My load-shedding solution.

[acpaterson]

I've been a little overwhelmed by friends and friends of friends asking me what I have done at home to deal with Eishkom Loadshedding in the Country. So without further ado, this is my solution.
I'm not going to say this is the RIGHT way to do things, but I also don't give a shit if it's illegal or not, it's my house, I own it, and I've taken the risk and accepted it.

My solution costs approximately R 5 000-00. This consists of a good old UPS. Pictured here, the first workable solution I built which a few guys in my office have now adopted themselves. This is a 1200 Watt UPS, with 4 Batteries connected in series and parallel to provide 24 Volts and 52 A/h of power. I connected my TV, DSTV Decoder, Home Theater Amp, HDMI switch and a couple of power-saving bulbs up, and this runs all of that for 2 hours perfectly.



I subsequently have already modified this in my house and wired this up directly to my DB Board, as well as adding an additional UPS and more Batteries, and for now besides a Fridge and Stove, pretty much everything in the house runs when there's Load-Shedding. Now when it happens, we actually hardly notice it. Sad case of affairs, but a reality nonetheless.



So, there you go. Cheap solution if you DO in fact want elec 24/7.

Alan

[bugspray]

I'd probably burn down the town if i attempted that awesome fix

[Sambabus]

You can also use an inverter and connect it to your telkom line. You just need to reduce the 64v telkom power to 12v for the inverter

[acpaterson]

Don't think the Amps are enough to run a bulb for 10 minutes, let alone a number of heavy appliances for 2 hours.. Just sayin'.

[Sambabus]

I havent tried the inverter, but the telkom power does run LEDs

[Wentzel]

I like your solution and have been thinking about something similar myself. How did you wire it to the db board and does it change over by itself? Or do you run through it permanently just keeping the batteries charged fully when there is power?

Thanks

[Drusky]

How does this not feed back into the grid? Do you throw your mains breaker?

[acpaterson]

Mine is connected all the time, like a normal UPS. When the power is on, the UPS is in bypass mode and recharges the batteries. When the Power fails, the UPS switches over within a few milliseconds and the appliances continue to run. Depending on how much you have plugged in depends on how long it runs for, but you can connect two 105 Ah monster batteries and it can run a couple of items for hours.
As for the DB mods, I have removed specific circuits from the DB board which plug into the UPS's. Lights, and some Plug circuits.

[Wentzel]

Thanks that explains what I wanted to know about the db.

My plan eventaully is to install a charger/controller (similar to UPS) availalble from 1kva to 5 kva with its own batteries that should be able to do the same as the UPS but they are a bit more $$ depending on size. Then you also need to buy 2 to 4 batteries depending on the which one you use.

It should be possible to run 2 UPS's in parallel to increase your power if I am not mistaken maybe that is also an option.

[JamesD]

Be careful of two ups units in parallel, remember you are dealing with alternating current coming out of them and those sine waves need to be in sync with each other to run in parallel. I am not sure about the technicalities behind this. With 3 phase generators they need to align the phases before sharing the load.

[Wentzel]

You are right JamesD. That will be a consideration, I am used to light current and forget about the AC waves, power factors etc.

Thanks

[retrovan]

Much better to get a Inverter of the size you need, then get some battery s, and hey presto, you have your own UPS

You can charge the battery's even when running the inverter, by solar power, wind power or a normal battery charger.

Thats all a UPS is, no magic.

OMO

Herman

[acpaterson]

Well, not exactly. a line interactive UPS (Inverter), means the device doesn't power off when the power fails. Big difference.

[bugspray]

the invertor and battery idea is a good idea, infact Wentzel and myself were chatting about that last night. the only major hassle is the upfront cost of a Deep cycle battery. 3-4k new. and they are kak heavy, but not really an issue for a house. Builders warehouse have a small solar kit with inverter, panel and two lights. quite cool, but that's just for two led lights so not really going to keep your house lit up.

[acpaterson]

Agreed, and yes, Deep Cycle is the correct way to go, esp if you intend putting up Solar. Solar does nothing for my requirements, it's still far too expensive, and my elec bill doesn't justify Solar. (Sub 500 a month for my household).
This is for LOAD SHEDDING, not ESKOM replacement. The downside of a non-line interactive solution (Inverter), is when there's load shedding, you then need to go unplug from Eskom and plug into your Inverter. A UPS, you don't even realize when shedding has occurred, except with the beeping notifications.

There are many ways to skin this cat, but as I said, this is my solution to compensate for the 2 hour loadsheds.. Eskom is still the cheapest Electricity on the planet, don't think otherwise about this.