Which inverter to get

TheChamp said:
Why wouldn't they discharge below 50% frequently with all this loadshedding?

As I said, it's perfectly fine if you still want to live the life of switching things off at 50% DoD and telling everyone to go to sleep because you are saving the battery, it just looks too uncivilized to me, it's one of those things you go through because you have to, but don't really want those who come after you to experience the same thing.
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I was thinking of a scenario where a person has calculated the load applied to the battery, and provided a battery capacity suitable to get through stage 6 at 50%.

In this scenario the lead acid is likely to last around 3 years.

A user would basically need to do the same with a lifepo4 battery. Calculate the load and provide a capacity battery that won't take it below 80% dod too often during stage 6 loadshedding.
 
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Good afternoon.
I am hoping somebody can help me.
I am looking for a way to extend a laptop battery charge.
I have a mecer ups but this unit does not charge the laptop when on battery power.
The only thing i could find is this:

tech.co.za

Lalela GW22400 Universal Laptop Powerbank UPS 22400mAh

tech.co.za tech.co.za

I have never heard of this brand, but i have seen this unit in builders.
Is this device any good ? Any other suggestions ?
 
Only tested one for now, with all the loadshedding and extended outage I had to keep the other one spare for when my normal backup runs out.

Some problem I encountered is that my inverter just refuse to go into LFP mode for some reason, it goes into error state as soon as I select LFP, I was able to raise the voltage to 14.8V on the solar charge controller, but it looks like I will have to get a lithium charger.
 
TheChamp said:
Only tested one for now, with all the loadshedding and extended outage I had to keep the other one spare for when my normal backup runs out.

Some problem I encountered is that my inverter just refuse to go into LFP mode for some reason, it goes into error state as soon as I select LFP, I was able to raise the voltage to 14.8V on the solar charge controller, but it looks like I will have to get a lithium charger.
Click to expand...
What about "user" mode? 14.8V is too high for LFP.
 
mattb006 said:
Good afternoon.
I am hoping somebody can help me.
I am looking for a way to extend a laptop battery charge.
I have a mecer ups but this unit does not charge the laptop when on battery power.
The only thing i could find is this:

tech.co.za

Lalela GW22400 Universal Laptop Powerbank UPS 22400mAh

tech.co.za tech.co.za

I have never heard of this brand, but i have seen this unit in builders.
Is this device any good ? Any other suggestions ?
Click to expand...
I have a 130W Dell Precision and this battery bank is a beast powering it.

www.takealot.com/zmi-powerpack-no20-25000mah-2xusb-c-1x-usb-a-210w-pd-power-bank/PLID72832321
 
wingnut771 said:
What about "user" mode? 14.8V is too high for LFP.
Click to expand...
It says charging voltage is 14.8V on the website. My inverter is a 2000W Omnipower brick back from the day when were still not fashionable, it has dip switches to select battery type, low voltage cutoff and other settings, it also has a dial to select charging current and a legend you read to interpret everything. I can select all the battery modes except LFP, it goes into bypass mode with an alarm as soon as I do that.
 

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TheChamp said:
It says charging voltage is 14.8V on the website. My inverter is a 2000W Omnipower brick back from the day when were still not fashionable, it has dip switches to select battery type, low voltage cutoff and other settings, it also has a dial to select charging current and a legend you read to interpret everything. I can select all the battery modes except LFP, it goes into bypass mode with an alarm as soon as I do that.
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AFAIK, LFP max cell voltage is 3.65V (14.6V) and min is 2.5V (10V). Not sure why they are saying 3.7V.

Do you have the voltage values for the different battery types? Can we see the legend?

Values I would use would be:
BULK: 14.1V-14.4V
FLOAT: 13.5V
SOLAR: 13.8V

CUT-OFF: 11.5V-12V
 
wingnut771 said:
AFAIK, LFP max cell voltage is 3.65V (14.6V) and min is 2.5V (10V). Not sure why they are saying 3.7V.

Do you have the voltage values for the different battery types? Can we see the legend?

Values I would use would be:
BULK: 14.1V-14.4V
FLOAT: 13.5V
SOLAR: 13.8V

CUT-OFF: 11.5V-12V
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Looking at the manual I see there isn't much of a difference between the other battery types and LFP so it probably doesn't matter although it still bugs me that i cannot select the option.
 

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TheChamp said:
Looking at the manual I see there isn't much of a difference between the other battery types and LFP so it probably doesn't matter although it still bugs me that i cannot select the option.
Click to expand...
Agree, it should work. I would use gel settings. Also stick to the 0.15C charge.
 
wingnut771 said:
AFAIK, LFP max cell voltage is 3.65V (14.6V) and min is 2.5V (10V). Not sure why they are saying 3.7V.

Do you have the voltage values for the different battery types? Can we see the legend?

Values I would use would be:
BULK: 14.1V-14.4V
FLOAT: 13.5V
SOLAR: 13.8V

CUT-OFF: 11.5V-12V
Click to expand...
It may be assuming Lithium Ion battery and not Lithium Ion Phosphate, or perhaps the BMS is not the best
 
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