Saturday at home, installing an inverter

[AndyD]

Good to hear your system is working for you, whatever you install that's what's important at the end of the day.

I'd question whether it's necessary to accomodate your refrigeration on your back-up system but I gather from the general chatter that some areas are getting longer shedding periods than others. In CT we're generally getting 2.25 hour outages and my chest freezer goes from -19C to -15C in that period when it's half full. My fridge ends up around 10C in the same period so I didn't consider it necessary to have them running on my inverter. Obviously if you're having 5 hour outages it may be a different ballgame entirely.

Chargers are incredibly important, don't skimp on them. Cheap and nasty battery chargers are the fastest way to destroy perfectly good batteres. Make sure any charger you buy is at least 3-stage with a float charge as well. I can recommend the Optimate chargers for smaller battery systems.

[Tonye]

A kettle could quite easily cause overload, kettles are a high load especially if they're these new fast boil types.

Hi Andy. Tevo used to do a Kettle, Brand Name Bennett Read Smart Flask. These were available in 6,8 litres & 4,8 Litres.
Power consumption 750w. Thet were also well insulated and kept water just under boiling point.
Unfortunately they do not sell them anymore.



I found a 1,5 litre Kettle with double stainless steel wall, which also keeps water hot for up to 4 hours.
Make is Sunbeam. Power consumption 1350w. Available at Makro @ R299.00



Have you heard of a Devel inverter.
Had a client who purchased one. It is a 24v 1500w Pure sinewave.
It looked quite impressive with different settings for different types of batteries & also an auto neutral to earth connection on inverter mode.
The client intitially had an electrician in to do the wiring. They connected the 220v input to the battery terminals of the inverter.
Fortunately they never powered the system on.
Then the client figured out where the 220v input was supposed to be connected. They then connected two 12v batteries in parallel instead of
series. Again fortunately they did not power up the system.

I went to assist them with a complete changeover system with dedicated UPS Plug socket.
I also added an ammeter with a chart that informs the client the amps been used & calculates battery life using a 80% efficiency & a 50% depth
of discharge.

[HR Solutions]

They then connected two 12v batteries in parallel instead of
series

A lot of the systems I have seen have been in parallel ..... why are you saying it should be in series ? (I am a layman, therefore do not know, but I do know what parallel and series is)

[bergie]

if its a 24 volt inverter. you would connect the 2 x 12 volt batteries in series to get 24 volt. if parallel it then you still have 12 volt in total but double your amp/hour.

[HR Solutions]

aaah ok thanks

[Dave A]

& also an auto neutral to earth connection on inverter mode.

Now that's a nice touch! Does the Axpert do that too?

[tec0]

Got a scary scary one for you Andy... Friend of mine is a qualified electrician with all the right papers. He was asked to do some tests. This is what the owner did. The owner connected the neutral wire on the copper pipes and then just took a life-wire from the DB box and basically wired his home like a car.... There was no earth wire in sight obviously not because it would have tripped the mains.

My friend just give them a quotation on rewiring everything and left hoping they don't phone him again. He said he was never so afraid to work on a roof in his life! Needless to say they did phone him again and after a while "two weeks" the home is now wired like a home and past inspection.

How is that for scary....

[AndyD]

Now that's a nice touch! Does the Axpert do that too?

No, unfortunately the Axpert doesn't do this, it comes with L and Neutral floating WRT Earth.

Got a scary scary one for you Andy... Friend of mine is a qualified electrician with all the right papers. He was asked to do some tests. This is what the owner did. The owner connected the neutral wire on the copper pipes and then just took a life-wire from the DB box and basically wired his home like a car.... There was no earth wire in sight obviously not because it would have tripped the mains.

My friend just give them a quotation on rewiring everything and left hoping they don't phone him again. He said he was never so afraid to work on a roof in his life! Needless to say they did phone him again and after a while "two weeks" the home is now wired like a home and past inspection.

How is that for scary....

Sounds a bit like the old TN-C systems they used to install, they're not allowed nowadays. What you describe is a very dangerous installation which should be disconnected.

[tec0]

a while back friend of mine installed a solar system but it got vandalized as the thief tried to remove the panel. About R20K worth of panels was vandalized. Eventually they took the system off and sold it as they couldn't be at home 24/7 protecting it. My thinking now is, is it worth it? It is expensive and not something one could hide. Now before the demigods spew out there filth it is worth nothing that these types of thefts happen all the time on most farming communities along with generator theft.

Knowing this i started to Google for smaller solutions as one can put them under lock and key if the need is there. This is what i found.

[bones]

that looks cool but will it set the house
on fire?