Load shedding solutions

There are so many products and opinions on the market that it becomes difficult for a layman to know what to opt for.

The industry really needs to get out of the habit of bad mouthing competitors. Most are not impressed by the practice, and if anything, it pushes potential customers away.

Ideally, you want a system that will either cover you for load shedding for 4 hours, or a system that you can develop to eventually take you almost off-grid.

Important differences to be cognoscente of, are the types of inverters. Hybrid (Eskom/battery/pv panels), Grid-tied (Eskom/pv panels) and off grid (batteries and PV panels). The important thing about grid-tie is that it only supplements your usage, drops your peaks and does not provide power during load shedding/reduction.

Today we will look at a 'plug and play' type system that is well manufactured, has lithium Iron batteries and can be hung by a layman. The connection to your electrical distribution board (DB) and the splitting thereof should be done by a qualified electrician. This requires a COC upon completion and is an insurance requirement.

The Blue Nova CPS 3000 is the most popular of this range of pre-built Compact Power Stations manufactured by Blue Nova. It requires two eye bolts to be drilled into the wall to be hung, from there on your local sparky can connect it to your DB.

The system allows you to run up to approximately 15Amps. Your DB MUST be split so that the appliances on this system will not exceed the 15A peak. Unlike more expensive inverters, this does not have the ability to direct extra Amperage over the 15 Amps when there is Eskom power available.

It is, however, a really practical and affordable load shedding solution, it does have a built-in MPPT that allows you to add up to 1500w of panels to charge the battery and run the items on that circuit.

Your electrician will have to add 2 circuit breakers and a changeover switch to make this compliant but to run a few lights and plugs is a superb solution for an everyday household. We are currently having a sale on these at R33 995.00

https://www.green-grid.co.za/product/blue-nova-compact-power-station-cps3000

Please contact us for any questions you have relating to those and our other solutions