JoeSlow

The same when you have two of them connected or does one double all the values then?

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. 
 

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.

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.

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.

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
 
 

Awesome build and setup 

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. 

Installation completed. COC received. Insurance updated etc. 😀
Constant draw on household is 2.9kw due to the crypto miners running 24/7
PV produces an average of 20kwh per day. I switched off the miners yesterday at 17h00. I then set the System timers to only make use of Gen and not Grid. At 06h00 this morning the SOC was 39%. That's 13 hours. So load shedding won't be an issue and without the miners the system is enough to be off grid in summer. Will see the winter generation still. 
Very happy with all the components I got.
Last thing on the to do is the neutral earth bond relay. I already have it just need to wire in. 
Finally working on an auto switch over for the two 535w panels connected to the Geyserwise MPPT. When the Geyserwise controller of 75degrees is reached and the circuit opens, the PV input needs to be directed to string 2 on the inverter. This could add an addition 2 to 3kwh generation per day depending at what time the geyser reaches temp. Could bring temp down to 65 degrees as well to switch over earlier. 
Thanks to all advise and kind words here on the forum. Much appreciated. 

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. 

Installation completed. COC received. Insurance updated etc. 😀
Constant draw on household is 2.9kw due to the crypto miners running 24/7
PV produces an average of 20kwh per day. I switched off the miners yesterday at 17h00. I then set the System timers to only make use of Gen and not Grid. At 06h00 this morning the SOC was 39%. That's 13 hours. So load shedding won't be an issue and without the miners the system is enough to be off grid in summer. Will see the winter generation still. 
Very happy with all the components I got.
Last thing on the to do is the neutral earth bond relay. I already have it just need to wire in. 
Finally working on an auto switch over for the two 535w panels connected to the Geyserwise MPPT. When the Geyserwise controller of 75degrees is reached and the circuit opens, the PV input needs to be directed to string 2 on the inverter. This could add an addition 2 to 3kwh generation per day depending at what time the geyser reaches temp. Could bring temp down to 65 degrees as well to switch over earlier. 
Thanks to all advise and kind words here on the forum. Much appreciated. 

Power room buttoned up. 


 

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

 

Inside trunking

Other trunking added. Not happy about the 45 cuts but nou ja. Might change them to 90s

Collars drilled out to 20mm

Look from door
 

From ahead

So here we are with a lot of empty trunking just waiting for some wires. 
Next up more trunking and then finally the wiring can start. 

Hi all, 
With my solar install I decided to get the Geyserwise PV system as well for the hooot water needs. Colleague at work had it and was very happy with his 6 person family on a 200L system. 
We are only two and 150L.
Got the system without the solar panels from LiveSystainable on special for just under 9k delivered. 
I had 9 x 540w Ja panels and 1 x 535w. 
8 panels on the inverter string and 1 x 535 plus 1x 540 on the geyserwise. 
Damnnn guys, I have not had the geyser on AC since 24 December and we had rain up to the 28th. Even with miserable weather it got up to 60+ degrees. Drops down to about 50 during the night on bad days and 60ish on good days but we are used to 50 degrees ond the old AC system where it ran 3 hours total a day. 1.5 Early morning and 1.5 afternoon before peak times. 
I know some guys use other systems from their normal PV systems and inverters but this is just so amazing. It's a saving of R900 a month. 
For most it's easy to install but for me it was a tad difficult due to where my geyser is located. Had to extend thermo cables and run around 6 meters of 2.5mm AC cabling + 6mm DC cabling. 
Fully recommended. It pays itself back in 16 months. Will still see what winter brings but since my roof is 2 stories high with no trees we get loads of sunshine. 

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: 

 

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. 
 

Hi all, 
With my solar install I decided to get the Geyserwise PV system as well for the hooot water needs. Colleague at work had it and was very happy with his 6 person family on a 200L system. 
We are only two and 150L.
Got the system without the solar panels from LiveSystainable on special for just under 9k delivered. 
I had 9 x 540w Ja panels and 1 x 535w. 
8 panels on the inverter string and 1 x 535 plus 1x 540 on the geyserwise. 
Damnnn guys, I have not had the geyser on AC since 24 December and we had rain up to the 28th. Even with miserable weather it got up to 60+ degrees. Drops down to about 50 during the night on bad days and 60ish on good days but we are used to 50 degrees ond the old AC system where it ran 3 hours total a day. 1.5 Early morning and 1.5 afternoon before peak times. 
I know some guys use other systems from their normal PV systems and inverters but this is just so amazing. It's a saving of R900 a month. 
For most it's easy to install but for me it was a tad difficult due to where my geyser is located. Had to extend thermo cables and run around 6 meters of 2.5mm AC cabling + 6mm DC cabling. 
Fully recommended. It pays itself back in 16 months. Will still see what winter brings but since my roof is 2 stories high with no trees we get loads of sunshine. 

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

Here's averages for the ice mini cooper 2021 model. 

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

Thanks for all the info.
 
Lately I think these vehicles make more and more sense for my household...  or households such as mine.
Consider this:
We have two vehicles.  Both ice. Thanks to covid changing the world, both the wife and I work from home now.  Zero daily commute to work. We are lucky enough to have the school in our neighborhood, literally 300m from our house.   The SPAR is 500m. A good estimate would be that 90% of our driving is school run and shops - everything so close. I don't think - for daily commute type stuff - we do more than one or two short trips per day.  
Unless I'm missing some critical detail, it would make sense for us to change one of two vehicles for full electric (not hybrid).
For holidays, weekend trips or any other occasional longer driving, there is still one proper diesel powered SUV.
What I don't know is life expectancy of batteries and costs related to that.  This could become a deep rabbit hole.
Thanks again for the info!

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: 

 

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.