Carlo1973 Posted March 5, 2018 Posted March 5, 2018 Hi guys, I am new on the Forum, but not new to solar. I have an off-grid solar setup at home, with a 48V battery setup. I am having a problem with battery balancing, with one battery having a lower voltage than the others. I am looking for a battery balancer but it seems to be a hard item to find in South Africa. I was looking at Victron (very expensive, and need to buy 3 units), Su-kam BMS 48 (affordable at around R1100 but the local distributor is out of stock and will no longer bring them in), and then the generic Chinese one (I have sent a PM to Chris-R and is waiting for a reply). Who else can I try? Any other words of wisdom on this subject? Quote
Guest Posted March 5, 2018 Posted March 5, 2018 Welcome Carlo. @Chris Hobson and @Chris-R are are the people for the balancers. Quote
Carlo1973 Posted March 6, 2018 Author Posted March 6, 2018 After a day or two of searching, I can report back the following: Option 1. The cheapest Victron Battery Balancer goes for around R1055 incl VAT. Refer to Pricecheck to get to the shop identity. I decided not to go for this option, as I would need 3 Victrons to balance the 48V battery bank. Victron stuff is nice, but a bit pricey... Option 2. To order the HA-02, send a email stating your requirement to "reception at unipos co za" I have not yet done so, but indications after speaking to a forum member is that its around R900 give or take postage etc. What is nice of this option is that I only need one unit to balance the battery bank. There is also the option to source them from alibaba, for between USD10 and USD42 a piece, minimum order qty 10, plus whatever shipping and taxes will be, and waiting for who knows how long, with the risk of never receiving it... so in my book it is much better to support our local people who already brought them in. Option 3. The Su-kam "Battery Management System" was hard to track down in South Africa. I had to ask Su-kam India, who supplied me with the number of the local distributors. Su-kam have agents in Zimbabwe and Mozambique so why the SA agent/distributor is top secret I don't know... Price quoted was R800.There was also a guy selling this on bidorbuy for R1799 (nice bit of profit hehe). I kind of like Option 3 more and decided to order one, as it has a digital display screen showing you the voltage of each battery. I don't know if I am allowed to mention the company, but I can say "quick and friendly service" so if you need details PM me. I cannot comment on the quality but time will tell. If the Su-kam thingy turns out to be a waste of money, then I will consider the HA-02... PS: keep in mind that I am a bit of a weirdo in that I hate waiting. I usually pay more for something that I want NOW than paying less for the same item if I wait 2 weeks... so yes, I am definitely biased. Quote
___ Posted March 6, 2018 Posted March 6, 2018 3 hours ago, Carlo1973 said: in my book it is much better to support our local people who already brought them in. This is why I don't buy from drop-shippers. It is better to support the guy who actually adds value to the transaction (shipping it to me in a reasonable time) than the guy who plays middle-man, essentially orders it from Ebay anyway, and saddles you with any import costs, the risk of it getting lost, and the long wait period. I sometimes wish BidOrBuy had an "exclude drop-shippers" option. Luckily I know the main ones: Racer Gadgets, The World Online, ElectronicPro, MacCell. I also find myself increasingly using Amazon. Amazon estimates the import tax and uses a courier to ship it to your door. You'd think it is expensive, and it can easily add a couple of hundred rand to the order, but on just two recent excursions (the second one is still being contemplated, the first one already delivered) I found that electronics are often cheaper from Amazon. Example at hand, I got me a nice OBD2 scanner for our cars. Local sellers wanted 3k, I got it for 2.2k all in from amazon delivered to my door. Second example, laptop. Even with import costs I'd likely save at least R1000 by just getting it from Amazon... Carlo1973 1 Quote
Chris Hobson Posted March 6, 2018 Posted March 6, 2018 3 hours ago, Carlo1973 said: PS: keep in mind that I am a bit of a weirdo in that I hate waiting. I usually pay more for something that I want NOW than paying less for the same item if I wait 2 weeks... so yes, I am definitely biased. Hopefully within weeks you will be able to order HA 02s and other solar goodies directly from our website to satisfy that NOW urge . GVC, Riaanh and Carlo1973 3 Quote
pilotfish Posted March 6, 2018 Posted March 6, 2018 4 hours ago, plonkster said: I sometimes wish BidOrBuy had an "exclude drop-shippers" option. They have a similar option... PC Browser - if you do any kind of item search then a filter option opens on the left, go to [ITEM LOCATION] and tick [South Africa], all drop shippers are now history. Android App - the filter appears in the search window after you have entered search criteria. ___ and GVC 2 Quote
GVC Posted March 6, 2018 Posted March 6, 2018 I received excellent service from Chris-R. I paid on the weekend and the HA-02 was delivered to my door on Tuesday morning. pilotfish and Chris Hobson 2 Quote
pilotfish Posted March 6, 2018 Posted March 6, 2018 4 hours ago, GVC said: I received excellent service from Chris-R. Same here, fair price and great service from @Chris-R. Chris Hobson 1 Quote
PurePower Posted March 7, 2018 Posted March 7, 2018 I have a brand new HA-02 from @Chris-R which i purchased just before deciding to go the LifePO4 route. So if you interested please PM me. Quote
Marius_O Posted February 17, 2020 Posted February 17, 2020 On 2018/03/06 at 10:25 AM, Chris Hobson said: Hopefully within weeks you will be able to order HA 02s and other solar goodies directly from our website to satisfy that NOW urge . Hi. I am interested in buying a HA02. Please forward me your details to my gmail. Kind regards, Quote
Marius_O Posted February 18, 2020 Posted February 18, 2020 (edited) On 2018/03/07 at 9:12 AM, PurePower said: I have a brand new HA-02 from @Chris-R which i purchased just before deciding to go the LifePO4 route. So if you interested please PM me. Edited February 18, 2020 by Marius_O Quote
stoic Posted February 18, 2020 Posted February 18, 2020 (edited) On 2018/03/06 at 7:00 AM, Carlo1973 said: PS: keep in mind that I am a bit of a weirdo in that I hate waiting. I usually pay more for something that I want NOW than paying less for the same item if I wait 2 weeks... so yes, I am definitely biased. That my friend is called an "Ownership Gap" (i dubbed it that.. ) I once bought a brand new Suziki Motorcycle in Black, even though i hate black, only because the Dark blue one would only arrive 1 week later (which is the one i actually wanted). I have a SERIOUS ownership gap issue... so i feel for ya man.... its tough Edited February 18, 2020 by stoic Quote
Sparkles Posted February 22, 2020 Posted February 22, 2020 Are there any updates to this? are the HA-02 or SU-kams locally available? can someone share some contact details withe me? Quote
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