Don

It will not hurt to have some cash under the mattress as well. No card machine will work during a blackout. The first few days there might be some garages and food stores open that will operate on generators, until cash buyers run out of cash, or the generators run out of fuel. Cash will be King. 

Some wise words from our President. 
South Africans will be ‘first to know’ when power grid collapses, says Ramaphosa (ewn.co.za) 

Some wise words from our President. 
South Africans will be ‘first to know’ when power grid collapses, says Ramaphosa (ewn.co.za) 

About 8-10 years ago I worked for a huge Mining company and at that time we already put plans together in the event of a total grid collapse. At that time Eskom gave us 3-4 weeks as their best estimate to bring the grid back online. They also informed us it is a not that easy to bring back the grid. At that stage they only had 2 Engineers that were capable of bringing back the grid in the country. I am sure they are no longer working for Eskom. Hopefully they left their notes behind or trained someone to be able to do it. 

About 8-10 years ago I worked for a huge Mining company and at that time we already put plans together in the event of a total grid collapse. At that time Eskom gave us 3-4 weeks as their best estimate to bring the grid back online. They also informed us it is a not that easy to bring back the grid. At that stage they only had 2 Engineers that were capable of bringing back the grid in the country. I am sure they are no longer working for Eskom. Hopefully they left their notes behind or trained someone to be able to do it. 

About 8-10 years ago I worked for a huge Mining company and at that time we already put plans together in the event of a total grid collapse. At that time Eskom gave us 3-4 weeks as their best estimate to bring the grid back online. They also informed us it is a not that easy to bring back the grid. At that stage they only had 2 Engineers that were capable of bringing back the grid in the country. I am sure they are no longer working for Eskom. Hopefully they left their notes behind or trained someone to be able to do it. 

No, they are not. The batteries are shot. Lead acid batteries are not designed for solar applications, even if they are called "Deep Cycle" batteries. In my experience, lead acid batteries need at least 24 hours to be fully charged. Once they achieve their float voltage, they need to trickle charge for many hours in order to reach full capacity. If you load shed more than once per day, you are dead. Then the batteries will discharge at a faster rate the second and third time round you load shed in 24 hours, as the batteries had no chance to recover. Your system will go below 50% SOC very quickly and you damage them even more. I give your system another 3-4 months and you will be down to 30 minutes before the system switches off due to low voltage. 

No, they are not. The batteries are shot. Lead acid batteries are not designed for solar applications, even if they are called "Deep Cycle" batteries. In my experience, lead acid batteries need at least 24 hours to be fully charged. Once they achieve their float voltage, they need to trickle charge for many hours in order to reach full capacity. If you load shed more than once per day, you are dead. Then the batteries will discharge at a faster rate the second and third time round you load shed in 24 hours, as the batteries had no chance to recover. Your system will go below 50% SOC very quickly and you damage them even more. I give your system another 3-4 months and you will be down to 30 minutes before the system switches off due to low voltage. 

No, they are not. The batteries are shot. Lead acid batteries are not designed for solar applications, even if they are called "Deep Cycle" batteries. In my experience, lead acid batteries need at least 24 hours to be fully charged. Once they achieve their float voltage, they need to trickle charge for many hours in order to reach full capacity. If you load shed more than once per day, you are dead. Then the batteries will discharge at a faster rate the second and third time round you load shed in 24 hours, as the batteries had no chance to recover. Your system will go below 50% SOC very quickly and you damage them even more. I give your system another 3-4 months and you will be down to 30 minutes before the system switches off due to low voltage. 

No, they are not. The batteries are shot. Lead acid batteries are not designed for solar applications, even if they are called "Deep Cycle" batteries. In my experience, lead acid batteries need at least 24 hours to be fully charged. Once they achieve their float voltage, they need to trickle charge for many hours in order to reach full capacity. If you load shed more than once per day, you are dead. Then the batteries will discharge at a faster rate the second and third time round you load shed in 24 hours, as the batteries had no chance to recover. Your system will go below 50% SOC very quickly and you damage them even more. I give your system another 3-4 months and you will be down to 30 minutes before the system switches off due to low voltage. 

Logic would tell you, if you want to update the firmware and overwrite the eeprom, only the inferter and the battery should be running. Disconnect everything else, especially any load on the inverter. Or do people think it is wise to do this while the inverter is trying to manage 3kW of load in the background? After the firmware upgrade, the inverter probably needs to be re-booted in any case. I have never seen a doctor trying to do a knee replacement while a guy is busy doing a marathon. 

The only thing that is disingenuous is that they do a firmware upgrade irrespective of the state of the inverter, i.e. running at full load, when it suits them. 
Therefore, 10 people have jumped over a cliff and 5 have survived, therefore it is safe to jump over the cliff?

Logic would tell you, if you want to update the firmware and overwrite the eeprom, only the inferter and the battery should be running. Disconnect everything else, especially any load on the inverter. Or do people think it is wise to do this while the inverter is trying to manage 3kW of load in the background? After the firmware upgrade, the inverter probably needs to be re-booted in any case. I have never seen a doctor trying to do a knee replacement while a guy is busy doing a marathon. 

100%. The ideal scenario is they phone you and say, i.e., disconnect solar panels, disconnect all loads. Once you confirm they should say, right we will now upgrade the firmware and it will take 10 minutes, please be patient. Please inform me should the display go out or whatever. Once done, they should confirm if everything is still fine on your side. Then instruct you to either reboot the inverter or if it is not required, to re-connect the solar panels and thereafter the loads. Then if everything seems to be running 100%, confirm the new firmware was installed on the inverter, then hang up. 

100%. The ideal scenario is they phone you and say, i.e., disconnect solar panels, disconnect all loads. Once you confirm they should say, right we will now upgrade the firmware and it will take 10 minutes, please be patient. Please inform me should the display go out or whatever. Once done, they should confirm if everything is still fine on your side. Then instruct you to either reboot the inverter or if it is not required, to re-connect the solar panels and thereafter the loads. Then if everything seems to be running 100%, confirm the new firmware was installed on the inverter, then hang up. 

The only thing that is disingenuous is that they do a firmware upgrade irrespective of the state of the inverter, i.e. running at full load, when it suits them. 
Therefore, 10 people have jumped over a cliff and 5 have survived, therefore it is safe to jump over the cliff?

I would just use ESKOM to top off the batteries. It is the cheapest option. I had a 7kW generator. That thing gobbled up 25l of fuel in no time. Every second day I had to go buy more fuel. It is very expensive to run a generator, excluding the capital cost to buy the thing in the first place. If you live out on a farm or are determined to go off grid, it is a different story. Then you bite the bullet and pay-up. 

I would just use ESKOM to top off the batteries. It is the cheapest option. I had a 7kW generator. That thing gobbled up 25l of fuel in no time. Every second day I had to go buy more fuel. It is very expensive to run a generator, excluding the capital cost to buy the thing in the first place. If you live out on a farm or are determined to go off grid, it is a different story. Then you bite the bullet and pay-up. 

I would just use ESKOM to top off the batteries. It is the cheapest option. I had a 7kW generator. That thing gobbled up 25l of fuel in no time. Every second day I had to go buy more fuel. It is very expensive to run a generator, excluding the capital cost to buy the thing in the first place. If you live out on a farm or are determined to go off grid, it is a different story. Then you bite the bullet and pay-up. 

Lead acid and gel batteries are the worst option for renewable energy installations. They need to trickle charge up to 24 hours to regain full capacity. With loadshedding up to 3 times a day, those batteries can never be fully charged. They are not designed for renewable applications and do not last. Once you have a waterfall drop in voltage on those batteries, that is their limit. They are done. Throw them far away and invest in Lithium iron  batteries. I know they come at a cost, but that is unfortunately the only route to go. 

Wow. It's usually nowhere near as arduous as that. It sounds like the optos in your display or inverter are very marginal.
Glad to hear that it worked in the end.

I have only seen one of the old type meters in 2018 I think, when exporting power, the meter actually ran in reverse. (The numbers on the dial went down). I am not sure if all the old meters do that? That to me today would be ideal. Your meter runs in reverse during the day if you are exporting (Basically using Eskom as a battery during the day sending excess power to the grid and then pulling that energy out at night-time, making use of "your stored energy"). If it is the same amount of power, your energy usage would be zero. But I am sure that would be illegal, I think. In any case I have a Kodak (Axpert), so cannot export to grid.
I think all the latest meters are designed like that to prevent the above. That would discourage guys sending power to the grid, unless you install the right type of meter. The municipality would probably bill you for the cost of the meter and installation.    

Yes. If there is demand for electricity, it would come from the closest source. It is not going to pull energy from the pole in the street if there is a source right there. So, if you have a system and set to export, and there is spare capacity. If your pool pump or fridge is running, the power will go there. Only if the pool pump and fridge is not running, will it go to the grid, probably your neighbour. It will go through his meter and Eskom/Municipality would bill him for the power coming from you. 

@BritishRacingGreen, I agree 100%. You will not see a spike for 2-3 or 5 seconds with monitoring software, but you do not have to double the inverter capacity to cater for these spikes. The inverter can handle those spikes. 

Huge amps for only 1 174W and lots of batteries required. 
That is exactly why I don't like 12V systems and to a certain extent, even 24V systems. The amps drawn on those systems are huge. You need thick cabling to handle the amps. 
Load on 12 Volt Inverter: 1000 Watt       230 Volt       83 Amps (Discharge Amps)
Load on 24 Volt Inverter: 1000 Watt       230 Volt       42 Amps (Discharge Amps)
Load on 48 Volt Inverter: 1000 Watt       230 Volt       21 Amps (Discharge Amps)
Here is something I posted in 2017 on the forum: 
 
12 Volt system (2 Stroke System - High Revving System) - High Discharge Rates, Thick Cables, Lots of Heat to Dissipate:
                8 Batteries:  8 x 12 Volt batteries in Parallel = 960 Ah / 83 Discharge Amps
                                                                                          = 11.6 hours
 
24 Volt System (4 Stroke System - Moderate Revving System) Moderate Discharge Rates, Moderate Cable Sizes and Moderate Heat to Dissipate:
                4 Batteries:  4 x 24 Volt Batteries in Parallel = 480 Ah / 42 Discharge Amps
                                                                                           = 11.4 Hours
 
48 Volt System (Diesel System - Low Revving System) Low Discharge Rates, Smaller Cable Sizes and Lower Heat to Dissipate:
                 2 Batteries:  2 x 48 volts in Parallel = 240 Ah / 21 Discharge Amps
                                                                             = 11.4 hours
All three systems do exactly the same thing, the choice is yours.