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Thread: Saturday at home, installing an inverter

  1. #11
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bergie View Post
    thanks andy. i will pm you.
    so once you have your solar panels all you will need is the grid tie inverter. i cant see it being long before we can feed back into eskom.
    Until Eskom comes up with a feed-in-tariff I won't be exporting power into their grid and I suspect they've got quite a few ducks to get into rows before they can handle full scale importing and exporting from domestic solar PV.

    I think it's fair to point out that this kind of system is purely a convenience thing, it's not designed to make money or even save money, in fact there's a considerable capital outlay with zero return for nothing more than reducing the inconvenience caused by the regular load shedding.

    There is potential to add solar PV panels to this system but without a feed in tariff being available from government it's a no win sum financially, it would take decades probably to pay back the capital outlay with the energy savings and when you also consider the life expectancy of the batteries and other factors there's a very good chance you'll never make anywhere near break-even.

    Quote Originally Posted by HR Solutions View Post
    Andy I need one in Cape Town. Please give me a price installed ?
    I've sent you a PM HR.
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    i see there are quite a few inverter installations on the golf estates. the inverter is connected to the electric golf cart. then there is no need to buy expensive batteries. obviously if you use the golf cart then you dont have back up at that time.the lead unplugs from the golf cart ,the inverter would be switched off and the changeover switch would be on eskom. can anybody see any reason not to do it like that?

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    There are batteries in the golf cart

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    Diamond Member Justloadit's Avatar
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    The only problem I can see, is after a couple of hours, you no longer can use the golf cart and will require to carry your bag on your back and walk.
    Victor - Knowledge is a blessing or a curse, your current circumstances make you decide!
    Solar pumping, Solar Geyser & Solar Security lighting solutions - www.microsolve.co.za

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    Silver Member bones's Avatar
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    lo Andy

    ok if i dont wire the system into the building
    use trunking and dont touch the main power
    at all will it be ok to do this in my bedroom

    just to keep the basics going 500watts max
    i know a guy that sells truck batteries will
    they work? 24volts batteries

    my thinking is to add sun panels to the mix
    and perhaps adding a smoke detector

    if i move i want to take it all with me

  6. #16
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bergie View Post
    i see there are quite a few inverter installations on the golf estates. the inverter is connected to the electric golf cart. then there is no need to buy expensive batteries. obviously if you use the golf cart then you dont have back up at that time.the lead unplugs from the golf cart ,the inverter would be switched off and the changeover switch would be on eskom. can anybody see any reason not to do it like that?
    I've also seen golf carts used as a DC power supply for a domestic back-up inverter. The golf cart I saw also had a few PV panels on its roof, I don't see any reason it shouldn't be done if you happen to have one kicking around.

    Quote Originally Posted by bones View Post
    lo Andy

    ok if i dont wire the system into the building
    use trunking and dont touch the main power
    at all will it be ok to do this in my bedroom

    just to keep the basics going 500watts max
    i know a guy that sells truck batteries will
    they work? 24volts batteries

    my thinking is to add sun panels to the mix
    and perhaps adding a smoke detector

    if i move i want to take it all with me
    I'm sure it would be fine to do this in your bedroom. Just wire it up with trailing leads, same as you would install a UPS, it will be easy to dismantle and take with you if you relocate.

    Truck batteries aren't ideal, same as car batteries they're not designed to be cycled as deep as an inverter will drain them. If a car or truck battery is used as it's designed where it's drained less than 10% when starting the vehicle then immediately recharged back to full then they will last 5 years usually. I've seen whole banks of car batteries used on inverter systems where they're being drained 60-70% and they've been scrap after a couple of months only. Rather go with better rated deep cycle batteries, they're more expensive to buy but it will be a lot cheaper in the long run.

    Adding solar panels is possible but it's expensive and you'll probably not recover the outlay with the energy savings they'll give you just on a back-up inverter. PV panels will also make the installation a lot more complex especially if your inverter isn't designed to have them connected directly into it. Maybe in the future PV panels would be a viable alternative to adding extra batteries if the load shedding times become much longer than they are now but I'd suggest keeping things simple will be the cheapest route for the occasional blackouts we're getting at the moment.
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    Silver Member bones's Avatar
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    i will look into it thanks

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    Silver Member bones's Avatar
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    lo Andy

    ave look at this from "low price power alternative

    Quote Originally Posted by bones View Post
    Attachment 5442

    i have no idea if this is right or not but
    the bit that gets me is the solar panel
    bit if this right then what stops the
    inverter from pulling power directly from
    the charger and solar panel

    both the charger controller and the
    inverter will be connected directly to the
    battery do you need to disconnect the
    charger before you can use it do you
    leave it on will it damage the system i

    have no clue

    how does that work
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  10. #19
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    No, you can leave the charger connected. The inverter will draw power from both the batteries and the charger when its running but that's fine, the charger will only supply whatever is being generated by the PV panels and the remainder of the requirement will be drawn from the batteries until they become drained, at which point the voltage will drop to a point where the inverter will shut down.
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  12. #20
    Diamond Member AndyD's Avatar
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    Well I'm very pleased with my setup, it performed beyond expectations yesterday evening when we had load shedding between 6pm and 8.30pm. All the back-up lights throught the house were running from 6.30pm onwards, all the office stuff like PC's, printers, routers, phones and laptops were running, the entertanment PC and the TV in the lounge was running, I used the coffee machine a couple of times and we cooked supper using the microwave and sandwich toaster for at least 20 minutes.

    At the end of load shedding the batteries were cycled to less than 40% of their available power which was very encouraging. The recharge time was 5 hours so in theory we can run with 3 lots of load shedding per day on the setup I've got as long as the outages are spaced 4 or 5 hours apart.

    Given that hopefully were're unlikely to encounter anything like 3 loadshedding periods in a day and given the ease with which the system coped for a 2.5 hour power outage I'm going to extend it this weekend to cover the fridge and freezer, the outdoor LED lighting which is 4x 10W floodlights, some homemade fairylights on the stoep and also the ceiling fan circuit which supplies a fan in every room throughout the house.
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