Downgrading 3 phase supply

Smugs said:
Actually my 30 year old Fluke 77 caught me out like that. I measured a UPS with it and thought it was faulty. Only later when I measured it with my 115 did the penny drop.. :ROFL:
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Ja I got caught like that about two weeks ago. Also trying to work out what was going on with a Mecer UPS.
Was using my elcheapo Testmate 308. (digital) Then went to my car and hauled out an even cheaper analogue needle multimeter I carry around because that one has a "true RMS" function. Good old fashioned needle meter like an Avo.
 
This is honnestly such a silly thread,

I came on here with the op asking a valid and legit question.

There is just 4 pages of bitching and moaning and trolling and not one post about the costs involved, can it be done, who does one contact etc.

In jhb you most certainly pay quite abit more for 3 phase connection, and when going solar it's a more than normal thing to want to downgrade to single phase in order to save on monthly connection fees.

If you are drawing more than 63A then you have bigger problems to worry about...
 
Zapo said:
This is honnestly such a silly thread,

I came on here with the op asking a valid and legit question.

There is just 4 pages of bitching and moaning and trolling and not one post about the costs involved, can it be done, who does one contact etc.

In jhb you most certainly pay quite abit more for 3 phase connection, and when going solar it's a more than normal thing to want to downgrade to single phase in order to save on monthly connection fees.

If you are drawing more than 63A then you have bigger problems to worry about...
Click to expand...
So silly you felt the need to come back and resurrect it 5 months later.

Also, all the ops questions were answered.
 
Speedster said:
So silly you felt the need to come back and resurrect it 5 months later.

Also, all the ops questions were answered.
Click to expand...
Only because I am wanting to know the same things that the OP asked, and after reading 4 pages of nonsense, still haven't found the solution to a fairly simple question.

Who does one contact?
Which division of Eskom or City power does one contact?
What are the costs involved?
What is the rough timing that this takes to get actually done?|
Has anyone on this forum successfully downgraded to a single-phase connection?


In my mind there are only two feasible options:

1: Ditch two phases and run a single-phase (unbalanced) who knows if city power even does anything about this. This option is also silly cause you probably paying more in connection fees than you are in electricity usage. And the whole point of going full solar is to reduce costs.

2: Downgrade to a single-phase connection (if it's possible) and hopefully reduce your connection fees substantially.
 
Zapo said:
Who does one contact?
Which division of Eskom or City power does one contact?
What are the costs involved?
What is the rough timing that this takes to get actually done?|
Has anyone on this forum successfully downgraded to a single-phase connection?
Click to expand...

Does anyone have answers to the above? Live in JHB and I'm a direct Eskom Client. Trying to weigh the costs between going for a 3phase inverter vs the costs to downgrade to single phase from Eskom.

I've also read somewhere that 3phase inverters also don't like imbalanced 3 phase supply and that often at times if you have an unbalanced supply the inverter will go into "islanding" mode? From that perspective it might be better to consider a single phase inverter?

But then again how often does that 3 phase imbalance happen from a supply side? I suppose this is more of a question for those who opted to go with a 3phase inverter.
 
TipCy said:
Does anyone have answers to the above? Live in JHB and I'm a direct Eskom Client. Trying to weigh the costs between going for a 3phase inverter vs the costs to downgrade to single phase from Eskom.

I've also read somewhere that 3phase inverters also don't like imbalanced 3 phase supply and that often at times if you have an unbalanced supply the inverter will go into "islanding" mode? From that perspective it might be better to consider a single phase inverter?

But then again how often does that 3 phase imbalance happen from a supply side? I suppose this is more of a question for those who opted to go with a 3phase inverter.
Click to expand...
To very partially answer your question. I'm in Tshwane and have 3 phase municipal feed. When I went solar I simply moved everything to one phase and left the other two phases dormant.

I'm not sure about Jhb or Eskom direct, but in Tshwane there's no extra cost for the 3 phase supply so no need for me to downgrade.
 
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