Loadshedding solutions

[Shebeen]

On 7/15/2022 at 7:36 PM, Eddy Gordo said:

Well, my 1kva system with a 105Ah battery only lasted an hour powering the wifi, a 42" tv and an android box. Kinda disappointed was hoping for more, but didnt expect much as well. Next test will be a laptop.

wifi = 15w, tv ~150w, android =?50w

you got a dud battery there, hope it wasn't new. lead acid batteries don't last that long, especially if they've been hammered.

[Paul Ruinaard]

FWIW IDT's (or my setup) draws a surprising amount of power and given all the above notes wrt cycling batteries, its not a great idea. Especially with Lead batteries. Right now my inverter trollies are degrading badly because of the continual discharge that they are experiencing. And new 100 AH batteries are over R 3k.

 

Does anyone know if a good charge that does battery conditioning would be able to revive the lead batteries in an inverter trolley? I cant see anything tha would indicate there is a way to fix them and dont want to get in to messy solutions to open them p. They are deteriorating fast.

 

[LazyTrailRider]

2 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

lead acid batteries don't last that long, especially if they've been hammered.

I've seen research where testers were able to destroy a lead acid battery to 10% of its efficiency within a week by treating it poorly.

[ChrisF]

28 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

FWIW IDT's (or my setup) draws a surprising amount of power and given all the above notes wrt cycling batteries, its not a great idea. Especially with Lead batteries. Right now my inverter trollies are degrading badly because of the continual discharge that they are experiencing. And new 100 AH batteries are over R 3k.

 

Does anyone know if a good charge that does battery conditioning would be able to revive the lead batteries in an inverter trolley? I cant see anything tha would indicate there is a way to fix them and dont want to get in to messy solutions to open them p. They are deteriorating fast.

 

 

Benton chargers does a decent job of reviving batteries ... though this is meant for batteries that stood dormant too long.

 

Taking lead acid past 50% state of charge regularly KILLS it !!  Gell batteries are not much better in this regard.  Nothing can undo that damage !!

 

 

A SINGLE 12V battery is fine for the IDT .... but dont try to run the tv and computer and and and at the same time ....

[Eddy Gordo]

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:

wifi = 15w, - 15w+24w(ont and router) ~150w - 84w, android =?50w - 8w

you got a dud battery there, hope it wasn't new. lead acid batteries don't last that long, especially if they've been hammered.

It is new, but I doubt the charge on a new one. Anyway, it had 2 days to charge and now is on full test again. Will see.

Edited July 18, 2022 by Eddy Gordo

[ChrisF]

11 minutes ago, Eddy Gordo said:

It is new, but I doubt the charge on a new one. Anyway, it had 2 days to charge and now is on full test again. Will see.

 

What is the charge current of your system ?  Does the battery have time to re-charge when we have 3 or 4 loadsheds per day ?

[fanievb]

1 hour ago, Frosty said:

I know this is load shedding related, but I'll add in service delivery related.
Eskom is a 2nd tier supplier of electricity in Ekurhuleni, hence the tag service delivery related (or is that non-service

I started (on Saturday) digging holes and laying foundations for rain water collection tanks, aka JoJo tanks. We have burst water pipes on a regular basis, resulting in low water pressure, as well as no water, on occasions.

Then add the amount of rain we received in April, and I have a backyard that is being destroyed because of too much water. So I'm putting in 1000L slimline tanks (2 this year) and then 1-2 every year until all my gutters are collecting water. In the event of a municipal outage, I can still make a plan.

in the eastern cape water cuts are the norm due to failing infrastructure (not even talking about the drought and water restrictions)

I have 2 x 2500l tanks system connected to the house via a dab 132 pump and an additional 8500l in storage which I pump over to the main tanks when they run empty. Based on our average usage I have water for 23 days (without any rain).

 

[Frosty]

27 minutes ago, fanievb said:

in the eastern cape water cuts are the norm due to failing infrastructure (not even talking about the drought and water restrictions)

I have 2 x 2500l tanks system connected to the house via a dab 132 pump and an additional 8500l in storage which I pump over to the main tanks when they run empty. Based on our average usage I have water for 23 days (without any rain).

Unless I cut into my garden space, I don’t have much space for most of the tank sizes. Thankfully the slimline range fits my needs, and by the time I have 8-10 of the 1000L at every down pipe, I should have enough water for those days when there’s a cut.

Depending on when they read the meter, I’m using about 12-14kl per month. Since the DA took over running the Metro, both the free electricity (100kWh) and water (6kl) has been done away; effectively from this month. I can save every drop (pun intended) by catching and utilizing as much of that rain water as possible. R200/month savings * 12 months pays for a tank every year.

[Eddy Gordo]

1 hour ago, ChrisF said:

 

What is the charge current of your system ?  Does the battery have time to re-charge when we have 3 or 4 loadsheds per day ?

This is what I have. the 720

https://mecer.co.za/ivr-1200lbks-12v-power-inverter/

I think the Battery is toast. I will see what I can get to replace or ad on

[Shebeen]

7 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Well back in 2017 City of Cape Town turned the taps ever tighter in the hope that people would reduce water usage as the city approached "day zero" . . . then they realised that now people are in fact buying less water, and hence their water income took a rather large dive. The solution was a R150.00 flat rate before you even used one drop of water. Since the lifting of water restrictions, the flat rate has remained. 

Don't think Eskom won't do the same. 

 

water was too cheap, was actually part of the problem for CT drought crisis..

R150 is peanuts for a system that puts clean drinking water into your house on demand, which you then pay a rising tariff for. It's also there for people who are using water from other sources (wellpoint/rainwater) but then using the wastewater at zero cost (it is expensive to get rid of poo, and currently this is calculated on the amount of water you buy).

but where you are right in being skeptical is the reliance on municipalities having a need to cross subsidise their other services/functions through water/elec tariffs. This story doesn;t end well if they can't break away from that.

 

 

 

[Shebeen]

5 hours ago, Eddy Gordo said:

It is new, but I doubt the charge on a new one. Anyway, it had 2 days to charge and now is on full test again. Will see.

ok so on the hard maths.

your 170 odd watts should last 6+ hours.

3 hours to take the GLA to 50%. which is acceptable use.

 

1 hour is a joke, something is wrong.

[Shebeen]

3 hours ago, Frosty said:

Unless I cut into my garden space, I don’t have much space for most of the tank sizes. Thankfully the slimline range fits my needs, and by the time I have 8-10 of the 1000L at every down pipe, I should have enough water for those days when there’s a cut.

Depending on when they read the meter, I’m using about 12-14kl per month. Since the DA took over running the Metro, both the free electricity (100kWh) and water (6kl) has been done away; effectively from this month. I can save every drop (pun intended) by catching and utilizing as much of that rain water as possible. R200/month savings * 12 months pays for a tank every year.

Only silly people never give something worth something away for free and expect them to value it.

 

those slimline tanks are pricey, if you're going to that effort, sinking a big tank underground could make more sense.  plus you will have soil to make a pump track out of.

[patches]

On 7/15/2022 at 7:39 PM, Jewbacca said:

I live in an area that has only been load shed twice in the last few months.....

Loadshedding... pfffft

On 7/15/2022 at 7:50 PM, babse said:

Plane ticket out the country not a better solution? 

#askingforafriend

On 7/15/2022 at 8:45 PM, dave303e said:

The grass is not always greener on the other side. So you may as well water it your side and realize it is pretty good here...

I live in an area where I've had 2 power outages in 6 years. The longest was about 1hr. The other was 10min.

Without getting into the great emigration debate (as those threads can turn toxic and get shut down very quickly), I can say that whilst 1st world countries bring 1st world services, they also bring 1st world prices and 1st world problems.

And whilst 1st world problems can be objectively trivial, they have the potential to bring as much anxiety, unhappiness, frustration and anger as far bigger issues. That's the beauty of being human. The ability to soldier on through hardship with a smile, or blow small things totally out of proportion.

But yeah, load shedding sucks so kudos to those on here making their own plans.

[Mongoose!]

12 hours ago, Dexter-morgan said:

Same thing happening in the US, se youtube.

 

eish 👀

[Robbie Stewart]

11 hours ago, Shebeen said:

water was too cheap, was actually part of the problem for CT drought crisis..

R150 is peanuts for a system that puts clean drinking water into your house on demand, which you then pay a rising tariff for. It's also there for people who are using water from other sources (wellpoint/rainwater) but then using the wastewater at zero cost (it is expensive to get rid of poo, and currently this is calculated on the amount of water you buy).

but where you are right in being skeptical is the reliance on municipalities having a need to cross subsidise their other services/functions through water/elec tariffs. This story doesn;t end well if they can't break away from that.

 

 

 

Yep. I agree, and I'm not complaining about the price of water, as we are still paying probably way under what we could potentially be paying given the water crisis SA is facing as a whole.

My perspective is based on the fact that cross-subsidising is becoming common practice and this is a slippery slope. SA is already one of the, if not the heaviest taxed nations on earth. 5% of the population is basically carrying the other 95% - at some point this becomes unaffordable. I fear I'm on the threshold already.

[dave303e]

What is good to see is how many more environmentally friendly power supplies are going in.

We are direct Eskom customers, so we have around R2600 line rental per month before we turn on a switch and use any electricity, hence our path to off grid is a lot more appealing, but we need to totally cut loose for it to be viable. Easier said than done sometimes, but it is definitely on the radar for the near future.

As for water, that was something I hated most about living in town. You are so hamstrung by water supply and JHB is the 2nd largest populated place not located on a major water source. So the water usage there is really something of a concern going forward. Which is why the Cape water crisis is so interesting to me, we have made such a massive plan to get water to JHB, and then EC and WC are battling so much.