Antonio de Sa

During Enlit Africa 2026, Bain Viljoen, CEO of Lithium Batteries South Africa, shared some insight into locally assembled, serviced and supported battery solutions.
The discussion focused on how local battery manufacturing and support can help address some of the common challenges often experienced with imported energy storage products, especially when it comes to technical support, serviceability and long-term reliability.
Bain also touched on the role of advanced battery technology, solar integration and intelligent energy storage systems in creating more dependable power solutions for South African conditions.
Sharing the video here for anyone interested in local energy storage development and the direction of battery solutions in South Africa.

On my 3 older LEOCH 48100TB the BMS calculates SOC by counting metered Ah in and out but neglect the internal losses. The result is their SOC readings are always to optimistic. When approaching full charge their BMS display 100% SOC while the batteries have not yet reached full charge voltage and continue charging. Therefor I prefer charge managing by the Inverter on the base of battery voltage without interference from the BMS via coms.

I'm currently running 2x5Kw Sunsynks with no issues. Manufacture dates of the inverters are over 1yr apart but they are on the same firmware and provide great functionality in parallel. It is true there is a bit more complexity but its also set and forget, You change the settings on one and they cascade to the other without you needing to do anything. Redundancy is key for me hence i got the 2x5 vs 1x8 / 10

On the matter of 2 vs 1, I recommend 2 in parallel. If one fails you still have half your supply working and can continue albeit at reduced available power.

Do I understand correctly that if one cell has lower capacity the BMS with comms would slow down charging of the other 13/14/15 cells in order to help this weak cell?
Would the weak cell not in any case even at low charge rate go into OV and then the BMS will still open circuit the battery even with comms?

Any BMS will protect the cells that is the primary function. Should you use voltage control or communication to the inverter the BMS cell protection is always active. So the cells would never see 3.7v the BMS will go into Ovp and shut the battery down. If voltage control is preferred just ensure the inverter is set with Oem battery specifications. @Antonio de Sa i agree with your battery voltage settings 3.5v is in die upper knee of the lfp curve not much capacity beyond that voltage so no need to stress the cell by charging to 3.65v. Good recipe for longevity.

@Scorp007 @frivan
To me it makes no sense charging the batteries to full cell voltage all the time.
Why stress the battery for just a couple of AH.
My battery is rated 56 V so individual cell should be charged to 3.5 V.
That is exactly what I do.
And the cells get to equalizing value.
See dashboards.

Yes the 1st statement is true until the BMS fails and one does not see it early. Just look at the cycles under BRANDS LBSA how well @Antonio de Sa batteries are doing using voltage control.

I've read here numerous complains about other battery suppliers using all kind of excuses not to repair batteries under guaranty.
KUDUS to LBSA.
My 5.1 KWH battery is 4 and 1/2 years old 2160 cycles.
Last week I had three random trips.
First one when battery was supplying just over 40 Amps to the house load.
Second one when I changed the set up on my inverters from SUB to SBU.
Third trip just tripped could not see the reason.
Contacted LBSA technical department, was told to bring the battery over.
Took battery over, I was told to wait a while they test the battery.
They found a faulty BMS and one Led.
Replaced the BMS and the faulty led as well as the battery breaker, also they added the earth connection.
Three hours later I was on my way home with basically a brand-new battery.
All done under guarantee.
My sincere gratitude to NIVÉ TIETZ she really demonstrated the significance of excellent customer care.
I would like to stress all done under guarantee.
See attached dashboards.

@Stefan Cornelissen
As you can see from the attached dashboard, the battery still charges to 98% soc, 101Ah.
That is because the battery is set to 55 V if I set it to 56 V I can get it to 99% 103 AH
I don't want to do that no need to stress the battery for an extra 2 AH




Just now.

@Stefan Cornelissen
As you can see from the attached dashboard, the battery still charges to 98% soc, 101Ah.
That is because the battery is set to 55 V if I set it to 56 V I can get it to 99% 103 AH
I don't want to do that no need to stress the battery for an extra 2 AH




Just now.

I've read here numerous complains about other battery suppliers using all kind of excuses not to repair batteries under guaranty.
KUDUS to LBSA.
My 5.1 KWH battery is 4 and 1/2 years old 2160 cycles.
Last week I had three random trips.
First one when battery was supplying just over 40 Amps to the house load.
Second one when I changed the set up on my inverters from SUB to SBU.
Third trip just tripped could not see the reason.
Contacted LBSA technical department, was told to bring the battery over.
Took battery over, I was told to wait a while they test the battery.
They found a faulty BMS and one Led.
Replaced the BMS and the faulty led as well as the battery breaker, also they added the earth connection.
Three hours later I was on my way home with basically a brand-new battery.
All done under guarantee.
My sincere gratitude to NIVÉ TIETZ she really demonstrated the significance of excellent customer care.
I would like to stress all done under guarantee.
See attached dashboards.

I've read here numerous complains about other battery suppliers using all kind of excuses not to repair batteries under guaranty.
KUDUS to LBSA.
My 5.1 KWH battery is 4 and 1/2 years old 2160 cycles.
Last week I had three random trips.
First one when battery was supplying just over 40 Amps to the house load.
Second one when I changed the set up on my inverters from SUB to SBU.
Third trip just tripped could not see the reason.
Contacted LBSA technical department, was told to bring the battery over.
Took battery over, I was told to wait a while they test the battery.
They found a faulty BMS and one Led.
Replaced the BMS and the faulty led as well as the battery breaker, also they added the earth connection.
Three hours later I was on my way home with basically a brand-new battery.
All done under guarantee.
My sincere gratitude to NIVÉ TIETZ she really demonstrated the significance of excellent customer care.
I would like to stress all done under guarantee.
See attached dashboards.

I've read here numerous complains about other battery suppliers using all kind of excuses not to repair batteries under guaranty.
KUDUS to LBSA.
My 5.1 KWH battery is 4 and 1/2 years old 2160 cycles.
Last week I had three random trips.
First one when battery was supplying just over 40 Amps to the house load.
Second one when I changed the set up on my inverters from SUB to SBU.
Third trip just tripped could not see the reason.
Contacted LBSA technical department, was told to bring the battery over.
Took battery over, I was told to wait a while they test the battery.
They found a faulty BMS and one Led.
Replaced the BMS and the faulty led as well as the battery breaker, also they added the earth connection.
Three hours later I was on my way home with basically a brand-new battery.
All done under guarantee.
My sincere gratitude to NIVÉ TIETZ she really demonstrated the significance of excellent customer care.
I would like to stress all done under guarantee.
See attached dashboards.

My two Growatt SPF5000ES when in idle, i.e. AC output disconnected consume around 110W, i.e. about 55W per inverter.
This is as reported by the BMS via SA. I have connected the Battery to PBMS tools as well via the RS232 port and it shows a draw as well of around 110W.

A many of you know already I love data, but sometimes it can be a pain to get data streaming in reliably.
There are so many different ways to do it. ESP32 with rs485 ttl, Bluetooth, arduino ttl/rs485, rs232 etc etc the list goes on.
Many are very technical and need an understanding of how to program esp devices.
I have now found what I think is the simplest way to connect your JKBMS batteries to home assistant.
The data flows in very reliably at a decent rate (Almost realtime) and all you need is a simple rs485-usb adapter and the ability to follow some simple step.
Data flows nicely into mqtt and exposes a crapton of data entities for you to use all over your HA where ever you like.

You can make adjustments to the bms settings right from inside HA


And if you too lazy or time constrained then you can get a ready done for you templates to get you going


You can view this project on github (Yes it's open-sourced)
https://github.com/jean-luc1203/jkbms-rs485-addon

In my area this month has been very poor, lots of cloudy and rainy days. it's been the lowest production since installation 4 years ago.
Here is my dashboard for this month.

Previous month.

Why would you not want to use the existing BMS that is still functioning well even if there is no comms to the inverter when using voltage mode?
The BMS can still perform the switching off during over current or too low discharge of any cell.
Also for some the 100% correct SOC is important and others not. Even with the rain my early morning SOC is shown as over 45% and even if it is 35% for a 10% error I still don't need grid and if there are a few hours of lighter clouds the battery will charge. My SOC drops about 23% from 00h00 to 06h30 when PV comes in. I am off grid most of the time. Aug before clouds I used only 4kWh from grid. This month it is standing at 14kWh. Cannot predict how much I might use but my inaccurate SOC will guide me when to activate my Grid to help.
I have found if I do have my Grid on to ensure battery makes it to PV generation this bit of grid is normally less than 500Wh. It all has to do with knowing the loads used and managing the system. Never has to guess as the APP gives good guidance 24/7.

NovaCraft is legit, I dealt with them before. Great service
https://nova-craft.co.za/product/esener-es-16-8-kwh-51-2v-314ah-lithium-battery/

and then there are these guys. Not sure if they are legit,
https://sinogy.co.za/product/esener-es-16-8-kwh-51-2v-314ah-lithium-battery/

The Power Forum Store also had them listed in September
https://powerforum.co.za/topic/33009-september-specials/#comment-223124

For the past year I have saved a total of R83k on my Tshwane Electricity bill, now if they had a better incentive to push back to the grid the savings would be much better. total since installing the system in 2022 I have saved almost R230k so next year the system would be paid off.

You will have to get the answer from Svolt or their suppliers. It all has to do with the comms. If on the other hand you work with voltage settings instead of the much more accurate measurements via comms you can still run different marks of batteries in parallel. A few of us are using voltage control with success. I have 2 DIY banks and I branded battery running in parallel. Each DIY with own BMS and branded battery without comms on my Deye.
Another option would be to try and buy another 5.09 kWh in the classifieds.

If don't want to use grid to charge the battery, change setting 14 to OSO (only solar)

Set 19 Bulk charge voltage to 100%
I my case I run my system on voltage settings ((setting 5 on USE mode)
I charge my battery 16 cells to 56 V, float at 53 V see attached

Set 19 Bulk charge voltage to 100%
I my case I run my system on voltage settings ((setting 5 on USE mode)
I charge my battery 16 cells to 56 V, float at 53 V see attached

Set 19 Bulk charge voltage to 100%
I my case I run my system on voltage settings ((setting 5 on USE mode)
I charge my battery 16 cells to 56 V, float at 53 V see attached