Jakes

This forum has been a great source of information for me over years. For that reason I greatly appreciate the inputs of members like 87 Dream and Buyeye. I (we all) have little to gain from brand bashing or guys who are sensitive about certain products causing them not to see the shortcomings.
As an example: I spoke to 2 suppliers about Axpert (one is not an "anti-Axpert" guy, the other is very much a "pro-Victron" and "pro-Sunsynk" guy). One says that he has been installing Axpert for 8 years. Only one problematic site. It was later found that the electrician wiring an extension to the building made a mistake with the wiring - not the inverter's fault. The other guy says that the longest he has ever seen an Axpert last is 18 months. He guarantees me that if I connect solar panels to that machine, it will pack up within the first 3 days. He regards their average lifetime as a couple of months (as long as you don't connect solar panels to it).
Should one consider Axpert, the calculations make for interesting reading (this is based on quotations I received). For the price of Victron equipment that will provide 6.5kW of power, you can buy 4 Axperts providing 8kW. I fully realize that this is not comparing apples with apples, but if we decide to compare rands with rands, we can buy 4 Axperts, install 1, (through it away after a couple of months, according to my supplier above), and have 3 paid for inverters on the shelf to install. Should 3 Axperts outlast 1 Victron, it made some financial sense.
Are there more suggestions for an inverter?
(I am slightly concerned about the abundance of reading material, also on this site, where Axpert problems need to be addressed with updated software. There's a lot written about Sunsynks needing updates as well, btw. My perception is that a quality product comes sorted from it's mother, gets installed, and works).
Thanks again for all the good inputs.

There's basically 2 tipes of e-bike:
One is where the motor propels the bike on command of a throttle, not needing the input of the pedals. The commuting- and beach going guys use this system.
The sports market uses a pedal-assist system. The motor will not give any input unless the bike is pedalled by the rider. The system measures the torque applied to the pedals and adds an amount of power to that. Most systems have about 4 pedal-assist levels. In the lowest, the electrics will add say 70% of the riders input, the next level something like 100%, then 200% and the highest one might be 300%. These are mostly programmable.
In SA we align ourselves with European laws governing the use of e-bikes: the maximum assisted speed of the bike may not exceed 25km/h. The bike can go faster, but then it's the rider pedalling it like a normal bike. The dealer can remove the restriction, for "off-road use", but then the customer signs an indemnity.
It's a very meaningful way of riding, especially for members of a family where abilities differ.

It was the wind.
 
I didn't know the Karoo well enough.
 
The panels arrived here on a pallet. Neatly stacked with fancy plastic corner pieces. They were not tied down onto the pallet..
 
The wind took a couple of the panels from the stack and thought of inserting them into the mountings so long.
 
I lost (only) 2.

I bought my whole system from GW Store, somewhere in 2014.
After much battle, I got the panels.
After a lot more hassle, I got the charge controller and inverter.
I also paid for 24 Willard RT23's. I have not received them (yet).
 
 

I bought my whole system from GW Store, somewhere in 2014.
After much battle, I got the panels.
After a lot more hassle, I got the charge controller and inverter.
I also paid for 24 Willard RT23's. I have not received them (yet).
 
 

Hi S
We've been using a dishwasher for more than 30 years. My wife says if only she knew, she would have bought it before a lounge suit.
When we prepared for our move to off-grid living in the Western Cape, I thought that we would greet the dishwasher farewell. I bought a couple of power meters and tested the consumption of the major clients. After seeing the results, I told the dishwasher that it (she) would be the first to climb onto the truck bringing our furniture. The figures are like everybody indicates.
We recently replaced that Siemens with a Bosch. The manual reckons that its default program is its most economical one. It takes 3h 30min. We try to only operate it when the sun is shining. The last 50 or so minutes is used for drying. We would sometimes when it is late afternoon and there's less than an hour left, switch the machine off and open the door for the load to dry by itself.

The high pitch sound is coming from the HA02. Mine does this as well, apparently it is normal. Its more noticable for me in the morning, I guess that batteries go out of balance overnight?

Paul
 
I also lived in Mpumalanga for many years.
 
One should do a slightly deeper study of the language: it actually means "Place of the broken roads".

Paul
 
I also lived in Mpumalanga for many years.
 
One should do a slightly deeper study of the language: it actually means "Place of the broken roads".

We've got 100's of kg's of scrap automotive batteries and I was wondering if they could be worth something.
 
I phoned Fry's Metals in Wadeville some months ago to find out.
 
They take the batteries with the acid still in them and pay you R8.10 (VAT excl) per kg.

We've got 100's of kg's of scrap automotive batteries and I was wondering if they could be worth something.
 
I phoned Fry's Metals in Wadeville some months ago to find out.
 
They take the batteries with the acid still in them and pay you R8.10 (VAT excl) per kg.

Thanks for the inputs. Much appreciated.
 
Doing some calculations I arrive at the following:
 
We've got 23.76kWh of battery capacity. (12 Narada 12V/165Ah's. They call them REX-C200's)
 
The (2kW) kettle boils water for 2 cups of tea in 2 minutes, which would use around 0.07kWh.
 
If we would only want to drain the battery pack down to 50% of its capacity, it would mean that boiling the kettle once would drain 0.6% of the available 12kWh of the battery pack.
 
I think we can peacefully carry on drinking.

Well done.
 
Some nice kit you've got there.
 
The local authority talks about an SSEG.
 
You're an LSEG.

Hi I
 
Let's see what happens.
 
I'd obviously like to sell all of them in one go, but I really don't know how this will pan out.
 
Keep in touch.

Nicely done.
 
Seems you sommer took the first pic when you departed with your helicopter?

Hi guys
 
I'm new to the forum, and my contribution can initially not be anything else than a lot of questions.
 
I'll appreciate your input on the way forward for me.
 
We are moving to Robertson, probably later in the year or early next year. The plan is to be totally independant of supplied electricity.
I'd like to start purchasing the components now.
 
We will mostly be 2 in the house using gas for cooking (except for a microwave oven) and solar water heating.
 
I've contacted 2 suppliers and the suggestions for the power supply for our house seems to look as follows:
(Up to) 10x300W solar panels. (One guy suggests ReneSola panels @ R10/W, the other Tenesol @ R21/W). A 60A charge controller. (MicroCare @ R5 200). A 5kW inverter @ R20 000. (MicroCare from the one guy, an 3kW unknown brand from the other @ R15 000). The battery options vary between R30 000 and R70 000). Now some questions:
How would you guys specify the power system? Which batteries do you think will be best to use? I'm specifically trying to find a good value for the money solution. Paying more for batteries that will last longer seems to make a lot of sense, although I will steer away from a R70k battery pack. What are your feelings about the solar panel recommendations? Also as far as brand names are concerned. In my mind it makes a lot of sense to also install a wind turbine to help on cloudy days and to maybe extend the life of the batteries. The suppliers don't really seem to agree with my thinking about a wind turbine. It would seem that our farm lies in a yellow or maybe orange area on the wind atlas, 7-8m/s wind speed. (Although it seems that the measurements were taken at 100m above the ground. So I don't know if I'm jumping the gun to even be looking at those figures).  
I also need to take water out of a borehole. The borehole depth: 65m, The water level is about 20m below the ground level, the tank will be about 70m above the borehole ground level. The total head will be around 100m if I'm not mistaken. My thinking is that we will not need more than 1 000 litres of water per day.
 
So I'll need a power system for the house and a solar powered borehole pump, and would really appreciate your inputs.
 
Thanks a million.
 
J.