Power Fail

At last some  positive feedback. Last Friday there was a major power fail in the area. Lasted from just
before midnight to 11am the next morning. I was not even aware if it. Only noticed it when I looked
at the system log the next day.  There were a few shorter power fails as well a few days earlier, again
the system took care of it.

Bell 430 Conversion completed

Just got some news from Mark that he completed the Bell 430 Conversion. Now he is the pilot in command.
He send me these photos. It is quite an achievement. Although he says he likes the Bell 407 better as in that one he can do things (by this he means some fancy flying) while the 430 is more like a fixed wing
aircraft which due to it's size has to be flown like a plane.
Congratulations Captain!!

The Electric Kettle Syndrome

In this post I will try and give a realistic appraisal of the many reasons why South Africa has become a fully fledged Third World Country. No further efforts will ever be able to reverse that. We have regressed too far.
Last week one of our illustrious leaders declared that that Science will be the salvation
of South Africa. Since every other means to save the sinking ship has failed.
First of all let me state that the white mans science can not fix the black mans problems. It is as simple as that.
Just for starters the education system is in a state of paralysis if not worse.
We do not produce any graduates of the required caliber let alone in sufficient numbers.
We do not offer sufficiently advanced courses in the few Universities which still function to produce innovative engineers and scientists.
All we offer is some watered down subjects tailored in such a way that even retards can pass.
We have no major industries, like ship building, a home grown automotive industry let alone
more high tech ones like Semiconductor or Bio technology or any other requiring a fair number
of intelligent, educated human beings.
We import everything from toothbrushes to airliners. We export raw materials which we then re import
as finished goods. There is talk of forcing industries to beneficiate these raw materials before the are
exported. Great idea. But who will do the job? We do not have the suitably educated personnel or
the expertise let lone the electricity needed.
Right at this moment we have a number of smelters shut down as there is not sufficient electricity to run them.

If one compares the achievements of the rest of the world over the past 40 or so years with what has
been achieved here in the same period we should hang our heads in shame.
This is little wonder when one considers that emigration of skilled people is encouraged.
A number of politicians openly stated that they don't mind at all if skilled people leave.
Well, a million or so did. And I am also not going to hang around forever.
And by the way it's not a case of the rats leaving the ship. It's the other way, more like the ship
leaving the rats.

No major infrastructure projects successfully completed come to mind. There are a few on the go
but it remains to be seen if they will ever be completed on time let alone on budget.
Our beloved Gautrain, the high speed rail linking the airport with Jhb and Pretoria is still being
plagued by cable theft forcing it to stop operations. Besides it is rather expensive so the majority of the
population can not afford it.

Most of our once beautiful infrastructure is in a sorry state, roads and rail network in dire need of repair.
Especially the rail network is so poor that most goods have to be moved by heavy trucks instead of by rail.
This exacerbates the road infrastructure problem.  A while ago I had to see a client 150 km southeast of
Johannesburg. Knowing that the roads are bad in that area I did not use my Porsche with its low ground
clearance. I went in a 4x4 with 20 inch tires. To keep a long story short I had to turn back halfway as the
road was in such a shocking state that it was becoming extremely dangerous to drive. Potholes galore.
So I turned back and returned by helicopter the next day.

I keep a Go Pro camera in the Porsche so I have a video of any accident I might be involved in.
When I review these videos I always keep count of the traffic lights I go through. Then I count how many
are not working. The average number of faulty Traffic lights is about 40%. After a few days of rain
that figure goes up to 60%.
I once saw a photo of a submerged street in New Zealand after a river burst it's banks.
The road must have been 5 feet (1.5m) under water. But the traffic light was still working.

Then of course is the problem with our electricity supply. On very shaky grounds. Partly because
of lack of maintenance and partly because of lack of forward planning.
I have installed a R500,000 ($50,000) Solar Photo Voltaic System almost 2 years ago.
We had rolling blackouts a few times per week often lasting 12 hours.
So I got extremely pissed off and installed the PV System. No problems since then.
Thank God for the intelligent mans technology.

Large chunks of all major cities are run down and virtual no go areas. Although some effort
is being made to improve the situation, once again it had reached a point where no intervention
can do much except to fix the worst problems.
Whole buildings have been abandoned by their owners when the area turned bad and the original
tenants moved out. So the rent money stopped. Then the buildings got high jacked by criminals
renting it out to the poor. With no electricity, water or lifts they soon became hell holes.

Crime is so bad these days due to failed economic policies that unemployment is at an all time high.
Youth unemployment is at 50%. Other unemployment is not far behind.

Our police force is battling not only criminals but is being choked by criminality within it's own ranks
to a degree that the internal watchdog is unable to cope.
Police corruption is endemic. Ordinary people are just seen as a meal ticket for personal enrichment.
I don't have to cite examples. The papers are full of them.
Only last week 4 cops were arrested for rape. 2 in the Cape and 2 in Johannesburg.
This is an ongoing problem with them. Nothing new. Over a 1000 cops in Johannesburg have been
or are under investigation for criminal activities.

Being very involved in aviation I have a particular interest in our Air Force.
Just today there were a number of newspaper articles reporting on the sorry state of affairs in what
is one of the oldest Air Forces in the World.
Apparently all 18 Augustas 109 Helicopters have been grounded due to lack of funds.
The same also applies to our Grippen Fighter Jets. Their maintenance contract has expired and has
not been renewed it said in the newspaper story. Most are in long time storage and are being
cannibalised for spares to keep the others flying.
It also reported that the Air Force is considering selling off the Helicopter operations.
Not sure what that means. Outsourcing? To a private company?
As one defence analyst remarked. A army without helicopters is a Dinosaur stuck in a swamp and                an Air Force without fighter jets is a sitting duck.
The same also applies to the Police Air wing. 40% of aircraft are not serviceable.
A friend who flies for the police says he has not flown in months.

A country blessed with every resource under the sun, including our superb climate, wildlife,
astounding vistas, gold and many other minerals and we can't make it work????

Has it ever occurred to anybody why countries with the least natural resources have the greatest
industrial output.  Oops sorry, for got to mention that these countries have a working education
system and an intelligent workforce.

Now let me explain what is meant by title of this post 'The Electric Kettle Syndrome'.
This will explain most of the above comments.
A while ago I evaluated a few recent graduates from our top engineering universities as
possible candidates for some job vacancies due to our rapid growth.
One of them always comes to mind immediately whenever that topic crops up.
Besides having absolutely no understanding of the subject matter he spent 4 years studying
he also was totally unable to reason logically. Now that is one of the main attributes of an
Electronic Engineer. At least in my humble opinion. If you can't analyse problems logically
how the hell are you going to solve them.
But what really put him out of the race was that he was unable to operate our electric kettle
to make himself a cup of coffee. He could not figure out how to open the lid to pour water in.
Admittedly it is a fancy Russel Hobbs kettle found only in upmarket homes but he was a
professional electronic engineer. And we depend on  people like this to innovate and be the
driving force of the economy.  Why am I crying? Must be somebody cutting onions in the kitchen.



To be continued........

This is what happens when a Scientist get bored

And if you look closely you can spot the mistake HE made.
That is the reason why it gets dark at night.

The Truth about paying taxes

The positive side of Discrimination

More Cop's Troubles

I've been getting a lot of requests from friends in Europe and the US who hear and see suddenly a lot of negative reporting in their electronic media regarding South Africa's fast accelerating slide into a Third World Banana Republic. During a phone call to one of our European Client's the person on the other end was very concerned about my personal safety after just having seen a full page, extremely negative, report on the conditions inside this country. Corruption, violence against women and children, nepotism, maladministration, Police brutality etc, etc. And this in a publication usually not known for such negative reporting. It seem even the liberal press in the First World is waking up. I had to tell him that whenever I go out I have a personal armed guard following me in his bulletproof car. Comes at a price, but it is a lot cheaper than a coffin and a funeral. It is nothing short of amazing how many press reports, on a daily basis deal with corrupt cops. Motorists are being harassed, abducted or carjacked on a daily basis. I am posting a few more press reports about this. Getting very tired just posting negative stories but these are the majority of reports of what is being published. I will look for some positive stories as well. One that comes to mind is that our beloved government, being cash strapped as usual, are now looking for some innovative ways to raise more taxes. One such grandiose scheme is to introduce a 'Graduate' tax. Meaning that graduates from tertiary institutions will be subject to an additional tax over and above income tax. Ingenious. Will do wonders to encourage young people to get a degree or two. Will they be taxed per degree? So if you do a Bachelor's then a Masters and then to crown it all a PhD you will have to pay 90% of income tax.

Should one lough or cry?

I've been getting a lot of these pamphlets in my mailbox recently. Must say, the claims made are nothing short of miraculous. Makes western medicine, for which I have personally not a very high regard, almost primitive by comparison. The vast majority of South Africans rely on 'Sangomas' or Herbalists as they are also known for their primary health care.
 There was even an attempt made to pull them into the mainstream of health providers so patients could put in a claim to their Medical Aid Societies. For the little good they do there is a lot of serious concern. For instance one reads often in the local press of a Sangoma being arrested for being in possession of human body parts which are an important ingredient in the potions they concoct. Often these body parts are being removed from the victim while still alive as that makes the 'Muti', the concoction more potent.
Sadly many of the victims are small children, murdered for their organs.

 One of the more hilarious stories one hears a lot is that criminals pay a lot of money to their Sangoma to make them bullet proof when they plan a robbery or something in that line of work. A incident that still has me rolling on the floor is that 4 of them planed to rob a bank in the middle of Johannesburg. So they explained to the Sangoma what they really need him to do was to make them invisible. Which the Sangoma proceeded to do, after a lot of cash was paid over first. When they carried out the robbery the next day they were clearly visible on the CCTV surveillance tape. They did not even bother to hide their faces because they were 'invisible'.

Another upstanding member of the 'Protect and Serve Brigade"

Audi R8 Crash Docket lost

Got this e-mail from my crime watch chapter today. Nothing new or surprising. Dockets are being 'lost' for years. Then the court case is being thrown out by the Magistrate. A very effective way to escape justice. As I said before, most of the Law Enforcement - Justice Complex has been thoroughly subverted. It has become the laughing stock of the nation. Only a few weeks ago some prisoners were being transported in a police truck to or from a court appearance. Someone in the police department supplied them with some explosives which they detonated inside the truck killing a few fellow prisoners. They then escaped. Nothing money can't buy in this country.

Arlarming Escalation to a Lawless Society

I read with shock a few days ago that a AUDI R8 broke into 3 pieces after hitting a pole and a wall in the middle of Johannesburg killing the driver and a policeman passenger. From the photos of the crash site
it was impossible to make out the make of the car.
Since I also drive a Porsche, a car in the same bracket, this was of personal interest to me.
From the little that is known what happened at 4am that morning is that it appears that the driver was
stopped by police. It is alleged that they searched the car and found a small amount of Marijuana.
This is a ruse used by the police to solicit bribes as they threaten you with arrest. This has been reported a number of times in the press. Apparently, it is claimed, they plant the drugs as they search
the car. And what better target than a well heeled motorist. The more expensive the car the bigger the bribe. Does not take much education to figure that one out.
One officer was seen by a  passing motorist  as well as a CCTV camera to be sitting in the car and
driving down the road just before the crash. Speculation is that the driver was driving to an ATM to
draw cash for a bribe. What happened then is a mystery. We'll see what comes out in the wash.
That is not an isolated incident. Cops asking for bribes is becoming our new national sport, maybe
to compensate for the dismal performance of our national soccer team or their lousy pay.
A fellow Porsche driver was carjacked and kidnapped  for 24 hours by 'policemen' in uniform
just a few km from where I live. Also at night. An other motorist in the same area was also carjacked
by 'police' in uniform and taken to an ATM to draw cash. Then they keep them hostage until
after midnight when the ATM will dish out the maximum daily limit again. There have been instances
where the victim was kept hostage for days so the ATM could be looted over and over again,
with the victims locked in the boot of their cars. The case of a lady in Durban last year comes to mind.
She barely survived the ordeal.
A few years back I was standing at the checkout in my supermarket and saw the headline of the
Sunday Times scream in 2inch letters: 'Rolex Gang strikes again'. So I read the front page story while
waiting in the queue. To my shock it reported that one of my clients, a fellow Porsche driver, was
followed home by some criminals who shot him nine times and stole his expensive watch. In his driveway.
He survived. He had been shot once before while leaving his business! But I don't think that he would
be used to it by now. Getting shot that is.
Than there was the newspaper report that a Policeman in full uniform took part in a business robbery
in Pretoria. He was apprehended quickly thanks to some CCTV footage I believe.
It is estimated that 50% of drivers licenses are 'bought'. These are legitimate documents which have
been obtained from corrupt officials for a substantial 'facilitation fee'. And that is the official estimate.
Efforts are being made by the authorities to counteract this but once the drivers licence is issued it is next
to impossible to find out it was obtained by fraudulent means. And that applies to all types of licenses,
from cars to trucks even commercial Pilots Licenses have been obtained that way. Even my son,
who is a commercial pilot was offered the opportunity. He declined as he had no problems passing
all of the rather stiff exams. But people who struggled were tempted to go that route. That scam I believe
has now been stopped but there a pilots out there with a fake commercial licence.
In order to avoid  to fall victim to the above mentioned dangers I do not drive before 9am and after
3pm. Ever. I have not been on the road at night for years. I also use the services
of a Professional Armed Escort whenever I have to go to a meeting who follows me in his car.
It is a sad fact, reported many times in the newspapers, that policemen hire out their service pistols
to criminals while they are off duty. The guns are then used to commit crimes and are returned to the
policeman before he goes back on duty.
My biggest client was having dinner at a restaurant a while back. Some guys stormed in and robbed
the patrons of their belongings. They took his Glock pistol. He is a highly trained self defence expert
as well as a fine marksman. But he said he could not use the gun in a crowded restaurant. It would have
caused a bloodbath. However as the gang fled in their car he took down the registration number.
It turned out that the car was registered to the police. The culprits were off duty policemen moonlighting
for a little extra income. He got his gun back after a year or so.
And so the list gets longer and longer. There are daily reports in all the papers telling similar stories.
And one of our police commissioner's was convicted of corruption for accepting payments from a drug
king pin. And his successor was declared unfit for the job due to some shady dealings involving hundreds
of millions. But as one of our favourite little saying goes: Blue Sky's, Barbeque's and ...... everything
is just perfect.
The situation will not improve until the citizens of this county will eventually learn that dishonesty and
criminality are not the correct ideals to be handed down to the next generation.
There is a reason why some societies are successful and others fail.......

Medical Rescue Stint

Mark send me this photo last week. Whenever he is back in the country he is assigned to fly Rescue
Choppers. Usually at the South Coast. This photo was taken as he was taking off to sling a body
out of a river gorge in Natal. Somebody found a body floating in the river and as the location was
extremely inaccessible by foot the chopper was sent in to do the job.
He says it was a tricky bit of flying having to balance the skids on a few rocks in the river so
the medics could load him into the stretcher and then do a vertical climb.

6.3kW on a cool overcast day. 76 Amps says we are in charge limit as well

80% cloud cover

Photo Voltaic Panel Performance

One of the less well known facts about Solar Panels is that their ability to convert sunlight into electricity depends heavily on their temperature, which is to a first approximation the ambient temperature,
in other words is it a cold or hot day. There are other factors as well influencing how hot they get
such as how much cooling is available. Cooling can be just simply wind flowing across them.
Correct mounting is also important, for instance having a gap of about 3 to 4 inches (7 to10 cm)
underneath so no hot air is being trapped below the panels.
But of course they operate best on a cool day. Even if there is a substantial cloud cover.
Such a day is today. Happened to walk past the inverter and looked at the display.
Showed 6300 Watts. The duty cycle  of the MPPT was at 63% which is an indication of the
prevailing weather condition.
It shows 76A being produced. That means we are in Charge Limit, the MPPT can't handle more
and limits the current before it would self-destruct.
Took some photos of the display and the cloud cover.
80% overcast I would say. Ambient temperature about 22 degree Celsius. A cool day for us
in Johannesburg.
By comparison, yesterday we had the most exquisite day in a long time. Deep blue sky, not a cloud
in sight all day, hot as well. 30 degrees at least. The panels never managed to go much over 5000 Watts.
I've seen this many times before. If you look at the performance curves of a solar panel it is very apparent.
Solar Panels are after all nothing more than Silicon Diodes optimised for light to electricity conversion.
And all diodes exhibit a negative temperature coefficient of about 2.2mV/deg. That means the power they
produce for a given solar radiation (called Insolation for Incident Solar Radiation) is less the hotter
they are.

Solar System Statistics

We are now running the system for exactly one year to the day.
A quick look at the data accumulated, (I keep a detailed log of
all important parameters like DC power produced, AC power
generated from that DC power, AC power consumed by the load,
AC power returned to the grid, power used to charge the batteries
etc).
So far we generated 9 MWh of Solar (DC). With a conversion efficiency
of about 80% that gave us 7.2 MWh of usable 220VAC power.

Keeping in mind that we started off with only 16 250W panels,
then added 5 more and 3 more only a few months ago plus
an upgrade to the inverter which lasted 3 weeks for which we had
to use the grid, we have  used only 1.2MWh of grid power
the whole year.

Which means we are now totally self sufficient since adding the
last 3 panels. As I said in my last post I am waiting for the new
inverter which has 2 100 Amp MPPT's which will overcome
our current bottleneck of a 80 A MPPT. During the peak hours
of sunshine we are usually in Charge Limit and loosing out on quite
a few kWh per day.

All in all I am very happy with the performance of the system.
Money well spent, but most of all, the peace of mind that brings.
Not to forget the satisfaction of a job well done.

The cost of electricity has gone up something like 120% in the last
few years and is being increased by 16% annually over the next
5 years we have been informed. That will more than double the
price of electricity in that period. And I'm sure all the other
charges associated with our municipal account will also increase
at similar rates.
Somebody has to pay for our 30 million unemployable countrymen.
There are about 5 million registered taxpayers in the country
but we have 14 million receiving some government grant or other.
And just this week it was decided by our illustrious leaders that
they intend to give a job seekers grant to an other few millions.
This is because the Education System has been completely destroyed.
To pass Matric, that is the final exam after 12 years of schooling, a pass rate
of between 30 and 40 % is required. My dog can do better than this.
This is despite the fact that most students do not take Mathematics as a
subject at all because the majority would fail the year.
So the Education Authority introduced a extremely watered down subject
called Mathematical Literacy. That is basically so they can at least understand
a Bank Statement when they see one. Not that they will ever get one themselves
as this would require getting a job first.
But this is the least of our worries. What is far more disturbing is the fact that our
Universities are producing Graduates which have absolutely no clue whatsoever
of the subject they studied for 4 years.
I had the rare pleasure of evaluating two of them. From one of the top Engineering
Universities, not the bottom of the heap.
I have never seen such lack of understanding. And by this I mean of the Basics.
I knew more before I began my studies then these two after four years.
And they are both doing their Masters at the moment. Hoo Boy.
How the hell can a reputable University even consider conferring a Degree if it was not
for political interference from  the top.
When I politely inquired about the sorry state of their competency I was equally politely
informed that they were told by their professors that in this country we only do
maintenance so electronic design knowledge will never be required.
And I was of the opinion that was the reason one went to university in the first place.
Evidently I was wrong.

Effect of adding the last 3 panels

Since we added the last 3 250W PV panels a few months ago we now
are producing up to 40kWh a day on clear sunny days which are the norm
in Johannesburg. We must have at least 300 of such days per year.
One of the very best climates on the planet. Beautiful days and cool nights.
But even on cloudy days we produce up to 30kWh. The sunlight is more
diffused then and the ambient temperature is lower which is a major factor when it comes to the efficiency with which the panels convert sunlight into electricity.
The limiting factor as this point in time is the MPPT (Maximum Power
Point Tracker) which limits at 80 Amperes. The panels can supply more.
I have ordered a new 8kW Grid tied inverter with two 100 A MPPT's
build in but there were some delays with the design of the MPPT's I was told. Then the bottleneck of the 80A limit is gone and we should be
able to harvest the maximum power.
Since I am running the entire property on solar, including the pool pump,
2 air cons, a electronic design lab with a staff of 8, half a dozen computers
and last but not least a 3 kW kettle which is probably most heavily used item, working overtime daily I could use the extra power.
A calculation showed that we could expect 50kWh a day.
Looking at some data which gives the level of insolation at our latitudes
it says we are receiving over 6kWh per square  meter. If you multiply this
with the area of a panel and its efficiency then one comes very close to the
250W the panel can deliver. This is a very effective way to calculate the
number of panels required for a particular installation. I will do some
measurements to see how much a panel can actually deliver on a perfect
day. I am sure it will be more then 250 Watts. The 250 Watt figure is
the factory spec when the panel is tested in the factory with the industry
standard 1000W/m2 light source. Not sure what is the spectral distribution of that light source, (does it approximate sun light?)
since a PV panel is sensitive to spectral variations.

15 of the 24 PV panels. 6kW total installed capacity

The last 3 panels added

Crazy 5000km Helicopter Flight

Mark, that is my son, has been on a few tours to the Sudan late last year and once or twice this year.
He is a commercial Chopper Pilot and is flying Long Rangers as well as Bell HU1's amongst other
types like Bell 407's Robinson R22, R44 etc.
The Helicopters and crew's are supplied by South African Aviation Companies to virtually all African
Countries for a variety of tasks.
In the Sudan, which has almost no roads and the few it has have been beneficiated with land mines, the only
way to go anywhere is by helicopter.
He's job was to take workers and supplies to the oil fields and back amongst other things.
Then the North and South had their much publicized split which culminated in the obligatory
exchange of gunfire and bombs. True to form, nothing new.
So everybody had to get out from there. There was some advance warning so everybody
got out safely. They did not want to leave the choppers behind so someone had to fly them
back to South Africa. Since Mark at that time was on tour he took the Long Ranger, fitted the
ferry tanks and set of for Kampala (Uganda) to have some new Rotor Blades fitted. That took a week.
As he was the only pilot (he had a passenger, one of the fixed wing engineers who also had to get
out) it was up to him to get them and the chopper back safely.
I am going to upload a lot of the flight documentation (flight plans, military clearances etc.)
The first leg was to go across Lake Victoria in a single engine chopper
(a 2 hour flight across water with no floats or life jackets)
into Tanzania, across the well known Serengeti to Mount Kilimanjaro where they spent the night
at the hotel.
A few years earlier one of his class mates was the co-pilot of a plane that crashed into the mountain
a few feet below the summit. As it involved a number of wealthy international tourists the crash made
headlines around the world.
Then further on to Dar Es Salam and then due south along the coastline into Mocambique
re-fueling a number of times along the way. Finally across the South African border at the Kruger Park.
Then the last leg from Kruger Park (Nelspruit Airport) to Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg.
The whole trip lasted 9 days. The flying part alone was 5 days (40 hours). 5000 km exactly.
Lots of red tape on the way as usual when flying in Africa.
Since most choppers do not have an auto pilot all of the flying is done by the pilot. And a chopper
needs to be hand flown from take off to landing. One can lock the throttle, that helps a bit but there is
no lapse of concentration allowed.
As I said I will upload a lot of the documentation which he accumulated. Have already scanned in
most of it. Not many people have the opportunity to go on such an adventure. Flying in Africa is still
a hazardous business due to the sheer size of the continent alone. It is also a very beautiful continent, not
yet dragged into the 20th century, let alone the 21st.
At the moment Mark is in Angola on a 3 month contract. They took 6 choppers up to Luanda
(13 hours flying time). Last time I had an e-mail from him he was taking some ballot boxes
and election officials around.

The Water Lab Report

More panels and a new inverter

Had a spot on the roof which was begging for some Solar Panels.
Fitted 3 more 250 Watt mono-chrystaline. Now we are full house
so to speak. Total installed Solar Capacity is now 6 kW.
                                                                     
At the moment we are at the end of winter so we are 20 to 30%
down on what is available in summer. Saw a maximum of
6000 Watts being generated 3 days ago. For the past two days
we had the most extreme weather ever experienced in South Africa.
We had snowfall in all 9 provinces with many roads closed and
icy conditions. No sun in sight. Still managed to get a total of 30 kWh
for these two days. Almost breaking even with consumption.
Today the weather was back to normal, beautiful blue skys with
no cloud in sight but still a bit on the cool side. Managed 35kWh.

Also ordered a new model of the Grid tied Inverter.
Also 8kVA but with 2 100 Amp MPPT (Maximum Power Trackers).
Will split the 24 Panels into 2 groups of 2x12 and feed one each to
the 2 MPPT. So that will give me some redundancy.
Will keep the old inverter as a back-up. Its only 2 years old but
it was one of the first of the 8kVA models produced by the
manufacturer and it had a problem after two months of operations
which necessitated a major repair. Been working fine since.
But you never know. So the new one is coming this week.
It's an upgraded version which carries a 5 year warranty.
Not exactly cheap at almost R70,000 ($9,000) but as I said
before, my Porsche deserves a warm garage.

An other interesting little episode happened 2 months ago when I
checked the water levels in my 1660Ah battery bank.
Was getting a bit low so I shopped around for some distilled water.
Not as easy as you would expect. Bought 5 liters from one of my
suppliers I also use for my business. He sourced some from some
shady supplier. I phoned them asking for a spec sheet for the
distilled water they are selling for as much money as I would pay
for a bottle of Whisky. Got a spec sheet but it was very cagey.
So I also bought a 25 liter container from the manufacturer of the
batteries. Should have thought of it earlier, but they are 30km
away so the first option was more convenient.
So I filled 3 little bottles with the 2 distilled waters I bought and
one more with some tap water from my tap in the kitchen.
(As a control).
Then took them to a approved Water Laboratory in Pretoria
and had them analyzed.
No surprises there. The water from the battery manufacturer
was proper distilled water. The other two were ordinary tap
water. The one from my own tap and the other that very
expensive one. These two were virtually identical!

So my supplier then demanded from the supplier of the
expensive tap water that they pay for the water analysis.
This they did to my surprise considering the cost of the analysis
was R2200 ($275). Hopefully this will teach them a lesson.

If I would have used that water to top up the batteries and they
would become contaminated with all the impurities and develop
a much reduced capacity my warranty would be invalid.
Since the batteries are the most expensive component of the
system costing R96,000 ($12,000) it pays to be careful.

I installed this medium size Solar System in December 2011. Due to the continual Black-outs as well as
Load-Shedding because of  the incompetence of everybody involved in the provision of electricity I decided
to become independent from the Grid. The system is producing 50% more KWh than we are using on average. We did an upgrade in late March where we added 5 more 250 Watt panels and reconfigured
all of the panels as 3x7.
(Three 250Watt panels in series and 7 of these in parallel.) This modification proved most beneficial
as the MPPT (Multi point Power Tracker) now has the required headroom to adjust the maximum power point (that is the point on the solar panel operating characteristic) where the panels produce the highest
power for the prevailing weather conditions.

Since the upgrade (24 March 2012) we produced approx. 900 kWh of solar energy. 27kWh per day average. Usage was approx. 700 kWh. So despite a few days with relatively low insolation (that is the term used to describe how  much sunlight is reaching the earths surface) we had an excess of 200kWh which was returned to the grid.
Only yesterday we had a cold and totally overcast day and still we managed 9kWh, 40% of the demand.

The systems performance can be monitored either On-line via a G3 link or connecting one of our Laptops
to the inverter and having access to all data as well as being able to set all of the operating modes.
All relevant performance data is stored on a memory card and can be accessed and plotted with the
software package provided. When using the SCADA functionality one can monitor the entire system
with all its connected sources and loads. Very much like a real power station.
I will post some graphs in the near future. Of course this does not come cheap. But my Porsche deserves
a warm garage.

G3 Communication Unit and Bypass Panel

Verifying the Amperes with a precision Fluke

On a good day that what is being produced.

The other 9 panels. A total of 5.2kW of Capacity.

12 of the 21 250W Solar Panels. 9 more are installed

8kVA Gridtied Sinewave Inverter and 48V 1660Ah Battery Bank

[Cartoon] The Secrets of Nature in Colonial times...

[Cartoon] The Secrets of Nature in Colonial times...