Loadshedding solutions

[The Ouzo]

11:30 last night power went out. At 5am it was still out, i checked the inverter it was still showing 100%.

That was powering 2 x Apple Time Capsule, fibre box thingy, alarm and TV & HT amp on standby mode.

Got back from my ride at 6:30, still no power and still showing 100%.

My wife started working at 8am, power only just came back around 12:30. I didnt check with her what the inverter status was, but doubt it dropped by much.

 

What did give me issues has nothing to do with the inverter. The 2 garage door motors we installed less than 6 months ago were both flat. Despite not being used at all through the night.

I'm going to have to check what kind of batteries were supplied, at this stage all i know is they are reporting 24v, so most likely 2x12v

[HdB]

3 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

What did give me issues has nothing to do with the inverter. The 2 garage door motors we installed less than 6 months ago were both flat. Despite not being used at all through the night.

I'm going to have to check what kind of batteries were supplied, at this stage all i know is they are reporting 24v, so most likely 2x12v

Our garage batteries are one 24V 3.something-A for each door
I'm wondering if I could change them to 2x12V7A lithiums, because the current ones do not last.

[HdB]

Our Geyserwise system, with two 450W panels, was installed today.
One more step reducing our dependency on Eskom.

They didn't put the panels where I would have preferred, so eventually when we plan a inverter/battery/panel system for the house, things might have to be moved a bit (or the installer can play PV Tetris...)

[Eddy Gordo]

29 minutes ago, HdB said:

Our garage batteries are one 24V 3.something-A for each door
I'm wondering if I could change them to 2x12V7A lithiums, because the current ones do not last.

mine had 7ah batteries and replaced them with 9ah. Would of loved to gone to 12ah, but there was no stock at the time. Did the same with the alarm system.

[The Ouzo]

Had a chat to centurion,  from what I explained it did not sound out of the norm.

We had had a 2 hour LS stint earlier in the day, plus this looooooong stint last night. The motors have a safety circuit built in, if the voltage drops below 23v it wont operate the motor, this is to save the electrics and batteries. 

When I connected to the batteries this morning when power was back I was seeing 23v, normal operating voltage should be around 27v according to the guy I spoke to.

[TheoG]

1 hour ago, HdB said:

Our Geyserwise system, with two 450W panels, was installed today.
One more step reducing our dependency on Eskom.

They didn't put the panels where I would have preferred, so eventually when we plan a inverter/battery/panel system for the house, things might have to be moved a bit (or the installer can play PV Tetris...)

I also have 2x455W panels with Geyserwise on my geyser.  So far we use very little to zero Eksdom to heat the geyser.  In winter might need some, but for now I'm smiling all the way.

Edited January 10, 2023 by TheoG

[The Ouzo]

1 minute ago, TheoG said:

I also have 2x455W panels with Geyserwise on my geyser.  So far we use very little to zero Eksdom to heat the geyser.  In winter might need some, but for now I'm smiling all the way.

if you dont mind me asking, what ball park figure does a setup like that cost ?

I'm currently looking at moving house, might be worth getting this done as part of the "bits and pieces" we'd do before moving in. slap the expense onto the bond

[TheoG]

Just now, The Ouzo said:

if you dont mind me asking, what ball park figure does a setup like that cost ?

I'm currently looking at moving house, might be worth getting this done as part of the "bits and pieces" we'd do before moving in. slap the expense onto the bond

Mine was about R19k, but I did negotiate to get it down, They initially wanted something like R21k.

Edit:  Thats for a 150 liter geyser, obviously for a bigger geyser you need more oemf from the panels and hence more expensive.

Edited January 10, 2023 by TheoG

[The Ouzo]

5 minutes ago, TheoG said:

Mine was about R19k, but I did negotiate to get it down, They initially wanted something like R21k.

Edit:  Thats for a 150 liter geyser, obviously for a bigger geyser you need more oemf from the panels and hence more expensive.

Thanks, will look into this. The house we're currently looking at has 2 geysers on the main house and 1 on the cottage. A bit of capital outlay upfront will go some way in reducing the eskom bill. (plus with the way load shedding is going to will also help to keep the moaning down)

[Schnavel]

1 hour ago, TheoG said:

Mine was about R19k, but I did negotiate to get it down, They initially wanted something like R21k.

Edit:  Thats for a 150 liter geyser, obviously for a bigger geyser you need more oemf from the panels and hence more expensive.

When I moved house last year, I looked at this exact scenario. I have 2 geysers that I need to heat, and with all of the load shedding, I already planned to install a PV system with batteries. The shear cost of converting 2 geysers to Geyserwise solar geysers made no sense. Instead, I just added an additional 6 panels to my PV system, which all in only cost an extra R15k. This allows me to heat my geysers, run the house and charge the batteries.

[dave303e]

Ya and a gas geyser is cheaper to buy, uses less energy, never runs out of hot water. We have a small one for the kitchen and another by the bathroom. Also means using less water as you don't wait for hot water to get to the tap as the geysers are right outside the wet areas.

[Pure Savage]

Made the first step at the end of December, installed a 150L panel for the geyser and a geyserwise. Since then we have not used any electricity for the geyser. Rather impressed with it, as there must be a fair amount in the panel. 

When sun is down and geyser is at 60 degrees and panel at 55 - pump is off and not circulating, when wife and kids bath, geyser drops to 48 - but then pump kicks on and then water back up to around 51. So 150L geyser is around 200L I would guess in terms of once off capacity. 

27 Jan our 8 panels , 5kw inverter and 10Kwh of batteries go in as well. So sick of this load shedding when trying to cook or work in the evenings. 

As mentioned above a fair amount and did help, have to think what zones will be linked and what is on them. Like my shed and flat are on one board - but going to move the flat geyser to house DB so is not on the solar but flat is. Stuff like that which would annoy you if did not do it before. 

 

[Robbie Stewart]

Where I live in Sunningdale these solar flat panel geysers are installed. This pic is of my neighbour. You can see the panels to the left of the chimney.

In the summer the thermostat in the garage displays the temp around 71°C and in winter it sometimes needs some electric subsidy to get it up to temp, but only when guests are visiting. The temp regulator on the geyser only permits the water to reach 53°C which is plenty hot enough.

[taito]

5 hours ago, The Ouzo said:

11:30 last night power went out. At 5am it was still out, i checked the inverter it was still showing 100%.

That was powering 2 x Apple Time Capsule, fibre box thingy, alarm and TV & HT amp on standby mode.

Got back from my ride at 6:30, still no power and still showing 100%.

My wife started working at 8am, power only just came back around 12:30. I didnt check with her what the inverter status was, but doubt it dropped by much.

 

What did give me issues has nothing to do with the inverter. The 2 garage door motors we installed less than 6 months ago were both flat. Despite not being used at all through the night.

I'm going to have to check what kind of batteries were supplied, at this stage all i know is they are reporting 24v, so most likely 2x12v

My gate motor battery could not handle this loadshedding..Changed it to a lithium and all sorted ..it's the way to go

[TheoG]

12 hours ago, taito said:

My gate motor battery could not handle this loadshedding..Changed it to a lithium and all sorted ..it's the way to go

Same here, I got 2 x Li batteries in parallel on the gate, so far zero issues.

[The Ouzo]

12 hours ago, taito said:

My gate motor battery could not handle this loadshedding..Changed it to a lithium and all sorted ..it's the way to go

I changed my gate motor to a centurion smart about 3 or 4 years back, it uses 2x12v batteries, the supplier supplied it with gel batteries. As of yet I've not had an issue. Which is why the garage motors that get used less often than the gate and are newer, surprised me that they depleted.