Delta9

I need to purchase a power supply that can charge single LFP cells. Is there any preferred place in Cape Town to get this type of power supply or is it a Takealot special to get one?

well that is one way forward and I am considering microinverters. However this is for my boat and I haven't seen or heard of micro inverters being used in that environment.

I am installing a 48v PV system. Because of shading issues I need to connect each panel to its own mppt. This means I need a PV panel that can output over 61v NOCT in order for the mppt to start up and put some amps into the battery bank. So I need to find high voltage PV panels. Not finding much out there. Anyone ?

Nice find !! Thank you.

As the tittle says - looking for the most efficient panels in 1134ish wide size - anything in the 22% range or is 21.9% it in RSA ?

Got it thanks. I will check this out when I get back to CT next week. Right now enjoying the heat in Zambia 😉 CT is getting cold and wet again (of course its that time of year)

Yes I checked out the local suppliers with stocks. I went to the show in Cape Town a few months ago and met Amy from Docan - I bought her show samples from her when the show was over. The LF304 are USD$115 per cell in stock at Docan ZA. The same cell is USD$70 ex China stock. I need 160 (maybe a few more if I can fit them in). Do the math 160 x $45 USD per cell overhead to buy ZA stock. Thats $7200 USD - or approx. R133,200.00 !!!!! Its quite the pay day for a local supplier. So better I make those savings then hand them over. I am getting quotes from AMY now. I live in Zambia but working on a project in CT. In Zambia LiFePO4 is duty free and Zero rated for VAT. If I do go ahead and ship it might be just better to import them to Zambia rather then go through RSA. This is why I wanted to know about taxes in RSA. It looks like it will be far cheaper to just direct import into Zambia. I could really use them in RSA on the project to build everything in here but for that sort of saving it might be better to consider mock up cells here in RSA for placement/wiring and then drop in the real cells at home - not sure yet. But 133K is a mighty good incentive to figure out something. Looks like shipping into Dar Es Salam is around $900 now that shipping has returned to normal pricing. Will see, but good info here, thanks.

Good to know, thanks. So then it looks like duty free +VAT ?

Then after customs duty (if any - depends which code is used - hence the confusion), there is VAT - are Lithium cells Zero rated and no VAT or subject to 15%VAT even if they are duty free.

Duplicate

It looks as though duty rates are dependant on the area/trade bloc the goods are coming from. It would appear that China comes under the heading "General" If that is true there are 2 tariff headings that could apply ; 8506.50.90 - 20% Duty rate. OR 8507.60 - 0% Duty rate I think it would be 85.07.60 but wanted to check with others here who have imported thier own cells.

Trying to figure out the expenses involved in importing LFP cells from China into RSA. I have a Tariff book for RSA from SARS but its a little confusing. (isn't anything SARS confusing?)

Does anybody know which Victron dealer is participating in the buy 2 get one free promo? From the Goggling I have done I can only find dealers offing a discount on the 3rd unit - not buy 2 get one free. Any heads up appreciated.

16S21P !! Not so sure about the 21P bit though. No visibility on each and every cell. How is the BMS handling this ?

interesting. in his vid he very clearly said no solar through the aux port but here you doing it. dont know what to think of the info out there on these inverters

Please clarify what you mean. Are you saying that you can power something through the aux port from your solar panels ? The information I posted was taken from a You Tube video made by Keith. He clearly stated that the Aux port does not get power form panels. Maybe he meant something else - his videos have a ....certain rambling style to them.

it does indeed "seem" like a S.S can AC couple on its Aux port (gen power in port) However its quite hard to understand what Keith is trying to say - its a muddled convoluted conversation going on in this video. If you listen hard and maybe play it a few times, it seems like he is trying to say a grid tied inverter can be connected to a sunsynk inverter that has batteries attached to it via the AUX port (gen in port) of that sunsynk inverter with batteries attached to it and that same inverter with batteries attached to it can supply power to the circuits in the DB board at the same time as the other grid tied inverter because of the CT from the Sunsnyk that has the batteries attached to it. I wish Sunsynk would consider upping thier game and doing some professional video's - get someone who can explain it all clearly to present the concepts

in what way do you mean add more sunsynks ?

thats an interesting idea - use another inverter running on battery to deliver AC to the aux port of the main sunsynk system when the grid is down. If the main sunsynk is running without batteries and gets an AC feed on its AUX feed from another inverter running on batteries, then the main sunsynk is getting a 50 Hz signal and should be able to lock to that 50 Hz signal and be able to produce energy from its connected panels - while the grid is down. I am sure there are lots of reasons why this wont work........although i dont know what these reasons may be. anyone offer some thoughts on the above scenario?

In my particular application I want to run water pumps - as many as I can manage as i have an endless need for water. So its all dependant on how many panels I can get up. AC coupled is the most efficient - until the grid goes down and that is more frequent then we would like (remote area). So the Victron system with Fronius works well for this and is a known thing - and those big Quattro's can certainly handle the load (3ph setup). However there are lots of extras one needs with Victron and this adds up fast. Sunsynk look to be an economical answer - if they can do the job. HF transformer Vs Victrons Toroidal transformer, Victron has Fronius setup in it menus etc. With Sunsynk it would appear that the S.S inverter can supply non essential loads from the main DB - but this would be DC coupled - ie, DC from Solar Panels/batteries to the non essential loads via the main DB (using the current transformer that comes with the S.S). I see lots of niggles here on the forum about the S.S not supplying loads correctly from solar so not sure if S.S can supply lots of power from a big panel setup to the non essential loads via the main DB ? Victron can do it with Fronius no issues at all but at great cost. So wondering which way to go with the whole system. I feel like Victron is tried and true and a known "thing" and Sunsynk "may" be able to do it but its a bit of an unknown qty at this time. Thoughts?

Hi guys, Wondering if the Sunsynk Inverters can be AC coupled to the inverter OUTPUT - the same as the Victron inverters can be AC coupled to the output of the Victron's using a Fronius AC inverter? (even has the Fronius inverters in the victron menu system) I think one could AC couple on the input side of the Sunsynk just fine - however the issue then is that as soon as the grid goes down there is no 50Hz reference available to the Fronius AC inverter so it stops its production. With Victron there is the infamous 1:1 rule about how this works and also a certain amount of battery required. I have never heard of anything like this mentioned for the Sunsynk so presume this cant be done on the sunsynk range of inverters. However, what do I know? hence asking here.

Good to know, thanks Scorp007

That's interesting - how do you find the Esybox? I have just bought an Esybox mini, a Dtron3 submersible and 4 x Esybox diver submersibles to try out. The Esybox Mini and the Esybox divers have a VFD onboard, the Dtron 3 has no VFD. I bought those 3 types of pumps from DAB to see what works well among them. I am also looking at Grundfos pumps because they have a nice VFD for thier pumps with some nice features, but that's the next experiment after the DAB's. All of these need to be run via an electrical inverter - either battery based or AC coupled hence asking this question. I know Victron is a safe way to go, just $$$. The Sunsynk alternative offers good value - if it all works OK.

Well i've never used one so no hard experience with them, but i thought that even with a slow start up the motor still has a surge, just a lot smaller. In your experience how much of a load would a 5.5kW water pump motor using a VFD put on the inverter during pump start up and will the sunsynk handle this ?

Wondering if a HF Sunsynk can start a pump motor? Lets assume a 12kW 3Ph sunsynk and a 5.5kW 3 Ph motor started on a VFD. The sunsynk can surge to twice its load for 10s (or so says the manual). Start up load on a 5.5k 3 phase motor on a VFD should be limited to about 2.5 to 3 times the motor rating i think. Lets assume it spikes to 3 times - so thats about 17kW for a few seconds. I would have thought it would take 2 x 12kW 3Ph sunsynks in parallel to safely do this but i have no idea how HF inverters cope with starting motors. Then there is the added complication of not being to add a genset to a paralleled setup of sunsynks. maybe Victron is the way to go with its beefy toroidal transformer ?