whateversa

Thanks guys. I guess I have some GEL battery related financial PTSD. I will use my LFP battery to the fullest now. I'm 2 days purely on solar apart from solar geyser so far!

Perhaps smart switches can do what you are looking for, example: https://e-glow.co.za/products/wifi-smart-controller-63a-kwh-timer?variant=42142870077616&currency=ZAR&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&utm_campaign=gs-2022-06-01&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign&gclid=CjwKCAjw3ueiBhBmEiwA4BhspC3e5r6mq3V52ES52GlmU4y3gUmumUMGQ1eXWVmU-n9FX_630C1uhRoCBrYQAvD_BwE

Actually not. As per my initial post, a wood burning stove/slow combustion fireplace does NOT give that drying out effect. That is my experience and what you will also hear from people that sell these units. This is why its my primary heating method in winter... I just supplement a bit with aircon in another room. Why does a wood stove not cause the drying problem? I cannot answer that. But I assure you, I would have had to live with a humidifier every day of winter if a fireplace did cause the drying effect. Then as per my later post, an ethanol fireplace also does not cause the drying effect - it actually releases humidity which can be too much in a small room.

We are not talking about cooling, we are talking about heating. Cooling is not a problem. I also use it for cooling in summer. A bit more info on why heating dries the air: https://www.daikinindia.com/dry-air#:~:text=Air conditioner heating without humidifying,relative humidity) and causes drying.

Yes there is that point people keep raising (and I used to know the details to answer that), but the reality is you will have a hard time with it. I have to set my aircon to heat only up to 21c or 22 to keep it under control... otherwise dry mouth, nose, eyes, skin.... Its the similar effect you get from fan heaters... many people just wont use fan heaters because of the same reason. I live in a house that gets little sun shine through windows, so I have to rely a lot on heating in the house - and all forms including oil heaters do the same. The exception seems to be fire. Radiant heaters can cause the effect much slower fortunately as you can use a lower setting with the unit in front of you. An ethanol fireplace actually creates humidity - but in a small room it is highly uncomfortable and the smell is very strong.

I have both a fireplace (very efficient, secondary combustion) and a Samsung inverter aircon. Here are the main things to consider: Fireplace (slow combustion/wood burning stove with a door): Does not dry the air out like other heating options. You can order 40x bags of seasoned invasive wood (bluegum) before winter starts and store them on pallets... You cannot preorder electricity for winter...unless you have a diesel generator i guess. This is not a cheap option, but it is available and and can be relatively clean if done right. Environment impact: my unit burns 90% of emissions once warmed up - you wont see smoke. Its also better to burn this invasive blue gum wood than to leave it to rot. City of Cape Town found it cheaper to remove these trees to save water than other options. Does not require a beefy inverter or batteries... Cleaning required after each use (ash drawer must be emptied out and you may want to wash the pretty glass door). Service every year, chimney flue cleaned every 2 years to avoid chimney fire. Aircon: Can dry things out terribly so much that your eyes, skin and inside of nose is dried out and you eventually can get nose bleeds. Inverter aircons specifically (which are more efficient) do not offer instant heat. The colder it is, the longer you wait - in some cases it does some icing cycle first and you can wait 30 minutes for heat. I frequently lose my temper as i use it in my bedroom in the mornings and evenings for almost half the year to heat. When its working hard on heating, my 8kw inverter makes my CFL lights flicker for 30 seconds or so. If you have limited battery capacity or a small inverter, you might want to skip this. Service every year On a side note, I am yet to find anything other than fire that does not dry out the air for heating... and humidifier cleaning is not something I enjoy very much.

Here is a helpful graph and more info on what to expect from cycle life and how depth of discharge and discharge rate affects cycles: https://www.powertechsystems.eu/home/tech-corner/lithium-iron-phosphate-lifepo4/ Would you guys think it makes sense to set your inverter to topup with Eskom power now and then to reduce how deep your discharges go?

That would be wonderful. I have been afraid of cycling my R50 000 worth of batteries so far to be honest. Warranty documentation snippets: I do have the system in my garage which gets quite hot in summer, especially if i pull the car in - which I suspect may impact lifespan? I might look at getting an extractor or something to vent the garage from the roof... just opening garage doors just doesnt seem to do much for some reason.

That does assume load shedding is always done correctly though. Are there not other safety mechanisms that would result in smaller scale and shorter term blackouts? Regarding the frequency subject, here is a quote from 2021: Eskom documentation:

Question 1: Does my example below translate to using 1 out of 6000 cycles, even though there may have been near constant discharge and recharging happening? Scenario example: 5.1kwh LFP battery with 6000 cycle life and 90% DOD (Hina) Due to poor sunlight there are lots of discharge and slow charging going on during the day (example 1000watts solar coming in, but now and then turning on a 2000watt kettle). 1 cycle = 5.4kwh used (remaining 10% may not be used) I use 5.4kwh throughout the day in total ('consumption' power in solarman) as example Deye 8kw inverter I only have 2700watt of solar panels (north facing) and I rarely see more than 2000 watts being available this time of year, if even that much. Additionally I plan to set the Deye 8kw inverter to 24/7 grid charge to 65% as well so I have a load shedding buffer (I actually have 2x batteries btw). I assume that actually means that when the battery is down to 65% at night, it just wont use the battery while Eskom power is on - saving further cycle life.

I am curious why you guys keep it so complicated. Personally I intend to set grid charge 24/7 to ensure the batteries are at 65%... that is my load shedding buffer and it will always be restored when there is Eskom power (this means I don't have to predict when exactly we have Eskom power as we face potential stage 8 load shedding or worse). I have 2x 5kwh batteries with 90% DOD and 6000 cycles, but only 2700watt of solar panels. So if there is poor sunshine for a few days, i'll always be using Eskom and have 65% for load shedding.

All UPS trolleys that I have seen so far have very noisy fans that you hear day and night (probably because they use tiny fans that have to spin fast). The inside of my house is like a 2 bedroom flat - there is nowhere to put where the noise is not annoying. Do you guys know of any units that are very good at keeping noise low? Generally the larger the fan, the less noise it probably makes. In gaming PCs we prefer 140mm fans as they simply don't have to spin so fast to move a lot of air. The smaller the fan, the more noise you can expect. Want minimum 1000 watt output with minimum 1000kwh storage.