Generator vs backup battery price comparison

Lupus said:
Some say 50, though this also takes into account that a few manuals say you need to do your first maintenance at 20 hours, than it's 50 hours for the next and than it's 100 after that.
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I did my first service at roughly 5 hours and the oil was rather glittery. I'd advise anyone to do that first change very early as there's no filter so all of that grit is going everywhere the oil is.
 
Lupus said:
Live in a house, a few generators start up during shedding, they are far enough away from each other that it's not anymore annoying than leaf blowers.
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In my neighbourhood people who try to use generators get shut down pretty quickly.
 
bwana said:
Noisy as hell but unlike my old AVR generators it's a constant noise regardless of the load.

Not really viable. Both are costly endeavours and having long term power available when necessary won the day.

30 minutes? Switch off, refuel, restart.
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You shouldn't be filling it up when it's still hot. But than again I've seen people use suicide leads so.
 
We have bought a house and move in November, it has a 15kVa generator which will help with load shedding but not the 60kWh of CoJ electricity the current owners use, in summer :rolleyes: I am starting to look at options for an 8kW inverter and matched PV array to reduce the CoJ electricity use with the generator as backup for load shedding when there isn't PV available.
 
GMAN03 said:
I did my first service at roughly 5 hours and the oil was rather glittery. I'd advise anyone to do that first change very early as there's no filter so all of that grit is going everywhere the oil is.
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Mine was only done at 20 hours and oil was still clean, but it can happen that it goes glittery. On mine though the fuel pipe disintegrated after 50 hours :-( so it was leaking petrol.
 
Lupus said:
People working from home?
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A small UPS for the internet works great. I actually bought mine in mid-2020 as my ageing laptop battery only lasted about an hour (and Joburg was still on the 4-hour schedule). Now with a new laptop and shorter outages (except where it comes back on and then trips while City Power takes 8 hours to fix it) I hardly run the generator.
 
Neuk_ said:
We have bought a house and move in November, it has a 15kVa generator which will help with load shedding but not the 60kWh of CoJ electricity the current owners use, in summer :rolleyes: I am starting to look at options for an 8kW inverter and matched PV array to reduce the CoJ electricity use with the generator as backup for load shedding when there isn't PV available.
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Ouch so you're leaving your little system behind? Also your usage will depend on you, not the previous guys, our previous owner was moaning about R3000 bills on prepaid, I'm now only at R1200.
 
Lupus said:
Why? Are you all old men? Do you run around shutting off leaf blowers, lawn mowers, angle grinders?
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No, they just get reported to the City of Cape Town noise pollution unit. The CoCT has very strict rules about the level of noise that a generator is allowed to produce.
 
GMAN03 said:
A small UPS for the internet works great. I actually bought mine in mid-2020 as my ageing laptop battery only lasted about an hour (and Joburg was still on the 4-hour schedule). Now with a new laptop and shorter outages (except where it comes back on and then trips while City Power takes 8 hours to fix it) I hardly run the generator.
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I started with a Mecer 2400va when I lived in my complex, it could reach everything. Than I moved into a house and I got the small UPS for the router as the Mecer was now in the study to keep it running, but having extension leads running everywhere sucked.
Than in 2020 we got hit with a lot of extended outages, so I got a small 950w generator just to power things during those, but than it was noisy, smelly and the 2 stroke oil mixing was eh. So I got a 2.8kva generator which ran a few things, but than extension leads everywhere and the schlep of running it, got me looking for inverters and batteries.
Now the generator was last used in Feb this year.
 
deweyzeph said:
No, they just get reported to the City of Cape Town noise pollution unit. The CoCT has very strict rules about the level of noise that a generator is allowed to produce.
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So you are all old men than? Cause a generator makes less noise than the things I listed.
 
Lupus said:
Ouch so you're leaving your little system behind? Also your usage will depend on you, not the previous guys, our previous owner was moaning about R3000 bills on prepaid, I'm now only at R1200.
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Yeah, my BIL is buying our house so I am leaving it all behind as it suits his single lifestyle far better than it will at our new house, which has three electric geysers, pool, underfloor heating, etc, etc. I will look at something like a Sunsynk 8kW inverter with as much PV as possible which can 'integrate' with the 15kVa generator so we run as much as possible on PV during the day with the generator as back up at night time. We will eventually get batteries but as they are the most expensive part of any ESS they can wait for later.
 
Neuk_ said:
Yeah, my BIL is buying our house so I am leaving it all behind as it suits his single lifestyle far better than it will at our new house, which has three electric geysers, pool, underfloor heating, etc, etc. I will look at something like a Sunsynk 8kW inverter with as much PV as possible which can 'integrate' with the 15kVa generator so we run as much as possible on PV during the day with the generator as back up at night time. We will eventually get batteries but as they are the most expensive part of any ESS they can wait for later.
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Why 3 electric geysers? I never understood this part of anyones house, unless it's for a family of 9 :-).
As far as I know I don't know if the inverter will work with just the PV panels and no batteries? You will need to double check that it can do so.
 
deweyzeph said:
No, they just get reported to the City of Cape Town noise pollution unit. The CoCT has very strict rules about the level of noise that a generator is allowed to produce.
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Please tell me you do not live in Melkbosstrand?
 
I still have my 5.5Kw Yamaha gennie I used before i got my solar system. It's got its place.
My father has a 20kva diesel 3-phase gennie that is installed at his place. Inside a little outhouse-type building. The doors are vented and there is a louvre fan installed in the wall that sucks out all the hot air. Exhaust is also extended to the outside. He only uses one of the phases on the gennie as his house is single phase. His previous house was 3 phase.

He now installed an 8kw Sunsynk and 2 x Hubbles for load shedding. Solar panels might come later. It's just always such a mission to go and start that moerse gennie just for himself in the house so he opted to go battery and inverter for now.
 
Lupus said:
Why 3 electric geysers? I never understood this part of anyones house, unless it's for a family of 9 :).
As far as I know I don't know if the inverter will work with just the PV panels and no batteries? You will need to double check that it can do so.
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The house has two separate wings, three bedrooms and two bathrooms in the one, bedroom, domestic quarters and two bathrooms in the other with the kitchen in the middle of the house so I presume a geyser for each wing and the kitchen is fed from one of them. The double garage was built to be able to be converted in to a flatlet so it has a geyser which is not used and I am hoping the kitchen is fed from the main bedroom wing so I can switch off the other main house geyser.

Yeah, hopefully the Sunsynk can work without a battery else I will have to include at least one and then add at a later stage.
 
W@P said:
I still have my 5.5Kw Yamaha gennie I used before i got my solar system. It's got its place.
My father has a 20kva diesel 3-phase gennie that is installed at his place. Inside a little outhouse-type building. The doors are vented and there is a louvre fan installed in the wall that sucks out all the hot air. Exhaust is also extended to the outside. He only uses one of the phases on the gennie as his house is single phase. His previous house was 3 phase.

He now installed an 8kw Sunsynk and 2 x Hubbles for load shedding. Solar panels might come later. It's just always such a mission to go and start that moerse gennie just for himself in the house so he opted to go battery and inverter for now.
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Does the generator not have auto start?
 
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