Hey All

 

I would like to know your experiences with supercaps, gel batteries or similar and pylontechs. 

The supercaps from killowatt labs look promising but pricey. Then you Pylontechs

 

My fear is have to replace Gel batteries every 2 to 3 years, So I need something that will last longer keeping in mind that I want to go off grid with a hybrid inverter and solar

We have discussed supercaps here https://powerforum.co.za/topic/871-super-capacitor-batteries/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-42543

As I said, if supercaps have a 1 000 000 cycles, then we have no more Eskom problems. 🙂 

Gel batteries last a lot longer that 2-3 years. You should get 5 years at least from most AGM batteries.

Why so you need a hybrid inverter off grid?

8 hours ago, Treschen said:

The supercaps from killowatt labs look promising but pricey.

The Kilowatt Labs product does not contain supercapacitors. Skim also this long topic.

Edited March 28, 20197 yr by Coulomb
"Skim this" -> "Skim also this"

13 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

We have discussed supercaps here https://powerforum.co.za/topic/871-super-capacitor-batteries/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-42543

As I said, if supercaps have a 1 000 000 cycles, then we have no more Eskom problems. 🙂 

 

My friend a 7.1 supercap runs the whole house with it. So far he is happy. For me though it's quite pricey so either a few pylontechs or Gel batteries 

13 hours ago, DeepBass9 said:

Gel batteries last a lot longer that 2-3 years. You should get 5 years at least from most AGM batteries.

Why so you need a hybrid inverter off grid?

I am buying solar panels for the house as well. Thanks didn't know the they last that long

1 hour ago, Treschen said:

I am buying solar panels for the house as well. Thanks didn't know the they last that long

 

1 hour ago, Treschen said:

I am buying solar panels for the house as well. Thanks didn't know the they last that long

5 years being best case scenario. At 5 years you will probably be down to 50% capacity in my experience (And this for batteries that were "babied"

5 minutes ago, Jaws said:

 

5 years being best case scenario. At 5 years you will probably be down to 50% capacity in my experience (And this for batteries that were "babied"

 

I want to go off grid so if something can feed load to the house at night and still last me 3 to 4 years I will be happy. But 5 years is great !

What is your current electricity consumption, and what area are you in?

29 minutes ago, Treschen said:

I want to go off grid so if something can feed load to the house at night and still last me 3 to 4 years I will be happy. But 5 years is great !

Going off-grid makes perfect sense when one is on a farm, paying huge connection fees.

Going off-grid in cities, not so much. Grid tied Hybrid solutions on the other hand works well in cities.

21 minutes ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Going off-grid makes perfect sense when one is on a farm, paying huge connection fees.

Going off-grid in cities, not so much. Grid tied Hybrid solutions on the other hand works well in cities.

Yes though the issue is I am paying COJ a shit load for electricity I want to get to a point where I am not reliant on the grid and save money as well. Lets say they increase prices by 7.5% each year over the next 3 years. Then I what I am paying will go up quite a bit. The way things are going at the moment I am not going to wait for that day. 

Why pay COJ when I can invest my own solution.

You will find that the all in cost for a reasonable off grid system is R3-4/kWh , depending on a whole lot of variables. You are not paying that in COJ, so you will lose money in that scenario. Grid tie, I'm sure someone will tell us whether that is financially worth it or not.. I am off grid because on a farm I was paying R1500 before I switched on a light and I was effectively paying R5/kWh.

Also if your electricity bill is very high, you are going to have to put  in a huge solar system to drive that. You will likely need to bring your usage down first, before even considering going off grid. How much are you paying for how many kWh?

Edited March 28, 20197 yr by DeepBass9

Just now, Treschen said:

Yes though the issue is I am paying COJ a shit load for electricity I want to get to a point where I am not reliant on the grid and save money as well. Lets say they increase prices by 7.5% each year over the next 3 years. Then I what I am paying will go up quite a bit. The way things are going at the moment I am not going to wait for that day. 

Why pay COJ when I can invest my own solution.

The Eskom increases never bother me. As they went up, we dropped our usage. 🙂 
And the solar installers with their Excel calcs, scared the what what out of all, never realised.

BUT, check CoJ regulations ... apparently they don't want you to grid tie, change the meter, more cost. A forum member, forgot who, did that exercise.

Then again, you cannot have regs in Cpt that are vastly different from say Jhb ... that could be seen as a form of discrimination. 😉 

On 2019/03/28 at 9:48 AM, DeepBass9 said:

You will find that the all in cost for a reasonable off grid system is R3-4/kWh , depending on a whole lot of variables. You are not paying that in COJ, so you will lose money in that scenario. Grid tie, I'm sure someone will tell us whether that is financially worth it or not.. I am off grid because on a farm I was paying R1500 before I switched on a light and I was effectively paying R5/kWh.

Also if your electricity bill is very high, you are going to have to put  in a huge solar system to drive that. You will likely need to bring your usage down first, before even considering going off grid. How much are you paying for how many kWh?

Yeah I know I have a 3 phase house so that makes things worse. For now I just want back up. Solar during the day battery at night for essential loads. I will be getting a supercap.

I have found the geysers draw a lot of current so I am now looking for some management system for them. At the same time I want to try and convert them to solar if that is possible at all

 

 

It only makes it worse if you have 3 phase equipment. It took 3 little wires for the electrician to bridge my 3 phases to one and run them all from my inverter. 

Edited April 1, 20197 yr by DeepBass9

10 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

It only makes it worse if you have 3 phase equipment. It took 3 little wires for the electrician to bridge my 3 phases to one and run them all for my inverter. 

hmmm okay I have question on this.... So by bridging the 3 phases together does that mean you are running on 1 phase permanently ?  Or are you bridging the 3 phases only when eskrap turns the power off ?

I'm off grid, so Eskom is permanently disconnected and the previous 3 phase installation was converted to single phase. I used to have a 3 phase borehole pump, but that is the only thing that was actually using the 3 phase power.

Edited April 1, 20197 yr by DeepBass9

9 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

I'm off grid, so Eskom is permanently disconnected and the previous 3 phase installation was converted to single phase. I used to have a 3 phase borehole pump, but that is the only thing that was actually using the 3 phase power.

Makes sense eventually I will get there....

So far I have acquired the Inverter and Solar Panels. Waiting for the supercap to arrive now.

Still looking around for someone to install my solar panels on the roof.

46 minutes ago, Treschen said:

supercap

I'm watching the supercap customers with lots of excitement.

5 minutes ago, plonkster said:

I'm watching the supercap customers with lots of excitement.

You reckon I need a bomb proof enclosure for this thing ?

3 minutes ago, Treschen said:

You reckon I need a bomb proof enclosure for this thing ?

Hehehe no, not really. I honestly think the supercap battery is a scam in the same line as the lead-crystal one. The lead-crystal batteries were very good AGM batteries, but did not live up to the cycle life promised. I think the so-called supercap batteries are going to do the same.

I would also love to see how the newer ones look. The pre-release ones I saw were very poorly constructed. But in the pictures I noted that the new ones have the battery terminals in a different spot, so it seems they have upped their game.

I actually have access to the data of a site with these batteries. I should make some time and look at it 🙂

2 minutes ago, plonkster said:

Hehehe no, not really. I honestly think the supercap battery is a scam in the same line as the lead-crystal one. The lead-crystal batteries were very good AGM batteries, but did not live up to the cycle life promised. I think the so-called supercap batteries are going to do the same.

I would also love to see how the newer ones look. The pre-release ones I saw were very poorly constructed. But in the pictures I noted that the new ones have the battery terminals in a different spot, so it seems they have upped their game.

I actually have access to the data of a site with these batteries. I should make some time and look at it 🙂

I hear you, at the moment the are only a few Videos on the Kilowatts lab supercap. I also saw the video on the supercap construction didn't look good. But they said since the new release it has improved, that I am not sure about or cannot verify. Now I assume that if this supercap dies at 7000 cycles they will have to replace it.

I also have access to my friends home he runs it via a growatt inverter. Looks good to me he is happy with it. I just wish there were more user reviews

 

 

It would be good to have a brave guinea pig on this forum to test them out and see how they perform. It seems a bit of a risk though to pay twice the price for a new technology without a track record.

10 minutes ago, DeepBass9 said:

It would be good to have a brave guinea pig on this forum to test them out and see how they perform. It seems a bit of a risk though to pay twice the price for a new technology without a track record.

Ill be that guinea pig lol, if I get the advertised cycles I will be set for life.....

 

Edited April 8, 20197 yr by Treschen