Gap in the market?

Tomtomtom

Tomtomtom

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I'm struggling to find an inverter for my office.

Does anyone know of something < 3 kW and < R 5 000 (so ~R 10k with batteries) that officially supports lithium and includes charging?

All the "trolley" options seem to be 90s designs intended for lead acid, so there's risk and compromise with the "drop-in" replacement batteries. I'd rather not hack a warranty-voiding workaround for this kind of money.

The wall and rack mount options all seem to be 3 kW+ and R 10k+ (without batteries) and this is just OTT for my needs.

The portable power stations meanwhile seem to go too far the other way. Good for camping, but not intended for stationary UPS operation, high cycle life, serviceability (replacing batteries) etc.

Is there an in-between option?
 
Tomtomtom said:
Does anyone know of something < 3 kW and < R 5 000 (so ~R 10k with batteries) that officially supports lithium and includes charging?
Click to expand...

Like, 1.5kw inverters on their own cost 6k from what I can find? A quick google tells me for a low 1.5kwh LI battery, you're looking at also 7k+. So realistically just for some of the parts, already at 13k. Imagine there's labour that goes into assembling it and other cables and things you might need, so you're not going to find anything for less than 15k?
 
zolly said:
Like, 1.5kw inverters on their own cost 6k from what I can find?
Click to expand...

Well that's just nuts. The Mecer 2400VA that everyone has is about R 4k, so it's good on price & capacity, but it falls into the camp of 90s tech designed for lead acid.

Even if we relax the budget a bit I can't find an inverter (or inverter-charger combo) that fits the bill.
 
Tomtomtom said:
I'm struggling to find an inverter for my office.

Does anyone know of something < 3 kW and < R 5 000 (so ~R 10k with batteries) that officially supports lithium and includes charging?

All the "trolley" options seem to be 90s designs intended for lead acid, so there's risk and compromise with the "drop-in" replacement batteries. I'd rather not hack a warranty-voiding workaround for this kind of money.

The wall and rack mount options all seem to be 3 kW+ and R 10k+ (without batteries) and this is just OTT for my needs.

The portable power stations meanwhile seem to go too far the other way. Good for camping, but not intended for stationary UPS operation, high cycle life, serviceability (replacing batteries) etc.

Is there an in-between option?
Click to expand...
Fivestar 3kva/3000watt does do that for 5k, if can find stock anymore. That was price in December from local reseller in cpt. Think closer to 6k now.

Does support lithuim and been running mine fine. Just no wifi module on these.
 
Tomtomtom said:
Well that's just nuts. The Mecer 2400VA that everyone has is about R 4k, so it's good on price & capacity, but it falls into the camp of 90s tech designed for lead acid.

Even if we relax the budget a bit I can't find an inverter (or inverter-charger combo) that fits the bill.
Click to expand...
mecer 4k is pricey, cost price R2500 odd when mustek gets stock.
 
Tomtomtom said:
I'm struggling to find an inverter for my office.

Does anyone know of something < 3 kW and < R 5 000 (so ~R 10k with batteries) that officially supports lithium and includes charging?

All the "trolley" options seem to be 90s designs intended for lead acid, so there's risk and compromise with the "drop-in" replacement batteries. I'd rather not hack a warranty-voiding workaround for this kind of money.

The wall and rack mount options all seem to be 3 kW+ and R 10k+ (without batteries) and this is just OTT for my needs.

The portable power stations meanwhile seem to go too far the other way. Good for camping, but not intended for stationary UPS operation, high cycle life, serviceability (replacing batteries) etc.

Is there an in-between option?
Click to expand...
~R5.5k with shipping and import taxes for 24V and 3kW continuous load (so it can run a kettle)

You need the inverter to be pure sine so it plays nicely with desktop PSUs

You'll also want the EPS model so it behaves like a UPS

www.aliexpress.com

3000W Pure Sine Wave Power inverter DC12/24/48/60/72V to AC220/230/240V 50HZ60HZ off grid inverter with ac charger UPS function - AliExpress 13

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com
 
agentrfr said:
~R5.5k with shipping and import taxes for 24V and 3kW continuous load (so it can run a kettle)

You need the inverter to be pure sine so it plays nicely with desktop PSUs

You'll also want the EPS model so it behaves like a UPS

www.aliexpress.com

3000W Pure Sine Wave Power inverter DC12/24/48/60/72V to AC220/230/240V 50HZ60HZ off grid inverter with ac charger UPS function - AliExpress 13

Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com
www.aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com
Click to expand...
You will never get a 24V system for R10k including batteries.
 
agentrfr said:
~R5.5k with shipping and import taxes for 24V and 3kW continuous load (so it can run a kettle)
Click to expand...

This looks good. But... it's still an old lead-acid charger design so who knows if it handles the long high-current phase for lithiums without melting.
 
You're not getting a 3KW inverter setup with lithium 100Ah for R10k.
batterymartklerksdorp.co.za

3000VA/2400W 24V SOLARWIZE INVERTER PWM - Battery Mart Klerksdorp

CODE : SOLARWIZE5035
batterymartklerksdorp.co.za batterymartklerksdorp.co.za
Might want to look at something like this. Not sure how good it is, but close to R5k. Most Axpert type 2.5-3KW's are in the R6000-10k range now it's nuts. Saw a few old, out of stock listings of them for R4500 in December but those days are over.

Hubble 100Ah's going for well over R7.5k now (used to be R5500 or so not long ago?).
Damn, can't find a single store with stock of the Hubble S-100A 100Ah I got at the moment (place I bought from was the only one with stock in December, Hubble referred me to the same place), crazy crazy crazy. Geewiz backorder 4-12 weeks.
 
Last edited:
zoozi said:
You're not getting a 3KW inverter setup with lithium 100Ah for R10k.
batterymartklerksdorp.co.za

3000VA/2400W 24V SOLARWIZE INVERTER PWM - Battery Mart Klerksdorp

CODE : SOLARWIZE5035
batterymartklerksdorp.co.za batterymartklerksdorp.co.za
Might want to look at something like this.
Click to expand...

That looks hopeful thanks.

I don't think I need 100 Ah 24 V, more like half that.

From what I can tell R 10k is not unreasonable in principle, it seems to be more a question of finding and matching an inverter/charger and battery at this scale. When it comes to lithium, the systems seem to be either toys like the gizzu or massive power walls, with little in between.
 
Tomtomtom said:
That looks hopeful thanks.

I don't think I need 100 Ah 24 V, more like half that.

From what I can tell R 10k is not unreasonable in principle, it seems to be more a question of finding and matching an inverter/charger and battery at this scale. When it comes to lithium, the systems seem to be either toys like the gizzu or massive power walls, with little in between.
Click to expand...
Think the misunderstanding is:
3KW load means you MUST have 24V input (at 12V it would need to push 250A, so you need massive wires, it's impractical)
If you need 24V at 3000W then that's still 100A+ so you can't use smaller batteries as they would be going over 1C.

If you want smaller load (1kW say) then you may get away with 1 battery @ 12v.

So that's what's it's all about. There is no niche between 1 battery and 2...
So 10K you may be able to get 1 with 12V inverter (7k + 3k)
Next step is bound to be double.
 
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