HennieL

Yes, I am - care to join...

I cannot really make recommendations, but can give you some feedback on the Eenovance batteries. When I set up my system nearly 2 years ago I bought what was sold then as Sunsynk Sun-Batt 10kWh batteries. It later turned out that this was actually re-branded Eenovance batteries, and although I was really pi$$ed off about this blatant fraud by a "reputable" manufacturer, the batteries have been performing pretty well... I did experience some errors and one of the units tripping at random for some time, but after an upgrade of the BMS firmware and the inverter's firmware (twice), this problem was solved, so I cannot really point a finger at the batteries. The battery firmware update had to be done manually with the installer hooking up his laptop with each battery in turn and the actual updating process done remotely by Herholdts Electrical (the Wholesalers / agents for Eenovance). I really must praise Herholdts for not only being profession and quick to respond, but also for being accessible - the guy that did the remote updates actually phoned me twice, and spoke to me in Afrikaans... Local is Lekker 😁 One other battery brand that I have heard mainly good things about is Freedom Won - but they are quite expensive - R68 000 for their Home 15/12 unit... (and I'm not sure of their South African support footprint), but I'm sure that the Powerforum Store will be able to advise...

I'm sure you will get more, and better, responses if you are not so cryptic No idea what/where Normanton, QLD is - never heard of it... What make & model of inverter? No idea what "Back to Grid" is suppose to mean - are you giving up on solar and moving back to your local Grid, or what? Battery backup for what - load shedding, completely off-grid, or only to run some light loads at night? Without more, relevant information you might as well be asking: "How long is a piece of string..."

@Energy-Jason This looks like a very nice prize. Can you please give us some more info: When will the draw take place Will this draw be done public / live? What are the conditions regarding privacy of details - will any third party organizations ever be given access to our email addresses and/or other data? Thanks HennieL

Thanks for responding to this thread - You do have a steep hill to climb if you honestly do want to honor your goals stated above... and at the risk of stepping on your toes (apologies for this...), you are not starting off very well (in my humble opinion). There is a long-running thread on this forum, titled "Pylontech Swollen Batteries", that was started way back in September 2024, where a number of people have complained about their Pylontech batteries that were swelling for no good reason, and even worse, about the zero assistance and/or interest of the Pylontech agents and retailers. These complaints carried on until on June 16th 2026 (a month ago...), when someone from "Lumo Energy" posted his or her only post to date, stating that "Solar Deity has taken over the service for SA" and added an image of a "Certificate of Authorization" for Solar Deity, that on closer examination turned out to have expired on the 1st of June this year. Now, this person did not identify him/her self as being an employee (or the MD...) of your company, and this could just as easily have been a fraudulent certificate and a phishing attempt. Anyway, after some further complaints, you posted on that thread on the 18th June, presenting a "new" unsigned certificate that is stated to be valid until June 2027, and that contains a spelling mistake - not something that is usual on any official documentation, and especially not on a formal certificate... Anyway, I then responded to your post, again asking for clarity on your company's position in South Africa, and how many other officially authorized agents were operating in South Africa - reason being that one of the complaints previously mentioned was that one "agent" refused to honor the warranty on a battery because it was sold by another "agent". One further poster complained about your company that visited his house for a warranty complaint (that he had to pay for before you would even visit his home), but that your technician merely downloaded data from two of his batteries, and then weeks later only sent a standard template response. To (that) date his complaint was still not resolved - nearly two months later... My last post on that thread was made on the 19th June, and to this date (13 July) neither you, nor "Lumo Energy", have responded to my very valid questions and comments, or to ANY of the complaints logged on that thread - that does not show any interest to assist the end users that have problems, and also does not build trust from uninvolved people like myself... Lastly, I think that many members of the Forum will appreciate an honest response to the following: Have you actually read your "conditions" (or small print, as I previously called it...) referenced by @Energy-Jason above? Do you honestly think those conditions and vague terms are Fair and Just to the many end users who have been complaining about Pylontech products for some years now? Thanks again for your time.

Thanks Jason I actually read their "small print" before I asked my questions - and in my opinion it does not address matters such as the cost of examining a battery for a "trade-in" when buying a new one. Now, to be clear, I do not have a Pylontech battery, and am thus not interested in this "deal", but I do strongly believe in old-school fairness and honesty in business. In this respect, I believe that owners of these batteries who are considering to trade them in for a bigger/better one should in fairness at least know what this evaluation would cost them - and should up-front also be given a range of fair trade-in values based on stated parameters to be evaluated. If, as an example, someone sends in a bloated Pylontech battery for evaluation thinking it is still worth R15 000.00, and this evaluation determines that the battery is worth only R5 000.00 but the evaluation process itself costs R10 000.00, then surely the owner would be better off to just keep that battery and buy a new battery, as he/she will be R5 000.00 worse off than if he did not trade in the old battery - don't you agree?

Yes, thanks for the heads up. I'm sure one could build a "bleed valve" of some kind, perhaps using the venturi principle, to suck cold air from the room (or the outside) into this hot air flow to "dilute" the hot air down to a safe temperature. Will obviously have to play around with just about everything to "fine tune" this, learning on the way - this is actually what might make up my mind to try this half-baked DIY idea 😁

Airflow design is not my field of expertise, but I thought that a practical starting point would be a 100mm or 150mm silent type of bathroom extraction fan - something that will fit a similar sized galvanized metal pipe going through the wall, with the "extraction" side housing the fan at floor level (or a bit above), and the hot air return pipe entering the room at mid height of the wall. The most challenging part would likely be the sourcing (or more likely manufacturing) of a reduction section to take this diameter down to (say) a 25-30mm metal pipe that would run zig-zag through the hot (~300C) sand... I will try to source stainless steel pipe to ensure a long service life if the cost is not exorbitant, else normal galvanized plumbing pipe?

Or just use solar... @frivan , I think you will like this (being technically minded): I did some calcs, and a simple 1.0m x 0.6m x 0.8m double brick "box" filled with sand and covered with good insulation (~80mm glass wool sheets), and heated by ~20kWh of solar during the day could easily keep 2 rooms warm between (say) 18:00 and 08:00 the next nothing with nothing more than a small air blower moving cold air from the house, through this "sand battery" via a zig-zag network of pipes, and back into the house with heated air. I am in a good mind to try something like this myself, building the "box" against my study's outer wall - low tech weekend project with high value (if it works... 🤔)

Does it trip at the earth leakage? If so, is the neutral/earth bonding (termination) done correctly for the inverter, and for the generator?

Do I understand this correctly: A current owner of a Pylontech battery must ship the battery to Solar Deity at his own cost, then they will test the battery (Is there a cost to this???), and then while they have custody of the battery they will make an offer of a discount for the purchase of a new battery? So, if the owner does not agree to this "discount", then he/she must again pay for shipping it back (plus packaging, plus other service charges???). May I suggest that Solar Deity be totally transparent on this "deal" of theirs, and disclose ALL costs, and "small print" right here in this Forum so that there can not be any "misunderstandings" of terms and conditions later on...

@TheMac , I fully agree with your sentiments - In my book there are talkers, and there are doers, and unfortunately the businesses that actually DO (care, and respond) are few and far between. I have advised a number of potential buyers to stay away from certain suppliers (brands...), and in doing so have saved a few million Rands from being spent on the wrong brands and suppliers. If companies that advertise on public forums would only perform as well as they advertise, things would be much better for everyone, including financially for those businesses...

My pleasure - now let's see how long it takes for Solis to respond - currently 2 full days and counting...

My pleasure 🙂 Just a correction on these figures - I did not take into account that you also had cables that paralleled the four batteries, and if these 200mm lengths of cables are the same 8mm diameter then the total cable length should obviously take that into account... At a total length of 3.2m (2 x (1.0m + 0.2m + 0.2m + 0.2m)) the voltage drop would be ~1.2V, still quite acceptable. Just keep in mind that these figures are for an ambient temperature of 25 degrees C. During summer the resistance would be higher.

Hi @Moffat , Solis will not know that you posted this if you do not quote the original poster, or mention a Forum member with an @ tag. Let me do this for you... @Solis Inverters SA - A Client needs your assistance - kindly see above.