Bobster.

An interesting opinion about Ellies here

I agree with the headlines. Ellies was just something you found on shelves at retail outlets. They could have done a better job of building brand awareness, of differentiating themselves. They seemed to prefer piggy backing on other brands (Builders, Checkers/Shoprite). Maybe it was too easy for them for too long a time. 

The article makes another valud point: This is a sad story. A lot of people lost jobs at a time when unemployment is already at record levels. To quote Bruce Springsteen: "those jobs are going, boys, and they ain't coming back."

 

On 2024/04/03 at 9:35 AM, TaliaB said:

more networks are subjected to cable theft, where the neutral is specifcally targetted. 

Thanks for this interesting post. 

Why would thieves target netural conductors? I presume they do so only in above ground situations where the conductor is identifiable by colour/

On 2024/04/14 at 10:34 PM, daniemare said:

I do not have any battery capacity left when my geyser turns on for morning heating

I heat water early in the morning. On a bad morning my battery will have 55% SOC when the heating starts, and about 43 when the run finishes. I have 10kWh of battery. Can you cut back on your overnight useage? That will give you more flexibility and better protection for the worst case IE no grid early in the morning and no/low PV.

24 minutes ago, Rou said:

Hello @Bobster, congrats for finalising your SSEG registration!
Would you please let us know- are they really switched your tarif from Pre-paid to Post-Paid or never bother to do it? 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).

And extra 3.6 kWh of battery will give you enough stored energy to run the geyser for something less than an hour. (geyser consumes 4 kW, battery probably provides a useable 3.2 kWh). 

I have a heatpump for my water heating. My timings are similar to yours. I run it on backed up side of the DB and I have 10kWh of battery. I NEVER run the heat pump after 3pm. Because the draw is lower and the water heating faster, I get away with the heat pump on the backed up side as long as don't go too crazy with appliances in the kitchen. 

That's what works for me. I haven't been without hot water for getting on 5 years now.

So, on the basis that it works for me, I'd spend the money on the heatpump. Do a little research first. I would expect that things have improved over the last 8 years and so you will be able to get a pump with the same heating capability but that uses less power.

A heatpump is one of those things where you have to spend now to save down the line (though 8 years is a bit short, you'd expect more like 10, and mine is 13 in a couple of months). Since you have PV already, your savings will be not as great, though I'm guessing that every now and then your battery runs down and you have to fall back on to the grid. But what it will save you is ability to run off of power stored in the battery and to get through power outages and still have hot water.

Seems that Ellies Holdings is being wound up, but Ellies Electronics may yet live on

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/business/532191-ellies-holdings-is-dead-long-live-ellies-electronics.html

They started getting more competition. Think of those red see-thru plugs with surge protection in them. The market for them surged (sorry), and other companies saw the opportunity and climbed on the bandwagon. ACDC, for one, are now bringing in a competing product that offers the same protection (though not the all the diagnostic stuff which just confuses the likes of me) at a lower price. Extension cords same thing. Just about anything Ellies were selling, there is now a competing product from another company.

2 hours ago, VJC said:

Hi Scorp007 

 

The SOC remains at 40% . 

The battery power drops to 0 as the grid kicks in . 

Settings posted in previous posts . 

 

Thanks 

That graph seems like quite normal behaviour to me. There's a setting on your inverter such that the battery doesn't go lower than 40% SOC whilst there is grid. This is so you will alway have a certain amount in the battery if the grid goes down.

What we see here is SOC not going past 40% and the system stops drawing from the battery and starts drawing from grid - leaving that 40% in the battery.

6 hours ago, display_Name said:

and just put the whole house on the backup load (I'll put them in parallel). I don't think we'll go much higher than 6-7kW draw, and the SolarMD can max out at 10kW,

Got an electric lawnmower? A while back we had load shedding and I told my gardener I'd run an extension lead from a socket inside the house so that he could carry on mowing. After all, it's only 750W. 

Ha ha! The system promptly tripped. 

This weekend just gone, with no shedding scheduled, I used my trusty kill-a-watt to measure what the mower was doing. Once it was running it drew about 614W. But on start up, momentarily, it could draw up to 4.3kW. Hence the trip. 

Your household is full of treacherous devices.

When I got this system installed I'd hoped that everybody would be able to just get on with their lives like nothing was happening. That hasn't happened and we have had to learn to live within the limits the system imposes. 

This isn't much of a hardship. Unless we want to use the lawnmower. 

4 minutes ago, Sidewinder said:

The standard/easiest way of getting Cycle (and other) info, is via the RS232 port. Does the FW have such a port?

It does not.

There's a port for comms with the inverter, and a USB port.

I see batteries being sold. The number of cycles is always specified. Now either this is a calculated figure (batteries that old, so many cycles per day on average, and so ... ) or there is a way of getting this information from the BMS.

I have a FreedomWon 10/8. This certainly supplies some information (including SOH) to the BMS, but I can't see a number of cycles. Is there some app I should download? And then how do I get this information - via a cable?

On 2024/01/31 at 11:33 AM, Scorp007 said:

Don't worry. I used to drive Fiats and guess what. Today I drive a very old WORST 4X4XFAR and just love it even at 23yrs old. But I do know the day will come that........ 

Then SWAMBO drives a town car that's 16yrs old and have never even put in water outside of services. The best car even. 

Well it came to pass last week. The installer had sent a tech out to look at my battery. Freedom Won had instructed him to query some logs, upgrade the firmware, and install something that would allow them to monitor remotely. 

That was earlier. Last week he comes out, says FW want him to run the system without comms between the BMS and the inverter. He didn't know anything about the Goodwe so just pulled out the comms cable. That won't work on the Goodwe unless you put it into "self define" mode and set all the parameters as per (in this case) Freedom Won's specs. He didn't know that, didn't know how to do that, didn't have the app on his phone... The Goodwe refused to see any battery at all (which I expected but which surprised him) and since I'm not willing to live without a battery (that now won't charge, let alone discharge), I overrode FW and asked him to plug the cable back in. Now back to square one.
 

Panels facing North? I ask because some literature I've read suggests that West is better for solar geysers.

1 hour ago, Cemeon said:

Good day i just want to find out were and how do you register a solar system and do you have to register it before we install or can we register after 
Thanks Cemeon

Where do live and who supplies your electricity? 

I live in Randburg. I'm supplied by City Power. I recently got my system registered, so I can tell you a bit about that. But the paperwork may vary according to where you live and who supplies you.

12 hours ago, GreenFields said:

I got sold on the Mellerware Piccolo 1.1kW kettle. It's cheap, small, low-power, yet still boils a cup or two quick enough. For a holiday apartment it would be perfect, and would lower the demand on the inverter. To the point where a 1600W and especially a 3kVA inverter option could be quite workable, as in above examples.

Lol. I went the other way and bought a "smart" kettle. Has a thermostat to control temperature rather than a sensor triggered by steam. Has a range of programs for coffee, black tea, green tea etc. Has a keep warm function. Has a special program for warming a baby's bottle.

12 hours ago, GreenFields said:

On the other hand, with this off-grid combo, https://powerforum-store.co.za/collections/batterys/products/kodak-5kw-bl3-6-3-6kwh-off-grid-system , if you could get it installed and wired in cheaply, you could probably run the kettle and the whole cottage no problem. 

Better value than my suggestion. The offering from Maiden can also be used in a plug and play fashion. Just plug it into a wall socket and run extension leads. But that's not so good for overhead lighting, and leaves extension leads that can be tripped over, which isn't good for somebody renting out premises. 

46 minutes ago, Bobster. said:

1) Because how do you just back up that plug and be sure that nothing else will be plugged in or an extension lead run from it?

The good old fashioned solution of the red socket and corresponding red plug with the chamfered earth pin, that's how.

6 hours ago, craig006 said:

I have a holiday cottage where I'd like to add some load shedding backup power. I want to wire it directly to some circuits on the DB, and only need it to power some lights, a router and a TV for about 4 hours (maybe boil a kettle if possible).

The kettle is the problem.

1) Because how do you just back up that plug and be sure that nothing else will be plugged in or an extension lead run from it?
2) A kettle can draw 3kW. Not for a long time, granted, but long enough that it means you need a bigger inverter.

Actually (1) applies to the router and the TV too, but all you can do is tell the guests that if they're going to plug lots of stuff in, then the backup will not last, and then leave it to them to be sensible (or not).

It's not the cheapest, but avoid lead/acid batteries and go for lithium. They will take more abuse, and they don't have any acid that could leak out or create fumes and cause legal claims against you.

Change all your lighting to LED.

Look for a kettle that consumes less than 2kW. I have one. The one I have actually stops short of boiling, but the temperature is quite adequate and it doesn't take much longer (if at all, I can't remember). 

You don't say where you are. Maiden Electronics in Kyalami (Gauteng) have this on special right now. The inverter peaks at 3kW, but the battery pack will only supply 2.4 before tripping (so you need to always bear both those figures in mind and remember that whichever one peaks first will trip). That can be wired into a DB but the price does not include the installation (nor the shipping). It will happily power the TV and the router.

11 hours ago, Mariana Crompton said:

Would a voltage regulator switch off the main board into the house when the voltage is higher than 250.? I have an inverter but that keeps running out when the electricity goes higher, it seems to come on when it drops below to 248.

We don't have a lot of detail here. If by inverter you mean a hybrid inverter such as a Voltronics, Sunsynk, Victron etc then they will usually have a setting for safety code as they are sold in different countrie with different requirements.

My inverter (Goodwe) is set to "South Africa 230V". It expects 230V at 50Hz. It allows some over or under voltage, and it allows a small variation on frequency. When the grid is up (disquitetingly common lately) it will mimic the grid (EG if grid is 238V at 50.1Hz, then that's what the inverter tries to put out). I've never had to deal with a problem of too high a voltage, but we have had low voltage problems, and at about 185 the inverter will disconnect from the grid (it carries on monitoring it). 

Or I can just set it to "230V default" at which point it accepts nearly anything, which isn't necessarily what you want.

Now (TLDR) all of this behaviour is controllable by changing settings on the inverter.

If you're referring to the "trolley" style of inverter, you might find there's a range setting switch (won't be very granular), or there may be jumpers inside on the PCB that a suitably skilled person could manipulate (if that won't invalidate the warranty).

So what inverter do you have? Do you have a manual for it?

The standard for SA is 230V + or - 10%. An inverter set up for the South African code should still accept 250, certainly should go on past 248 to 253, then start thinking about things (and should also tolerate a drop down to at least 207).

225 plus 10% gives 247.5

I think this is a settings problem. Though if you are getting over voltages according to our standard, IE the voltage is going > 253, then, as @Scorp007 has said, you should have a chat with the municipality. 
 

11 hours ago, Jakac said:

I meant illegal connections. I know a government employee who is illegally connected and he earns 20k take home. He uses electric heaters during winter .. an electric heater in every room. Geyser heating no problem. He is not poor 

Their transformer is always blowing up because of overload and Eskom always replaces it a couple of days.

I can only speak of what is happening in Johannesburg, and here they are on the warpath with illegal connections and with defaulters. A problem is that they raid an area, disconnect all the illegal connections, and two days later it's all back.

36 minutes ago, Jakac said:

If there is anything that makes me very furious is Eskom raising the fees to cover for more FREE LOADERS. This pisses me off to such an extend that i can buy a backup solar system for another backup. If you know what i am saying.

I don't see any problem with differentiated tariffs for genuinely poor people. The current test, as far as I can determine, is that the house owner earns less than 7k per month, and that's for the lowest step of the ladder for the subsidised package. 

Combine that with City Power actively cutting off defaulters or bypassers, especially the big ones, and I can make a case for some cross subsidisation. If you income is less than 7k a month then you're really not in a good position. There are some employed people in this country earning not very much. If you earn minimum wage for 8 hours a day, 27 days a month then that's just under 6K a month. That's poor.

Eish! I should have known better. There was a bug in my spreadsheet formulae. I apologise, and I have edited this post to reflect the true situation. There is still a saving, but not as big as before.

I've worked through the current and the proposed tables. The situation past July is going to be VERY different.

On the current tariffs, at what I used to use a month (<500 units), I save about R872 a month. So the cost of the conversion is quickly recovered. Going forwards that saving will be just R97 R507. So the cost of changing over is not nearly as quickly recovered and you have to think about whether it's worth the bother.

If you're in the 900 units per month region you're going to save about R50 R454 a month.

If you're on solar and just topping up, let's say a 100 units every 2 months, then you'll pay R481.5 plus vat on the month in which you don't buy anything, and your saving against post-paid for 100 units is R134  R534 ish. 

So you may want to rethink this one. Or go to your feedback session and make a noise. If the proposed tariffs become reality then the happy days are over. 

22 hours ago, Chris_S said:

So your prepaid meter went down by 11 units per day even with a grid failure? 

Only way I see this happening is if power was pushed back through the meter somehow. I would test this with the mains breaker off for a day. Preferably the breaker in the street if there is one. 

The usage is 13 a day, 11 when there's an outage. The latter shouldn't happen if the system is islanding properly. 

@FHF get this system checked, and not by the guy who installed. Sorry. Even if our systems are set to export, they should not do so when there is no incoming power. This is a safety feature.

If you are exporting, the meter might not be too happy. Not necessarily its fault. In cases where we have an agreement with the Municipality to sell back to them, a special meter is required. Many meters can sense power but not it's direction.

Tell us more about your system and especially the inverter. You may get lucky with somebody saying "just change menu option X to Y". 

But to repeat, sending power to the meter (and maybe beyond) during an outage is dangerous and a safety code violation. You really need that checked out. 

30 minutes ago, BGb said:

Given the feedback from FW you must fix the BMS, I would think its to FW benefit to make sure the battery is not compromised. I find it strange that you can sell aproduct but a key component the BMS is perhaps not covered.

I'm not saying that there is no warranty on the BMS, just that FW don't say anything about it one way or the other.

But you know, I think it's implied. What they warranty (and I think this goes for most brands) is the PERFORMANCE of the battery. IE how much can it back up for how long? If the BMS is interfering with that then I guess it's covered. Otherwise existing consumer law comes into play.

The battery is providing reliable backup. That's not in question at all. 

26 minutes ago, BGb said:

I think the fastest lowest risk and cost option would be to get FW to come to your premises to fix the battery probably with less equipment to test than at the workshop they will probably replace the BMS.  Do the sums of not having the battery for a couple of day.

Yes. I think that once I say it out loud, so to speak, there are not any better options. It also gives me a chance to query them. If all they see is the SOC indicator reporting the wrong SOC, I can then just say thanks a lot, pay for the call out and leave it at that.