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Hi everyone. I need some guidance on how to correctly share a borehole system with my neighbour. My neighbour has a borehole with a submersible pump that is controlled by the float switch in his tank. He then has a booster pump from the tank for irrigation and also connected to his house as a mains backup. (With his permission) a plumber recently added a T-junction on the pipe coming from the borehole before it reaches his tank. One branch goes to his tank as normal and the other goes to my new tank. I also have my own booster pump for outdoor taps and back up for my house. My tank has a ball valve. The way the plumber connected everything does not work (which he has admitted). My tank only receives water when his tank water level goes low and the float switch triggers the borehole pump to switch on. My tank cannot trigger the borehole pump at all. And the t-junction sends water in both directions regardless. There are some solutions/quick fixes, but I do not want to connect our tanks together because his tank would constantly be filling and emptying in order to fill mine. I also do not want to connect my tank after his booster pump because that would make his booster run unnecessarily to fill my tank and may reduce his water pressure if on back up to mains. What I am looking for is the correct way for my tank to also trigger the borehole pump when it is low and also for both tanks to fill independently without risk of overflowing. I am hoping for a proper electrical or control solution. If possible, it would also be ideal for my electricity supply to run the borehole pump when my tank needs to refill. If anyone has experience with sharing a borehole pump between two separate tanks and households, I would really appreciate recommendations.

Someone recommended this battery a few months ago. Haven't bought or tried it, but might be worth looking into. Apparently for around R1000 more you can get a 200ah instead of 100ah, as its a "2nd life po4" battery. https://loadshedbuddy.co.za/product/mecer-200ah-12v-lithium-ion-battery-with-2nd-life-po4-chemistry/

@Scorp007 Thanks for the help. It would only be used for lights in a small 2 bedroom flat, so I doubt the load will ever be more than 100w at a time. Will definitely get an electrician for the installation. Good to know that it can be used. I will most likely buy the components individually and get a better charger if possible.

@Scorp007 Just to clarify, the system can be connected to the DB board?

@GMAC Actually like you are saying, I recently had a 1kW Fivestar hybrid inverter with a 100ah battery connected to my DB board for just the lights and one plug. With installation and all other parts, it cost R6600 altogether. So this R4500 system including the battery will be significantly cheaper. Although, Im sure the constant disconnecting and connecting of the charger will be very cumbersome. The inverter and charger in the picture will cost R1400 together, compared to the cheapest 1kW hybrid inverter being R3000-R3500.

Can this system (image below) be connected to a house's DB board? I have previously posted looking for a cheap inverter sytem to be connected to the DB board to run just the house's lights and one plug during load shedding. My knowledge is really, really limited with all of this and electricity in general, but I have seen before that these "power inverters" that look like this cannot be connected to the DB board. However, the image says that this one is a "pure sine wave" inverter, which is the same thing it says on hybrid inverters. My understanding is that you would probably have to manually connect/disconnect the charger and inverter to the battery every time you use it. The AC output on the inverter is a 3 pin plug, but could it be connected to the DB board the same way a generator is connected with a 3 point plug. Would like to know if its possible as this system goes for R3545, and with a relatively simple installation and maybe just a changeover switch and circuit breaker/fuse for the battery, you could be looking at R4500 for everything.

@WannabeSolarSparky thanks, will get someone to check it out. Is this common though? I only have the generator for about 1.5 years and probably used less than 100hrs.

@WannabeSolarSparky will a general servicing/maintenance sort that out?

Any help will be appreciated. Recently the microwave has not been working properly when using the generator. Its a 7.5kva so the load cant be too much. The microwave does switch on and work, only the clock runs down very fast. 30 seconds on the timer takes about 10 seconds.

I am looking for a small/low cost inverter system to be connected to my DB board, only to run all my lights and maybe a plug for charging phones, lampshade, baby monitor etc (but not essential). Its for a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom house with about 40 led downlighters and 8 led tube lights outside. Will only use it during load shedding and only at night/early morning. It also doesnt have to go on automatically. We dont need to power anything else like wifi, alarm or tvs etc. Solar is not an option. I do not want to spend too much more as I have a 7.5kva generator connected already which we use only when necessary. Our electrician has suggested I buy a 1.2kva Fivestar hybrid inverter (R3300) with a Vito 100ah 12v gel battery (R1750). I estimate it will work out to about R7k with installation. I dont think the installation will be too complicated as I want it right next to the DB board in my lounge. Please advise regarding this setup, if there are maybe other options besides an inverter, how much the electrician should charge for installation if I am buying all materials, and which brands/stores are good for both inverters and batteries around the same price. Any advice will be appreciated.