Ceil Inverter 850VA (600W) PURE SINE WAVE (Mecer Alternative) Lead Acid Only

[wingnut771]

Don't care about the built in solar charger as have a 75/15 Victron charge controller running my solar panel. Need a pure sine though so it fits in nicely!

You would be upgrading the MPPT with the geewiz offer and then can sell victron to defray expenses?

 

[Terence1983]

SR-ML2440 MPPT SOLAR CONTROLLER

MPPT High Efficiency, Solar Charge Controller, 40A(550W/12V, 1100W/24V), 12V/24V Autoswitch, Maximum input voltage:100V.

www.communica.co.za

but if on a budget then go with PWM.

Yea this is way out of my budget, costs almost what the solar panel costs. I may just go for a cheap PWM for now and keep the inverter unplugged from eskom during daytime to run off the solar only.

Il be upgrading to a decent inverter with built in mppt controller at a later stage anyway, this is just for the meantime.

 

[Mista_Mobsta]

Yea this is way out of my budget, costs almost what the solar panel costs. I may just go for a cheap PWM for now and keep the inverter unplugged from eskom during daytime to run off the solar only.

Il be upgrading to a decent inverter with built in mppt controller at a later stage anyway, this is just for the meantime.

Go check Carbonite for any 2nd hand MPPT's - you may just be surprised

 

[JamboMan]

The hubbles can take up to 100A of charge so don't worry about frying them. You can use the HC setting with confidence.

Maybe it's set float at 14.4V because of this "automatic battery level set by control unit"? It seems pulse charging is only done during trickle charging stage (float).
View attachment 1401639

The next test is for someone to charge the battery using a mecer or external charger that can reach 14.6V, then try the Ceil again. I wonder how one resets the 4 month counter?

This is a very old thread..... Spent half my day reading it trying to get my new 12v lithium battery working on my old 12v CEIL 850. Long story short, new 100ah lifepo4 takealot battery arrived yesterday morning (sorry Geewiz it was cheaper).. Put it on charge, 24 hours later still charging...... At first fan going mad drawing 350watt+, then after a few hours was at 15watts constant but still charging..... Played with all the settings (Narrow/Wide, SC,EC and HC) still no luck just charging for hours.. Screen was showing 14.4v charging and all was pretty grim..

Read this post about the 4 month memory counter on the unit (wingnut771 legend), so I unplugged the battery, kept hitting the on/off button while unplugged (from the battery and wall) and left it for a few hours to hopefully kill any remaining memory this thing had. Then I plugged the battery back in (lol thanks load shedding..) ran it down till about 13v when the power came back on and bam.. Fully charged at 14.1v and stopped charging (non of that 14.4v anymore, just 14.1 showing on the inverter now)..

Working at the moment and pretty happy now.. Will report back if anything changes, maybe its just luck, but thanks all for this old thread!

 

[wingnut771]

This is a very old thread..... Spent half my day reading it trying to get my new 12v lithium battery working on my old 12v CEIL 850. Long story short, new 100ah lifepo4 takealot battery arrived yesterday morning (sorry Geewiz it was cheaper).. Put it on charge, 24 hours later still charging...... At first fan going mad drawing 350watt+, then after a few hours was at 15watts constant but still charging..... Played with all the settings (Narrow/Wide, SC,EC and HC) still no luck just charging for hours.. Screen was showing 14.4v charging and all was pretty grim..

Read this post about the 4 month memory counter on the unit (wingnut771 legend), so I unplugged the battery, kept hitting the on/off button while unplugged (from the battery and wall) and left it for a few hours to hopefully kill any remaining memory this thing had. Then I plugged the battery back in (lol thanks load shedding..) ran it down till about 13v when the power came back on and bam.. Fully charged at 14.1v and stopped charging (non of that 14.4v anymore, just 14.1 showing on the inverter now)..

Working at the moment and pretty happy now.. Will report back if anything changes, maybe its just luck, but thanks all for this old thread!

Its very rare where I have to do fokkal and all my questions get answered in one post. Actually, it's never happened before, this is the first time.

My shitty Ecco 12V 1000W PSW bulks at 14.1V and floats at 13.8V. I haven't touched it during the good days (300+ days of eskom ego bloating) and it still performs like new (suicide cable into the house (double story old glenwood house with high ceilings and wooden floors and lots of garden outdoor lights) powering all the lights and plugs (we turn off fridges and geysers) and my 2 x 100Ah lasts at least 5 hours.

Anyway, I'm super hammered at the mo, so excuse my rambling, just want to thank you for your epic feel good ted lasso type account, I think you're the first person to figure out the ceil (this takes me back, but even my altzeimers can't make me forget that dilemma at the time), didn't geewiz tell us it wasn't compatible (remember I said any LA charger is compatible?)?

 

[RedViking]

Good memories when I was desperately trying to find an affordable alternative to the Mecer Inverters. The Ceil showed so much promise but just did not charge the Hubble batteries.

 

[Steamy Tom]

Good memories when I was desperately trying to find an affordable alternative to the Mecer Inverters. The Ceil showed so much promise but just did not charge the Hubble batteries.

I was lucky I guess. Still have a ceil running at a family member for what must be a few years now, no issues

 

[RedViking]

I was lucky I guess. Still have a ceil running at a family member for what must be a few years now, no issues

Yeah it was a hit and miss if I remember correctly. Will have to refresh my memory, but one of the inverters and batteries worked fine. Couple of them tested by Geewiz did not including one of mine. However the batteries worked fine on Mecer (Modified Sine) and Axpert Type (Pure Sine).

 

[JamboMan]

I thought mine was a miss after a day and half of swearing with it still just constantly charging.

If anyone else has the same issue just try unplug the ceil from the wall and from the battery, smash the on/off button, reset button a few times and leave unplugged for a few hours then try again.
This worked for me and it stopped trying to charge it at 14.4v and changed to 14.1v charging and all has worked since (then sits at 13.7v on the inverter when charged). Page 8 of the manual mentions it keeps a 4 month memory which I think might be related.

Still working great on my side.