Douw G. Gerber

Hi there @Coulomb - can you explain a little more around the "work hard"? Our office site as an average grid voltage of 240v but the inverter is set to 230v. Should we consider changing this to 240v?

All over the online stores these batteries are being marketed as LiFePO4 batteries. BEWARE. Although I dont think there is a problem with using NMC per se, advertising it as LiFePO4 is a problem...the two have different chemistry and therefore different charging settings which I presume could have probably lead to the issues that were experienced with this unit where the user thinks it is a 16 cell unit LiFePO4 and then inadvertently set the bulk charge and float voltages too high... If I was the installer first thing that would have bugged me is why the BMS only shows 13 cells. But I guess some installers just plug in do the usual settings and move on... By the way the specs sticker on the chassis shows bulk charge voltage as 55.9v

Another post on the forum stated that these are in fact NMC batteries and not LiFePO4 as stated by the manufacturer and in the manual? Can anyone else confirm this?

Just confirmed that weld was done in a previous repair when the busbar "came loose"...

Howzit! So my buddy is trying to help someone who has the battery in the subject that has failed (bulged batteries) - not sure why they bulged, probably overcharged or something but you would think the BMS would prevent this from happening. Attached are pics of the battery cells. Is it worth even trying to attempt a repair? Can anyone tell me which cells these are? - apparently it's a 13 cell configuration @ 48v. As you can see in some of the images - look at how the broken busbars were just tack welded to the cell again - hope this is not how it was done during manufacture. Cheers vir eers Douw

Probably a neater solution would be to put your geyser on the essential side with a CBI Astute Timer Switch. With this switch you can then set the geyser to only operate during the day and you also have remote access via the app to manually switch on and off the geyser as and when you want. https://www.builders.co.za/Electrical-and-Electronics/Plugs-Sockets-and-Switches/Smart-Electrical/CBI-Astute-Smart-Controller---Grey-Black/p/000000000000744335?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA44OtBhAOEiwAj4gpOYjE_oEiP4O6pmk28Bj3Y8HSXiR_JkZZpkmG4rypK9gQVNFuE1FNAxoCkSIQAvD_BwE

Can you be a little more specific around the "issues" you are experiencing?

I have no experience with these but... Do these batteries support the Sunsynk? The OEM should be able to confirm this. Huawei is a reputable brand, but from what I have seen in the past their products are very propriatary, designed to work with Huawei products. What does local support look like? I find buying the "mainstream" brands (Pylontech, Dyness etc) is usually beneficial in the sense that you will get a lot of community support should things go wrong or you struggle with configuration etc. Cheers Douw

Hi all, Not sure if the SA devs read these posts. So since JHb City Power updated their schedules AGAIN, the source SA uses to for schedules is out of whack again. Somehow I don't think that source currently used is updated frequently and this can mess with the new automations in SA. EskomSePush (ESP) are now giving away API keys again for personal use - so could we possibly get a feature in SA to input our own API keys and then SA uses their API to get the info? Link to get an API key for personal use: https://eskomsepush.gumroad.com/l/api Cheers Douw

Please share more info around what inverter type and model you have - pretty sure someone here will be able to assist. Cheers

Good question 🙂

I have the same setup as @Bobster. - also keen to understand how these ripple relays will work with a setup where the geyser breaker is on the back-up loads.

Mate of mine has recently gone to fix up an install where they had a 5 Star 11kw installed that went up in smoke. Had to fix a few things on the install and replaced the inverter with a Mecer Axpert King 11kw. However, there are 20x400w panels installed on the roof that are labeled "German Technology". They are not producing more than 4500w at peak...that bridge still has to be crossed with the client as he has 20kwh battery storage installed and those panels just cannot deliver enough to charge those batteries fully during the day as his average load is 3kw during the day. Stick to the larger suppliers and known brands is all I can say...

Still a pretty pointless post by Amit imo...

My panels are not visible at all - except from space 🙂 I will hold out on this till the very end. I do still buy electricity every month but it is about 50-60% less than it used to be. Thing with these regulations...how did they regulate people with generators in the past? Did you als have to "register" your gennie?

Not my app 🙂 not clever enough for that. Go check out SolarAssistant and HomeAssistant - the two together is what I use to do the automations. I also have smart a switch on my airconditionioner that switch of the aircon when loadshedding starts. Same with pool pump. Comes back on when loadshedding is done. Plenty resources online to help you set it up but it is actually quite straight forward. You will need two Rasberri Pi's though. Btw you can disable the mic on Google speakers 🙂

I agree - set it and forget doesn't exist. Although I have managed to automate quite a few of my loads etc with HomeAssistant in such a way that my system now pretty much just runs. This is however not a "user" friendly path. If you do have a bit of computer savvy it can be done. I for example have the Google speakers in my home announce a message when the load exceeds 5000w on my 5600w inverter. I also have a message playing when loadshedding starts and stops - just gets the family to think about what they are switching on during these times.

Hi all I updated to firmware 2023-11-26 this evening and I still dont have these options displayed. I am reading battery values directly from by batteries though and not via the inverter - could this be why? Inverter and Battery spec in signature. NVM - Rebooted it again and now is shows up.

European centric info but I am pretty sure it would be applicable here too. https://clouglobal.com/power-grid-frequency-why-is-it-important/#:~:text=The power grid is stable,a higher demand than generation.

Our inverters will simply disconnect from the grid I believe should it drop to that low - or so I think. I am more interested in understanding at what the tolerances are on the transmission network - ie. at what level does automatic protection mechanisms kick in?

Hi all I have been noticing the past 2 days or so my inverter reporting grid frequency as low as 49.6hz. When do we start worrying about this in terms of grid stability? Ie. how low would it have to go before the k@k hits the fan? Cheers Douw

Hi all As you know ESKOM and the municipalities have been complaining about us putting massive instantanious load on the grid once power returns to charge our batteries. So what I have done to try and be a better citizen and community member is to use automation in Home Assistant paired with Solar Assistant to limit my charge current to 2A for 30 minutes when power is restored before ramping it up to 30A. During the day I only use solar to charge batteries unless the weather is really bad. Just posting this for any newcomers - solar assitant + home assistant is pretty much a must if you really want to manage your power plant effectively. I also use it to for example play a voice message to notify the family on our Google speakers when loadshedding starts and is finished. It also plays a voice alert when battery current draw is high (mom using hair dryer, sussie 1 using the mircowave and sussie 2 boiling the kettle as an example) I also us it to power off my pool pump and aircons when loadshedding starts and powers them on again when its finished. This is done via the CBI smart timer, smart plugs and Tuya integration. Cheers!

My friend got one working by setting it to as a Growatt - worth a try

Hi all I saw this line in the latest changelog for 2023-10-03 Beta - but I dont see anything different in my instance of SA running this version - Am I missing something perhaps?

Yeah thats a valid point - would also like to hear how they would cut your sewage?