Karman de Lange

He was running on hiking trails .. not part of MTO as far i'm aware. but ja.. get what you trying to say.

It was rather big fire this time ... Luckily the wind stopped for a day or two and they managed to keep fire at bay .. we had ash raining down for a few days, but fire got stopped before buring to badly on blaauklippen side (our side). Seems like jonkers took the major brunt of things. Here video of what looking like at moment Foto of one evening when it popped over, they stopped it during night/morning.

thanks so in essence it runs off solar until to much power drawn (geyser/aircon etc) , switch back to eksdom.. and solar does nothing until load drops again. (Yes, i run our aircons and geyser of solar ) . was wondering how they make sure there is no feedback back to grid.. most other systems have external controls talking to the different inverters (solar/battery).. its not easy to get rid of energy .. (Sma uses Home Assistant and Victron uses the GX with mostly Fronius grid tie to prevent feedback.)

cool .. I have no knowledge of Kodak .. its after my "time" It does look like nice inverter for our off grid installation though ... need to investigate. hell lot cheaper than victron...

Are you sure the VMIII pulls of solar first before grid? You might find that only keeps the battery charged, so you will only have the benefit of the solar when you have power failure. Also, on your diagram .. try get method to swith home direk to grid/generator for when the inverter packs up and you waiting for repairs.. With the victron the in/out AC cables are male female, so you can simply unplug, and plug into each other and power house normaly. (its legal as its break before make switch over).

Are you planning grid tied, or UPS function? 2 very different legalities (just noticed the inverter you speced, sounds like ups ?)

My methodology(?) is .. make it safe. I would feel rather *** if inverter exploded and killed my family cause I could not be arsed to install R15 circuit breaker. But ja , I also do all my own electric work after a sparky from well known company came to "fix" our earth leakage tripping by bypassing the it completely...... We found this out later when I thought i should check if the button on it still works.... it did not .. opened the DB and nothing was connected to it . . Reconnected it and eventually replaced geyser element that was the cause. I bought all the SANS documentation and read it cover to cover and all my work is 100% legal , up to standard or beyond.

I see the firemans might be our local muni bylaw .. so maybe just check your muni bylaws as well. Best would be to get the SSEG application form, and start getting the basics checked off on it. Most of the thing you need to comply with is listed on it.

Dunno about jhb, but here the list of from WC https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Forms,%20notices,%20tariffs%20and%20lists/Approved%20Photovoltaic%20(PV)%20Inverter%20List.pdf The fire approval I think is from the electric standards book when you run a UPS (which you going todo as you have battery) (I will go do some googling) The fireman cut is so that they can make premisses safe in case of a fire.. So if they switch eskom off, and now your UPS kicks they spray water and get electricuted , you might hold liable https://www.voltex.co.za/product/waco-era-fireman-switch-20a-double-pole-fs220/ The Kodak/Mecer and those copies as far I know is not approved, then you need to install a Ziehl UFR1001E in front of it, last price was R12k , maybe more now.

1: Make sure inverter is on the Eskom approved list. Otherwise you will have to pay to get it approved or add another R12k unit to get it passed 2: A : Battery can explode if something goes wrong (internal short etc), so i wont have it anywhere near where people is/live could be often. B: Need to be signed of by fire department, and I doubt they will let that pass... you would probably need only about 10mm2 cable for 32A installation 4kw. My cables is 20m long and cost R2k .. So stick ouside in a fireproof hokkie with the fire cutoff switch as per firepeople is my recomendation

This is my understanding from years of reading .. but happy to get disproved: Lead acid starts forming crystals (sulfation) if not fully charged. Thus, if you don't keep them charged they start degrading. The more they discharged, the more crystals form the short the lifespan. Basicly if you dicharge more, it stays in non fully charges state for longer. (there is plates buckling from overdischarge(heat etc) as well, but I dont have much knowlege about that Sulfation: https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/sulfation_and_how_to_prevent_it : There is methods to get charge faster (not the 12-14hrs mentioned), but then you need to know what you are doing and proper fully programmable charging system. BMS ... Would love to see any "basic" bms limit current. 99% of them just tell charger to charge/not charge and keep cells at correct balance by doing a top balance. Its up to the combination of the BMS and the Charger to determine the current/votlage of charge. We run batrium with victron, it can limit the current, but its 2 steps .. either full, or lmited, its not progresive. (the mangement part, not charging curves) Lithium Cycle life: https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries Lifespan : (did not read this article in full, but its just something ive seen many times) https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/bu_808b_what_causes_li_ion_to_die I have pack of ~1900 cells in our ~7s280p battery bank.. about 500 of those cells was at or below 1v when I got them. They recovered to full capacity after sitting in the state for >5 years. (this was all old discarded laptop packs). They been running now for about 2.5 years and capacity seems better now than when I build it... I keep them at about 3.9v currently due to load shedding expectations, normally they at 3.83v. If it does not make sense, please excuse me .. its was quick type while trying to fix internet and program

Buy lithium, keep it at below 80% charge. (or make your own "powerwall", thats what I did) 99% of "solar" batterys last 2-3 years and charges in 8-12 hrs , so not enough time between load shedding to get full charge and you will have to buy full new set way before you even think you ready. "Lead acid" gets damaged when not fully charged and lasts about 100-200 cycles (so that 2-3 cycles on "stage 2" per day which equates to 30-60 days of shedding before replacement) Lithium gets damaged when fully charged (like to be 80% or lower), at 80% you get about 1000-4000 cycles. I keep mine at 60%, in theory about >10000 cycles. Happy to assist, I've not read this thread My system been running since load shedding day 1 .. i've been through all the motions....

I've dropped of the wagon to many times since lockdown.. picked up 8kg in 6 months. At least lost 5kg again. Not joining the challenge this year .. just don't have the motivation . I will make sure I don't pick up again though .. that is at least easy... lets hope this virus get deleted and we can all get back to something in region of normal.

Used this about a month ago with new tyres . got tiny thorn a week ago , all sealant oozed onto the floor (nice sticky mess) and hole never sealed. The hole was small enough that could ride it for a hour before needing to pump again. Bought stans at 1/4 of the price (big bottle) and sealed instantly. Dunno if dodgy batch or just not good if older than few weeks.

Who did that? Cant be me..

;-( . Holding thumbs for good news with next tests !

1 hr you should not need any cream, maybe try without .. I stopped using creams for anything less than 3 hrs, since then no more saddle sores.... if more than 3 hrs, Vaseline with camphor, buy it at any pnp etc.

solid state relay is expensive and need very big heatsink, also then you have to get low voltage somewhere to trigger it, dont know if you get 220v triggered solid state relay(ive not looked) contactor is just moerse relay, works the same otherwise. Its just more customizable regarding inputs/outputs etc My qwickswitch is mqtt controlled.(usb dongle with python script) It was before sonoff was a thing, my house been automated about 9 years. All new devices is sonoff, but now having issues that AP getting to capacity...

I wrote a Qwickswitch USB to mqtt gateway , that controlls all QS devices using openhab->mqtt. But qwickswitch is crap. very slow and 0 security .. anyone with USB dongle can just snoop and control all devices (no binding needed), at least with sonoff its half secure as needs wifi . Regarding thermostat. My big issue is I don't trust sonoff/QS etc to actually switch the geyser off . Its just not stable enough so I would always keep the standard thermostat inline (just set high) to switch of geyser in case water gets to hot. Geyserwise have lot of fail safes to fail to fail to off as far as I know and in theory is SABS approved. I would normally give you wiring diagram, but our geyser runs off the solar side, but the contactor is of eskom side , then also have the Eskom relay box where they can control it in between it all, so its not normal and won't really apply

The breaker is rated to wire thickness.. it protects the wire from melting if overload occurs If they installed 20A cause keep on tripping without installing thicker wire you stand big change of some melted plastic (and small change of fire)... 1kw rated is about 1.5kw at wall (sometimes shows on the data place).. 10A relay can do 2.2kw in theory continues, peak alot more. but as said , get contactor and play it safe

Pool motor is 0.75kw normally .. think draws 1000w at wall .. so thats 5A inductive load... 10a relay should be fine. A contactor is cheap , ~R200-R350 .. so just be safe and rather install that and use sonoff to trigger it.

I run contactor (relay's don't last on 3kw+ elements) , then just a Qwickswitch switching the contactor on/off (220v contactor relay). Sonoff probably fine as contactor only draw 10w. I have not worked out how to measure the inside temprature of geyser without adding second tube or something inside geyser as I don't want to bypass default thermostat. I just meassure temprature on outgoing pipe hot pipe just for record purposes. Still not found any off the shelf solutions that lasts, seen to many geyserwise melt after few months to even trust it in my house. I never trust the rating on a relay, its not made to run 24/7 with resistive load, so I always go double to just be safe and then you in contactor world.

PPA event, don't think CSA is involved. (stand to be corrected)