Sakkie Swart

Hi, your installer did not install a Neutral Earth bonding relay, or the relay is not working. Now you have a floating Neutral.

Hi, which comms/BMS cables do u use? Setup looks good.

I was asked if you can convert a single phase "Eskom" supply to three phase with inverters. The guy have a woodwork shop and have 3 phase machines he currently cant use. He only have a single phase supply. Is it possible to charge batteries with the single phase and then use inverters to supply 3 phase to the machines? Aparently he already bought some equipment, I will find out what he have and what his loads will be. Thank you Regards Sakkie

I live in Vredenburg, Westcoast near Saldanha and Langebaan.

They explain the cable size thing/voltage drop very clear in the SANS code. There are a lot of factors to consider. Like, is the cable in open air, is the cable in a conduit, is it underground, is it in concrete, length of cable, copper or aluminium cable. Then very important the length, voltage and amps. In South Africa we work with mm2. Over your distance, out of experiance I will use 16mm2 red and black single core house wire and 10mm2 earth wire in a 25mm conduit. Please stay away from normal Twin and earth unless you want to replace it in 5 years time. If you need to shoose between twin & earth and surflex, surflex is the much better option. Surflex has a metal sheet around the live, neutral and wire. The purpouse of that sheet is to protect the live and neutral from moisture as well as act as a type of earth in case of cable damage. Picture yourself that if you cut away the insulation on twin & earth and you also cut away the insulation of the red/live wire alone. Now if you touch that bare live copper, what will hapen? The only thing that will trip is the 10 or 20 amp breaker. Then you will have a nasty shock already. If you damage the surflex you first have to cut through the metal sheeting then you will reach the live wire making a short already. In that case it will trip the earth leacage immediately.

I hope that I am on the correct page. I want to introduce myself. Sakkie Swart, old school, 59 years young Olifantsfontein electrician red seal 1986, Wiremans license as Installation electrician 1992, install my first solar powered borhole pump in 1993 on a farm near Ellisras. Was working for Iscor mining, work with 220V, 380V, 3,3kV, 6,6kV, 11kV, 33kV and 66kV. also DC protection circuits. Work with different brands of PLC's. Also do my Iscor internal fitter tradetest. Was retrenched at Iscor in 1999 and start to work at Saldanha Steel as a millwright. We have uge battery backup systems, 100+, 105Ah lead acid batteries connected to supply 200V DC to big "UPS" systems. Was eventually promoted to mechanical technician and get a little bit rusted on the electrical side. During all these times I do electrical installations here and there. Mainly house wiring and on farms. Saldanha Steel closed down and I had to do something to stay alive. Srart steel work, sliding gates, security doors, carports but it did not work out. For me to build solar panel stands/structures is a walk in the park. In 2021 I register at DOL again as an Installation Electrician and now I do electrical work on a full time basis. I already rectify a few cabling faults of "big" Solar installers. I install a few systems myself and can issue "Legal" COC'c for the full installation. Some qualificatins: Electrician red seal, fitter red seal, National N diploma electrical, Escom ORHVS certificate, IDC Power systems protection certificate, DOL registered Installation Electrician. On the wiring side of solar systems I can help myself, I will need help with the new technology, Register and work from a APP to change all the settings on inverters. I start up and commision a 5kW Luxpower inverter and do the settings on the inverter screen. I believe that the app or Laptop will make that much easier. Feel free to use my expertise in all wiring fields.