Loadshedding solutions

[Frosty]

12 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Pool pump remotely switched off, on bad solar days ....

 

ebike battery chargers remotely switched on .....

 

 

slippery slope this one .... 

I’ve used this (left) in the past for the pool, but after the 3rd one stopped working, I’m changing to the one on the right. My lights are on the switch (left).

 

[ChrisF]

1 minute ago, Frosty said:

I’ve used this (left) in the past for the pool, but after the 3rd one stopped working, I’m changing to the one on the right. My lights are on the switch (left).

 

 

I went for the Sonoff wifi units.

 

There "weather proof" plugs are NOT what I thought it would be ....  REMOVE the plug and the lid closes to make it weather proof.

 

Ended up building it all into a larger properly sealed box.

 

 

The pump still works of its normal timer.  I now have the ability to remotely switch it off on those unexpected rainy days.

 

 

Partly to not use eskom .... more imprtantly, to not pump the water through the pipes on the roof and cooling down the pool during these days.

[The Ouzo]

23 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

I went for the Sonoff wifi units.

 

There "weather proof" plugs are NOT what I thought it would be ....  REMOVE the plug and the lid closes to make it weather proof.

 

Ended up building it all into a larger properly sealed box.

 

 

The pump still works of its normal timer.  I now have the ability to remotely switch it off on those unexpected rainy days.

 

 

Partly to not use eskom .... more imprtantly, to not pump the water through the pipes on the roof and cooling down the pool during these days.

I’ve got a sonoff th16 on the pool pump. 
It’s wired in between the timer and pump, but I have the timer permanently on and the sonoff controlling the scheduling. I’ve actually never set the timer as I installed the sonoff when the timer was installed. 

[Theunissa]

40 minutes ago, Frosty said:

I’ve used this (left) in the past for the pool, but after the 3rd one stopped working, I’m changing to the one on the right. My lights are on the switch (left).

 

If you have not bought yet

 Rather get cbi smart timer. 

[ChrisF]

11 minutes ago, Theunissa said:

If you have not bought yet

 Rather get cbi smart timer. 

 

WOW !

 

That looks like an impressive unit.  Would have been a MUCH easier install, straight into the pool DB ....

[Theunissa]

2 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

WOW !

 

That looks like an impressive unit.  Would have been a MUCH easier install, straight into the pool DB ....

It's new. They bringing alotnof new wifi stuff out incl a wifi electricity meter that you can remotely monitor your tenants etc. The smart timer is wifi. And exactly like you say fits nicely in the db 

[ChrisF]

44 minutes ago, Theunissa said:

It's new. They bringing alotnof new wifi stuff out incl a wifi electricity meter that you can remotely monitor your tenants etc. The smart timer is wifi. And exactly like you say fits nicely in the db 

 

Could you please test the following when you next install one of these :

 

- Can you set ON/OFF mode after loadshedding ? 

- Can you take this a step further, and set it to only come on a 5 minutes after loadshedding stopped ... thus allowing time for the grid to "stabilise" before connecting your items to the grid ....  (just spent a wack of money on a custom box of tricks to do this for the electronic devices)

- does it have its own App, similar to Sonoff, or must it be connected to a home automation system .... I am not there, not yet ....

 

 

We are entering a very interesting new era with LOTS of possibilities ....

[Frosty]

9 minutes ago, ChrisF said:

 

Could you please test the following when you next install one of these :

 

- Can you set ON/OFF mode after loadshedding ? 

- Can you take this a step further, and set it to only come on a 5 minutes after loadshedding stopped ... thus allowing time for the grid to "stabilise" before connecting your items to the grid ....  (just spent a wack of money on a custom box of tricks to do this for the electronic devices)

- does it have its own App, similar to Sonoff, or must it be connected to a home automation system .... I am not there, not yet ....

 

 

We are entering a very interesting new era with LOTS of possibilities ....

Do you know IFTTT? if this then that

[ChrisF]

19 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Do you know IFTTT? if this then that

 

Uhmmmm 😵‍💫

 

I know who to ask to explain it to me ... 😋

 

 

 

I am in mechanical egineering, with a good dose of heavy current experience.  Dipping my toes into this world of smart switches ....

[Frosty]

In short, you build in logical scenes/scenarios which include delays. One of my daughter’s school friend’s father has done his whole house, and is busy setting up his business to include this. He’s helping me when I’m stuck. My problem is budget… I need one, otherwise there’s trouble.

https://ifttt.com/explore/how-to-use-the-delay-feature-ifttt

[Pure Savage]

11 hours ago, NickGM said:

The honeymoon phase. It took me about a month before I stopped obsessively looking at the app and showing my partner that we just boiled water in the kettle for "free".

We still in that phase!

Our tumble dryer has never been used so much!

 

[johnson]

Hey guys. I'm a little late in joining the conversation because I haven't been very active on bikehub for the last year or so because of health issues.

Last year November I finally stripped my moer for Eskom. I Got a local solar installer who is highly recommended and very reputable to install a data logger and give me a quote for a installation.

The data logger was in my house for a week to monitor our electricity usage.

I Got the quote and started doing the math. The saving I will make on the electricity bill and the petrol for the generator combined is more than the installment I will have for financing the installation. 

So I pulled the trigger and the solar system was installed early in January.

Today marks one month since I've last had loadshedding.

My solar system consists of the following;

Sunsync 5kw inverter

Sunsync  5kw battery's (X3)

JA Solar 460w solar panels (X14)

[The Ouzo]

13 hours ago, Frosty said:

Do you know IFTTT? if this then that

I found the native abilities of IFTTT limiting. i.e. natively it can only do one argument, so you cant for instance say, if its 18:00 and the water temp is below 45deg then turn on the geyser.

There are ways to delve deeper into it and get into proper programming, but I was not prepared to go that route.

[Frosty]

7 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

I found the native abilities of IFTTT limiting. i.e. natively it can only do one argument, so you cant for instance say, if its 18:00 and the water temp is below 45deg then turn on the geyser.

There are ways to delve deeper into it and get into proper programming, but I was not prepared to go that route.

There are better apps that IFTTT, but the concept is the same.

[Frosty]

21 minutes ago, johnson said:

Hey guys. I'm a little late in joining the conversation because I haven't been very active on bikehub for the last year or so because of health issues.

Last year November I finally stripped my moer for Eskom. I Got a local solar installer who is highly recommended and very reputable to install a data logger and give me a quote for a installation.

The data logger was in my house for a week to monitor our electricity usage.

I Got the quote and started doing the math. The saving I will make on the electricity bill and the petrol for the generator combined is more than the installment I will have for financing the installation. 

So I pulled the trigger and the solar system was installed early in January.

Today marks one month since I've last had loadshedding.

My solar system consists of the following;

Sunsync 5kw inverter

Sunsync  5kw battery's (X3)

JA Solar 460w solar panels (X14)

You might have the same problem I had, due to the inverter only having two MPPTs and then having to deal with panels oriented in more than two directions.

I would speak to your installer and ask them to move the three panels on the red roof to the green roof. 

What is the max capacity of your pv (panels), and what are you getting as a max amount when charging the batteries and pulling load?

[johnson]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

You might have the same problem I had, due to the inverter only having two MPPTs and then having to deal with panels oriented in more than two directions.

I would speak to your installer and ask them to move the three panels on the red roof to the green roof. 

What is the max capacity of your pv (panels), and what are you getting as a max amount when charging the batteries and pulling load?

The panels are all facing the same direction, they are just on different roofs. They are wired 2 strings of 7 panels. The first string are all together and the second is split over two roofs. It's working fine so far but I will chat to him about it.

Total PV is 6,44kw. I Use a gas stove and a solar geyser so the loads in the house is not very high. On most good days around here it's producing around 1.2kw PV at seven in the morning. By 09:00 it's charging the battery's at 3500w and I carry on as usual inside the house.