DesRamsay

I would like to explore what options we have to coexist with the new Eskom Regulations. I will ask a few furtyer questions as I go. We are two pensioners, not too well off, and have a very small house in a complex. We have made what is a huge investment to us to install a 5kVa hybrid inverter, 8 panels and 3 batteries totalling 11 kWh. We thought we were helping the situation by reducing our usage of Eskom who appeared to be struggling to keep the lights on. As we are based in Cape Town we are pretty much off grid for 8 months, but during the winter months need the grid to maintain battery charge. We are connected to Eskom on the HomeLight, prepaid tariff. if we are forced to register and switch to the HomeFlex rate, we will be paying about 8 times what we are currently paying. It’s going to be a huge burden for us, having spent so much of our savings on the solar kit. So .. my first question is, if we switch to an off grid installation for the inverter, and rewire our house to leave only the lights on Eskom, putting the rest onto the inverter which will not be connected to the grid in any way - would this be enough to avoid being required to register? Totally separate distribution board and wiring? (I will get onto the batteries and the requirement to charge them during winter later. I have some ideas in this regard I would like to explore in further questions in the comments later).

I am using a CBI Astute Smart Controller to switch on a pump that irrigates my garden from my JoJo tanks. I am well versed in IT and networking, but home automation is something I am just starting out with. i had the electrician install the ASC, connect it to the pump etc. I can now use the CBI home App to switch the irrigation on and off from my phone. So this proves to me that the App is seeing the ASC, and controlling it correctly. I can also use the countdown function on the app to start the pump in x minutes or hours. This proves to me that the App is handling this function, and sends a delayed “On” instruction to the switch at the appointed time. What I cannot get to work is the Timer. Using the App I can set the on and off times on the cloud based hub. When the time comes, I can see on the App that the cloud based hub thinks it has switched the pump on because it grays out the schedule. But the pump does not switch on. i then discovered that I cannot see the ASC over the internet, I can only see it on my home network. So I deduce that the cloud based hub also cannot see it. It thinks it can, and follows the schedule but obviously it’s not communicating. If I switch off WiFi on my phone, and try to connect to the ASC it shows as offline. It’s almost as if there is a firewall between my home network and the internet blocking traffic to and from the ASC.. I’ve looked at everything I can on the router (a TP Link Deco) and there is nothing that I can see that is blocking traffic between the ASC and the Internet. When I look at the ASC on my router it has an IP address allocated by the router, when I look at device info for the ASC on the App, it has a WAN IP address shown. It only has one open port - 6668 I think it was. Do I possibly have to set up port forwarding or something on my router? There is nothing in the manuals that I can find that says this is necessary. Or do I possibly have a faulty device? Now I am stuck. I want to start the irrigation at 3am for 10 minutes each day. I am having to do it manually. This is not sustainable, as you can imagine.

I have recently relocated from Durban to Cape Town, and brought these two batteries with me. They have been checked out by SolarMD and updated with latest firmware. I am retired and staying in small house in a complex and use very little power, so I can’t justify a 5Kva 48v inverter and panels and have decided to sell the batteries and install a smaller 24v system. The batteries are 3years old. My price is R21000 each. I have a very tight budget so if I cannot get this price or very close, I will use them with a lower capacity 48v inverter and no panels, so I am unfortunately not able to consider low offers.

I agree and so does my installer - he will install this for me asap. Many thanks again.

Thanks very much for this info. I will discuss it with my installer and see if I can get this done. I am about to order a third battery, which should see me through 24 hours. In general this system works well for me.

@Coulomb - I meant 35-40% battery charge level. The logger graphs were showing the grid switching on to charge the batteries at night at 20% capacity. I would like them to start being charged earlier. Thanks very much for your input.

I have an Axpert inverter with a single Solar MD Li-Ion 3.7 kWh battery, and 12 x 330w PV panels. My aim is generally to save Eskom costs, but also, to see me through load shedding. I am a novice user looking to learn more. i have three questions. 1. What are the recommended standard Axpert settings for this combo ? Current settings are: 01 - Sol 02 - 20a 03 - UPS 04 - SdS 05 - USE 06 - LtE 07 - ttE 09 - 50hz 11 - 20a 12 - 51v 13 - 53v 16 - CS0 18 - bOF 19 - ESP 20 - LON 22 - AOF 25 - FEN 26 - 54.8 27 - 53.8 28 - 51 G 29 - 48.0v 30 - ONE 31 - SbE 32 - AVt 33 - EdS 34 - 54.8v 35 - 60 36 - 120 37 - 30d 38 - d1 5 39 - AdS Anything look amiss? 2. When loadshedding is frequent, and at night, the battery is running out as there is not sufficient time to recharge by Eskom. At night the battery would normally power the house till about 11pm, run down to 20% and then Eskimo power would keep it at 20% and carry the load until sunlight. I want this to be rather at around 35% to 40%. What settings should I change to achieve this? (I have a second battery on order, arriving next week) 3. Can a quality battery monitor be added to this system? I have been reading about the disadvantages of using voltage level only to gauge battery level (as Axpert does) and was wondering whether a battery monitor would benefit me.