Johandup

The best protection is really a poor municipal reticulation system as it would trip early into a storm. Lol Surge protection systems can be horrendously expensive or you can go the ACDC way. Which I did. My house had 5 scary surges in an hour last season and I came out unscathed 🙂But it was a horrible experience which I don’t want to repeat. The first was a flash from the kitchen tap as my helper was walking towards it. Then two loud noises from the db which made me go cold. The last two were bright flashes hanging in the air 2m high just outside the glass doors where I was sitting. My wife also observed this. First time ever that I’ve seen a thing like this. After my borehole got hit last year I upgraded my system with surge suppressors and additional earth spikes of which I have now 6 installed. Hopefully this will keep the strikes at bay. But living on a koppie with iron inside it is not good news. You really need high lightning rods and a buried copper boundary to contain nature. On the coal mines the surface explosives magazines are protected this way. Dolerite is magnetic btw and is magma from the earth’s centre. So it makes an excellent target. It is also very hard and makes up the infamous dykes in a coal mine.

Start by measuring startup and then running amps. My 4kw hybrid trips immediately when my 2.2kW borehole pump starts up when on 9.6kWhr Pylontech batteries. it pulls 35A starting and then reduces to 15A running. With the mains on it does not trip as it then can supply the amps. Provided nothing else is using too many amps at the same time. It shows usage of up to 128% without stressing. You do not state if you run on batteries only.

So true. One needs to make proper provision for air circulation. To push them against a wall is not the way to go.

I think you need the home owner’s permission to dabble with the wiring. it can turn out to be very expensive when mistakes occur.

You must look at how many times you experience power outages and the duration. To prevent spending double in future you need to go for a 48v system. The cheap and easy way out is to buy a generator. Many bargains can be had on the used market now. And you will not recoup the investment in a solar system unless you are young and will not move house ever again.

On a practical side we do the following to extend the low temperature in our Bosch A++ freezer: Run it on the lowest temp setting (-26C) We buy the Oasis water sachets (for runners) and freeze these to act as an ice reservoir when the power goes off. We take these with on our Kruger trips. Obviously not now 🙁 The kWhr consumption on normal fridge freezer units is so high that it pays for itself when upgrading to A++ equipment. I follow these steps even though they are on a good backup system. As we all know backup systems can also trip or fail. When the businesses were closed during lockdown we did not have a single power outage. Now that they are open it’s normal again to get outages.

Just get a Dovre

So we have another outage and this battery is "OK" again. I'll see how it does as the volts decrease.

Nope nothing tripped. Only the red alarm light. This battery is part of a set of 4. What I detected was the battery showing one green light and one flashing as if it was charging but it was not pulling any amps from the inverter. Read the end of my report on this please. The volts was normal for all the batteries. It was not charging as per above explanation. The load was carried between 4 batteries. The only indication was the red alarm light and the green SOC lights. This is a first with the many outages we've had. As set out the load was carried by 4 units. When the power came back after the outage the volts have not dropped below 50V. Unfortunately it would not go into a charging mode. I let the inverter run on the battery by itself to let it switch off. I then started the inverter but it charged the lone battery super fast. Which is normal as the voltage was quite high when it switched off. I've got it opened up so I can check it when walking past it. Am interesting observation was that the single "low" battery was charging itself from the other batteries with the mains disconnected. I presume there will be a lot of amps available from the other batteries for this. So theoretically one cannot have a single "flat" battery amongst a set. Need some clarification on this.

My 4 pylontech 2400 setup is now about 26 months running. So we had a power outage two days ago for about 10 hours. Today, by chance, I took the door off to see how dusty the inside is. I then found one battery in alarm mode with a low soc. The other three batteries were normal. I switch it off and on, red light switched off but the soc persisted. I isolated the other batteries to test the amps and volts to find the volts are fine but it shows one green light with the 2nd one flashing as if it was charging. I fiddled with the inverter to get it to run on the one battery and it was running fine until it tripped on one green soc light. Measuring the volts it was 50.8V which must be a bms error as it trips on the green soc lights and not volts. The inverter stops charging as the volts are fine. Can some one please shed some light on this issue.

Specific rcds are designed to be opposite. I got one like this from Livecopper. With mcbs it does not matter. Requirement is a notice on the dB outside indicating the position of live wires. I did it with my 3 level distribution board as it was easier with the control mcbs in the middle. The requirement is an isolator before the rcd unless you buy a very expensive rcd that incorporates it.

Ensure all the water openings are free of grit. New standalone switches are available everywhere. Some are adjustable. They replace pressure tanks - my current one does not include a pressure tank. You can open it it for adjustment but is a trial and error exercise.

I think the municipality is opportunistic with their approach. They move the control to the home owner instead of being able to supply the maximum amperage we require - which is lot more than 15a. It will be utopia for them if they can reduce the home demand automatically to 15a max per connection. Just think, no more transformers tripping on overload. When a stove, geyser and kettle are on simultaneously they far exceed the supposedly allowable 15 amps. And if the power trips you will hear the women complaining. My wife will definitely. Something is wrong with their approach.

To municipalities in good standing..... So skaars soos hoendertande..... Hmmm

https://www.greenbuildingafrica.co.za/reports-of-backsheet-failures-at-75-mw-mulilo-sonnedix-prieska-solar-farm/

Prepaid you pay R2 per kWh from the first unit. Dunno who scores the price difference ....

Prepaid =R2 per kwh from unit1

I read an article which said 200mw of solar panels was exported to South Africa in 2019. And that makes me wonder if somebody in the guvament is sitting with a calculator making sums as to how much money is slipping from their fingers foreva. At 80% efficiency the municipalities might lose R272m every year at prepaid tariff of R2 per kwh. And Eskom will actually score zero income. And guvament will lose R40m every year in vat from their real actual paying clients. And this is but the tip of the iceberg which is on its way to meet the ANC Titanic. I can see this can escalate to very high figures in a record time.

The Pylontec bms manages the soc (which equals about 16% per light) on the battery. I only have a look at these and have been living happily with them for two years now. The lights of the four of them (usb2000) are always in sync (more or less) unless they are charging from empty after load shedding. One battery had a red alarm light last week (picked it up by chance as they are behind a heavy steel door). I switched it off and on it and it's back to normal. No idea why it did it as I don't "watchdog" them.

And they were on my list for a solar panel purchase. Not anymore though.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/cheap-solar-and-wind-send-power-prices-to-three-year-low-as-coal-output-falls-15304/

Which we only use for a very short period of time per day / week / year. Compare the cost of any car against the cost of a decent solar system (which can save you money) which you use 24/7. My highly financially qualified daughter and son in law only buy cheap second hand cars. And in hindsight I must admit they might be right with this approach.

And that's why you go for the best warranties. There's a huge difference between a one year and a five year warranty. Apart from the lack of confidence a manufacturer has in the quality of his own product. The only way we as consumers can make them see the light is by not buying their products. Nobody will buy a car with a poor reputation. But we don't even think twice before buying an inverter with many reported problems... Why??

https://www.greenbuildingafrica.co.za/reports-of-backsheet-failures-at-75-mw-mulilo-sonnedix-prieska-solar-farm/

The payback principle in first world cities is to serve as credit where they supply the power when the sun goes down. I.e. they are the batteries and you only have a string inverter. This balance then goes against your night time power consumption. The muni does not read meters now. Why on earth would they do it if it is going to cost them money. If there's one thing we all need to agree on is they are NOT trustworthy. And not one SA city is actually a first world city. Whatever their pretences.....