Douw G. Gerber

Glad to see not a minute of no power in 5 months. Am I not lucky Now my budget grid tied inverters are pumping as they should. 80%+ of my power used is self generated this month. 

Besides savings in my electricity bill...last night we had a 5 hour outage in large parts of the south of JHB due to 2 x 88Kva breakers tripping.  Our household could carry on without any interruption.
Going solar is about energy independance, not just about loadshedding.
Same goes for installing water backup...

Besides savings in my electricity bill...last night we had a 5 hour outage in large parts of the south of JHB due to 2 x 88Kva breakers tripping.  Our household could carry on without any interruption.
Going solar is about energy independance, not just about loadshedding.
Same goes for installing water backup...

Besides savings in my electricity bill...last night we had a 5 hour outage in large parts of the south of JHB due to 2 x 88Kva breakers tripping.  Our household could carry on without any interruption.
Going solar is about energy independance, not just about loadshedding.
Same goes for installing water backup...

Besides savings in my electricity bill...last night we had a 5 hour outage in large parts of the south of JHB due to 2 x 88Kva breakers tripping.  Our household could carry on without any interruption.
Going solar is about energy independance, not just about loadshedding.
Same goes for installing water backup...

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.

That was the original plan. It would enable them to do an audit at the same time. But there were too many problems with technicians not being able to get access, so they went the soft upgrade route instead. 

The auditing is still going ahead. They were in my street on Friday, auditing all properties with pre-paid meters, or trying to.

And yes, the guys who do it are doing contract work for the city, getting so much for each completed job. But they are not all working for some big company with links to political organisations. A lot of them are individuals with more than one stream of income. I once caught an Uber of a morning, and the driver's other hustle (he wouldn't say which was the "side hustle") was installing pre-paid meters for City Power.

I have two BX51100 Dyness batteries that have been running flawlessly for almost 2 years.
Apparently the new ones now also support 1C discharge.
 
Cheers
Douw

I have two BX51100 Dyness batteries that have been running flawlessly for almost 2 years.
Apparently the new ones now also support 1C discharge.
 
Cheers
Douw

Hello Vector, thank you for your response. Until now, I was in the same situation! But this morning I tried to unlink my email from my account and I received an email response with a code to do so. In fact, it was not a success but the important thing is that the sender of the email was identified as DESSMONITOR.
On Google, with this name, I found a site where I put the username and password of the WatchPower account and I arrived at a complete complete application where I had all the possibilities to delete the dataloggers inactive and manage those I wanted to keep.
Not only does the WatchPower application with my old account work perfectly again but above all the DESSMONITOR site allows total control of the inverter with graphics, history and everything you could dream of obtaining for monitoring your solar installation.
I'll let you test it and don't hesitate to keep me informed on the forum.
Good day.

Hi there all - interesting toppic here - just a headsup that HomeAssistant now support Tuya devices natively via the Smart Life App.  No more clunky integration.

Hi there peeps
Just thought I'd mention that Home Assistant now supports Tuya devices natively - no more need for dveloper accounts and all that nonsense to use MyTuya.  If you have the device enrolled in the Smart Life App it is now immidiately available in HA using the standard Tuya integration.

That's the output. The 2 L's are joined together, as are the 2 N's. Top is the inputs - L is live from grid supply, G is live from "generator"  which is the inverter, and GN is "generator neutral".

My mom was also using the Mecer unit and it worked very well for a good couple of years.
They have now via a supplier in CPT upgraded the system to a Mecer 1.5kva with a 12v 100AH LiFePO4 They used the old metal battery box and just bolted the new inverter to it.  Happy as can be and they easily run for thr 4 hour loadshedding sessions.
The above option is WAY WAY WAY cheaper than the EcoFlow type solutions out there.  And it is way more power for the price.
I can put you in touch with these guys if you want - they in CPT though.
Cheers
Douw

My mom was also using the Mecer unit and it worked very well for a good couple of years.
They have now via a supplier in CPT upgraded the system to a Mecer 1.5kva with a 12v 100AH LiFePO4 They used the old metal battery box and just bolted the new inverter to it.  Happy as can be and they easily run for thr 4 hour loadshedding sessions.
The above option is WAY WAY WAY cheaper than the EcoFlow type solutions out there.  And it is way more power for the price.
I can put you in touch with these guys if you want - they in CPT though.
Cheers
Douw

https://www.takealot.com/mecer-1200va-1000w-12v-dc-ac-inverter-with-lcd-display-mppt-buil/PLID91165653?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAqsitBhDlARIsAGMR1Rjanwo9hGhlBzwZVxr2ronDvhCd-bAQXfO4P9gZsqN44cRgkgM8nZ0aAi3KEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
This is the inverter.

Yes it is NMC, if you look on the bms menu under cell voltage you will see that the cells get charged to 4.2v and that is NMC full voltage, lifepo4 is 3.65v

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 also look into something like Tailscale, run a node on your LAN and that acts as the entry into your network from outside. No need to forward any ports etc
 
 

OK. Point taken but but say the full cycle needs 80min and my timer set for 30min it is still shut down mid cycle. The same when there is LS. In winter a full heating cycle might take up to 150+min depending on the ambient temp. 
There are many times that I give a quick splash and dash before LS when it is switched off mid cycle by LS. 
If my unit packs up due to this after 12yrs I won't complain. Not many electronic things these days last 12yrs even if you treat them with TLC. 

My inverter does not supply power when there is loadshedding 

Gennies shouldn't be feeding back into the grid, though I believe that some standard somewhere requires a proper change over switch if you're not running an extension lead from the gennie. So a suicide plug would be verboten.
My system notionally can feed back into the grid when there's no load shedding. So I think they're entitled to take an interest in that. And it's supposed to not feed back when the utility goes down. So I think they have an interest there too.

I don't think the two situations are that similar, and I don't think that just because one thing was allowed for years means that we shouldn't be concerned about a second thing.

As regards their income. Well... if I sell back to them, then they should credit me somehow, so they need to know how much I fed back, and that means having a two-way meter.

As I said earlier, I knew that this day would come. The above are some of the reasons why.

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.

Google "Eskom quality of supply brochure" in that their mission statement but if the EAF becomes lower than demand the only way to try and save the grid is by running the OCGT'S burning millions of rands of taxpayers money.

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!