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Richwost

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  1. Many thanks to those of you who took the time to reply to my conundrum. Is my mind now more clear on what to do? Yes!!! Diodes? I had to refer to my Oxford Dictionary. That convinced me further to say within my comfort zone!! That normally means more money and less anguish. I think that the Victron 12V 800VA Multi (or even the 500VA) is what I will go for (thanks Travis) and I will get hold of Current Automation - thanks PJJ. My local friend who is big into alternative energy on his farm tells me that a UPS is the single most dangerous piece of equipment in your house and the one that is most likely to start a fire. Not very comforting at all? Would that be true of what I am proposing to do? Naturally I will get the UPS professionally wired into the DB. I have now spoken to Current Automation, and their prices are unbeatable. However I am going to buy mine in PE. Higher price hopefully means that I will get backup from them - programming of the Victron etc. Many thanks again.
  2. Greetings... This has absolutely nothing to do with solar. I need a very simple UPS system to run my LED TV, the Explorer and one led light. No more than that. I have a 20kva Generator, but If I am watching a Test and the power goes off, I can switch to the generator - either automatically or manually (which I far prefer) - but I don't have to tell you how disruptive that is. If I am out and recording the Boks, then I come back to fine absolutely nothing. Now for the rub. Those of you who know me from previous correspondence on the Forum (more than a year ago - hell how time flies) know that I am passionate about Lithium batteries. I bought a 50Ah Lithium battery about 6 months as well as a special C-Tek lithium charger. The battery is about half the physical size of a car battery. I attach specs. This battery cost me R10k and I bought it for a certain purpose which I've now decided against. So I have a brand new Lithium battery being kept perfect by the Lithium charger for the UPS. Where do I go from here? I would really appreciate your help... 50ah battery.pdf
  3. Many thanks both of you. I am still a Lithium man and I am heading in the direction of Blue Nova OR Tesla Powerwall 2. Between 12-15kW. My problem is my DB. It is wired 3-phase. If I go Blue Nova, then I need a 3-phase inverter. 3.33kW per phase sounds about right. If I go Tesla, then I do not need any inverter - it is built in - but they do not do three phase. So I would have to rewire the DB. That is a big job, but it can be done in a week by my colleague. (By the way, I built the house!!) I am not going the solar route at this stage, so I remain a "Solar Athiest"!! The Solar panels would have to be far from the house for a variety of reasons, which defeats the purpose. I have "fairly" reliable Eskom and a very good diesel generator. Between these two, the batteries will be charged. If in the future I want solar panels, they will be placed on my shed 500m from the house and the power fed into the underground cable next to the shed, which comes down to the house. But not for now. At around R50k to get the Infini 10kW 3-phase, that is the more expensive route with Blue Nova Lithium. The Powerwall 2 is more expensive, but then I have to rewire the DB and there is no need for the inverter. Thats my story - and my dilemma. Blue Nova Lithium plus 3-phase inverter OR rewire DB and Tesla Powerwall 2. What say you guys?
  4. Does anybody have experience in this inverter? I need a 3-phase inverter and this one has been suggested. However I feel in my bones that it may be "old" Infini, or is that nonsense? The new 4kW inverter being "new" Infini. Many thanks...
  5. Good evening gentlemen, Many thanks for your unbelievable contribution to my dilemma. You may have silenced me, but not for long!! I take on board the 'caveat emptor' comment and also the extremely complicated nature of this beast called Solar Power as enunceated by Don in particular. Because of the number of conflicting comments that followed, I have come to realise that I must become better informed about voc's, absolute limits, open circuits and other Greek that makes the Latin I studied at school seem like child's play. I will do my homework and come back with a proposed solution OR - and more likely - more questions!! That OK?
  6. Plonkster and Don, may I ask you a technical question? You have told me the difference between the Phoenix and the Multiplus inverters which was extremely useful to me. However what about the range of Easysolar? These have MPPT included, plus a lot of other things that apparently makes it far easier to install. Is it a new range? https://www.victronenergy.com/upload/documents/Datasheet-EasySolar-with-Color-Control-EN.pdf I have chosen this one above - the 3kW, not the 5kW. It is the smallest of the 48V and it may be just the job for me. I would need to be able to charge the batteries from Eskom, from my Generator AND from solar panels. Can it manage all that? I am coming around to the panels and I have a really good place to put 2 only. If I used Sunpower 327w panels that would be a lot better than nothing wouldn't it? To create a string of about 8 is going to mean defacing a roof with an imported shingle tile and I don't want to do that.
  7. Hmmm... I thought I knew a bit about Solar. I now discover that I knew very very little. I've learnt more yesterday and today than I have learnt in the past 2 years. Thank you Don for clearing up the mess in my head and putting me on track to do something approaching intelligent!! I loved your 2-stroke / 4-stroke / diesel analogy - that really does bring it home to me. That is complete news to me. I wonder how many people "out there" understand all this? One of the reasons that I became a Solar Atheist was because of precisely that. The first Solar installer I went to - a year ago (a recommended installer) - gave me a quote. He then refused to tell me what make inverter, what make of battery and what make of panels - nor any specs. Said that was privileged information and that he was selling me a solution, not components. Can you blame me for buying a generator? Your list this morning of items drawing power was very interesting too and it forced us to go through ours. Exactly the same and you're quite right, you can't run around turning things off the whole time. We do live in the 21st century after all. Plonkster thank you for your support on this too. I am not quite sure where I go from here, but I am looking forward to see what TTT has to say and to see if there is an economical way of bridging the gap. Otherwise I have a choice it seems to me... Either I do what I wanted to do and treat the 1200 12V with the lithium battery as a one hour stop gap, OR I get a 3kW 48V with Trojan batteries and panels and have a real system that could last for several hours.
  8. Plonkster, many thanks for your help with understanding the difference between Multiplus and Phoenix. Now I think the price of R13k odd for the Multiplus is not bad. I would like something a bit bigger - say 1600 or 2000, but that does not seem to be available in 12V - that I can find at the moment anyway. Don, you are right in a way - I do tend to start at the wrong end and work backwards sometimes, but yikes - please tell me that your workings are incorrect. Surely!! My sums go as follows: 1000W (absolute maximum) used by the LED lamps, TV, Security system and the inverter. Usually half that. The 1000W divided by 240V = 4 Amps. So my usage would be 2-4 Amps per hour. Call it 3. One Lithium battery holds 160Ah. We discharge it 75% so 120 Amps. Divided by 3 = 40 hours available. I am using energy at 240V, not 12V. Is there something wrong with my workings? TTT, this is certainly an option that I would really appreciate looking further into. Maybe that would demonstrate whether (or where) I am going wrong with my thinking and my workings. Many thanks to you all...
  9. Many thanks to all of you who replied to my post. As I said a year ago ("A new installation") this in an incredible place to get advice from some extremely knowlegeable people. Let me make some comments in point form... 1. Plonkster I have been shopping around for Victron and I find that a "Victron Energy Multiplus Compact 12/1200/50-16 230V VE Bus" I can get for R!2,767 whereas the "Phoenix" 12/1200 I can get for R8,650. There must be a difference, but what is it? I am not saying that I will get that particular model, but I do like 12V, because I want one 12V Victron Lithium battery. I would like a 12/1600, 12/2000 or 12/3000. I think that most of you would disagree with 12/3000, but why? (Anyway I don't think is available in this country) 2. I do not think that a normal (dare I say "cheap"?) UPS is my bag. I used the DSTV example purely to illustrate that the changeover from generator to Eskom is by no means seamless. If you are recording the Boks... well maybe you'd be lucky!! The power could be off for hours - even days. I certainly would not use the generator just to charge the batteries. The generator would be used twice a day for a total of about 3 hours and during that time it would (hopefully) recharge a 50% used Victron Lithium battery. Maybe not? Could this be my achilles heel? If so, I may have to repent after after all and have two panels. 3. I am a firm believer in "less is more". I would really like to have just one 12V Lithium battery of 160 or 200aH and if necessary 2 good Sunpower panels. Would that ratio work? 4. On my small farm I have a 50kVA transformer and 3-phase power. There are 2 houses. My overhead (excl) is R2000 pm. There is not even a remote possibility that i would give that up. The cost of power thereafter is R1.16 per unit (excl). I regard R1.16 as cheap(ish) power. Am I wrong? 5. My genny runs at just under 1500rpm DeepBass. It is a Kipor KDE20SS3 Diesel. 20kVA, Chinese, but I am extremely happy with it. So quiet that I have to go outside to see if it is running. 6. The battery would power the mostly LED lights (lots of them), the security system (many beams and cameras), the TV systems. NOT anything particularly power hungry. The house is double storey - mainly for security reasons. Maybe I could get away with a cheap UPS, but that is not what I want. Whatever I have will be used and tested regularly. Once on, I would expect the system to be able to stay on for 12 hours without being charged. 7. I used to be a big advocate of Microcare, but I have shifted to Victron. I have never had either, but just when I was going to buy two inverters from Microcare a year ago, they suddenly went dead quiet. 6 months later they asked me if I was still interested!!!! I am now Victron and I really don't want to look at anything else. That's about it for now. Once again I look forward to your comments... Many thanks again - Richwost
  10. This is my situation. I looked at Solar Power long and hard about 12 months ago and I became more and more unconvinced about solar in my situation. I have a small 250Ha bush farm on the coast with just indigenous game on it. So eventually I bought a 20kW quiet low-revving diesel generator which powers everything in my house and I love it. But… a generator is only 60% of the solution. If the power goes off when I don’t need power, then I leave the generator OFF. If we are doing something which does require power, I set the generator to auto, so that it will come on within 10 seconds of Eskom going down. If I go out for the whole day, I leave the generator off, but if I get back to find Eskom off, I have no lights and no security. If we are watching TV, the TV goes down and the whole thing has to get rebooted, even if the generator comes on. When the generator is ON and Eskom comes on again, the generator withholds its power for 1 second while it aligns its sine wave with that of Eskom. That is enough to upset DSTV and the decoder has to reboot. The generator then monitors the Eskom power for about 2 minutes and if it is satisfied with the quality of the power, then it powers itself down and returns to standby position to come on again. At that point I turn it off if I no longer need it to be on standby. What I want is a strong UPS type system that could keep the following running: The lights which are LED, mostly 6W, three floodlights of 50W each which I do not have to use. (Est use 300w). One TV and decoder. (LED TV) (Est 300w). Security system (Est 100w). Victron inverter 1.2 kW (Est 200w) Total ….. say 960w per hour - or 4 Amps per hour I want a system which will power up those items above, when I do not need the generator. I need at least 12 hours cover - i.e. 48 amp hours minimum. More is better within reason. When Eskom goes down, the system must seamlessly take over. If I turn the generator on then the generator most take over and the battery (or batteries) will be charged by the generator. When Eskom comes back on - while the generator is on - then the system must seamlessly fill the one second gap while the generator aligns its sine wave with that of Eskom. Questions: 1. I believe that a Victron Multiplus 1.2kW is perfect. Or is it? I am not quite sure how these things work, but I will have three things delivering 240V AC power: Eskom, the inverter and the generator. Can a Multiplus handle all that, or should it be a small Victron Quattro??? 2. I very much like the idea of a Victron “package” where everything works together - even just one 12V Victron Lithium 160Ah battery - even at the high price. 3 If I have to go for the Victron Quattro, then what is the right size for me? What is the smallest one? Once I have filled in the gaps left by the generator, then I will have a perfect system in my opinion - with no panels and no battery bank. I am sorry if you feel that I am being a traitor to the world of Solar, but how do you feel about my solution? I would really appreciate comments - both positive and negative. Many thanks
  11. Thank you very much for your contribution Hannes. I am still not committed to Microcare, but I like the people and I have confidence in them. I was very pleased to read your letter of support. It sounds like you are an installer and I may well PM you if that is OK? Where are you based?
  12. I am most intrigued by your post Carl. While I fully admit to being a beginner in this field, I cannot grasp what you are saying. Strangely, I am quite independantly looking at a double inverter system myself and I am going to post something soon under the title of "Double Trouble". I don't want to go into that now, but how would you do away with the PV - inverter - charge regulator - battery - inverter setup, while still having a solar system and a grid tied inverter? There are so many people out there who are disappointed with the result of their investment into solar, and I don't want to become yet another one. This forum is incredible and there is a lot of knowledge sharing and learning going on. But your post had me beat. What exactly would you do if you could start all over again? I would be very interested to know - and I am sure that many others would too. I am wanting to use solar PV to generate hot water, but I accept your point on efficiencies. I have another reason for doing it which involves aesthetics to some extent and also some other logic. I will go into it under Double Trouble.
  13. Hi Guys What an incredible response. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching them come through on my phone, but I am now at my desk and I thank you all very much indeed for your enthusiastic responses. The panels got no reaction - so I am pretty happy about that. Sunpower it is. The Trojan batteries got very little reaction and what there was, was positive. Thank you for suggesting the Trojan Hydrolink auto fill watering system Chris. I have never heard of it, but it sounds like a "must have". I will most definitely look into it. So - Trojan it is. The matter of the inverter seems highly emotive!! How did I get to Microcare in the first place? (You asked me that Chris) It came from the first person that I ever spoke to on this subject about a year ago and I have subsequently met the Microcare hierarchy and I just feel comfortable with them. But I am not committed to them yet and I have had the name Victron on my mind too for a long time. No doubt it is better built and better everything, but isn't it a bit like comparing a Toyota Landcruiser bakkie with a Range Rover? The Toyota would get you from here to Cairo - although not very elegantly. The Range Rover would put a huge smile on your face until 200kms outside Blantyre when your onboard computer instructed you to switch off and seek a dealer "immediately" - this while passing through a restless breeding herd of elephant with calves at foot. Or is that not a good analogy? The Microcare brand is simple (or so I'm told) and they are close by. It is a very difficult choice - both BLUE by the way - but very different in terms of their appeal. I don't know anybody at Victron and maybe I should make contact and have a chat before committing. Those preferring Victron to Microcare is running at about 6 - 0 at this stage (including some of my friends), although Plonkster, you have put just a little doubt into everybody's mind I think!! Where are the Microcare supporters? Come on guys - don't be bullied into submission by the Victron Blue? Axpert? Hmmm... hasn't that got a very "Chinesey" feel about it? If so - that is where I draw the line... I will go ahead and get the batteries and the panels soon, but I will delay a while on the inverter while I investigate Victron. Can anybody tell be where I can get the Trojan Hydrolink auto fill watering system? Why did you leave Boksburg Chris? Best regards to you all...
  14. Hi Guys This is such an interesting forum and I must congratulate you Energy for setting it up and for the value that it adds to so many of us who read it. The responses from the likes of Plonkster, TTT and others are extremely interesting and valuable to us lesser mortals. I have decided on the following 48V installation for my new home on a very small game farm. I do not want to go off-grid. I have 50kVA Eskom power, but I believe that we are going to have more and more power failures in the future as the lack of system maintenance kicks in. What I want is something that offers "some" protection. We are very happy to exercise substantial lifestyle modifications to live within the boundaries created by our proposed system in the event of Eskom failures. The guts of the system is as follows: 5kW Microcare Bi-Directional inverter 8 x 327 Sunpower Mono panels 8 x Trojan L16RE-B 6V 370Ah batteries 1 x 60w Microcare MPPT 2 x Microcare battery monitors (one outside, one inside) We will have a 3 x Sunpower panel Geyserwise system for our bathroom geyser. We have a gas oven and a wood oven (in addition to an electric oven) and a wood fireplace for heat. The panels will be roof mounted at 30° due North, but we will keep them a good 100mm off the roof for some degree of ventilation. We do not have a good option to mount them elsewhere because of the shading issue. I would like those with experience to tell me firstly if they think our system is in "balance" and secondly, comment on our choice of manufacturer for the components. I know that many of you will recommend Victron in the place of Microcare. I would be interested to know why. (I hope I am not overstepping the boundary Energy??) We have not actually purchased any of the components yet, but we are keen to get going and so your comments will be of great interest to us. In the event of power failures we will not want the system to take us along as if we were on Eskom power. We will exercise our own form of power shedding. We are going to do the installation ourselves. My pal is a fully qualified (old school (but not old man!!)) electrician and although he has no experience whatsoever in this field, he and I are going to do the job. We WILL be needing help and advice!! So... how does our system look to you guys with the knowledge and the experience? I really look forward to hearing from you.
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