Stefan Cornelissen

Update – 5 August 2026
The fraudulent website at ecohubza.com was taken offline on Monday afternoon (3 August 2026) and is no longer operational. The immediate risk has been mitigated.
Our only legitimate EcoHub website is EcoHub.co.za. Should any forum member notice another website, advertisement or similar domain appearing to impersonate EcoHub, please contact me directly or send me a private message so that we can investigate it promptly.
We will continue monitoring the situation and issue a further warning if any new impersonation site is identified.

Good Good Gents.
The competition has now closed.
Thank you very much to @Sonoff Africa for these awesome goodies.
I will post up a number today and we can see who is closest to it!
Jay

Yes - "LandLight" - it's single phase only with no fixed cost but it's now R10.45 per kWh (unit)!! Oh, and no grid-tied gen allowed.
The other prepaid options are all urban.

EcoHub (Pty) Ltd is a legitimate and established South African retailer supplying solar equipment, lithium batteries and backup-power systems nationwide through our official website:
https://www.ecohub.co.za/
I am Dylan Phelan, the director of EcoHub (Pty) Ltd.
Our established customer record can be verified through the following pages:
Customer reviews on the EcoHub website:
https://www.ecohub.co.za/reviews/
Google Reviews:
https://share.google/TBroZymnS1yX1hEvi
HelloPeter:
https://www.hellopeter.com/ecohub
UPDATE – 5 AUGUST 2026: The impersonation website has been taken offline and the immediate risk has been mitigated. EcoHub’s only legitimate website is ecohub.co.za. We will continue monitoring the situation. Please see the latest reply below for further information.
Statement issued 28 July 2026
I would like to warn PowerForum members about a scam website operating at:
ecohubza.com
The scam website is advertising solar equipment, lithium batteries and related backup-power products under the name “Eco Hub ZA” and is impersonating our business in this category.
The domain ecohubza.com has no connection to EcoHub (Pty) Ltd.
The scam website is using a business name and domain that are confusingly similar to ours. Its sponsored Google Shopping advertisements have also appeared alongside our genuine EcoHub business listing, creating a risk that customers may believe they are dealing with EcoHub.
We have contacted suppliers whose solar and battery products are being advertised on the website. These suppliers have confirmed that the seller is not an authorised reseller and has no legitimate trading relationship with them.
Please do not place an order, provide personal information or make payment through ecohubza.com believing that you are dealing with EcoHub.
For clarity:
Official EcoHub website:
https://www.ecohub.co.za/
Scam website:
ecohubza.com
The scam website is currently targeting customers searching for solar equipment, lithium batteries and backup-power products.
We have reported the website and its advertising accounts to Google Ads, Google Merchant Center and the relevant service providers.
We have also published a detailed public warning here:
https://www.ecohub.co.za/blog/scam-warning-ecohubza-com/
I am posting this to warn potential customers and to create a clear public record that ecohubza.com and the advertiser using the name “Eco Hub ZA” are not connected to, authorised by or affiliated with EcoHub (Pty) Ltd.

The Orion is in a different class to any other BMS out there. I have worked on multiple other BMSs. That BMS is made in the USA and it's a very polished specimen in terms of hardware and software. It's even used in the HV batteries to power up the Toyota Prius EV. Btw I'm not sure it's an OEM of the Prius but I do see documentation to supports it's applied use.
My battery got very ill due to my home being completely off-grid and not reaching 100% regularly to float. The first issue that I had was that Cell 1 had a massively weird difference in internal resistance to the others. Then when you charge it the Cell would peak crazily fast and during the discharge the opposite would happen. I logged a ticket and got some remote support but the particular service tech was adjusting software to fix what was very likely to me a physical hardware fault. You can fix hardware problems with software. You can maybe mask the problem but you can't fix it.
I then left it for a week or so & FW basically tried to close the ticket saying it was fixed. I knew the only issue that can arise as these symptoms are a loose cell sensing cable and the cell was not in balance.
The hardware of the 10/8 is on another planet quality wise. FW package this battery to a high level of quality. It's in a powder coated high gloss 3mm metal enclosure and the cells are very well protected inside a plastic types of rigid case with insulation covers. I wanted to remove the entire unit to get at the offensive cell. It's probably possible but given the welded topology and the fact they actually use 2 X 100ah cells laser welded with aluminium studs made that proposition almost impossible to deassemble the entire unit. So all I had to play with was the Harness or 16 cells and a slow charger...
Sorry will add more info later...

Good day guys, I haven't posted something for a while and really haven't had the time. A very interesting problem arose on my FreedomWon 10/8 & due to the sheer frustration of trying to get support I made a decision to get intrusive with the unit & I voided the warranty. More on the warranty a little later and in general I hope that this thread opens up a very worthwhile conversation on warranties and what are they really worth. Even more interesting is the South Africa Battery assemblers as I call them. Let's face it, the raw Lithium is processed in China and made into prismatic cells and then shipped away to our shores as either an assembled battery unit or finds itself on the assembly line here in SA via FreedomWon factory or other well known SA battery manufacturers. The Local guys here then have a factory to a build those prismatic cells into a production unit & pair it with a BMS and then sell this finished product.
Now here is starts to get interesting: How long will these businesses stay relevant because it's a very tough market. The Chinese have the technology to process lithium, they also have the R & D to produce BMS controllers and let's face it their manufacturing costs are a fraction of what can be done here in SA. We now start to see Lithium batteries starting to reach Lead Acid pricing for the first time and sales on the market in general have dried up.
I have evaluated and deployed locally built as well as Chinese LV & HV batteries is mass. I myself used to build batteries. I'm sorry to say the undercut and the affordability of buying a production Chinese imported battery makes this a no brainer.
I hope there are more people out there that can add more perspective to this starting thread. Will add more details on the problem I had, the support that was offered and the steps I took to take matters into my own hands to salvage my battery and get it healthy again.

@TaliaB improved to be moved to a general ward. He might be discharged today depending on further improvement.

@TaliaB is still in high care and sedated while getting some rest. He breathes normally and DR would like his oxygen level to pick up to over 94%.

Hey All, In Jan this year (2026) I started planning a new solar install with my electrician. He was open to me supplying many of the bigger components and in particular I wanted to find batteries that fit my needs. I looked at a number of options: Deye, Dyness, Esener, Must, SunSynk but the bang for buck on the HinaEss PowerGem Max really had what I was looking for, and I could pick them up for a really good price (R29k) with 10 year warranty / 8000 cycles at 90% DOD – 0.5c.
I hope this helps someone else out there who is looking at these batteries - as there was not a lot of info online about this brand. This is my subjective opinion on these batteries based on my experience since buying them in early March 2026 - you shouldn't use this as a proxy for what your experience will be like.
My setup:
Deye 12K Inverter
2x HinaEss PowerGem Max 16kWh Batteries
12x Jinko 580Watt Bifacials (North facing array)
10x JA Solar 620Watt Bifacials (East & West facing arrays)
6000Watt Ryobi Petrol Generator
All loads are connected to the Inverter "Load" port.
All data from the Deye and batteries is pulled into Home Assistant over RS485 -> MQTT.
My previous setup was a Deye 8k, with 2x Hubble 5kWh batteries and 14x JA Solar 460w panels.
Aesthetics
I liked these because they are simple, white boxes, installed on brackets off the floor. The cables are covered by lids, so everything is neat and matches the Deye inverter well.
All the buttons and comms cables are also hidden by the lid, so a clean install is easy.

External Build Quality
 I was really impressed with how they were packaged and how well built (at least from the outside) they seem. They came in wooden crate/ boxes with tons of protective foam, everything nicely wrapped and easy to find.
The steel brackets look and feel sturdy and strong, the same goes for the battery chassis. These things weigh 120kg's each, which meant they were a bit of a mission for my installer to deal with. The included power cables, battery comms cables and ground cables are all pretty decent quality and length. The user manual is also very decent and the whole package feels like it’s worth the R29k – but just.
 The rawlbolts that came with the battery are complete junk though - my installer used some builders warehouse M8 rawlbolts instead which worked well.
 The battery comes with a pre-punched template for drilling holes on the wall which was really a nice touch. The battery is lifted onto the bottom bracket and then secured on the top brackets to the wall. These brackets weren't a nice experience. My installer lost quite a bit of time because you have to perfectly align the brackets on the wall with the battery which didn't happen because putting M8 bolts into an old wall meant that they drifted off centre slightly, which meant the screw holes didn't align with the bracket. Some modifications to the top brackets were required in the end.
 
Software & Wifi
 The battery comes with an app that you use to detect the battery (via Bluetooth) and then connect the battery to your wifi. Then you can use the app to monitor the battery from anywhere.
 Two things I found with this process:
My wifi password had a special character in it, which meant the battery wouldn't connect because of this. I experienced the same thing with my previous Deye 8k inverter wifi dongle.
I could only get one battery to connect to the app / wifi. It seems this may be the way that it works as the app detects the other batteries via the "master" battery comm cable. So all batteries show up in the app even if you only get one battery connected to the wifi.
 The battery information and data reported to the Deye seems limited. I have a Home Assistant integration pulling data from the Deye and it really just had the basics (SOC, Temp, Voltage). The app on the other hands gives you 4x temps and 16x individual cell voltages as well as cycle counts. So to fix this I did some research and created a Python app that connects to the battery over RS485 and publishes the stats via MQTT over the wifi to my Home Assistant. This has been very reliable. The app / wifi is flaky and sometimes it loses the wifi settings, so I am happy to not have to use the app for monitoring. The app is useful for firmware updates, so I keep it around for that. My battery is up to date out of the box, so I don't know what the update process is like.
You can check out my GitHub Repo for the battery monitoring / Home Assistant connector: https://github.com/drewzadev/ha-hinaess-powergem

BMS
From very basic observations, I believe the 2 batteries deliver on the advertised 32kWh. Weirdly in the HinaEss app at 100% SOC I usually see 34kWh "available". I don’t know what that means, but I think it’s related to some other observations that I have made with these batteries.
In the first week, Battery 1 would peak at 55.08V and Battery 2 would peak 53.74V at 100% SOC – that’s a difference of 1.34V. Both batteries would show a status of “Standby”, IE: they were not charging. At that time the differences between the lowest cell voltages and the highest cell voltages were also quite large. Battery 1: 245mv and Battery 2: 203mv. I raised these concerns with their support WhatsApp group which is very active and they were responsive, however their response was that this was not a concern and that the voltages would normalise over time. They also said that the big cell delta’s would only show at 100% SOC.
Now that I have been running the batteries for nearly 2 months I have noticed that they are both equal in voltage at 100% SOC (54.2V) and they match each other pretty much their entire SOC curve. I have also noticed that the cell delta’s have been slowly reducing, with Battery 1 at a max delta of 60mv and Battery 2 at 180mv at their highest during 100% SOC charge. 180mv is still high in my mind but the trend is downward and outside of 100% SOC charging the cell delta’s are around 3 – 4mv for both batteries, which seems very good.
Another interesting observation is that at 100% SOC voltages settle at 54.2V and  at 10% SOC is at 51.1V – this says to me that the battery operates in a very narrow voltage band and the BMS does not push the battery to the upper and lower limits of voltages that I have seen in other batteries (56v -  49v). Maybe this is their attempt to ensure the battery delivers the 8000 cycles that they advertise or it could just be the Deye  inverter and the BMS interacting in a weird way.
Another interesting feature of the BMS is that it will stop the Deye inverter drawing down below 10% SOC, even though all my inverter settings allow for the battery to go down to 5% SOC. The only time it will go below 10% SOC is if the grid connection is off. This does align with what they suggest in the user manual.
 
Power Delivery
My entire house runs off the Deye inverter. 2x 2kw geysers, stove, 2x ovens, pool, aircons, everything. We have put in the required breakers to ensure we don’t overload the inverter and my Home Assistant will actively shed load if we push too close to the limits. I’ve seen peaks of 11kw for 4 – 5mins without issue. I’ve also seen the batteries charge at 10kw for 10min without issue, although I try to keep the max charge rate to 8kw (~0.25c per battery).
At 10kw loads the 50mm2 cables going from the inverter to the battery busbars gets warm and I do feel like I could have spent more to get 75mm2 cables. Typical loads of 3kw – 5kw are the norm in the house and the cables are room temp at these loads and the batteries also stay pretty cool (20c – 27c depending on ambient air temps).
Usually in the evenings we cook meals on the stove and oven, often adding a microwave and kettle to the mix. Then shortly after that the one geyser will heat water for the evening for about an hour and a half. Which will then leave us with around 90% SOC for the rest of the evening. Most mornings I wake up with around 60% SOC remaining at 500watts average power use during the night.
 
Support
As mentioned support is provided directly from HinaEss via an active WhatsApp group. There are a number of HinaEss people active on the channel and they seem pretty responsive. Their go to is generally to request a battery firmware upgrade for strange problems and it seems that this generally solves the problem. Most firmware upgrades they are able to do remotely for customers, especially if they have a Lux Inverter – they seem to integrate well with the HinaEss batteries.

Overall Review
I would say I am happy with the purchase of the 2 HinaEss batteries. It still blows my mind that I can cook and heat water all from batteries and it feels like it didn’t even put a dent in the power available.
Only time will tell if they actually last the promised 8000 cycles / 10+ years. But so far so good. Please share if you have any experiences with these batteries to help others considering this brand and model.

 

I just received a message from Revov, stating they have replaced the BMS, and I can now collect my batteries again

I have taken the batteries in to be tested; their support team also never saw the error before.
They have stated that, unfortunately, it is going to take at least 20 days for them to get to my batteries and test them

@TaliaB @Stefan Cornelissen @Steve87 @Beat
I’ve changed the requested charging voltage from the battery side to 56 volts. Since then, I’ve noticed an improvement. It appears that the BMS only balances the battery when there’s charging current, and the battery SOC isn’t 100% (maybe).

Now the delta dropped significantly

I have numerous instalations with Fivetar batteries and synapse inverters, only problem I have had is one of the 15KW batteries BMS keeps going to fault and cuts power, One of my 15KW batteries is the old type with a Daren BMS, have upgraded it with a JK 16S 200A bms and it now can communicate with the inverter. Before just ran it on voltages and it has been running for +2 years. The one that cuts off the power is currently with the agents and they say there is nothing wrong with it. So looks like I will be swopping out the BMS with a JK bms as well. The newer Batteries have got Pacex BMS which communicates with Synapse/voltronic.
The new Fivestar batteries have touch screens which allow changing of the protocols.

You can always try to use voltage settings for a while and charge the battery to 55.5 for a week and then slowly every week up it by a 0.1v.
I have done this for one a set of batteries before with a pacebms and it balanced fine.

But you need to disable coms and set float and charge voltage the same

MTBF is a statistical measure, not a lifespan. It represents the average failure rate of a population, not how long a specific unit will last.
Putting two inverters in parallel does not halve their MTBF. Each unit still has the same failure rate, but system reliability improves because both units must fail before total loss occurs.
The real risk in parallel systems is not MTBF, but common-mode failures such as surges, battery faults, or wiring issues that can take out both units simultaneously.
In practice inverter failures are rarely random MTBF events. Most failures we see in the field are due to surges, heat, battery issues or installation faults. Running two inverters in parallel does improve resilience against small component failures like fans or relays, allowing the system to continue operating at reduced capacity. However, it does not protect against common-mode failures such as lightning, grid surges or battery faults, where both units are typically affected simultaneously.
So the real trade-off is not MTBF, but complexity vs partial redundancy. Proper surge protection, earthing and installation quality will have a far bigger impact on system reliability than choosing between 1×10kW or 2×5kW.

He has a old one and a brand new one then. Would that not make them fail far apart of they do fail?

Also lets say they are the same age. If they do fail even a just a week or a few days apart you can get a replacement fast while not being 100% down?
Just a few days to ship a new unit to get you up again

Your proposed approach aligns closely with recognised best practices for lightning and surge protection in photovoltaic systems in South Africa, particularly in regions prone to frequent thunderstorms.
We as equipment suppliers strongly recommend the installation of Type 1 or combined Type 1+2 surge protection devices (SPDs) such as those from reputable brands like DEHN HAGAR CHINT on both the DC and AC sides of the system.
These devices are specifically rated to handle high energy impulses from direct or nearby lightning strikes, offering superior protection compared to Type 2 SPDs alone, which are more suited to induced surges.Earthing remains fundamental.
Install a dedicated earth electrode 1.5 m copper clad rod or multiple bonded rods at the PV array, connected via heavy-gauge cable typically 16–35 mm² copper to the panel frames, racking, and SPDs.
Aim for a ground resistance of less than 10 ohms, as commonly required for compliance and effective surge diversion. A common equipotential bonding conductor 6–16 mm² should then interconnect this to the inverter, main distribution board, and building earth system.
This creates a single, low-impedance path to ground, minimising dangerous potential differences during a strike and ensuring surge currents follow the path of least resistance away from sensitive equipment.
For enhanced protection, incorporate multiple SPD installation points one set at the array or combiner box particularly with longer cable runs and another immediately before the inverter on the DC side, complemented by AC side protection.
This staged or cascaded arrangement progressively diverts energy, significantly improving system resilience in high lightning areas.
In locations with elevated risk such as exposed rural sites or high keraunic level zones consider external lightning protection measures, including air terminals (lightning rods) with down conductors, in accordance with a risk assessment per SANS 10313 or IEC 62305.
This is typically reserved for more extreme conditions and may not be necessary for standard residential installations.
Regarding insurance and compliance
A valid Certificate of Compliance (CoC) issued by a registered electrician is essential for grid-tied or hybrid systems, and insurers frequently require it for lightning related claims.
The CoC should document key elements, including measured ground resistance (ideally smaller than 10 ohms), SPD installations, equipotential bonding, and adherence to SANS 10142-1 (and related standards such as NRS 097 for grid interconnection).
Without properly certified documentation, claims are often declined.
In summary, this layered strategy combining high capacity SPDs, robust equipotential earthing, multi stage diversion, and full certification provides the most reliable defence against lightning induced damage.
It far outperforms reliance on manual disconnection of the DC breaker alone and positions the installation well for long term reliability, safety, and insurance acceptance.
I am sure there are a lot of installers and engineers on the forum that can add their opinions however some of these topics are hotly contested and debated however we prefer to follow best practice advice bound to the SANS Regulations to our clients.

@Stefan Cornelissen
As you can see from the attached dashboard, the battery still charges to 98% soc, 101Ah.
That is because the battery is set to 55 V if I set it to 56 V I can get it to 99% 103 AH
I don't want to do that no need to stress the battery for an extra 2 AH




Just now.

I've read here numerous complains about other battery suppliers using all kind of excuses not to repair batteries under guaranty.
KUDUS to LBSA.
My 5.1 KWH battery is 4 and 1/2 years old 2160 cycles.
Last week I had three random trips.
First one when battery was supplying just over 40 Amps to the house load.
Second one when I changed the set up on my inverters from SUB to SBU.
Third trip just tripped could not see the reason.
Contacted LBSA technical department, was told to bring the battery over.
Took battery over, I was told to wait a while they test the battery.
They found a faulty BMS and one Led.
Replaced the BMS and the faulty led as well as the battery breaker, also they added the earth connection.
Three hours later I was on my way home with basically a brand-new battery.
All done under guarantee.
My sincere gratitude to NIVÉ TIETZ she really demonstrated the significance of excellent customer care.
I would like to stress all done under guarantee.
See attached dashboards.

Want to give vinegar a try on the spots? Wet a rag full of vinegar see if it helps?

Those panels are cooked , why would you rub them with vinegar haha ? water and dirt is under the glass layer . Solar panels have a anti reflective layer that is not acid /detergent friendly btw . Those panels need to be replaced and the new ones need middle support IMO.

Want to give vinegar a try on the spots? Wet a rag full of vinegar see if it helps?

So I finally get to test my minimalist theory in real life.
Because of costs at the time I had decided to install just a 5kW inverter with 2.75kW of panels and 5kWh of battery power, basically sized to carry me through daily load-shedding stints, while remaining grid-tied and rather just trading power with the grid with time-of-use. The goal was to have something more financially justifiable than going off-grid. I reckoned that if a large-scale blackout would come, I'd be able to survive with my household in limp mode - nearly normal - while it gets re-started, and still be better off than most folks. And if Eskom well-and-truly dies, then being off-grid on my own island while the country collapses is a wishful fantasy.
Well that day has now come. You may have caught the news of Nelson Mandela Bay's outage due to a pylon that collapsed from vandalism and poor maintenance. While some parts of the city have got power restored rotationally, I'm in one of the areas that will NOT have any power until infrastructure is re-built. Current promises say there's a 14-day restoration plan, but we'll see. At the same time water supply is affected. My small rainwater tank is sized to carry just around a week's water supply and/or be a diversion tank for the pool. Water gets pumped normally for toilet flushing only, but if the municipal supply goes out I can sanitize and divert water to the rest of the house to cover short periods. Not great pressure on a 0.375kW pump, but better than nothing.
So far so good. As long as there is enough sun, I can cover my baseload through the night, and run all other major loads by day. Food is not likely to spoil in the freezer. Hot water is supplied by thermal solar (flat plate) with an insulating blanket on the tank. A gas cooker & braai skillet are available, but I didn't trust gas availability in a crisis, and so a simple electric two-plate stove and slow-cooker are additional backups. The pool may have to suffer. But as long as the sun shines by day and some rain falls at night, I think we'll be okay.
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Normal network cable from CAN port from battery to CAN port on inverter
lithium battery setting protocol 2 on the inverter

Morning members and friends. It is with sadness that I have to inform you that @TaliaB had another big blood clot in his right lung. He is in the Netcare Christian Barnard Memorial hospital ICU. Let's us be with him in prayers and thoughts
As and when news is received I will share it here
🙏🙏🙏🙏