LivSol

For sale; x1 Solar MD 3.7Kwh Li-Ion wall mount unit. About 18 months old. Well maintained and lightly used. Balance of the 10 year warranty in place. Please inbox for pics or questions. R16,500

Bump and price drop to R20,000 each. Will give further discount if both are purchased.

For sale; x2 Solar MD 3.7Kwh Li-Ion wall mount units. About 18 months old. Well maintained and lightly used. Balance of the 10 year warranty in place. Please inbox for pics or questions. R25,000 each (ono)

The situation with the Trojan AGM stock at Proinso is that Proinso have not adhered to Trojan charging recommendations for holding stock, and the stock had been allowed to drop to very low SOC, past what is recommend. This may have something to do with the "to good to be true" price.

You can add me to that list. I also use MLT Inverters and MPPT's in my home as well being a distributor. I have used the usual suspects (including the famed blue boxes), and found MLT to be a superior product, including price and their far more consumer oriented design and on board touch screen. In my humble view, the best value LF transformer inverter on the SA market, and a massively accountable company with first rate pre and post sales support, and locally made to boot. No brainer. I hope more will discover the value and quality of the MLT brand. We sell their entire range, so feel free to contact us for more info. www.livingsolar.co.za

I am hearing a lot of issues separately to this forum. Like any product, manufacturing and component quality are crucial. Support goes without saying. Let’s see if folks get the pillar to post treatment, or accountable after sales service. I hope the latter.

Don't see any mention of considering company size/age? I personally would look at the likelihood of long term after sales support and ability to service their warranty, which in most cases significantly exceeds the age of the business itself. Food for thought! Lots of potential pitfalls for small companies, as good as their intentions may be.

Trojan Sagm 12 205 is the same capacity and better quality battery with three times longer warranty. It’s also not very much more expensive than the OmniPower Chinese units.

Just on the eq voltage of 58,4. This will only work if you were to hold this voltage for far more hours than are in a sunny day. You would have to do this with a stiff supply and would take a long long time. I will echo and reiterate the comments regarding SG readings. This is the best way to determine the SOC. You should do this at the end of the charge cycle, and if the SG readings are in spec, then your charge voltage is adequate. It also depends how your paneled in relation to your consumption, and how long the battery bank is able to sit at the absorb voltage. The shorter the absorb period the higher voltage you will need to reach 100% SOC and visa versa.

Sorry, should have been clearer. I didn’t mean that they are not making that size and spec battery, I meant the models/branding have all changed. SPRE line is now rated at 1900 cycles at 50% DOD as opposed to 1600 previously..

Oops. Seems I should have read further into the thread. This was covered and then some. 😉

I think the reason for the discrepancy in that there are grey imports of used “second life” BYD branded batteries being bought into SA and these are not supported by BYD. This info came from reliable sources. The authorised distributor is Segen Solar, and this stock is supported and carry the manufacturer warranties . That is the story I got. I would stay clear of these cheap units, as the story goes of it’s too good to be true...............

T105RE is discontinued. Trojan current line and spec sheets here. http://livingsolar.co.za/batteries/

Your speaking my language. Banakble tier 1 manufactures. Simple. You get what you pay for. Buy from large reputable established manaufactues, otherwise your asking for a headache and a bad experience.

Yes, it is very attractive. A 10 yr warranty from a 3 year old company is a gamble, especially in such a dynamic market with very large players like BYD with plans of ESS domination. Now a 93 yr old company with a long legacy of quality and large R&D facilities/budgets, that is another story all together. The products coming to market look great. But I would not expect Chinese pricing.

Tojan have already launched a lithium battery - Trillium. Line will be expanded. The Lithium debate and which lithium brand is a never ending conversation. I am in favor of affordable and reliable storage, in whatever form that takes. But reliability/bankability and support from a established company is key. So for us Trojan AGM as a maintenance free ESS ticks the boxes today. It what I use in my own home. Lots of speculation as to what the ESS market will look like in 1-2 years. Guess we will see. I remain opened mined, and if we get a great energy storage solution that is affordable and reliable, that means better ROI and more people can be energy independent and that’s what we want.

@The Terrible Triplett and at @DeepBass9 Feel free to message me guys, we are backed and accredited resellers for Trojan Battery in SA and can assist with the lay of the land when it comes to info on the various Trojan product lines, available stock etc, and will match any authorized resellers price. N.B - Also be aware of parallel imports on Trojan, there have been issues this year, and Trojan have made it clear that these batteries will NOT be supported or warrantied by them. Save you guys a bit of missioning...

Trojan SAGM 12 205 in the best choice here. Far superior to the Omni power offering. http://livingsolar.co.za/product/sagm-12-205/

Yip, was the same story with Solaire direct 5 yrs ago. Big factory setup in CT, lots of hype and media lapped it up, then gone, but they left behind this hap hazard wholesale arm to then sold PV panels (up until today) under “enersol” and “Aquasol”. Jinko also had a factory in CT for a while, but they also stopped a manfacturing here. Now just have a few staff and regional manager. We bought a bit from them. We have bought a lot of Enersol panels up to about 2 years ago when I decided it was a risk, turns out I was right, which I am now concerned about the system out there with these installed. Glad I never bought thier batteries or other house banded stuff, I knew better. Luckily. Just stick with top 3 tier 1, being JA, Canadian etc.........

In retrospect, perhaps admin should omit the reps email address and telephone details. Or simply delete and I will re post sans the aforementioned. As this is a cautionary tail that needs to be told to all newbies entering the market.

I received the below email today @ 2pm. These guys had the nerve just last week to try sell me a whole pile of stock that they knew full well would be "voetstoots" and without any warranty or support. Shame on these unscrupulous people. Seems they were intentionally flogging stock until the very last minute, with NDA's on thier staff, or maybe staff complicate, and claim otherwise now, who knows. They are a black mark against solar energy market in SA. Probably best, they have been selling overpriced rubbish into the market for too long. I wonder who will honour Solaire's Panel warranty now??! Is Solaire in France still in business? This is the reason I NEVER spec or offer Chinese equipment bought into SA under "house brands". Buyer BEWARE! And the sales rep is still offering to service us with stock in his email. Thats just funny;-). To all who read this who are lured in by low cost equipment - Stick to tier 1 companies with proven track records and legitimate warranties, and further who have local offices/employees to support thier products post sale. Penny wise and pound foolish! Not a saying for nothing. Below the email from our sales rep: Dear customer As you all received the mail about Solaire closing down it is sad for all of us but what can we do, I would like to apologise for not informing days ago cause we all signed a contract of confidentiality and we could not say anything, It was hard for us to lie but we had to hope you understand. I would like to let you know that I can still be reached on the following contact Numbers and e-mail address. "Deleted On Authors request" I will still be able to provide you with panels batteries inverters and more price might be compatible but still very good prices. Please give me till next week Wednesday to get my ducks in a row. Thank you Kind regards

1. A full charge is achieved when the hydrometer says so i.e. 1,280. Length of absorb time will vary from system to system and therefore the voltage the bank is charge at should be set using a hydrometer not a set stock voltage. 2. Equalizing is NOT a timed event, and is done when cell SG’s fall out of tolerance, this will vary from site to site. (refer Trojan batt for these tolerances). 0.030 I believe it is! EQ is complete when the SG in the cells have stop rising for at least an hour. This can be achieved in 2 hours or 10 hours. One hour is typically not long enough to fully perform a good EQ. Assuming the ref above re tolerances between cells. N.B. The better the battery bank is charged daily, will greatly reduced the need to EQ your batt bank. I saw a voltage of 56v mentioned. This is far to low of a charge voltage unless it’s crazy hot. There are more variables. Thats the nutshell version.

All units are sold. Mods please lock.

1 left, and just sent bank details for payment, so as of right now yes, 1 avail.

Just to get back the on topic for a second, and the questions raised around the legality of the Microcare Bi-directional inverter advertised and all like it. (i.e. Mlt Oasis, Victron Multi etc) . Known as standby passive UPS's which are used in off grid systems with Grid/Genset to charge when needed. These are EXEMPT from NRS, as they CANNOT invert while connect to AC! However, must still be registered. This currently ONLY applies to CoCT. From Mlt website: The City of Cape Town, South Africa, requires all solar systems to be registered with them (click here for details). The Oasis inverter range qualifies as a passive standby UPS utilised as off-grid hybrid SSEG and can therefore be connected to the City of Cape Town electrical grid. For your system to be registered, you will need to do the following: For full detailed instructions, visit Mlt inverter's site and go to Oasis product page. I hope that clears it up for those who are still uncertain. LivSol.