Interestingly I also can’t use a printer on our UPS.
Thanks @czc
1 Like
some printers use a SCARY amount of electricity in short bursts. those things are trip machines. Our one client regularly “trips” their generator they have when they forget that they shouldnt use the big-ass printer during loadshedding. it just tips them over the edge of too much power draw.
3 Likes
Fridges, toasters, kettles, hairdryers etc are a no go they draw excessive amounts of wattage, i left the plug with the fridges and microwave off from the inverter becaude of that, even though the electrician said theoretically the can tun on the inverter. Must still check and see how the inverter is gonna cope with the 3d printer
3 Likes
Maybe with a 5kv system but a 3kv system its best to leave those things on direct eskom power
2 Likes
All the guys with Solar have their Fridge on. It doesn’t draw much steady state, about 120W.
1 Like
What kind of power supply does the 3D printer have?
I seem to recall the ones I was researching used a 12v power supply, and those are usually less wattage than a PC’s power supply. If you’re only running at 15%, I’m sure you’ll be fine.
1 Like
Fridges, washing machines, laptops, inkjet printers and pc screens are barely noticeable on the system. Gaming consoles and PCs gets noticeable if they’re doing GPU intensive operations like gaming or mining.
Personally I wouldn’t go for anything smaller than a 5kva system as it becomes frustrating if you need to pick and choose what appliance to run (i.e. quickly use the microwave while the dishwasher is running… and that is already with the 5kva). If you’re only using it as a backup for essentials, then 3kva is fine though.
For the new house, I’m planning to go completely off-grid except for the electric oven. It is expensive, but the system essentially pays for itself within 5 years. That is at today’s electricity rates and there is an increase coming I think next month.
3 Likes
Why not gas? Getting an electric oven is my biggest regret. No, it had very little to do with loadshedding. It is just so much better cooking with gas. Some things require an instant change of heat that electric can’t provide.
1 Like
I guess he has a gas stove and electric oven?
2 Likes
Oh, that makes sense. That is actually a good combo.
I keep forgetting about those.
1 Like
I don’t know… I’ve been looking into gas ovens, but apparently it isn’t the same as baking in an electric oven because it isn’t a dry heat. The stove itself will be gas and even the kitchen’s geyser, but I’m skeptical about a gas oven. I’ll maybe reconsider it closer to the time.
2 Likes
I take back what I said. I also prefer electric convection ovens. Gas ovens are ok if you want to cook a whole bird, but for everything else…
For geysers, I actually prefer the solar ones with an electric backup for cloudy weeks. I wonder if there’s a way to do the solar ones with gas backup, I think that’d be ideal.
1 Like
The bedrooms will use two solar geysers connected in series, but they will be on the other side of the house. So a small gas geyser will be used for the kitchen and washing room.
My first instinct was also to do solar with gas backup, but there is no automatic solution. You’d have to have a split tap and go outside and manually switch to one or the other.
2 Likes