Fun with Eskom Load Shedding

[Teal Smith]

@StickyD420 This is the type of info I was looking for all along. Cheers and thanks for reading my comments carefully, I think a few guys here missed the point.

So that changes things somewhat... I'll then get started with my auto seeds, and work towards getting a pure sine wave inverter + correct batteries to match.

I can smell the dank already 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Teal Smith

[Prom]

I have i diary here with royal gorillas autos, they ran 24/0  autos rock!

[Teal Smith]

@Prom I was thinking of running mine on 20/4 (or as close to that as I can get with being load shat). 

And there was no noticeable signs of stress at all with 24/0? I've heard of dudes doing that but many said it's not recommended... With load shedding that won't be a problem though ;) Maybe then I should just leave the lights and fans on permanently, using Eskom's load-shedding as the dark cycle/s every day....
 

What you think of that?

[Prom]

I usually run my autos 20/4.. the gorillas were just a non effort grow. They got nutes, that was it. I finish the diary on saturday or if i get the time tomorrow.

Finish... will not have the full harvest results. The three small plants are harvested, dried and in the jars.. smell awesome. 136g dry so far, the 5 big ones hanging to dry.. i might dress and jar them saturday or sunday.

If your tent is rather full... backup the airflow. Yes, not growing during night cycle.. but humidity increases and i am close to the ocean. PM is a bit annoying  so fresh air i prefer over light. If eskom plays balls, my ventilation runs 24/7 and cooks my climate

[Teal Smith]

3 minutes ago, Prom said:

I usually run my autos 20/4.. the gorillas were just a non effort grow. They got nutes, that was it. I finish the diary on saturday or if i get the time tomorrow.

Finish... will not have the full harvest results. The three small plants are harvested, dried and in the jars.. smell awesome. 136g dry so far, the 5 big ones hanging to dry.. i might dress and jar them saturday or sunday.

If your tent is rather full... backup the airflow. Yes, not growing during night cycle.. but humidity increases and i am close to the ocean. PM is a bit annoying  so fresh air i prefer over light. If eskom plays balls, my ventilation runs 24/7 and cooks my climate

Nice one Prom. Sounds great and makes me feel more at ease for sure. Ya I was a bit concerned about PM as I do live by the coast... I was wanting to go with SOG so airflow shouldn't be too much of an issue but I prefer to be cautious, so I'll just hijack my TV's small inverter and batteries, then run the fans only, no lights, when Eskom takes a load shit.

Glad to know you're the "auto guy" ;)  I might ask you for a little advice in the future, hope that's cool

[Prom]

As long as they veg, give them all 2 weeks a copper soap spray, keeps PM at bay. For flower... i repeat myself, sorry guys.. get some Serenade garden disease control... would also make the copper soap obsolete... and Serenade easy to use while flowering. Leaves no taste behind on the smoke

[afternoon blazer]

@Teal Smith what up bro. I was too tired to stay up for this chat. 

My last 2c.

The pure sign wave inverters are the better option. But also a pricier option.

 

I went with a sign wave inverter. After a mate of mine had been using the sMe 1 for over a year.

Its a good quality 1 from outdoor warehouse. Was about 2k 1000w.

U can get cheaper 1z. But i would stay away from anything under 2k. For quality reasons.

If u really wana get bang for your buck. 

The inverter system is a very simple system to wire up your self. Its liyerally 2 wires from battery to inverter.

 

Yes u might not get 1 that looks as neat and put together as the mercer unit. But the functionality is what matters.

N u know exactly what components u using.

U could even get urself an enclosure and work with that. Thats what i did. See below.

My system was bought for entertainment purposes only and not for growing. 

So its a small system. I get about 4 hours. To run my tv. Wifi. Playstation. Couple of lights.

Even though its not a pure sign wave. It functions well and never had issues for the last 4 months. My mate is pushing on 2 years now with no issues.

Also by building this thing myself. I got 250w more power and saved about R1500.

If u wana do it uself. Im sure we would be more then happy to help out.

Its really a simple thing bro.

 

Side note. If i wana use more power or if i wana use shit for a longer period of time. I would just add another battery.

[Teal Smith]

9 hours ago, afternoon blazer said:

@Teal Smith what up bro. I was too tired to stay up for this chat. 

My last 2c.

The pure sign wave inverters are the better option. But also a pricier option.

 

I went with a sign wave inverter. After a mate of mine had been using the sMe 1 for over a year.

Its a good quality 1 from outdoor warehouse. Was about 2k 1000w.

U can get cheaper 1z. But i would stay away from anything under 2k. For quality reasons.

If u really wana get bang for your buck. 

The inverter system is a very simple system to wire up your self. Its liyerally 2 wires from battery to inverter.

 

Yes u might not get 1 that looks as neat and put together as the mercer unit. But the functionality is what matters.

N u know exactly what components u using.

U could even get urself an enclosure and work with that. Thats what i did. See below.

My system was bought for entertainment purposes only and not for growing. 

So its a small system. I get about 4 hours. To run my tv. Wifi. Playstation. Couple of lights.

Even though its not a pure sign wave. It functions well and never had issues for the last 4 months. My mate is pushing on 2 years now with no issues.

Also by building this thing myself. I got 250w more power and saved about R1500.

If u wana do it uself. Im sure we would be more then happy to help out.

Its really a simple thing bro.

 

Side note. If i wana use more power or if i wana use shit for a longer period of time. I would just add another battery.

Blazer my man, thank you for your message ;). This thread has become long but in there somewhere it's been decided that I'll definitely go with a pure sine wave inverter, and the correct batteries to suit. I'm running autos, so for now the lighting won't be that much of an issue. The main thing tripping me up from the beginning was that I never knew autos could handle many hours of darkness multiple times a day. I was worried about them becoming hermies but I've found out that won't be the case. 
I'll keep the whole system running 24/7 during load shedding, and use each load-shed as my dark cycle/s. In the meantime, I'll be using my smaller inverter, that I already own for my TV and entertainment system, to run the fans only during power cuts. This is to avoid PM as I live by the coast. I'm also going with SOG so ventilation shouldn't give problems when there's no light.

We'll be saving up for a bigger, more suitable PSW inverter for the near future.

So we're good to go! Cheers man, will keep you chaps posted with pics when I can! 
Enjoy the weekend everyone 

Edited August 21, 2020 by Teal Smith

[afternoon blazer]

14 hours ago, Teal Smith said:

Blazer my man, thank you for your message ;). This thread has become long but in there somewhere it's been decided that I'll definitely go with a pure sine wave inverter, and the correct batteries to suit. I'm running autos, so for now the lighting won't be that much of an issue. The main thing tripping me up from the beginning was that I never knew autos could handle many hours of darkness multiple times a day. I was worried about them becoming hermies but I've found out that won't be the case. 
I'll keep the whole system running 24/7 during load shedding, and use each load-shed as my dark cycle/s. In the meantime, I'll be using my smaller inverter, that I already own for my TV and entertainment system, to run the fans only during power cuts. This is to avoid PM as I live by the coast. I'm also going with SOG so ventilation shouldn't give problems when there's no light.

We'll be saving up for a bigger, more suitable PSW inverter for the near future.

So we're good to go! Cheers man, will keep you chaps posted with pics when I can! 
Enjoy the weekend everyone 

Great stuff bro. Love to be of any help possible. U sound like u got shit under control and u have a plan. 

If u got a plan. Means u thinking well. 

All the best bro. And we will be waitimg for your updates. 

 

Also u did mention u have an iberter system currently. If the inverter is large enough. All u may need to do to sun ur grow setup is add a battery or 2. 

However if the inverter is too small u gona have to get another system.

[Teal Smith]

@afternoon blazer Thanks bro.

Ya bud, the inverter I have is too small for the light, unfortunately, and isn't PSW either so I'd be skeptical about running my QB's through it regardless.

Will send through some pics when I can. 

Have a lekka weekend man 

[Teal Smith]

On 8/20/2020 at 8:56 PM, StickyD420 said:

I'm not the man with regards to this, but heard that you need to make sure your inverter matches your batteries, as some batteries, silver culcium, will need a certain charger on inverter.

With regards to the flicker, this is also what I hear, and was told a guys heat mats burned out, and caught fire from non pure. So I just to be safe stuck with the pure, even after trying to short cut it with the mecer decoder style units 

An update on the inverter part of this thread:

So my grow is 6 days in. Load shedding came on for the 1st time today... I was standing by the fans when it happened. I noticed a big change in the sound they made... Like a humming/whining/droning noise.... Guess they made the same noise when I tested them on the UPS a while ago but I never compared it to the way they sounded on Eskom power... I tested, they worked, so thought I was golden... Nope! After speaking to a guy who builds inverters for a living (not mine), I found out that motorized Alternating Current fans don't work properly on "modified" or "square" sine wave. Only pure sine wave. I mean they worked but was told they would not have lasted long and would replacing soon. Yhe noise they made did not sound good at all... The old inverter works fine though, on electronics and has been powering my TV & entertainment system for 3 years with no problems.

So I'm in the market for a PSW Inverter again... Found one, but it's about a grand more expensive than what I can find online. Oh well, this can't wait... Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and go buy one tomorrow as I cannot afford to let load shedding fuck up my grow. Too much humidity...

@StickyD420 I thought I'd also mention what he told me: As long as the batteries are DEEP CYCLE, they will work on all pure sine wave inverters, irrespective of what they are made of. I told him you mentioned Silver Calcium batteries need their own specialized charger built into the inverter, but apparently that's not the case. He said that the newer technology deep cycle batteries just so happen to be Silver Calcium, and that voltage is voltage regardless of what the batteries are made of.

Any opposing info or advice welcome, because I plan on buying a PSW Inverter tomorrow morning. It may sound like the kind of thing that I should wait and be patient for but I have to get one tomorrow as the grow is already in full swing and need the fans working ASAP



 

[PsyCLown]

Sounds more or less right, something with an AC motor isn't meant to be run on a modified sine wave inverter, it will damage it.
If it runs off dc though, shouldn't be an issue as that modified ac sine wave will be converted to DC. So

Majority of electronics are run off dc.

AGM batteries do have a slightly different floating voltage and it is best to have a charger which is built to charge an agm battery to ensure the life and quality of the battery is prolonged as much as possible.
You can do a. It of googling about agm batteries and charging them in general.

It's also why when you put a new battery in most newer cars, you need to register the battery as over time the car adjusts the way it charges the battery to compensate for the battery deteriorating. Without registering that it's a new battery it doesn't reset and the battery won't last as long.
AGM batteries are generally used in cars with stop / start, but not limited to those and some of the newer cars automatically detect that its a new battery though I believe.
Also not uncommon to see battery chargers which have a specific agm mode.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 Pro using Tapatalk

[Teal Smith]

@PsyCLown Thanks for clearing that up... So silver calcium batteries are Absorbed Glass Mat? or are AGM the standard type of Deep Cycle Lead Acid?

The PSW inverter I found today and plan on buying tomorrow is an older unit, 7 years, unused and still in original packaging. It seems the build quality is better than the more recent models and it's more cost-effective than the ones I can find in town around here too.... Can find on the web but time is of the essence here and can't wait as tomorrow is stage 2 loadshat. 
The owner of an auto-spares shop bought this inverter but never ended up using it so was sitting in it's original box in his office...  BUT now I'm thinking that it won't charge the silver calcium batteries properly as I'm not sure those were around 7 years ago...

Hope they have the correct charger sold separately, or just the plain old Lead Acid Deep Cycle Batteries for the old model inverter.... otherwise we are back to square one again (facepalm)

 

Edited September 2, 2020 by Teal Smith

[PsyCLown]

8 hours ago, Teal Smith said:

@PsyCLown Thanks for clearing that up... So silver calcium batteries are Absorbed Glass Mat? or are AGM the standard type of Deep Cycle Lead Acid?

The PSW inverter I found today and plan on buying tomorrow is an older unit, 7 years, unused and still in original packaging. It seems the build quality is better than the more recent models and it's more cost-effective than the ones I can find in town around here too.... Can find on the web but time is of the essence here and can't wait as tomorrow is stage 2 loadshat. 
The owner of an auto-spares shop bought this inverter but never ended up using it so was sitting in it's original box in his office...  BUT now I'm thinking that it won't charge the silver calcium batteries properly as I'm not sure those were around 7 years ago...

Hope they have the correct charger sold separately, or just the plain old Lead Acid Deep Cycle Batteries for the old model inverter.... otherwise we are back to square one again (facepalm)

 

So keep in mind that the PSW inverter very well has some electrolytic capacitors inside, those will dry up with age even if not being used.

The typical lifespan is around 5 to 10 years, some last longer and some not as long... depends on the quality of the caps. So something to keep in mind. You could always open up the inverter and check and you could replace the caps for peace of mind if you are able to solder yourself. Not a difficult task but caps can get pricey quickly, especially if they are larger ones or more specialized ones, do not skimp on the quality of the caps either if you want to ensure it lasts.

 

http://www.challengebatteries.com.au/battery-faq/

Quote

What is a “Calcium” battery?

A Calcium battery is a still a lead acid battery; they are usually sealed maintenance free.  Calcium replaces antimony in the plates of the battery to give it some advantages including improved resistance to corrosion, no excessive gassing, less water usage and lower self discharge.  Silver is another additive used by some manufacturers, the addition of silver enables the battery to be more resilient to high temperatures.

Calcium batteries require a higher charge voltage than conventional batteries.  If used in a deep cycle situation it is advisable to use a charger designed for calcium batteries of has a calcium charging mode to get the maximum life out of the battery.

[Teal Smith]

1 hour ago, PsyCLown said:

So keep in mind that the PSW inverter very well has some electrolytic capacitors inside, those will dry up with age even if not being used.

The typical lifespan is around 5 to 10 years, some last longer and some not as long... depends on the quality of the caps. So something to keep in mind. You could always open up the inverter and check and you could replace the caps for peace of mind if you are able to solder yourself. Not a difficult task but caps can get pricey quickly, especially if they are larger ones or more specialized ones, do not skimp on the quality of the caps either if you want to ensure it lasts.

 

http://www.challengebatteries.com.au/battery-faq/

Thanks bud. Great info re the caps and I have an electronics guy down the road who will be able to change them for me if necessary. Why not, shouldn't be overly expensive to do so...

Yes, I saw that web page, thanks. Still not sure whether silver calcium are listed as AGM though... doesn't really matter I guess, as long as the inverter has the means to charge the batteries.

In the interim, looks like I've found a 3KW 24V PSW inverter for about R2000 less than on TakeAlot. The brand is Synapse. The same supplier has Gel batteries which you can hammer down all the way down to 90% discharge. 6000 full cycles and warranty is  10 years. R2700 each. If they can overnight the order to me, I'll take them and the inverter. 

I'll have to deal with loadshedding for a day or 2 more, but I reckon I'll make a plan in venting humidity and keeping temp to a decent level. It's coooooold here in the Cape right now....

Edited September 2, 2020 by Teal Smith

[PsyCLown]

Keep in mind that in order to get 24v, you will need at least 2x 12v batteries and the capacity will not be increased. So the capacity will remain the same as using 1x 12v battery with a 12v inverter.

[Teal Smith]

@PsyCLown  Yes bud, I'm aware, 24V = 2 x 12V batteries. Capacity will not be doubled but apparently the efficiency is a little better than just 12V. Nice one.

Since I was last online, an amazing thing has happened.... About 2 years ago I loaned my brother some money and today of all days he has decided to pay me back. Since he runs an electrical wholesaler, he paid me back with an awesome Kodak 5KW PSW inverter + 4 Lithium Ion batteries! Will be taking delivery Fri morn. I can now run EVERYTHING on this rig - lights, fans, A/C, dehumidifier, humidifier etc.  I can't believe my luck and timing!

Another massive positive is that I've learned so much from you guys & online,  now have a much better understanding of how UPS inverters and batteries work, which I probably wouldn't have learned if it wasn't for this challenge. 

An awesome day, which was much needed!  

Edited September 2, 2020 by Teal Smith

[PsyCLown]

Very awesome, even li-on batteries too. Sounds like a fantastic setup.

 

I wish I had lent your brother some money 2 years ago too. haha

[The_StonedTrooper]

Glad you got your questions answered and by someone who has great knowledge too, and given you great advice. 

So happy you sorted, and wish too I had family like that, very nice one

Edited September 3, 2020 by StickyD420

[The_StonedTrooper]

On 9/2/2020 at 1:13 PM, PsyCLown said:

Very awesome, even li-on batteries too. Sounds like a fantastic setup.

 

I wish I had lent your brother some money 2 years ago too. haha

Yes extremely lucky, those batteries can be fully discharged and charged with little to no issues and last lekker long, also not as fussy about charge current and fluctuating voltages, amps and such.