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Chris Louw

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  1. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Scorp007 in Mecer inverter all lights flashing   
    Switch off the battery. Remove + positive battery cable.Connect the resister inline. Switch on the battery for 10 seconds.  Switch off the battery. Now reconnect the positive cable. The capacitors stay charged for a while. Switch on the battery. If neccessary get some help.The negatiewe must be connected.This is just a spare inverter.


  2. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Scorp007 in Mecer 5kva   
    I dont have info on the Mecer batteries.Remember also to set the charging current settings No 2 and no11 and equalization settings No 33-37. Lituim batteries do Not get equalized.
  3. Confused
    Chris Louw reacted to Raiden2912 in At a loss - COJ   
    Hi All,
    I am at a serious loss with COJ and JHB water, I have had my Solar installed in March 2023 and my borehole in May 2023. My bill has just come through and I have estimated readings for both Electricity and Water. I switched to prepaid in June. I have attached my bills and need some guidance before I lose my mind. Why are these bills so damn high? 
    9k July
    5k June
     
     


  4. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Steve87 in Pylontech Warranty refused by SegenSolar for overcharging.   
    In all these cases, we have a damaged BMS here. I dare say either you need to protect that battery with a suitable DC breaker because otherwise you are doing destructive testing.
    I totally agree a good BMS will do a good job of being a watch dog. But let's face it the humble Pylontech is not up to the task. I guess that is slowly becoming fact. 
    One of the many reasons I use a massive BMS that can handle 300A. Mainly because it covers the entire range of cells attached to it. But Installing a "Dumb" inverter like an Axpert with zero knowledge of what small battery is attached & the hoping for the best is in my opinion planning to fail. 
    I would mitigate the threats by a small DC breaker or have a limit on the OG7.2 & the OG10. I don't consider these dumb inverters at all. 
    Each to their own I guess, but I am an installer that installs all sorts of things in ppls homes that have little to no discipline or electric knowledge. But if you happy to accept the risks & baby sit your loads then go for it. But I'm with @GVChere. Size right then you never need to worry or ask questions. 
  5. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from MdF in Can I increase battery charge current on this system?   
    I run offgrid and also wanted more charging power on cloudy days. Added a few panels but kept the max charging rate the same. LS does not affect us.
  6. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Scorp007 in WatchPower App   
    Let's hope the guys in the know can advise how to get the info directly from the battery BMS. 
  7. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Scorp007 in WatchPower App   
    @BontieIt does use the voltage of the the batteries to calculate the SOC. WatchPower  battery voltage reading and SOC can not be used with Lithium batteries. The SOC is also effected by battery cutoff voltage setting  29 If I remember correct. A higher setting of 29 will display a lower SOC and vice versa. 
  8. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Tinbum in Pylontech US3000 BMS replaced 3 times in 35 days   
    @Grotman Yes the Axpert inverters do overshoot charge settings. I will not exceed a setting higher than 52.5 volt. This will prevent exceeding max 54.0 volt for Pylontechs. 3.5volt per cell is more than enough.
  9. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Powerforum Store in More Giveaways Loading...   
    Good luck
  10. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Powerforum Store in More Giveaways Loading...   
    Hey Guys so its that time of the year again and we have a whole Host of Giveaways lined up some to watch out for would be the New Solis S6 6KW Advanced Hybrid (Beast) we are busy with a long term review in real world conditions with the Solis S6 the Unit we are giving away has already gone through a preliminary review but we may give more of this brand away in the future. 
    Magneto has given us some wonderful product to review and give away MAGNETO Lithium-LiFePo4 Rack Mount 48V 5.1 KWh also note the great prices on those units  and a  Magneto Thermo Tank also promise of more nice items to give away in the future. 
    Then we Have the Revo Inverter and battery Combo (not listed on our online store yet but soon) there will be some terms and conditions on this giveaway however an exciting product squarely aimed at Sunsynk and Deye.
    We are also receiving a very nice Battery from Halo Energy to give away the 113AH HALO Eclipse WM-5 48V 1C however this will only be in about 5 Weeks time but still a very nice compact battery.  
    Power2SA is giving us one of their VTC Vxl5100W 5.1kWh LifePo4 battery 51V/100Ah Rack Mount to review and test this is also a very nice rack mount battery with Bluetooth and WIFI features decent cycle count compatibility and scalability and we will give this away to a lucky forum member. 
  11. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Oelof in First day of Solar   
    Hi guys,
    So we quite literally just moved over to solar an hour ago! Exiting times. 😁
    I am fairly new to Solar so apologies in advance for stupid questions. 
    My main goal is to safe as much on electricity as possible. Our electricity bill has skyrocketed in the last month or two. 
    I noticed on the Sunsynk app that the inverter is still drawing quite alot from the grid and only 48w from the battery. 
     
    Should it not be the other way around? 
    Regards,
    Oelof
  12. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Scorp007 in 2kw mercer inverter burns out.........   
    If appliances happen to be fridges that got disconnected as part of the 25% load then they could be in a lock rotor condition. 
    There are warnings not to use modified sine inverters for appliances with motors. 
  13. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Coulomb in SOL-I-AX-3M24 switching off   
    What battery is fitted to the inverter. What is the DC  cutoff voltage setting no 29. What is the load when it switches off. What is the DC voltage when it switches off. Could be the battery nearing end of life. 
  14. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from WannabeSolarSparky in Devices switching on after loadshedding   
    @DeezGP  Sonoff . Select device settings. Open Power on State and select OFF and save. 
  15. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Scorp007 in Solar geyser vs More Solar Panels   
    Go with extra panels on your solar PV system. This should not even be a debate. Just use a 2kW AC element. 
  16. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Coulomb in Inverters in Parallell   
    About the best you could do with what you currently have is to  split your loads; one inverter runs one set of loads, and the other the remainder (of essential loads). It's far from ideal; one could be overloaded and the other almost idle. But they can share the same battery.
    I assume that the grey non-king is the replacement one. It's a museum piece, even older than my pair from 2016. The heatsink on top dates it (I think I read 2015 in the date code), but at least the heatsink on top was a good design (dropped in all subsequent models, presumably to reduce cost).
    If the green one is the new one, at least you have an upgrade from 4 kW to 5 kW, and zero transfer, cleaning up the highly variable Eskom grid to give you a nice smooth 230 V output even in line mode.
  17. Thanks
    Chris Louw reacted to jumper in Trying to get PV system up and running   
    He has the 10 panels in series in 2 strings with voltages of 346V and 336V each into 1mppt, not in parallel. It should produce about 10A, but the voltages are way too high, I'm surprised the mppt is still alive, 
  18. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Scorp007 in Trying to get PV system up and running   
    How do they say:"You learn the hard way" 🤔
     
  19. Thanks
    Chris Louw got a reaction from sunset1 in Does a device like this exist?   
    The CBI Astute Smart Controler can also be set to disconnect exceeding set loads. It alows to set a delay time form startup loads. Restart time can also be set.
    Sonoff pow can also be set to switch off when exceeds set load. It does not have the time delay or restart.
  20. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from TaliaB in Does a device like this exist?   
    The CBI Astute Smart Controler can also be set to disconnect exceeding set loads. It alows to set a delay time form startup loads. Restart time can also be set.
    Sonoff pow can also be set to switch off when exceeds set load. It does not have the time delay or restart.
  21. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to GMAC in I made a poofee   
    What I use is an cars old ballast resister connected on series  screwed together back to back works great to charge those caps slowly and these resisters are cheap and can be bought at your local car dealers . 

  22. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Clint in Used lithium batteries   
    @Taher Sylla MultisibControl

  23. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Solar Journey in Installation Horror Story - PLEASE VERIFY THAT YOUR INSTALLER IS LEGIT   
    Only thing to do remove those panels and demand a refund.
    I had 4  450Watt  panels some of them only tested 128 Watt . After big fights the supplier refunded me. 
  24. Like
    Chris Louw reacted to Modina in Uses for an old 48W solar panel?   
    For charging, the cheapest hardware (R70) would be a small buck/boost regulator like this:
    https://www.communica.co.za/products/hkd-dc-dc-buck-boost-1-25-35v-4a?variant=44293669519660

    You would need to place this into your own small enclosure and you would need a multimeter to adjust the pre-set potentiometer to give you an output of 13.85V to float charge a 7Ah SLA battery.

    An even better module would be this R340 buck/boost regulator:
    https://www.communica.co.za/products/dgm-buck-boost-solar-1-30vdc-10a?variant=19665729519689

    The advantage with the more expensive regulator is that you can adjust the output current limit.  With this you could charge small lithium batteries as well.

    Both regulators can boost the voltage, so you could even charge 6V and small 24V batteries.
    They are both switching regulators so you can expect about 85-90% typical efficiency, which would be much better than a PWM charger.
  25. Like
    Chris Louw got a reaction from Agrilight in Axpert software   
    @ErichK you could also connect Pylontech batteries. A lot of detail each cell , battery is displayed. Use the same cable as ICC or Solarassistant. There was a software up grade about a month ago. I use Solarassistant . When I want to see detail off battery cell MultiSIB is handy. 
     
     
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