jeddles

Yeah I did end up just sending clarification emails but I don't have high hope that I'll get decent feedback I did manage to find a sparky who had one of those fancy crimping tools I guess this post ended up more as a rant on the generally poor quality of SA e-commerce and the flooding of local hardware stores with cheap chinese garbage

I want to buy pre-made cables (25mm) to hook up my batteries since I don't have any crimping tools Why does no online store mention the ABSOLUTE BASICS in the product descriptions? its so infuriating. Is the wire copper? or copper clad aluminum? are the lugs pure copper? are they coated? https://www.geewiz.co.za/cabling/15977-25mm-flex-parallel-cable-set-45cm-length-for-dc-batteries.html https://www.sustainable.co.za/collections/battery-connectors-and-lugs/products/sustainable-350mm-red-battery-connector-pack-of-4 zero info given has anyone bought cable online?

Very nice, did you order these from China? how is the quality?

Very well done To think that batteries might end up getting tossed away for stupid reasons like this Great thing about lithium batteries is how recyclable they are In the future you may want to try consult a electronic repair shop You said that allowing the battery to drain did not clear the unit memory, electronic repair shop may be able to wipe the storage without affecting the operation (normally stored separately on a ROM chip).

There have been a few successful attempts on other forums to do a group order. Credit card processors will only deal with a registered business I would probably only do it with minimum 3-5 people that I know personally According to SARS you don't need an importers code if you do less than 3 orders per year of <R50k each.

I'm too stupid to give you battery advice My dumb advice is that your battery bank appears to be sagging a little bit, maybe put another support in the center. And a fire extinguisher near the door because this scares me

I'd be keen to setup a group order from China if the economics make sense Not too scared about making up my own batteries from prismatic cells with a decent BMS. Something about batteries just makes me want to hoard kWh like its gold

Awesome thank you so much

I have 2x 12V/100A LiFePO4 batteries in parallel attached to a 1000W inverter This means at theoretical max 1000W load I pump ~80A * 1.25 = 100A Where could I buy a 100A DC circuit breaker? EDIT: I prefer circuit breaker to fuze so that I can disconnect battery from inverter without pulling out the cables if needed

I've drawn a simple diagram of a backup system below (sorry for the kak drawing) In this system configuration would there be an interruption in power from the inverter when eskom/grid goes offline? i.e. would this work? or am I not considering some delay, spike, fluctuation w.e. EDIT: what if I add one of those cheapo UPS between the inverter and PC?

people comparing lead-acid and lithium based on total kWh is always flawed - if you don't account for total lifecycles, DoD etc., lithium will always look overpriced. "No one in their right mind should invest close to R120k into something that will lose all its value in 20 years." dead 😂

redirect excess power to micro-brewery located conveniently in the garage

This may be of interest to you. https://www.portablesolarexpert.com/can-you-charge-a-battery-while-using-an-inverter/ I'm not qualified to answer your question but the article basically says as long as your battery charger does not overheat by being constantly plugged in, AND, everything is sized correctly such that you charge faster than your load (i.e. the battery does not deplete even while being charged) it should be fine. From my understanding those victron units are pretty high quality so I wouldn't personally worry about it. Then again, adding the ATS isn't exactly difficult or super expensive so why not? Victron also has integrated inverter-charger units which would handle this for you. https://www.victronenergy.com/transfer-switches/filax-2

This might be a dumb question, suppose I already have a battery, charger and inverter. Is there an ATS that can switch fast enough from grid -> battery such that my PC will not shut-off? We're talking ~10ms transfer time. I can't seem to find anything so I think I'm looking for the wrong thing here. Would be nice to not have to shutdown my PC, wait for power to go off, then plug in the inverter and turn it back on.

According to the spec sheet, the VM 1000W Axpert can only charge at 20A from AC. My 12V LiFePO4 batteries recommended charge rate is 50A. Can I connect a 24V, 20A power supply to the PV-IN of my axpert to increase the total charge rate?

You can't really look at their low availability in the same way you would a traditional manufacturing plant They are so captured and in-grained with corruption that they have to overcome intentional sabotage and plain incompetence in repairs. If you look at the number of tube failures (in the high pressure steam lines of most coal plants) they are astronomically higher than the global average for the same design. Why? It's incompetence in operation - boiler operation [especially with shoddy coal supply] can be hard to control under these conditions. equipment is old and unreliable when a tube ruptures, it takes out the closest 50 tubes. You have to then cut through a wall of WORKING tubes to reach and repair these, then weld everything back together. If even one tube is incorrectly welded, the rupture takes out another 20 everytime you cut and re-weld, you introduce failure points The government is also unwillingly to suffer the pain. They are trying so desperately to pretend loadshedding doesn't exist (e.g. over christmas etc.) that they don't give the maintenance people the proper time to do things right. Everything is a patch on a patch on a different patch. What they really needed to do (besides all the corruption) was suffer the 2-3 months of Stage 6 (back when stage 1-2 was the norm) and DO THE BLOODY MAINTENANCE Now we're at a constant stage 4-6 and would need to go up to 8 to do any substantial repairs im just rambling EDIT: just finished reading the article, they basically come to the same conclusion

I never trust anything where the specs are either missing, incorrect or ambiguous. I mean look at this, https://www.electromannsa.com/products/fivestar-portable-rechargeable-solar-backup-power-station they call it an "MTTP" solar charge controller instead of an MPPT (although this may be electromann's mistake)

Title says it all really. Manual recommends 4AWG for the 1000W Axpert, but if I was to ever actually pull 1000W I could expect like 80-100A from my 12V battery bank which is stretching what a 4AWG cable should provide. I'd prefer to size up, but not sure if it would actually fit inside the inverter

Hi, I want to DIY recreate something like these trolleys: https://www.geewiz.co.za/long-run-ups-inverter-battery/178350-3000va-mecer-axpert-pure-sine-inverter-2x-100ah-lithium-battery-trolley-12-hour-battery-life-kit-3000w-with-lithium-battery-3000-cycles.html 2x LifePO4 batteries (12V, 100Ah, max. discharge rate 1C/100A) connected in parralel I have RCT Axpert VM 1000W (inverter/charger) unit What I need help with: 1. what cable size? Geewiz reckons 25mm on all their units...do I need to go 35mm? the batteries will sit next to each other and the ups on top of the trolley. 2. why does the Geewiz not include any fuzes/circuit breakers? should I add one? what size?

This may be off topic but you don't give random companies "a chance". They prove they are legitimate and worth your consideration. With EFT, you'll have a heck of a time getting any of that money back. Thats why not offering credit card purchases is a massive red flag

is it possible to reverse the fans without breaking the warranty? Feels like doing them a favour tbh

There's really no need to guess, just measure the power consumption. Then you can actually make an informed decision about what size inverter and battery capacity you need. It doesn't sound like you have any big motors, compressors etc. that would complicate the setup

Thanks guys, at least now I know I wasn't being paranoid about unplugging during loadshedding. What exactly do I need to ask an electrician to come do? "my plugs are not correctly earthed"? Like I said, its an old house that I'm renting from a (very) old tannie. Is it possible this is just how old wiring was done

I have this surge protector: https://www.takealot.com/high-surge-protection-8-way-multi-plug-with-r30-000-warranty/PLID27971525 When I plug it in, all 3 lights are on - which means "no earth" according to the diagram attached. Does this mean my surge protector is not working? its quite an old house I'm renting.

Hi gents I'm looking to get a 1kW Axpert (Mecer rebrand) which is the VM1 model. Seem to be a decent mid-range choice and will simplify my setup because I'm too stupid to do a charger+inverter+transfer switch all by myself I was wondering if anyone has used these, what actual information is shown on the displays? AC power in? AC power out? Charge rate? battery %? or just bars? charging rate? And, can you connect the inverter via RS212 to a computer (with an adapter) to log all the data? EDIT: my batteries (2x12V 100Ah) are "dumb", no communication from the BMSs