dax021

This one http://www.listerengine.com

Hi DB9, have you tried running Waste Veggie oil in youir Roid yet? Lots going on in that department on listerengine forum right now.

And you have how many Listers? Go read the Lister forums, plenty of ways around this. There's a guy in EL who has thousands of hours on his Lister, no carbon buildup, and he burns WMO.

Thanks Chris, that's useful

Dream on. Been trying this approach for about 2 yrs. These guys know the value of batteries, and will rather "recon" the half good batteries then resell them as 80% good for R 800 to R 1000 each. I sent my 4 x T1275"s to a place to try and recover them, but the guy says they are totally poked, no chance. Fortunately, he didn't charge me, even though he quoted R 50 per batt if it doesn't work, due to his electricity usage. I think he's offering me R 7/kg, must still go round and negotiate for replacements.

Thanks Chris, your advice is noted. I don't think the 3Kva even has a serial port, so I guess no upgrades.

Hi Chris, thanks for the reply. I wasn't going to bother about lightning protection either. As far as I'm aware, nothing stops a lightning strike anyway, it goes through one's protection long before the device even realises it's been struck. Here in Plett we have very little lightning and my pole will only be about 3m high. I am on a tight budget and still need decent batteries first. I'm open to the voice of reason though. While I have your attention, is it possible, or even necessary to upgrade the firmware on the 48V 3Kva plus Axpert as you guys have done to your 5Kva models? This would be to address charging and other issues as discussed on this forum.

So, I am slowly getting closer to installing my 3kva Axpert and want to soon install more panels. I see a lot of combiner box wiring diagrams show an earth/ground wire that links to the panel negative. Is this correct, or necessary? I was going to ground the frame and panels with an earth spike and have no earth going via my combiner.

I'm still using them, but being careful, I have never let them go below 12.3V. One of these days I'll leave the inverter on for a night and see what happens. I'll report back then, but as TTT says, if I carry on using them as I am now, I think they'll last forever.

Thanks

Just wrote you a long reply but lost it somehow. Short version, they were finished when I got them. Only running 12V LED's at night and a 350W cheapy inverter when the sun shines

Just wrote you a long reply but lost it somehow. Short version, they were finished when I got them. Only running 12V LED's at night and a 350W cheapy inverter when the sun shines

Just wrote you a long reply but lost it somehow. Short version, they were finished when I got them. Only running 12V LED's at night and a 350W cheapy inverter when the sun shines

Chris, so what batteries would you recommend? My needs are very similar to this and I already have an Axpert 3Kva Plus 48V and 4 x 295W panels. At the moment my Trojans (T1275) are poked and I need to buy something soon. Thanks

Thanks all for helping me get my head around this. I will plumb it straight to the gas geyser in the meantime while I wait for the right AC geyser (insulated reservoir) to come along. Adding insulated storage should enable me to have hot (solar) water all night too. (PS. Integrated tanks are actually 55Lt each. I see)

I doubt that my geyser modulates, as in it is an ancient Junkers with pilot light. On the other hand, who knows, as when I open the hot tap it seems to flame up to half, then wait a second or two and then flame up full. Maybe this is just a pressure or gas test. Hopefully, I'll be able to regulate the flame by manipulating gas and water flow controls. If the collector is hot enough my plan is to just close the gas valve completely. I have tested this and closing the gas doesn't make any difference to water flow.

Luckily my collector is a "Sundome" which has two integral 50Lt tubes, making 100Lt of storage. Not insulated though, so cools down overnight.

Don't as yet have a geyser, but am on the lookout for one. At this stage any geyser should do and I'll just orientate it to make the best use of available ports. It will basically just be an insulated holding tank. TP, from what I understand, you are actually suggesting that I use the top picture layout, as the 2 cold feeds are on the same level and therefore the same as a tee of the cold supply. Out of interest, I plumbed cold water into my collector with a stopcock on the outlet and by 16:00 on a sunny day the water was too hot to hold my hand under it. At 16:00 today, after no sun the whole day, the water was luke warm. I could probably just plumb it straight into my gas geyser and just make sure I shower before 19:00 each day. By the next day the collector is obviously cold, but still not as cold as the water coming from my holding tanks

Have a look at these two threads on wilddog forum. Lots of info http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=192993.0 http://www.wilddog.za.net/forum/index.php?topic=194961.0

Thanks superdiy, you're the man. That's also not the first time you've helped me out.

Hi learned forumites, found these drawings on some forum and was wondering which would be the best solution. I have been given a lekker flat panel collector and want to connect to an old geyser as a holding tank, then feed into my small 6lt/min gas geyser. I don't have Eksdom. Thanks in advance. Peter

Unfortunately out of warranty. Only been used for a couple of months, but was in storage for at least 2 years prior to using

Thanks to both of you. I will source one of those BYV29's, plug it in and see what happens

Hey, thanks superdiy, much appreciated. I can read the writing on the middle FET, IRF540N, IOR P2030, 4K6L - is this the same as a 45N15? Can I go to an electronics shop and ask for a BYV29 and they'll give me right part to swap out the blown one? Everything else looks ok, as in no obvious damage, except one track burnt with the diode. Should be easy enough to repair. I just hope that's all that's wrong. Allpower quoted me R700 to replace the board

Does anyone possibly have a wiring diagram for the above system which is one the back of a panel powering a solar pump? The board is labelled pmpver4.pcb MicroCare. It seems to have got rainwater into the housing and one of those little flat goodies with 2 or 3 legs and a heatsink seems to have popped (don't know what it's called). There or 3 of these in a row, 2 have 3 legs and the popped one looks like it only has 2 legs. Unfortunately I can't read any of the writings on the component. Much appreciated