Unhappy with off-grid 48 volt system

[Bastian Bakkes]

Unfortunately your " Method of procedure " can't be clicked on .
My wife and I go to this farm every second weekend , it is 140 miles away from where we live . I will make certain when visiting again , about the watts drawn . At this stage I can tell you , when we are not at this house , it is only a small bar fridge running as well as an alarm system switched on . That's all . When we are visiting , we've got a computer running during daytime and switched off at night , a .37 kw pressure pump supplying fresh water for dishwashing of the minimum utensils after meals . We kind of live like campers during our visits , having for instance a barbeque at evenings . We will each take a shower ( gas ) before bed time ( again the .37 kw pump will supply water to the shower ) and maybe in the morning . Total showering time will not be more than 12 minutes for the combined 2 sessions . For that 12 minutes , the 2 LED lights will be switched on , add another 12 minutes for general "getting ready for the day " . During our evening meal you can add an hour where the double tube fluorescent light , 46 " long , will be switched on . After that hour , the fluorescent light gets switched off , where upon we will switch on the 4 LED downlighters in the living room . Roughly after an hour , we will go to sleep , using only a torch in the room .
The situation will differ somewhat once again I employ someone on the farm . The main difference will be that this person will be using a washing machine , only during daytime , and the addition of a TV with decoder .
Hope this will help in meantime .

[Sunking]

Unfortunately your " Method of procedure " can't be clicked on .

Try again, my bad forgot to put the link in.

OK got your location. Go edit your location as it is too precise to have the public see it. I got what I need to know. Lets just say Port Elizabeth South Africa and call it good.

[Victron]

Low quality inverter

Is your system still going? We had similar problems, it was the inverter. Get yourself a good inverter. Also look at "Hello Peter'

[Bastian Bakkes]

Is your system still going? We had similar problems, it was the inverter. Get yourself a good inverter. Also look at "Hello Peter'

Let me answer it this way , system is still installed but not going . For me to manage this unreliable system , over a distance of 140 miles , is sooooo difficult . Therefore I leave it switched off , least frustration . Glad you found a solution .

[Victron]

MicroCare

I am a supplier and lost seriously with MicroCare inverters where the customers didn't want to pay me and I had to upgrade them to a good make.
Now, six months later, MicroCare come with an invoice(R35K) for the faulty inverters we send back to them.
I think you have a serious system and just need a good inverter. Where is your place? I can stop there sometime. We work al over SA.

[Bastian Bakkes]

I am a supplier and lost seriously with MicroCare inverters where the customers didn't want to pay me and I had to upgrade them to a good make.
Now, six months later, MicroCare come with an invoice(R35K) for the faulty inverters we send back to them.
I think you have a serious system and just need a good inverter. Where is your place? I can stop there sometime. We work al over SA.

In the Alexandria-area , 90 km's from PE , towards East London .

[Mike90250]

repeating Sunkings test method:

You need three tools to determine battery condition: Hydrometer, Digital Volt Meter, and Thermometer. A good hydrometer will have thermometer built into it. Click here for Method of Procedure. Read it several times until you are confident you grasp the procedure then report back. Be patient it will take a while to go through all your batteries. Consider yourself lucky if you can find just 4 good ones.

Stick with a 48V system, more efficient, less loss than trying to backtrack to 24V.

If you cannot find enough good batteries, there is always the Golf Course. A common golf cart battery is 6V, 200ah or more. 8 of those, wired in series, would be about as cheap as you can get, to keep the system going while you debug what's wrong. 48V 200ah : 9600watt hours, 4800 useable. And 2 banks can be paralleled easily, if you connect to the terminals properly: (on the "diagonal")

http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html

And it could be that the fridge is the culprit. If it's not an energy efficient model, it can really chew through the batteries.

[Victron]

Good inverter

Sorry, this is one area we never go to. Buy yourself a Victron Phoenix 48V1200W inverter and your problems will be over. Get MicroCare to refund you and you will have a system that will work for the next 25 years and the money back from MicroCare will pay for the Victron and you will have some money surplus. the Victron can overload 100%. this inverter will drive a kettle or microwave with you fridge, TV and lights. The price is +/-R7000 excl. Vat

[mapmaker]

Sorry, this is one area we never go to. Buy yourself a Victron Phoenix 48V1200W inverter and your problems will be over. Get MicroCare to refund you and you will have a system that will work for the next 25 years and the money back from MicroCare will pay for the Victron and you will have some money surplus. the Victron can overload 100%. this inverter will drive a kettle or microwave with you fridge, TV and lights. The price is +/-R7000 excl. Vat

His problems can not be over until he has a properly sized, single string, battery bank. That is necessary, but may not be sufficient... There's a lot more to the system (controller, wiring, connectors, inverter, etc) that need to be checked out.

--mapmaker

[russ]

Sorry, this is one area we never go to. Buy yourself a Victron Phoenix 48V1200W inverter and your problems will be over. Get MicroCare to refund you and you will have a system that will work for the next 25 years and the money back from MicroCare will pay for the Victron and you will have some money surplus. the Victron can overload 100%. this inverter will drive a kettle or microwave with you fridge, TV and lights. The price is +/-R7000 excl. Vat

Never again do you try to sell here - OK. I thought you were trying to help the guy so I left it in but you turned out to be nothing.