (5 Minutes): 2560 W
Compatible with many of South Africa’s popular Hybrid inverters’ brands.
Built-in BMS that protects the cell from abnormal temperature, current, voltage, SoC, and SoH.
DATA SHEET
 
 

I am NOT helping to sort out the knots when two of those things cross paths 😁

Both allow changes, with the Solarman the process is a little more complex because you have to get your installer to get support group to activate it. The Sunsynk logger is great though, I also installed one recently, only problem is that you lose all of your historic Solarman data.   

I've just put in an order for the Sunsynk logger... 
My understanding is that it allows 2-way comms with the inverter, whereas the SolarMan is only a reader...

Cool.
Go to https://home.solarmanpv.com/plant/infos/device and login. Scroll to the bottom (Historical data) where there is a graph.
Using the "Parameter" button, select (tick) the following boxes:
DC Power PV1 DC Power PV2 (if you are using the second MPPT) AC Power R/U/A Grid Frequency Total Grid Power Total Consumption power Battery Power SoC The above are usually the interesting ones that will tell you what happened, and it is usually good to correlate it with weather info.
Otherwise post the graph here and we can take a look at it, but it is a bit easier for you to do it because you have the interactive pointer on your screen and you can hover over a specific time and see the exact values.

Leave it ticked if your hole house is on the inverter , then the problem is too high SOC during the daytime . As @Pumba said.

Also with your SOCs set to 70, 80 and 90 % during the day you are forcing the PV to charge the batteries before supplying power to the house items. Set those to 20 or 30 % during the day. Also depends how much power your PVs are rated for - 10kW of PV for your 8kW Sunsynk would be ideal.

You have 'limit to load'ticked which means you are not supplementing non essentials (with the help of CT coil) with solar. Do you have your entire house on the essential side of inverter ?

Hi ChrisFish, wind power in the Karoo is a no-brainer. Farmers there used it before EKSDOM, will use it after...
However, instead of using wind pump blades, which uses drag, "windlaaiers"  have mostly used more efficient aerodynamic blades. Even using the wind pump tower is questionable, since it is positioned where the water is, not where the wind blows most. 
For going off-grid with PV, even in low wind areas, a few 100W of wind power will be very useful on some nights, and it looks neat in daytime! Keep us posted, I will do the same with a system I plan to build with old aircraft propellers and direct drive washing machine motors.

Sunsynk for sure. The UI is great,
And Sunsynk sounds cool, it's a proper noun, cannot be confused with a similar sounding adjective 😉 Not sure what the Die marketing people were thinking at the time.  

@bobmabena Hubble batteries are Great an rated at 1c also they are compatible with the RIOt which gives you all the monitoring info you can possibly need you can parallel 15 units and their after sales support is pretty good I would avoid Pylontech too many issues and warrranty repairs and returns a major headache Revov I don't have a lot of experience with but they are mostly secondhand EV batteries that have already been cycled and have lost 20% of their original capacity. On the inverter Sunynk is the only real choice at the moment I have been running completely off grid with 2 x Hubble 5.5 KW batteries and a 5 KW Sunsynk  I run a standard geyser and a few home appliances without any problems my Mono Solar array is oversized at 6KW but it still generates enough to keep me going on rainy and cloudy days I have not yet run out of battery power and generally only cycle my batteries down to 40% .

Installation completed. 

Faced with the costs of "Wonder Gadgets" to heat water from excess solar availability, I have come up with a different way of doing it....
I have already had, for some time now, a raspberry pi hooked to my inverter monitoring and controlling various bits and bobs around the place...
One of my greatest frustrations is the "lost solar" power that is often available during the average day.... This hot water system but one small addition I have made to try and utilize this unused power.
I put in an order to a local (EL) company for a triple 220V geyser element. It wasn't as pricey as I expected. The 3 elements are 500W/750W/1000W respectively, all on a single screw in, standard fitting (with an extra long thermostat pocket as well, which reaches well beyond the ends of the elements.).
The long and the short of it is, using my pi/mqtt/fabricobbled system, I can get a pretty close estimate of what inverter/solar power is available beyond the immediate consumption at any given point in time...
Using a small "Sonoff" wifi switch, hot wired to a quad 10A relay board, a bit of Node-Red and some head scratching,  the net result is, well fantastic!
If there's 500W excess available, turn on the 500W element... Same for 750/1kw.... Need more? Turn them on in combination, to step in 8 steps, 0W to 2.25Kw  as needed... The extra deep pocket for the thermostat got a Sonoff with a DS18B20 temp sensor to feed info back into the mqtt as well.... (Yep, you can series the elements as well with a bit more head scratching to lower the wattages still further, but lower than 500W is a waste of time as I have found out...)
Safety? Sure... Using the existing Thermostat pocket in the geyser, there's a good old fashioned clicky-clicky rod slotted in... Hooked up to the common neutral of the 3 elements... If he's unhappily hot, everybody shuts down...
And... It works... Well!
Total cost of the additional bits was less than ZAR1K, its been running for about 6 months now and barring some really crappy weather, the household of 4 has used very little gas in the geyser system over the period...
Cheerz...
E