Clint

I recently purchased a Cotek S600-224 inverter which I will be using for camping and load shedding so it is good news that they are good quality inverters .

Car Audio Refit AGU Fuse Holder 4 / 8 Gauge Wire + 4 pcs 100 AMP Fuses Only up to 8 gauge wire Would you guys use these?

It already has a small solar panel.

plongster those old fridges are probably auto defrost which are really bad for energy usage and the new one are frost free. I have a auto defrost fridge and it uses about 3 kwh a day. I don't know if the new type of fridges have such a bad spike as the old units.I had a 220 v camping fridge which had a 100w compressor in it and when we tested it on an oscilloscope it spiked to 1000 w for one second.

i was just thinking thanks to Superdiy the pipes were probably full of air and that's why it works so inefficiently. If I only knew

It would be useful if you could test the equipment with an amp meter or energy monitor while it is working. The equipment should use less than the power supply can provide because the power supply should be able to handle the start-up surge. I have a clamp meter and a Efergy plug in monitor to do this. I run my TV (42 inch LED), Hi-fI,DSTV,4G router off an inverter during load shedding and it only runs at about 170W

Yip its the only company in the world that advertises not to use there services

definitely sounds like the charge controller is faulty.

Hi Mc this looks like a very nice system and when you get all 8 batteries you can get off the grid. The Microcare inverters allow for back-up power from a generator or municipal supply. I recently repaired my mom's tumble-drier and found it has two heat settings so I would only use it on low also because it burnt some of the wires Where are you getting the Lead Carbon batteries from ?

SonX 12V100Ah(D).pdf Alistair if i am not mistaken you can only charge a 12 V 100 ah battery at 30 A With all 4 batteries that gives you a maximum of 1440 Watts. Everybody please check if I am correct.

Jaco I would convert everything to single Phase ,the only reason people use three phase is if they have 3 phase appliances like Boreholes. And even if I had a borehole I would not bother with 3 phase. As Wetkit said it is easy to covert the system. You can also ask the municipality to change the meters.

Well done P.S. Do you have a good contact to get Lead Crystal batteries ?

Stephan I don't have a Leaf yet,I should of said I would like to get one ,sorry The Leaf charges at 3600 W so I would need an inverter and battery bank for it or just charge it from the house when the batteries are full If I get 5000 W solar panels and in my previous house I used about 10 kwh to 15 kwh a day then I would have plenty of extra power to use. I am just renting at the moment so hopefully in the future this can happen. It costs about R22 to charge the leafs 23 kwh battery to drive about 195 km , sounds insane but true, Do yourself a favour and go and test drive the Leaf.

I thought it a good idea to get an electric car (Nissan leaf) and have a separate battery bank to charge it .Have the house solar switch over when batteries are full. I test drove a Nissan leaf a while back and it a funky car and come to think of it I will probably only use my 4x4 once a month

Lead crystal batteries ?

Its easy to buy a copper coated spike at the hardware and some copper wire I'm just not sure what diameter wire you should use I would recommend going to a electrical supplier ,they could give the info and hopefully a better price I don't know but would it make sense to have more earth rods to help dissipate lightning ?

This is from one of the previous post from Wetkit Here is my shopping list for mounting the panels to the roof. Planning two sets of four panels, but only installing 4 panels for now. Hardware can be ordered from any electrical supplier. Part numbers from Cabstrut. 4 x P2000 (5m sections, 1mm thick) 20 x SN110/M10 (m10 spring nuts) 20 x P1063 (Square to hold 2 panels on the sides) 10 x P1026 (90 degree angle, to hold outside panels) 20 x M10 bolts, 80mm long This time I will try and document the installation step for step.

This a difficult one. I would get a charge controller for the solar and connect it to the batteries via a switch. You will have to switch off the mains otherwise it will fail Or you could use a 220 V relay switch that connects the solar when the mains are off. My 2 c

Tx

Well done I think that a LCD display in the house showing battery percentage and even geyser temp would be very helpful Are you producing enough power yet for daily use ?

I don't even think we have Net metering in Joburg LMAO Read this https://90by2030.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/gooffthegrid-feb-2012.pdf

Thanx for the link ( gaisma ) I have also been looking for this info.

I've got a small lead crystal battery (7.2 ah 12 v ) that i use to run an outside light and it worked perfectly so far. I would like someone to do a proper test on them,maybe Wetkit can be our lab rat. Wetkit excuse my ignorance but how many and what batteries do you have? Thanks

That's why I want to get off the grid .My brother just got charged twice for electricity after they installed a new type of meter I don't trust them anymore.

Mike are you going to build one?