Hi All

Has anyone got experience with these switches.  I am keen to use them in my DB to allow me to switch loads between Grid and Inverter...?

Quoted price at the moment is: R434 ex postage. for the 63A

Regards

Mark

I have Hager breakers in my DB. The guys at frontline (which is the BETTER supplier in town) says it's good stuff. I definitely like it better than any of the cr*p I bought at AC/DC. My changeover switch is however an AC/DC special and I will gladly throw it where the sun don't shine and use one of these instead if it is anything like the hagers I already have in my DB.

Also have that orange ACDC one, will change it out later for something better

Just bought the ACDC 63A one last week, was planning to install it this weekend :-(

12 minutes ago, Janma said:

Just bought the ACDC 63A one last week, was planning to install it this weekend :-(

Nothing wrong with it, It does work 100% just feels a little cheap if you compare to other, must admit I have only used it 3 times since my system went live (2 times as I did not trust the maid to run the house through the inverter) 3rd time I gave up on the idea of switching her over and she tripped the EL at the inverter side with the iron and told her to swap back to eskom till I came back

My ACDC sourced changeover has so far done two worrying things. Once it failed to turn on, that is, I pushed it down and it did not make the connection. It took a few back and forths before it worked. This is worrying.

Secondly, the terminals damage easily. It has these terminals with a small metal part that pushes down as you turn the screw. Once you have wires in it, and you screw it down tightly, it's as if the metal bit deforms. If you ever reuse it later and try to get another wire into it... good luck.

With these Victron inverters, the cable that goes into the inverter has two halfs that can also be plugged into each other. A bypass is therefore as easy as unplugging the inverter, and plugging the two plugs together. This may in fact be a safer method... but I have no idea about the legality :-)

same orange lever one plonkster?

17 minutes ago, viper_za said:

same orange lever one plonkster?

No, mine is actually a 3-phase 2-way center off breaker. Will take a picture and post.

Edit: Attached. Between the two cheapo AC/DC breakers.

That Hager main switch on the extreme left, btw, is a double-pole unit that takes up the space of only a single breaker.

Okay mine is also a center off breaker.
Just a very ugly colour

Just to add - The Hagar 63A one is great, but bear in mind it uses 4 Din positions (in case space is an issue), used mine as a Gen/Grid changeover for years, now it's my Invertor/Grid changeover. 40A is 3 Din positions.

Now that I am home, here is what the Hager 63A changeover looks like

On ‎2016‎/‎04‎/‎08 at 8:09 PM, viper_za said:

Okay mine is also a center off breaker.
Just a very ugly colour

Also have one of those sitting in a box.

Was going to install it, but haven't as of yet. My stupid brain is just not getting around the logic of it.

26 minutes ago, viceroy said:

Also have one of those sitting in a box.

Was going to install it, but haven't as of yet. My stupid brain is just not getting around the logic of it.

Multimeter makes it easy just test for continuity

If I could remember what went where I would have told you  

Hi

 

Has anyone recently used a dinrail changeover switch ? I see the above comments from 2016 but would like to know the current available chageover switches.

Do you still think acdc is no good and is there a better make to use?

On 2016/04/08 at 2:29 PM, viper_za said:

Also have that orange ACDC one, will change it out later for something better

Bought the same crap from ACDC....Lasted 2 years.

Anyone reading this post please be advised to spend a bit more and buy a decent change-over switch.

I see communica has the Hager range. 

Have a Hagar SF263. Got mine from livecopper.co.za which offers free shipping over R350.

You can’t go wrong with hager I think it’s good value for money.

I installed the hager about two months back and have switched it +- 100 times since. 

I have put it through the test. When I switched over I done it in one fast motion so that even my computer and TV stay on. I don’t think its built for that but it can do it. 

Thank you. I was also looking at Sirco it is also din rail and i like the switch.

On 2019/07/21 at 7:38 PM, Gerrie said:

You can’t go wrong with hager I think it’s good value for money.

I installed the hager about two months back and have switched it +- 100 times since. 

I have put it through the test. When I switched over I done it in one fast motion so that even my computer and TV stay on. I don’t think its built for that but it can do it. 

 

On 2016/04/13 at 6:57 PM, KLEVA said:

Now that I am home, here is what the Hager 63A changeover looks like

I installed a Hagar single phase SFH225 (25A) switch for my PowerStar IR 4000W/24V Batery Inverter (Loadshed system), used it 250 times no problem whatsoever

Now I am moving to my new home which is 3 phase (every appliance is single phase), so I guess the cheap approach to conversion is going to require some thought, two things are in play, 1 = DB board work and 2 = If I also install solar panels, which got me thinking about using a 3-phase Fronius Symo during the solar hours.

DB board work is urgent so I guess, lets start there, could replace the 2-pole 25A Hagar SFH225 switch with a 4-pole 40A switch SFT440 to start with, going to need to split off the heavy 4kW loads = cooker and geyser and think about the 1kW loads = Kettle, Air conditioner, Pool, Air Fryer, Iron all over again.  I can just wire the output of the single phase inverter to all three phases of the SFT440 and move my single phase 25A Earth Leakage and Overload Protection device to between the inverter and the Hagar instead of between the hagar and the loads on the single phase system, in effect convert the house to single phase when load shedding occurs.

Because I already bought my system once already and don't feel like buying it all over again just because I am moving house, or spending a lot on DB board work. 

I have a second inverter available Outback 3048E, so I am thinking about putting that in as well to up my inverter power to 7kW, so one phase gets the outback and the other 2 phases get the PowerStar IR, would need a second earth leakage device for that and group the neutral bus bars correctly if not already done in the DB board.

I am going to have a long think about the Fronius symo and how or if it should/could be deployed in this configuration vs DC MPPT panels and going off grid with 7kW inverter power where the existing inverters can become the primary source of power with the HAGAR switch being used to revert to eskom power on dark days.

I think I might post a separate question about that.

On 2019/08/03 at 7:17 AM, CCC Telecom said:

DB board work is urgent so I guess, lets start there

In my opinion the DB Board work is very important as you always need that extra space for something you didn’t anticipate for in the beginning. And I prefer not to have the clutter of various surface mount enclosures all around the DB. Mine was like that until my wife started complaining. 

I upgraded from a little 15 way to a (three row x 12 way DB) and wish I even went bigger, due to the hager change over switch, Also I added two additional contactors and a second earth leakage. Then if you want to fit a couple of sonoff switches and maybe another neutral bar and surge arrestors the board quickly become small again.

If your existing board is big enough you can easily do those extras otherwise its worth a consideration from beginning.

On ‎2019‎/‎07‎/‎21 at 6:43 PM, GVC said:

Bought the same crap from ACDC....Lasted 2 years.

Anyone reading this post please be advised to spend a bit more and buy a decent change-over switch.

Have only needed to use mine once in the last 5 years. No need to change it then for me I guess 🤣