Power inverters for home use in South Africa roundup - February 2023

leon.davibe said:
From what i gather some municipalities push back isn't allowed

So it's kinda like sars
The moment you claim back or pay to little , they may rain down on you
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Yea with old meter like that you don't need a battery to go overnight just load shedding

Push back and use the grid as your battery :)
 
wingnut771 said:
Yes, I know it can turn backwards.

My bill is extremely high from running aircons 24/7 in durban so want to spin it backwards during the day to offset the night-time use. Just don't spin it back into negative numbers.

They can come and check and what will they find? That I'm using solar? Is it a crime to have a low bill?

Anyway, this is durban. They can't even replace globes in streetlights.
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Lol at leon.come.lately trying to educate us all.

Regarding pushing back to grid, you only need an external CT coil if you are powering loads before the inverter. The inverter should be able to measure how much it is pushing back on the grid connection internally, but it has no way of knowing how much of that is being used on premises and hence the external CT coil.
 
Speedster said:
Lol at leon.come.lately trying to educate us all.

Regarding pushing back to grid, you only need an external CT coil if you are powering loads before the inverter. The inverter should be able to measure how much it is pushing back on the grid connection internally, but it has no way of knowing how much of that is being used on premises and hence the external CT coil.
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Also seems to talk to himself a lot.
 
Speedster said:
Lol at leon.come.lately trying to educate us all.

Regarding pushing back to grid, you only need an external CT coil if you are powering loads before the inverter. The inverter should be able to measure how much it is pushing back on the grid connection internally, but it has no way of knowing how much of that is being used on premises and hence the external CT coil.
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If there wasn't so much bullshit being spread, there would be no need to interject

If the shoe fits by all means wear it , just sharing info
 
Speedster said:
Lol at leon.come.lately trying to educate us all.

Regarding pushing back to grid, you only need an external CT coil if you are powering loads before the inverter. The inverter should be able to measure how much it is pushing back on the grid connection internally, but it has no way of knowing how much of that is being used on premises and hence the external CT coil.
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You only need an external coil if you want to limit the amount of push back to only meet your own pre inverter loads

ie you can push back excess
It may fall short/ meet /exceed pre inverter load the inverter will just push back all excess

A ct coil isn't needed to push back only if you want to measure how much you push to grid or limit how much

ie your inverter doesn't need to know your load pre inverter to push back
 
leon.davibe said:
You only need an external coil if you want to limit the amount of push back to only meet your own pre inverter loads

ie you can push back excess
It may fall short/ meet /exceed pre inverter load the inverter will just push back all excess

A ct coil isn't needed to push back only if you want to measure how much you push to grid or limit how much

ie your inverter doesn't need to know your load pre inverter to push back
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And naturally if the inverter has parameters to act on the info from the coil

ie like the victrons have a shunt and all it is , is a fancy fuel gauge it doesn't affect the charge behaviour this is controlled by voltage/timed behaviour

Unless the victron software package has changed since i acquired this info

Hence the coil can just be a gauge too ,if unable to act on it
 
Don't worry you have a bms they say, not all are programmed equally , if you have drift/imbalance, some of these BMSs can abuse the low cell

Was pulling about 3.7kw at the time

That one cell went down to 2.187v just before the bms switched of the battery

Now yes after a few minutes of resting the voltage pops up , charging kicked in so did not see where it settled
 

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I was told that the 3/5 Kva SunSynk inverters does not have fans and one should go for the 8Kva model which does. They tend to run hot when running during loadshedding.
 
Poor old Rand took a beating.
My Sunsynk 8kW was R32000. I knew this was going to happen.
Shows what the Rand does to imports.
 
I have an RCT 1KW system. I am very upset with the inverter. It boasts a 1 power factor - meaning the power drawn from the battery is 100% usable by my home. However, looking at the details on the screen of the inverter it shows the KVA and W usage as non-equal meaning a power factor not equal to 1

In the attached images this tells me the power factor is 87/116 = 0.75. In layman terms this means only 75% of the battery’s power goes towards loads in my house, the other 15% is wasted

I have gone through 2 batteries in 2 years - not understanding why, only to realise that with a power factor not equal to 1 the battery gets used up more than it should with the load in my house

I am now looking at buying a Victron inverter which I can hopefully trust better than the Chinese-made brands IMG_4806.jpegIMG_4805.jpeg
 
krugerquintin said:
I have an RCT 1KW system. I am very upset with the inverter. It boasts a 1 power factor - meaning the power drawn from the battery is 100% usable by my home. However, looking at the details on the screen of the inverter it shows the KVA and W usage as non-equal meaning a power factor not equal to 1

In the attached images this tells me the power factor is 87/116 = 0.75. In layman terms this means only 75% of the battery’s power goes towards loads in my house, the other 15% is wasted

I have gone through 2 batteries in 2 years - not understanding why, only to realise that with a power factor not equal to 1 the battery gets used up more than it should with the load in my house

I am now looking at buying a Victron inverter which I can hopefully trust better than the Chinese-made brands View attachment 1726093View attachment 1726095
Click to expand...
Change from lead acid to LFP battery then you wont care because the battery will last 20 years.
www.geewiz.co.za

GeeWiz 12V 100Ah Lithium Ion LiFePO4 1.2KWh 4000 Cycle Battery (FIRST LIFE CELLS) - 2 Year Unlimited Cycles Warranty - 4000 Cycles

12.8V 1.2KWh Rating: 1C Maximum continuous discharge: 100Amp Cells: 1st life prismatic LiFePO4 Series: 1, 2, 3 or 4 batteries Parallel: 4 Batteries Communication: None 2-Year Unlimited Cycles Warranty
www.geewiz.co.za www.geewiz.co.za
1718436169373.png
 
krugerquintin said:
I am still worried that the inverter draws more from the battery than needed
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It is what it is, stop worrying about it and don't lose any sleep but make sure to use thick 35mm² copper cables with hydraulically crimped tin coated copper lugs. Changing to LFP will almost quadruple your runtime.
 
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krugerquintin said:
I have an RCT 1KW system. I am very upset with the inverter. It boasts a 1 power factor - meaning the power drawn from the battery is 100% usable by my home. However, looking at the details on the screen of the inverter it shows the KVA and W usage as non-equal meaning a power factor not equal to 1

In the attached images this tells me the power factor is 87/116 = 0.75. In layman terms this means only 75% of the battery’s power goes towards loads in my house, the other 15% is wasted

I have gone through 2 batteries in 2 years - not understanding why, only to realise that with a power factor not equal to 1 the battery gets used up more than it should with the load in my house

I am now looking at buying a Victron inverter which I can hopefully trust better than the Chinese-made brands View attachment 1726093View attachment 1726095
Click to expand...
Your load has a power factor. It is not about the inverter but the devices that draws the power. Anything with an electric motor or transformer for example has a power factor smaller than 1.

You can't blame the inverter for power factor and frankly you will have to live with it because bringing the power factor closer to 1 is quite expensive and typically only done on industrial scale.

My victron inverter for example is rated at 5kVA but 4 kW - because it assumes there will be a power factor of 80%.if it is more tough cookies. It can only supply 5kVA.
 
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