KLEVA

Consider sold - Will arrange with you via Private Message

Hi All I am looking for a company that can do Imeon 3.6 hardware repairs in South Africa. KZN would be preferable, eThekwini area would be wonderful. Have 2 x Imeon 3.6 units: One unit seems to have a short circuit on Grid Input (trips the circuit breaker immediately) Second unit - Heard loud bang, system restarted with no errors showing in the Imeon Manager, but trips itself (with no errors) every few hours Thanks in advance

Hi Jeeva & Scorp007 * PS: This can be used for other municipalities, but at own risk and research The doc above is not clear enough. I understand that your MCB is 63A, but the rest of the diagram is not clear from an electrical standpoint. Understand that I am coming from this advise as if you do not have a complete CoC for your system. Ignore if you have a complete CoC for your system that Cape Town municipal has accepted. From the little I am following from your diagram and description is: * The first thing I have to say from a CoC & general standpoint is that you either need to keep your Cape Town power, far separate from any other power source (they are very strict, so don't push them), or get a signoff (tricky/time consuming) to use in single distribution. Try avoid taking anything pushed back to the first distribution point from their mains (not illegal, but avoid the stress). * As above, set up a Cape Town input power in a completely separate MCB, and any solar/other/backup/generator/etc in a separate MCB * Dont make "jippo" wiring, it will make your life harder later. Make sure all your wiring is up to specification (don't use 1mm connections for a 10A draw without a CB in place). Even if you can't get an expensive electrician in, make sure you are still doing things as close to legit as possible until a later CoC. * Definately have a Switch over switch as close as possible to your Municipal input... Be able to isolate and switch over to municipal power without you backup using a change over. This will also help you isolate your solar system for checking of various faults/issues without killing your home of power. * If you want to do things 100%, the SANS10142 & SANS10142A are available online with a search, if you follow those you should have no problem getting a CoC from a qualified electrician later. * DONT feed back into the grid unless you have done the relevant paperwork with your municipality. It is such an easy cheat with the old meters, but if you get caught there are HUGE fines involved. Make sure you can prove that you either have the documents, or that your Invertor is set not to do that. * Even though it might mean multiple MCB's, make sure you distribute your backup/solar power to the relevant essentials. You can power everything in the home, but some stuff should be left out (anything with an element is usually first, no geyser/kettle/oven) This is about all I can come up with at the moment. Good Luck and the expense in doing the electrical right is worth it in the long run. If you can offer power back to Municipality, then examine the costs/reward first as it might not be worth it... I have preferred buying more batteries for storage rather than accepting their pricing, but that is a cost call you have to decide on.

I love electrification, especially aircraft and homes... In aeronautics our biggest problem is normally seen as distance vs load vs consumption. For this parallel I want to assume that the load (mass/weight) is almost the same, with the exception of fuel load... I really want us to get amazingly far and useful with electric aircraft... But currently we are not anywhere reasonably close. Mathematically we cannot be closely equal to the power from a petrochemical powered engine (please remember that I want electric or similar to succeed): * Electric is short flying. The weight vs flying time is very short (average based on current engines and weight - 15x flight time with petrochemical) * Power usages vs recharge times - Electric for decent distance will take hours, vs a refuel of minutes * Mass - Electric still has mass of over 2x standard - Longer takeoff, longer landing, with standard equipment (from microlight to Cessna 172, this cannot be changed) * Training - Power failures are far more likely in electric, so training needs to change to concentrate a lot more on engine outages and landing in unprepared areas * Insurance - Due to the more common event of power outages, this will change the outlook of the already stretched insurance requirements for private aircraft

2 Years later - but any chance this is still available?

Hi Been away for a while but have a few smaller panels no longer in use: 10W, 20W & 50W. Not cost effective to ship, but if local (KZN)then welcome to collect.

Noted, Thanks Sorry for the delay in response, been in Ireland as my father passed.

@Warrenpfo - Contact me on 0835579832 on weekend. I am Durban based and can discuss the cheapest to best options and let you choose. I am not going to try sell you on anything, I am a software developer not a salesperson. I just like meeting people locally with the same passion. Reach out.

I have had about 5 people DM me - At the moment it is still FREE to good home Just need the courier cost to deliver if you not in local Durban region or prepared to collect yourself. Have a door-door courier via PnP for R120. Regards KLEVA

Yes still in market - Due t previous expenses in getting a new LiFePO, I need to research before I blow my bond... My available budget was R30k, but the LiFePO price dropped my current savings to R12K after this month's salary. I am very keen, even if have to use them seperately from current IMeon... Where are you based?

It's in the ceiling and I don't often get up there much anymore at my age. They are just long strips of the copper connections you find in an electrical box, but with the holes spaced further apart and very slightly bigger. House is small so have 4 x 6m lengths, 2 for each +ve/-ve, connected to another 2 with a short 5mm thick copper wire in-between. Only need the 12m. They are run about 20cm apart and strapped near the top of the roofing beams. Wires from ceiling to devices are almost always twinflex and use that 10x10 white plastic square stuff (forgot what it is called) or bigger if needed to cover other things like in Lounge where speaker wires, aerial cables +++ go through.

Thank you all - I think I now understand the pros vs cons - In my personal installation it doesn't seem to make a difference - but hopefully it will help others. Also you gave me an idea into new tech out there that I wasn't aware of, thank you.

Thank you all for the comments. I now have a decent idea of what a PTC element is vs a resistive element in a geyser

Thank you guys. Have already spent a fortune on many and had miserable results. My hand is so damaged, I have often been tempted to switch to left - but then would battle to type, so definately a Catch 22 - Especially since my daily job is a programmer. The Ergo is definately the closest and have purchased 2 already, but they have a serious delay - so ok for daily stuff but very bad for gaming (yes, I game with a trackball - which is already a disadvantage, and then I am 54 years old which doesn't help), they also affect my work due to the small delay/ I really need wired devices and at least 3. Hence looking at local sources.

Hi All I am a but distrusting of the PTC element tech that seems to be only offered by Geyserwise in South Africa (haven't really been able to find other sources). Geyserwise have a decent solar controller product (ugly as all sin), but I find it really clunky and needs much more quality development - So I am very skeptical when they are the only ones that have come up with this PTC technology with some quite impressive claims. It seems fairly pricey compared to a standard resistive element, so I would like to hear others thought and possibly experiences. Regards KLEVA

@Cyon- Good idea, these are ideas from our side but I personally am not sure what the SANS10142A (I think A is the solar SANS code) says. But definately remove a permanent bond without protection from current going the wrong way. We are always learning and may be knowledgeable about quite a lot of things, but I personally cannot claim to be up to regulations.

Hi All I was wondering if any person on this forum might have an old (1995-2005) Logitech Trackball mouse that they are willing to sell. Since in use every day, I want a wired trackball rather than the new wireless only. The cheaper current wired ones available are horrible and place my wrist at an extremely painful angle/resting position. Whilst I can use a mouse for short periods, it hurts, hence my use of a trackball for the last 26 years - but mine finally died. Not the Marble 2 with the ball on top, but the original with the ball on the side for thumb use... Similar to this: Thanks Kevin

As mentioned elsewhere on the forum, don't use a permanent bond. You only want that bond when no valid E/N bond exists and you are "islanding" /isolated from external. Even then you want to protect the current from being driven to Earth instead of Neutral. A good inverter will either do this for you or provide you with some form of dry contacts to install a relay. Whilst on another post answering this question, I thought of a new idea to achieve this if your kit doesn't provide - An AC/DC convertor on the Municipal side only power (not fed by the invertor) that powers a cheap 12VDC normal closed car relay - Place a small (5A or under) fuse or breaker in between the bond and you can bond the E & N voltages together. You are not running current through this and the fuse/breaker will prevent that situation. That's a cheap and easily replaceable component situation. Alternately ask the Sparky to find you a 220VAC Normal Closed relay, with a 5A or less circuit breaker that can do the job in a more CoC friendly way, and this will bond the E & N when needed. Depending on your invertor switchover time, there is still a split second or more when power is returned from external, that your Neutral will float (110VAC) for a bit. On my old Axpert I never experience any issues with this temporary float. As mentioned - Please don't do this bond without some protection (like a breaker/fuse) between E/N bond - You don't want either your power or your neighbours power to be travelling though your Earth circuit.

@GreenMan - Sorry, just got confirmation of Payment - SOLD

I use the already 12DC powered Infrared Detectors and mounted small led's on top of those pointed up at white ceiling - So the Alarm System actually powers all of those - Have a fuse on the output side of the 30A Controller rated at 15A, and a 75A on the battery side.

My thoughts, and without seeing the rest of your setup might not be appropriate, so take/leave as you wish: * The nice thing about lowering your Geyser element to 1.5-2kW is that you would not put high Amperage load on your batteries/invertor - I highly recommend, even if it takes double the time to heat your geyser up, it will save some extra life of your systems with little inconvenience. * I know I am going to get more flak for suggesting this, but I still suggest switching to a solar geyser and using heat tubes. Many on this forum don't like that approach as using electrical power with heat pumps and other alternatives make more sense to them. However I still prefer a seperate setup, so read and consider the options before powering a geyser with solar electricity. Whether I have power or not, my geyser is 45-70 degrees every morning, even during winter and with no sun for days... UV rays get through cloud cover and still heat my geyser when my solar can't even generate 300W.

@Scorp007 - We posted at the same time, so didn't see your post. But exactly...

I call BS. You only need a generator the size of your load/draw - A good 4.2kVA generator is fine if you are only trying to charge batteries and keep a 2kVA load running on your Axpert output (ie: home) When I had my Axpert, I sometimes powered it from my 4.2kVA generator - but the output sine wave needs to be decent. So a cheap clicks/makro/game generator is not sufficient, their AVR's are not normally clean enough. If you can get a proper Sine wave generator without breaking all budgets then go with that. My generator was designed for Server room backups, and although not pure sine wave, it has a decent AVR to provide something decent - cheap generators AVR's give a very bad signal, even many UPS's can't deal. You can put a cheap generator of 12-15kVA on an Axpert and it will spit at you because it wont recognise the AC signal. So, my opinion, take your max usage while needing to run on Generator, add 1 to 1.5kVA and use that as baseline. Then approach decent generator suppliers who can prove their sine wave or avr output. Will definately be more expensive, but probably a lot cheaper than the bad 12-15kVA above. PS: AVR/Sine wave is what they mention as a "frequency stabiliser" above - it has to be within range of 48-52Hz, sometimes better, for a good UPS or Axpert to stay stable

Wow - With everything you have you can already power a carefully managed Mansion... *ShockedFace* If you can afford Victron then definately should be your choice, many of us go for cheaper kit because of budget constraints, but we almost all know that Victron is best option. But if you have that kind of available budget, then rather try find ways to reduce your load. Unless you really live in a Mansion, there should be no reason for an average home to need 35kW/day +++ * Find ways to push it down to 10kW/day or similar and you might be able to go multiple days with your battery supply * While I envy your existing setup, there must be ways to push your load down - LED lights, Solar Geyser setup (Electric or Other), Heat pumps, "beating your wife when she uses hair dryer when kettle is on😆", there just must be ways to reduce * If not willing, and affordable - Then stay with Victron. The Victron Quattro 15Kva is awesome kit, but check with your electrician/solar installer about phase connections. It sounds like your house (due to load) might have a 3 phase connection to municipality, you may need 3 of them or rearrange your wiring to suit a single phase. Good Luck, and again I am envious of your battery and solar capacity already.

Got the PM - Provisionally sold