Hi All

I'm in need of advice in dealing with non-responsive supplier.

I purchased a property in Pretoria East with an existing solar installation. (RCT 3K inverter and Narada 4.8 battery with 6 solar panels.)

It's a small 2 bedroom property for two people. (Gas stove and a solar geyser.)The setup worked well and we used very little electricity from the grid. Occasionally the inverter would "beep" if we boiled a kettle while the dishwasher or washing machine were running. (We just switched off whatever caused it to start beeping.)

A few weeks ago during a particularly overcast period the inverter charged from the grid. (I saw the prepaid meter running down.) I switched on the kettle and before it started to boil a burning electric smell came from the garage. The smell came from the battery, I switched the battery off and phoned the supplier.

After a long struggle, the supplier switched out the battery. It's the same Narada brand but a different battery housing - I took photos of the original. None of the lights on the front of the replacement battery works. The technician was unable to tell me what they did to the battery or what went wrong.

The service from the supplier (who regularly advertise on TV) was horrendous. They have amazing Google reviews but all the reviews appear to be fake if you dig a little deeper.

Last night during load shedding the inverter started beeping almost immediately. We just had the TV and fridges running. We are also now using significantly more electricity than before. We noticed that the inverter also beeps each time there is a lightning strike in the area!

I logged a call with the supplier again. I had to phone 14 times previously just to get a response so I'm not holding my breath.

How do I proceed from here? At the moment, I'm back on my generator during load shedding.

Oh snap, that's a rough one....

I am not aware of Narada, but this sounds like something they should be handling for you... Does the battery still work and the display is just not showing anything or is the battery completely dead? (You can test this by measuring the DC out from the batteries while turning the battery on) if the battery is working but no display, that is something that could wait till the suppliers get their ish together...

However, if the battery is completely dead and you cannot get any voltages, a lot of batteries have a short-circuit protection that locks the unit up if connected to a short circuit. This could be something similar to what you are experiencing. Maybe try disconnecting the battery (There should be a battery fuse you can just disconnect) and try turning it on while disconnected. 

Lastly, I have seen some batteries that need to be unlocked once connected to a short. check the manuals etc of the battery, but usually it will be something like "Hold the power button for 10 seconds" or "Press the power button of the battery 5-10 times". That might be worth giving a try?