gallderhen

Same with me. When I lived in Randburg, one morning I had freezing-water only (during winter) and thought the thermostat on the geyser died. Got an electrician out who eventually found the problem at the ripple-relay that never switched the geyser back on again. Bypassed it and all was well again. -G-

Hi, If you have an Empire Hexing prepaid meter, you can hit 808 + enter to get the power-draw at that very moment (like when the poolpump and the washing machine and the tumble dryer and the geyser is running at the same time). Otherwise try to borrow a power-meter like Efergy or Owl from someone, hook it over the main power cable in your DB and start measuring. Just know that you only measure over that particular cable, unlike mine where I have 3 DBs distributed on the property and thought that City Power was shafting me 😋 -G-

Hi, Does anyone have any experience with Osaka 120Ah batteries (like these Osaka 120Ah ) ? I would like to use 2 on a Mecer 2400VA UPS, so they won't be discharged on a daily basis, only during load-shedding, -G-

Hi, Yup, still happy. In winter it reaches around the 60-65 mark if you only shower once a day, otherwise if you shower morning and evening, you'll have to kick in the electrical side each morning. In the summer it maxed at about 77 I think. For a 150L geyser it was in the region of 20k. If you live in Jo'burg or Cape Town, a normal solar-geyser makes more sense, since it can heat up alot more than these solar-panel driven ones do. The reason my parents went for this is they live in the northern part of Pretoria, so an EV-tube geyser would have gone beyond the 85 limit and triggered the escape-valve on a regular bases. -G-

Question: Given that units are taken care of properly, how often really is it the MPPT in a hybrid that goes first before any other component? -G-

With regards to the geyser, About 6 months ago, I installed an evacuated-tubes split-system solar geyser in our house. The tubes sit outside on the roof, one pipe goes from the geyser to a 12v pump, from the pump it goes up to the roof into the tubes-system, and from the tubes it goes back to the geyser (how the guy explained it to me). Also on the roof is a small 12v solar panel. So what happens is, when the 12v solar panel gets enough sun light, it powers the pump that pumps the water from the geyser into the tubes sitting ontop of the roof. The tubes warm up the water by transferring the heat they captured from the sun, to the water, and the warm water goes back into the geyser. This summer I've seen the geyser hit temperatures of 80C (before we let out some water as to not trigger the pressure valve installed), and during winter it goes up to about 65 maybe 70. In winter, we have to use the element from 4am to 6am if we want to shower in the morning, but during summer we hardly use the element at all. With regards to savings, our electricity bill has dropped from 30-35KWh per day, to 15-20KWh. I'm figuring the system will pay for itself in 4-6 years. We went with a split system (where the geyser is inside the house) because we get some heavy hail storms in our area, so if the hail does come down on us, tubes will be the only parts that would need replacing. Hope this helps -G-

Question regarding a guesthouse, Would it make more sense to go pv-solar for day-time loads, and Eskom at night with a very large generator as backup for loadshedding, and only swap over to batteries for night-time loads when the total costs of a battery bank, is less than you would spend on Eskom? -G-

PS can a bi-law be contested? Or if CoCT does decide to start taxing grid-connected and off-grid systems, is there a recourse to contest the bi-law? -G-

Heroldts is doing aggressive slashing on that 10Kw unit. If you take the single unit (R18k odd excl) and make a 10Kw unit of that, their price of a 10Kw unit without BMS ought to be in the region of R72k -G-

Yeah, I'm getting the same vibe from this registration process. Also, in the steps for a grid-tied system, they mention: "Step 5: The City will contact you to arrange an appointment to sign the Supplemental Contract for Embedded Generation." Anyone have an idea what this Supplemental Contract for Embedded Generation document looks like? -G-

If its all about safety, why then does the application ask you your utility consumption figures, hmmm...😏 -G-

How legal is this ? Is it a law, bi-law or just someone issuing press-releases out of the other side if their body? -G-

I don't quite understand why an SSEG cannot fall under the certificate of compliance? Is it because current electrical installers/engineers lack the knowledge to verify that an alternative energy installation is compliant? -G-

They're good, but VERY expensive. I've been using one since 2003, just replacing the filter each year, and I feel I'm getting my money's worth though. -G-

Saw in this video you can now parallel different sized banks, so you can slowly grow your capacity over time: BlueNova -G-

I think the design-problem comes in when power interruptions kick in. You want most everything to run off of the solar during the day, most everything to run off of Eskom during the night, but just some stuff to stay on battery when Eskom goes down. I guess its possible to do it manually (switch off stuff when Eskom goes out) but is it possible to have it automatically like that? Daisy-chain 2 inverters with the second one feeding your vital equipment which is also the only inverter connected to the batteries? -G-

Thought I'd necro an old thread: Looks like they are now available locally https://www.acsuperstore.co.za/solar-air-conditioning I'm very tempted to try one :-P -G-

He's a bit busy at the moment, but he said he'll definitely swing by next week to come check it out. Will report then about what happened. -G-

This is what they say on the tube: Line 3 reads "Power 18W", FYI. -G-

Hey everyone, Thanks for all the info and suggestions. I'm glad I didn't spend all that money for nothing. I'm a very accident prone when it comes to electricity, so I'm going to get my electrician that did our CoC to come do what you suggested -G-

Howdy folks. I currently have 2 OSRAM 36W fluorescent tube lights in my kitchen. So I bought two of these to replace them with: https://www.geewiz.co.za/led-tube-lights/35726-astrum-at8a124t-led-tube-t8-12m-18w-al-pc-clear-4000k.html But they just wont switch on. on the top of the light it has a live and neutral indication, but neither on the light fitting or the osrams are there any type of markings for L or N. Did I buy incompatible lights by any chance? -G-

Our geyser burst about a week ago, and I decided to go ev-tubes solar. Had my Efergy monitor going the whole time, and I'm happy to report that even in winter, we're down by about 4-6KW a day just because of going solar on the geyser. And on the bonus-side, I have hot water even if there are power failures -G-

As a start-up to solar, or just for backup purposes, would it make sense to go Axpert (small or medium), solar panels and say 1 pylon-tech battery? (Dunno if that would make it under R30 with COC because you're hooking it into the TV and lights). And would you still need a BMV between the inverter and the battery if you with the pylons? -G-

Cool I'll have a look at these, thanks for all the info! -G-

Hi, Not sure if this has been asked before, but are there any inverters that can be programmed to only charge batteries off of AC power, during specific times of the day? I've got some outside lights I want to put on batteries + inverter, where the inverter should only charge the batteries during the day (as the house will eventually be converted to solar). -G-