On 2019/02/08 at 8:14 AM, Noobie said:

double plug socket that has battery back up supply on the left hand side socket and eskom supply on the right hand side socket.

Not too sure about this one. Two supplies in one socket outlet? Hopefully clearly marked.

18 minutes ago, anotherbrownbear said:

Two supplies in one socket outlet?

I wondered about that too. You're not allowed to do AC and DC in the same conduit/trunking...  but I actually don't know about two AC supplies.

In can run in the same wireway but as soon as it enters a DB it should be segegrated with dedicated disconnects or if you have a DB with multiple rows, they should be on seperate rows and clearly marked. The idea is to get the supplies as far away from each other as possible. When you have socket outlets in your house that is used for backup and some that are not on backup, they should be clearly marked. You actually get different earth pin configurations for them. Normal is round earth pin, dedicated is flat on top and UPS is a quarter turn flat earth pin.

On the new regulations, the normal socket will be Euro and the dedicated an UPS will still be as is. You will actually not get a legal CoC when you have two supplies in one socket outlet.

As they are both AC they can run in the same wire way.

Think about the power skirting running through most offices, it houses circuits that are on earth leakage as well as circuits that are not on earth leakage and circuits that are connected to a UPS. They all run through a shared wire way and then terminate to separate sockets within the same power skirting.

The sockets are marked and the GP wiring behind the socket for the inverter supply has a different colour live than that of the council supply.

I am pretty confident that this is all above board 😅

 

8 hours ago, Noobie said:

As they are both AC they can run in the same wire way.

 

This is not the issue

18 hours ago, plonkster said:

Two supplies in one socket outlet?

This is the issue

 

I have put the question forward to the Electrical contractors association for some official answer and will forward it as soon as possible. But, the bottom line is, it`s not legal to have two power sources on one socket outlet.

Let me be clear that the socket has 2 female receptacles that are electrically isolated from one another. 

One socket is connected to council supply, the other is connected to battery backup. 

I am interested to see what ECA think 

Problem is, it is still one device. 

I think there is something that could possibly be called "The element of surprise", and you don't want that, because people make mistakes when those are around. Having two supplies on the same outlet would definitely count as surprising 🙂

Edited February 11, 20197 yr by plonkster

13 hours ago, plonkster said:

I think there is something that could possibly be called "The element of surprise", and you don't want that, because people make mistakes when those are around. Having two supplies on the same outlet would definitely count as surprising 🙂

Agreed, I wonder if the ECA would be happy with it if you labelled the socket to state that it had 2 separate supplies?

Usually they allow this on DB boards etc. lets wait and see what A-B-B comes back with, always good to learn these things 😀

 

On 2019/02/08 at 8:10 AM, virge said:

Not if you have a flexible install like this. I started with Axpert and upgraded to Goodwe after a bad lightening strike.

 

So I'm curious as to whether @virge's install would get a coc / pass in Cape Town.

Looks very impressive but for me it is really not clear what to turn off to get the house dead - there are two switches labelled "main switch" and all those changeovers. 

What does the inverter trip at the end of the old main board do? If this board can be fed from inverter or grid then it appears the inverter can be fed from itself? 

 

I got a COC but the CTN people live in another country so for the other country I would have to add an extra Switch. For the country I live in I just have to mark the middle position of a change over switch as All Off

11 hours ago, Elbow said:

So I'm curious as to whether @virge's install would get a coc / pass in Cape Town.

Now on a serious note, thank you Elbow for the suggestion. I will mark the kill switch properly. Actually there is one, the changeover switch in the generator position switches off the power to the house. The generator has to be connected manually if needed. I also have to change the name on some changeover switches, the inverter position is actually for inverter backup circuits which was for the Axpert but now not needed with the grid tie inverter. In case of load shedding I have to activate the backup circuits on the inverter manually.

Edited February 13, 20197 yr by virge

So at this point there was no consensus at the meeting. According to the manufacturer it is modular and can have different supplies but must come from the same source. According to the rules, it is counted as one device when issuing a CoC so also can't  have two different power sources in the same device. 

But, it has been escalated to a technical group.

Will provide feedback when we have more info.