Rou

There is a diffrence between batt voltage ans Soc. Your battery is not been used i presume as the inverter is in bypass. Switch the utility in that feeds the inverter off at the breaker and discharge the battery to 50% soc switch the breaker on and let the battery charge. That should reset the soc back to 100% or 99%.

Thank you very much @MarkHoskings! I made 2 days ago the mistake already- bought the Ecco 5.5kw with SVolt 5.43KWH. But I have a communication with the BMS of the battery- one good thing  Managed to set up the SmartESS to work and so far looks OK. Will see how it goes..

@Rou I have had my ECCO inverter since September last year with no operational issues. The only issue I have is that I can't get the BMS to work to my SVolt batteries  no matter what I do. I have given up and stuck to voltage settings and all works well. I do find a drift with SOC on batteries but don't think that is related to the inverter. I just run batteries down every second month to get SOC back to normal on batteries. If I could go back in time I think I would have chosen the LuxPower as it is similar in pricing (a little more) and has a generator input which becomes a shlep with ECCO in that every time you want to charge the batteries with Generator, you need to go into setting and change the input. LuxPower seems to support more batteries and has better support from what I can find. ECCO is difficult to find much, just my opinion. Hope this helps in your choice.

Hi Rou
 
I used the app SmartESS and you can access it on the Web or your phone.
Both Web and APP allow you to make changes but I have not tried.
Too scared lol :).
 
 

I have no idea. When I completed the paperwork I did stipulate that I would not be selling back. So did they leave me on prepaid because I'm not selling back? Or is it an oversight? Or am I on a list of householders to convert to TOU?

I don't know. And I don't want to prod that hornets nest.

In the meantime CP have issued a press release saying that the figures that are being bandied about are coming from the DA, not from them. This seems to be a response to the %ages that DA put around, which are very difficult to tie back to what one will be paying. I don't think those figures are very helpful. (They do serve the purpose of getting voters riled, so job done.)

But the figures for the flat fees per meter do come from the City's own tariff proposals. It's worth emphasising that last word because City Power are saying that firstly they are listening to the people and taking on board what the people are saying, secondly because, CP now say, there is no NERSA approval of the proposed tariffs yet. Their position seems to be that there will some sort of flat fee per pre-paid meter, but not necessarily the R550 odd a month.

This may be a climb down, it may be nothing at all, or it may be that it was only a proposal and things may change before the final tariffs are published.

I'm cynical. When I hear stories about how petrol is going to go up R5 a liter, I tell myself that this is a deliberate leak, and that when the real figure turns out to be "only" R3.75 we will all fall down on our knees and give thanks.

I remain on pre-paid. AIUI, anybody who wants to sell back has to switch to the TOU tariff, but I don't want to sell back. If the tariffs changed to make that more attractive I might reconsider my position, but right now I can't even break even on it, I lose. I would rather give my excess production away and not be charged for that.

Interesting fact: There are over 1.4 million households in Johannesburg, but less than 284 000 pre-paid meters. I'd have thought that pre-paid was such an obviously good deal that everybody would have made the move, but it seems not.

Going forward it will be less attractive a proposition, and it is clear that COJ's strategy is to reduce the difference between pre- and post-paid.

All pre-paid users should be raising their voices here. At the moment the new tariffs are PROPOSED, not actual, and there is time to object (to the City, not to each other on social media). I went along to the IDP session for my region and told the MMCs (they were all there) that pre-paid users are no risk to the City, pay in advance which is good for the City's cash flow, and so the fixed fees are unjustifiable. I don't know if this will make a blind bit of difference, but at least I can say I spoke out about it.

There is still about a week to get input in (objections or suggestions about how money should be spent or raised).

I have seen that during the registration City Power implements for the owner a TOU (Time Of Use) tariff which has for 2022/2023 fixed components - Service Charge= R1462.34 p/month and Capacity Charge= R1307.39 p/month. If that's going to be the case then that is very discouraging for SSEG.. Unless I am reading wrongly the NERSA tariff.

And here's what I got at the end of the day (names and numbers redacted).
 
Final Approval Redacted.pdf