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JoeSlow

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Everything posted by JoeSlow

  1. Bought 2 x Am-2s in Nov 2020. Been in for 2 years now coupled to 2 x 5kw Sunsynk's and not a single issue. Seems the old firmware was better. Have sites with 5 x 2022 batch and also no issue. Sunsynk 8kw. Also have some 2023 batches and no issues. Again coupled to Sunsynk inverter. Just wanted to add good feedback too.
  2. I contacted a company that can remove battery cells and package into a normal 5kwh enclosure with BMS. Contactors on the battery modules apparently are faulty but cells might still have some life left in them, which the company will confirm before re-packaging the cells.
  3. Morning, Have a client who had two of the 3phase Mecer units installed in 2017. Its a office block. Strange thing is none of the two has a parallel board installed. The battery unit broke a while back and they been running grid tied. I was contacted to help see if all is well since the savings the client used to see does not appear on utility bill any more. I suspect excess PV is fed back to grid over weekends especially when the offices are closed. The PV definitely works and feeds back to the loads. There is a Eastron SDM630M CT installed at distribution case. However the comms cable used to be connected to the battery which has a massive control board. Grid and PV runs the the battery unit. Now since teh battery does not work anymore I suspect comms arent working to the Eastron anymore and this will need to be connected to the Master inverter and then program set through the windows application interface? The battery unit is an Austrian NEOSTARE FT3 DC Coupled. They went out of business a while back though. Can these inverters be updated to parallel properly? Where can I get parallel boards if possible? I would like to remove the whole battery unit and run inverters directly grid tied but if no parallel cards installed I'm afraid of the inverters feeding into each other. Images for reference.
  4. So I'm experiencing this problem and cannot figure it out and only found one thread kinda similar to it with searching. Every now and again i get disconnected from grid push notification but it's not load shedding. It happens around twice to 4 times a day. Sunsynk 8kw with 2 x Sunsynk 5.32kwh wall mount batteries. Here are the blips(positive purple) when the battery takes load for that few minutes: Here is the frequency and voltage from Grid (no drops/flatlines at all): If anyone has experienced this issue and no how to fix it please advise me cause the push notification is now pretty useless for me where it used to be very accurate and I could say switch off my geyser with Sonoff if the day was cloudy.
  5. Game changer! Experiencing so many installs where 8kw inverters are coupled with .5C 5kwh batteries and then people don't understand why the inverter trips during load shedding. This will bridge that gap nicely. So far Hubble was the defacto champ in this area. Would like a wall mount unit though.
  6. Bird poop problem. Not enough gap to make nest. The owl works absolutely amazing.
  7. Added an EV Wallbox for my Mini SE and finally sorted out my pigeon problem.
  8. Here's averages for the ice mini cooper 2021 model.
  9. It would have cost me R3718 with my old 1. 6 16Valve Megane mk2 for the same distance at an average of 13.3km/l
  10. Ah okay but was it also a GridCars unit? If so please send me a Google maps location so I can ask them to add it
  11. Hi Bob, Did a speed of 90km/h GPS. Reason is the Mini only has 29kwh (32kwh gross) usable battery so did my research to find the best range speed. From Bfn I stopped to charge in Colesberg, Richmond, Beaufort West, Laingsburg and final charge in Worcester. Each 180km+ stint I charged for an hour to get to 100% but the stints less than that only 45 minutes which yields around 90ish %. I have a web app from GridCars which shows all the chargers and if they are online, in-use etc. You can check it out: https://www.chargestations.co.za/CP/Index.aspx The Mini was not made for long trips but I just needed to do it so when my brother said he needs to collect a Jeep in CT I decided to prove it. Cost of 2000km plus the odd 150km travelled in CT worked out to R1650 for charging on the GridCars network. It's not cheap at R5.88 a KWH but the fast charging at 50kwh is convenient and you pay for that convenience I guess. All in all fun drive, was dog tired afterwards but I know I can at least do it if I need or want to.
  12. First big road trip done. Af far as I can tell form the petrol attendants and the EV SA Facebook group, I am the first person to drive from Bloemfontein to Cape Town in a Mini Cooper Electric. Round trip driving and charging took about 16 hours per 1000km and trip was done from Thursday 5pm and arrived back on Sunday 9AM. So around 64 hours from departure to arrival and total Km's of 2200km traveled. Bit tired here. Had 4km to go to reach home at this stage:
  13. My Mini Cooper SE arrived in Bloemfontein on Wednesday evening! Wad PDI'd on Thursday 31 March and took delivery the same day. Part of a special Mini SA was running a got a free level two charger. 7.2kw/h which I connected to the grid part of my solar system so CT coil can still allow PV to be used on the charger. I can set the car to slow charge then its 3.2kw/h. Pics:
  14. Sooo.... Currently spec'cing out a Mini Cooper SE and will be putting down the deposit in the next week or two to have it built a super my requirements. I ran a million scenarios of numbers, watched countless YouTube videos. Looked at upcoming evs in SA etc. The Mini just looks like the car to get for the next 5 years when a worthy upgrade will be available at the same price point. Then it can go to the wife for a town car and I can get the family ev. One thing I'd like to know/get info on. Say the gov starts giving incentives to ev buyers in the next two years. Would I be able to claim tax return on it or only in the same year its bought as the year of the tax filing cycle? Trying to keep that open if it could net me a few thousand Mandelas in return.
  15. Seeing as the showcases are low and slow start of 2022 I'll provide a little update. System has not missed a beat. Batteries are just floating currently incase of load shedding. Might switch back to draining them during peak time if the no load shedding situation continues. Have not fitted the extractor fan to the power room yet. Currently running a normal household fan pointing at the inverters bottom which then pushes a the hot air out the top. The difference between fan and no fan is probably around 40 degrees C on the heatsinks and the fan internal fan running and not running at all. So the 40 odd watt the standalone fan pulls is very good for thermal diffusion of the inverters heat. Need an additional 1000watt of PV to be able to run loads and charge batteries if I run off batteries during peak times but that will still happen in future. The solar system aside. No leaks in roof which I drilled 21 X 20mm holes into and sealed with AapKak. Inverter tripped once when we overloaded it by running airfryer, 3kw of crypto miners, dishwasher, kettle and all lights and accessories as normal. Oops but it reset and said AC Overload error but all good after that. Really using house as normal with eskom pass through on the 5kw sunsynk and only tripped it once. If there's load shedding our oven, stove top and out buildings go off so can still pull between 2 to 3kw during load shedding off the battery apart from the crypto miners. In hindsight though... The 13k difference between 5kw and 8ke sunsynk. I'd have gone for 8kw but really only for the enhanced pass through amps. Once my friend removes his crypto miners from my house the 5kw will be more than enough. That's it for the update. Hang ten everyone.
  16. @YellowTapemeasure thanks for the kind words. You get the 3kw normal 3prong plug charger with the car as well as a open on both sides wire and plugs for use on certain charging stations. The Jaguar station I went to has 60kw output on direct dc charging. Those plugs that don't have the two direct DC connectors charge through the cars inverter as I understand. I just used the home charger cause it was sufficient to fill the battery in 4hours when on 50%. Those sunsynks look nice
  17. Seems like an excellent price. I have similar specs and paid 150k without installation for all the components. Any chance you could get Sunsynk instead of Deye? The new Sunsynk Logger allows for remote changes to the inverter so if interwebs available on farm, you or installer could change parameters remotely without having to go to the farm. Unsure of all parameters available for remote change but worth looking at in mentioned scenario. Otherwise looks like a great set of kit and they will definitely be happy with it. ROI on a kit like this is around 7 years in my usage case. Might be more or less for them.
  18. Sovereign Mini Bloemfontein was kind enough to lend me the Mini SE for the weekend. Some pics: Charging in my driveway. Pretty normal Mini Cooper interior apart from the special SE "wrap" on the dash. Driver cluster shows the electric usage and re-gen. a R650k electric car. Almost 200k more expensive than the Ice equivalent. Is it worth it. As so many reviews have stated... No it is not. If you charge only from solar the ROI is 42 years at R20/L. Okay so this will come down as fuel prices increase but still a very long term "investment". But is it worth it if you have the coin and want to use it for urban env only? Then yes, very much. I was able to drive it from the morning 7h30 till the evening 19h30 on a single charge. Managed 190km with some highway, some property viewing. Bought some plants at the nursery and they fitted in the rather small boot. In urban settings, the car excels and if money was no object I'd prefer this to the bigger EVs from BMW, Jaguar and Merc. Audi seems to have some cool fun cars upcoming in the very near future. The Mini is in its 3rd year but is still a conversion rather than a bespoke developed platform. This will change in late 2023/2024 I understand. Fun factor: The Mini SE is the purest form of fun I've driven. I lived with an 06 Megane F1 2.0T for 7 years and that was a fun car. The mini takes it to a whole new level. The 135kw instant power made Golf 7 GTi look slow from the line. The regenerative braking makes driving the car a breeze, at first you let go too much and get a lot of negative acceleration but as you learn you feather the throttle pedal to get smooth braking. 187km of range sounds very low/short but I was gatvol at the end of the day trying to empty the battery. Will it work in current Config as a direct replacement of your Ice car? No, the range is not enough especially on open road to get to nearest charger eg. Gariep from Bloemfontein. As a urban car it's epic and could provide commuting for a week on a single charge. If you have solar it would take around 1.5days to fully charge on solar only using the 3kw charger included on a 5kw PV array. Eskom is still cheap but charging at a fast charger station can cost up to R5.50 a kW. You do the math. Although the mini only has a 32kwh battery of which 28kwh is usable, it results in overnight 100% charging or Saturday Sunday charging on Solar from even below 50%. Cons: The one I drove has no cooling seats but has the leather seats. The seats get so hot when parked in the sun that the aircon (which is amazing) cannot cool your back and you arrive at destination with a sweaty wet back. Not cool tbh. Being a conversion the dash and interior has not been remodeled to make use of extra space like no exhaust tunnel underneath the car so you still have that tunnel in the car. Removing this in the next model will make the mini much more spacious. I could not complain about the current space for the driver though. Felt great to me but I'm short at 174cm. Rear seats are for short people or younglings only apart from the odd "must transport friends" scenario. Was able to fit months groceries from Makro into the car but only after folding down the rear seats. If your keen on electric mobility, do yourself a favour and get a taste by test driving the Mini Cooper Se.
  19. You cannot go wrong with the 8kw Sunsynk. It will also future proof better than the 5kw unit. You probably meant to say usage is between 20 and 25kwh per day? Geyers are sorted so we will leave those as is. You need to ask yourself what your peak usage is and at what time of the day. Your house might idle at 500watt during the day but when everyone arrives home at late afternoon and start using power, there is no sunshine left and you either revert to eskom or batteries or combined. The sunsynk blends all power sources like a boss. For 65k worth of moneys you can get a 8kw Sunsynk, 5 x 540w panels and then all wiring, db boards, breakers etc. Wiring etc can easily run into the R10k+ area depending on lengths required. Also throw in any tools you might need to buy like I had to ie crimper, multi meter, label maker etc etc. Few trips to the hardware store for that little thing you forgot about or specd wrong can easily run into thousands. The you panels mounting hardware as well. So you might just just make it with 65k on a nice inverter, few panels and no battery but a decent infrastructure to build onto in the near future. Alternatively you could go 5kw sunsynk which allows 35amp pass through under eskom support and 5kw under load shedding. This will save you 10k to buy more panels or towards a battery. Then you gotta remember that say a 5kw battery with a .5c discharge rate can only supply 2.5kw to your loads. Some batteries like Hubble are rated 1c so good for 5kw discharge rate. Just keep that in mind. So depending on your usage patterns you will decide on what takes preference and if you must have load shedding backup then a battery is a no brainer and even a 2.4kwh battery could power your lights and tvs through load shedding. Just ensure proper essentials wiring of the DBs the. If usage is mostly when sun shines then focus on PV output. Bit deurmekaar but hope it helps.
  20. Finally some load shedding!! Power went off from 2pm to 4pm today and system did not miss a beat. Battery handled everything the PV could not supply. After LS battery charged back its 3% lost and we are ready for tonight. Screenshot taken at 14:36
  21. Lik hoohloc said get at least two more quotes. But those prices seem fair. I diy'd my system(same inverter and panels) but 10 panels for the same price including some new tools which I reckon as an extra investment hehe
  22. Running crypto rigs 24/7 for a friend of mine. My 4.2kwh array is running 100% all the time but the almost 3kwh dwarfs the production. At least my panels never idle and I don't buy any grid power from my own wallet.
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