May 9, 201610 yr 3 minutes ago, Wetkit said: Best is to remove the electronic power supplies and replace with old school "magnetic" units. I only have magnetic units :-) 19 minutes ago, superdiy said: the lamp gives a flash either at random times or at a constant rate AAaah yes. That's how all my outdoor units fail. Every time it was the LEDs and not the driver. Anyway... you're now making me wonder if I didn't make a mistake. I'm going to retest those old lamps... Come to think of it, I acquired a proper power supply only AFTER the first lamps failed and I might very likely have made the stupid mistake of testing the LED with the multimeter. Now that doesn't work because you need around 7V or so just to bias the LEDs forward, and a DMM on ohms/diode range simply doesn't use a high enough voltage to bias them. This is good... I may discover the true reason for the failures after all.
May 9, 201610 yr I was actually referring to 220V downlights, in existing installations, where some of the lights start to blink after a few years of operation.
May 9, 201610 yr Just now, superdiy said: I was actually referring to 220V downlights, in existing installations, where some of the lights start to blink after a few years of operation. Those often use capacitive droppers... I would not be surprised if the electrolytics cook out after a few years :-)
May 9, 201610 yr 5 hours ago, plonkster said: Those often use capacitive droppers... I would not be surprised if the electrolytics cook out after a few years :-) The lamps containing about 20 of the 5mm LEDs usually make use of "capacitive droppers" but mostly polypropylene caps are used in those droppers because non-polarized electrolytics are more expensive and less popular. The 3W and up lamps usually contain SMPSs / buck converters and they have an electrolytic on the HV side after the bridge rectifier and another on the LV side. Those are usually hi-temp (105°C) caps, but also have a limited life span and usually it is the cap on the LV side that gradually "cook out" and eventually the remaining capacitance is to low for the circuit to work as intended. Same thing happens with the caps in the PSUs of the DSTV decoders - the decoders run too hot and the caps on the LV side gradually "cook out" until one day when the decoder stops working.
May 9, 201610 yr 38 minutes ago, plonkster said: Agreed. After I bought ours, I realised the same thing. You save money on electricity. Then you save more money because you buy in bulk, you have more space. Then you save even more money because the food lasts longer. I found that the German review which said that "ich habe wirklich das Gefühl Gemüse hält länger". That was no lie. Now we actually buy the more expensive stuff from woolworths, because it actually works out cheaper in the long run. Exactly. A++ is the way to go.
May 9, 201610 yr 2 hours ago, Mart-Mari said: The A++ Bosch refrigerators and fridge-freezers are the most energy efficient fridges and they cool especially efficiently. Fruits, vegetables and other food stay fresh thanks to humidity control. I don't throw anything away anymore. They have retractable glass shelves for convenient loading and perfect view. They also have LED lights that illuminate the refrigerators evenly. These were my best buy ever. We replaced a +- 7year old "something else" for a 370L Bosh A++ fridge/freezer combo, about two years and it uses about 1W/h! The 210L Defy is probably about 25years old, with a leak at the back so it defrosts too quickly when run on the timer. Perhaps I should just empty + clean it, and seal it up.
May 9, 201610 yr 18 minutes ago, SilverNodashi said: We replaced a +- 7year old "something else" for a 370L Bosh A++ fridge/freezer combo, about two years and it uses about 1W/h! The energy consumption of my Bosch A++ fridge freezer is 0.562 kwh/24 h.
May 10, 201610 yr Bosch KSV33NI30 Fridge Energy efficiency class: A++ Energy efficiency class: A++ (110 kWh per year). Total net capacity: 346 litres Noise level dB(A) re 1 pW: 39 I have attached a pic of them. Do you want to know what is inside them too?
May 10, 201610 yr 3 minutes ago, cvzyl said: Thanks. 110kW is very little, our unit uses that in less than a month This is really remarkable. If I remember correctly, these fridges were about R8 000 each. Can't find the invoice now. But, if one takes the huge energy saving fact into account, it makes sense to buy them. I bought them in 2014 and I have never thrown any food away since then. So think about it... (And no, I am not a Bosch rep.)
May 10, 201610 yr 2 hours ago, Mart-Mari said: I have attached a pic of them. Do you want to know what is inside them too? Hopefully beers and a mature beef steak with no celery sticks, cucumber and lettuce in sight.
May 10, 201610 yr 10 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said: Hopefully beers and a mature beef steak with no celery sticks, cucumber and lettuce in sight. Carrots, celery, cucumber and lettuce are for rodents. Yes, mature beef steak and a couple of beers are clearly visible in my energy saving Bosch fridges. So, are we going to talk about food now?
May 10, 201610 yr 15 minutes ago, Chris Hobson said: Hopefully beers and a mature beef steak with no celery sticks, cucumber and lettuce in sight. And icecream!
May 10, 201610 yr 1 hour ago, Mart-Mari said: So, are we going to talk about food now? You starting to understand this forum
May 10, 201610 yr 2 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said: YES! Ah, as I said, just the standard mature beef steak and a couple of beers, you know.
May 11, 201610 yr My old fridge/freezer combo used 3kwh a day. So it used the same power in 5 weeks as this one does in a year. Of course, the 112 is a little optimistic under actual use, but I'd still say that this one probably uses less power in a year than the previous one did in two months.
May 23, 201610 yr Some have said that the inverter maximum pv input is 3kw. This is not true. This 3kw figure is a guide only, derived from the estimated battery voltage of 50v x the actual limit of 60A through the charge controller. I personally have 4.5kw on mine. The most I've seen on the display is 3.36kw. That's 60A x 56v. If my charge voltage was higher, that would increase. Those who have lifepo4 batteries will see up to 4.032kw (60A x 67.2v). The charge controller truncates anything over 60A. And now a question. If I have 18 panels. 6 West, 6 East and 6 North. Would I see any improvement if I installed 3 x 20A mppt controllers (actually 3 x 30A since I have 4.5kw) ? Has anyone verified whether the mppt in this unit actually improves pv output?
May 23, 201610 yr 26 minutes ago, Northland said: Has anyone verified whether the mppt in this unit actually improves pv output? What I also wonder about them, if brand names like Victron, Outback, Morningstar, Stecca prices a MPPT at +-RX.XX, how is it that Voltronic can make theirs so cheaply? Are they all really in the same class? Or is it the same type of MPPT that we will tell each other: Do not buy the cheap Chinese MPPT imports. Just wondering.
May 23, 201610 yr @The Terrible Triplett Answer me this, why is it that Victron can charge you if you take the cost of the BlueSolar 150/70 charge controller and you want the use the CANUSB interface cable it's more than half the price of the charge controller. What makes this cable so special? Can say the same for Ve Direct to USB
May 23, 201610 yr @Northland, you only need 2 extra controllers. Keep one string on the existing inverter. Have a look at the Micro care MPPT units. Not priced badly. Regarding cost, it might be that the other guys have much more complex software algorithems in their MPPT's, making them more efficient??? For me this will only make a real impact if I am running a fully offgrid system, where I would be 100% dependant on it.
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