Johandup

It is difficult to motivate solar financially. Even more so when you're slaving away 12 hours or more per day. And you will have 64 cloudy and rainy days every year - just plan your solar maintenance for then .. Its rather like buying a car - difficult to motivate the purchasing price when you're a male (but boy we're good at supplying reasons why we must buy a certain model lol). Unless you do it when you're young and you'll be living in the same house till you die, payback is not going to happen. Its all about convenience and security and looking after your family. And when Eskom goes on stop off course.

Sans prescribes a two pole isolator in addition to the rcd. You need to buy this for the amps required for the db. Every mcb is an overload which must be suitable for its purpose and wire size. I steer clear of combination rcd + overload as its not a sans requirement and horribly expensive. When a combination rcd trips the normal person would not know whether it was an overload or an earth leakage.

The proof is in the testing. On what do you base your observation? I have two 1 micron filters after the FRP vessel and I must replace them regularly. I also test my water at Builders (free service) at intervals. Although the borehole water is fine for consumption it colored my basins and baths. Thus the reason for the filter systems. I held it in my hand and it looks the same as Clinobrite grid shape. Maddox look like small stones. It is obvious that Clinobrite is actually filtering out the iron particles. I will focus from now on whether anything is washed out when doing back flushing. The frequency with which I replace the 1 micron filters should be an indication of this. I also need to make a decision on whether to purchase an auto flush valve.

Home owners would rather spend money on paint than electrical stuff. You can get the coc supplier in and settle this amicably - at his cost of course. Which should include another pro issuing the coc. Or he can lose his certificate ..

I disconnected and bypassed my borehole filter system before the Dec break. Kids were visiting and I did not want any pump hassles. Lot of swambos there lol. The system has been in operation for 18 months now with 40kg Maddox in the filter initially. After advice form @Peter Topp I also added an additional bag of Clinobrite some months ago. I also put a 1 micron filter in the system as a backup. This worked well for a time but I noticed it clogging up quicker after a while. I also increased the backflush frequency but the water always seemed to be clean. So last week I tackled the job of cleaning the filter. Big surprise awaited me. 1. Of the Maddox there was no sign - it had dissolved totally. 2. The Clinobrite was clogged up with a dark brown tacky stuff - I presume this is iron that was "filtered" out. 3. The filter at the bottom was just about clogged up - photo included. I presume this was the reason the backflush never worked. This I cleaned with oven cleaner spray 😀 I do need to buy a spare pipe with this attachment. So the filter will be recharged with a new bag of Clinobrite and connected back into the pipes. I'll try to remember to repeat the process after 12 months. Btw, the water tested at Builders Warehouse showed an iron content of 0.2. Originally it was less than 0.1 tested by Regen Waters.

Geyser control was an idea from the previous regime aka your political opposition. Will it really save your ass when you are not producing enough electricity? Off course not. I removed mine the day the muni conveniently forgot to switch it back on. The public is only hearing the side of Eskom the politicians deem necessary. They know if the whole truth comes out their heads will roll. And that is he reason why I am looking at increasing my setup so as to be able to get off the grid when the pawpaw hits the fan.

https://www.livecopper.co.za/search?q=Energy+control+uni

Way past November and still on copper. Wonder if the drop in their share price had anything to do with it ...

This must be a joke. A really big problem is the culture of non-payment which was cultivated by the ruling party. How about we create a PPP to supply Soweto exclusively .... Who can expect payment on time for services rendered in this time. Will it come from Eskom who is totally poor? And minista Mantasha is not to be trusted. He is just trying to swing the spotlight away from him at the Indaba. My 5c

Hi Jaco, So what is the recommended pylons for a Multiplus 11 48/5000? What the supplier said makes sense - but the costs will be crippling.

Please pm me an offer delivered to Emalahleni.

Good thing about the 10mm cable is they sell it per metre. But it is very stiff too handle. Smaller sizes is per 100m in my town.

I am a big believer in measuring amps - not kilowatts. Also running as well as starting amps. I have measured my hob and oven as taking 18 amps each from the dB. Definitely not inverter friendly. You need to know what your inverter output in amps is. My 4kw gives me 16 amps with no bypass capability. The bypass capability can be a lifesaver when you need more amps and have mains available.

You need to label everything anyhow. Just go for small led lights. They all tend to be too bright.

There is a lot of reading to do to catch up on the topic. First step is to determine your real power requirements. It is cheaper to buy lower power consumption household goods (with new warranties) than to go for a big solar investment. If you go too small and need to go bigger you will lose at least 50% of your initial costs when trying to sell it in the used market. So an initial R20k inverter could have been bought for R30k. A big concern to me is the message from prez Ramaphosa that an instruction was given to Guvament to get the solar rollout going. We can expect many stupid regulations coming our way.

Surface mount dB adds a lot of space for wires.

I used heatshrink tubes to Id all the wires. Helped to have a schoolteacher wife 🙂

Server rooms are particular to clean power. Unless you invest in an inverter generator of sufficient kW output it will not be good enough. And it must be able to start up and supply power immediately, which is not possible in the real world. You need to determine how necessary it is to have your system up and running at all times. Only then can the financial motivation follow.

Jaco, how is the dod then setup for disconnect if it is not as per voltage? Many inverters are set up for disconnect when the required depth of discharge Ir reached. I realise one is spoilt by running pylontechs with their bms. Thanks for the reply though.

A question for the experts. I need to know at what cutoff voltage must an inverter be set to for a 20% dod on its batteries. The batteries are 4 off 12v 200ah solar lead acid connected to give an output of 48v. It is currently setup to switch off at 42v. But the batteries are not monitored in any way except by the inverter. Is this recommended? Are there any practical way to set the batteries up to limit the kwhr output? Please show the calculations if possible.

Go for a petrol engine. Works in my car and my yard. I hate pulling cables...

When I changed to a more efficient setup and measured the kwhr consumption I was gobsmacked to realise I was going to save R3000 per year on electricity.

You get the big sort aka gen mains bypass and then a minute mcb type. I recommend the big type as it is more wife friendly. Get an electrician to install it . About R1200. I use mine all the time when I use the borehole pump as it pushes the inverter to 100%. With two leds on it it is easy to keep track of where the power is coming from.