Putting everything on essential loads

General Discussions
21

Regarding big loads, I went down a different rabbit hole, or be that a black hole :wink:

Whistling kettle, can boil one cup at a time if need be, on an induction top. The induction stoves work very efficiently and you can dial the consumption down, well kinda. It pulses on and off on the required duty cycle for low heat settings, but of higher ones it actually limits the amperage consumed, so ideal. Mine normally is used with the kettle at 1300W, it’s a 2000W unit. When I am impatient, it goes to 2kW :smiley:

WarmGroetnis

22

While losing the efficiency battle hands down, if heating water for 1-2 cups/mugs and needing to keep the peak power draw lower than say 1000W-1500W a microwave oven should also suffice.

In terms of why some might still split essential/non-essential - potential warranty implications could also be a factor to consider (if one is concerned with that kind of thing). If the loads end up not being managed properly and having multiple trips the supplier/manufacturer of inverter/battery could consider the system undersized.

23

We wanted a kettle that you can set to different temperatures, and be able to have a minimum amount of 250ml. I get quite frustrated when more than what is needed is boiled, and then left to cool again. And I take my water only to 90 for coffee. It works great!

Due to the temperature “want”, any other water heating solutions would have been a bit difficult.

24

So I got gatvol … read wife asks and asks: Is there LS?"

So banaal!!! Such a 21st-century problem!!!

So there was this wire in the kitchen, the old stove wire, Lekker dik ene. So it bothered me. I wanna use it … it is there.

Replaced the big wattage breaker with a low 10a one and moved the stoves “moerse dik” wire into the critical loads.

And then we had 2 x double plugs in the kitchen. Jip, 4 plugs in the kitchen. I swear

Result:
Double Plug 1: For the fridge freezer … can stand in for the Airfryer and induction plate, manual exercise. As planned. Yes.

Double Plug 2: Open. There for emergency Kettle MW, pressure cooker or whatnot appliances.

So what happens with an open plug!? Come on, guess! YES! People leave shiite plugged in!

Now you all know why I know all about people and habits, ergonomics, Maslows hierarchy, whatever name you want to call people it when “don’t concentrate/think”.

Now I have to check if there is LS, as the kettle/MW always works.

Overloads yes, no breaker tripping… yet.

Ok,ok must also be honest … got gatvol of the very thick very short extensions leads I must haul out every time … still have them for the dishwasher/washing machine …

Fighting with myself about a “suicide switch” for geysers, there are 3. Which one will win the lottery?

25

Move up here, water boils at 91 :laughing: :thinking: :innocent:

WarmGroetnis

26

I have such a kettle. It has different temperatures for different sorts of tea, another for coffee, another for warming a baby’s bottle, and finally a 100 degree setting which may not work on the highveld. I will test that one when I’m bored.

Draws maximum of 1.8kW, but often about 1.4.

It also has a keep warm function so that the people who wake up, turn on the kettle. take a shower, turn on the kettle, get dressed, turn on the kettle etc before they make one cup of coffee 45 minutes later don’t have to be turning on the kettle all the time. I don’t know if this is more efficient than repeated heating.

Lastly it is nicely insulated, so doesn’t lose heat as quickly, and is never uncomfortably hot to the touch.

27

To further “complicate” things … my mother, who lives in the big flat, their whole flat is on critical loads bar the kitchen. So what does my mother do … she plugs the kettle (who cares about wattages) into a bedroom plug. “Oupa wil tee he.”

Liar, she wants tea, sommer boils it 3 times cause she forgets. Jip, Oupa came right down and told me what she does. She just shrugged us both off as if we were (non-existent) dust mites on her shoulder.

So what did I do … upgraded the critical loads DB, with a EL … it now trips sometimes. :rofl:

I’ll get sent to prison for this.

The other area … at least they ask … for now. :slight_smile:

Kettles, bah, 2kw 3kw, I have a can of worms open.

28

Had the 900w kettle - it broke.
Bought a 1.5kw kettle - it broke.
Had a 2kw kettle - it broke.

I’m broke.

29

Instead of the switch do this… Works great!

30

I think this is a bad idea. For the simple reason that 3kW is 13A, which means it consumes almost three quarters of the available capacity on the 20A breaker you have for most kitchens. Should you need to use the microwave oven or a dishwasher at the same time, you are now in trouble.

Not to mention that people quite often throw these on multiplug adapters, which means now you can easily exceed the 15A the socket is really rated for. That kettle is going to need a dedicated socket.

Edit: I mean, Tarnation, son, who’d ever need to be in such a hurry to get a cup of water boiled?

1 Like
31

Our house … now ideally one can have one big mother geyser, but then the huge trade-off is wastage due to the length of hot water pipes, especially 3 x kitchen use. Been there, done that.

So, I have a Shelly on the main geyser, yeah, I can make it clever, NodeRED is on the Cerbo, till the Wifi has issues, or the weather has issues … inevitably it gets down to user intervention, as there is no AI yet that can anticipate a woman’s (x 2) needs.

So the Shelly? Now the wife has an App, and it is on HA. Now I can say, My dearest, but you have an App?

2nd main geyser is on a Geyserwise timer. Again, you have a Geyserwise Tuya App and the display on the wall … did you not check the temp?

The 3rd one, 50l services the kitchen. I read the marriage vows and contract fine print again, and made a study of it. It says: Thou wife shall have hot water anytime she wants when in said kitchen, or you will be told about it. So this geyser, it is straight on Eskom. I don’t care. :ok_man:

Watwou … I caught some buggers somewhere on the premises where the 3kw kettle, MW AND frying pan was running off such a plug … at the same time. It tripped, but seldom.

Had to pry the wall plug out of the socket, it started to weld itself. Wires inside the multiplug were melted.

You can lead a horse to water … or just shoot it. I wanted to grab a gun.

32

I even show the weather … for the day, the week.

image
image1554×288 27.4 KB

What, no ESP interface!?
Why? If the on switch does not work on the geyser OR there is no temp, guess what … there is LS! Like right now.

I mean, with all of these cool features, what more can a man do? :rofl:

Yea … still have some “issues”.

A Masters “Doctatorial” Degree cost a hell of a lot.

33

I have my whole house on the essentials side and a Sonoff on my geyser which is automatically turned off by home assistant if the load is too high on the Multiplus.

I am running completely off grid and I used an old cellphone to display the loads as I got tired of being asked to check if the dishwasher could be used. :slight_smile:

I kept it as simple as possible

image
image828×1792 63.3 KB

2 Likes
34

Exactly. I think it should be made clear to potential purchasers. First time you see that this kettle will cause all sorts of issues in most homes is if you look at the bottom.

We ended up getting a similar Bosch one at Hirsch’s. Don’t show me other options now! :sweat_smile:

The Zwilling wasn’t there when we went, I know because he looked at all the kettles! But it does look nice…

35

More like Dictatorial :slight_smile:

Of course “whip the family in line” is one solution, but I do try to keep things in balance. It usually results in my own shower water only being lukewarm, but at least nobody else complains.

36

I am benevolent …

37

That makes 2 of us.

1 Like
38

I switch the geyser on… I have an App.

39

Hi @Swartkat

New user but would like to ressurect old thread as I have this concern in splitting db. Could you pls explain how ET112 was setup to allow you to direct PV and batt to non essentials during loadshedding without Doomsday switch ie I assume similar outcome to Smartload on SS functionality?

Thx

1 Like
40

Hi Piet.

Everything I did in terms of installing my solar setup I did with assistance from the brilliant folks on this forum.

There is a thread here somewhere (I’ll search for it) where I was guided step by step to install the ET112.

The only tricky part was to know what wires from the lan cable I had to connect the meter itself to make it neat. The meter has an RJ45 lan port, but that would not have looked neat in my db. But you get the option to just connect the correct wires into a screw terminal type socket on the meter.

On the inverter side, it connects with an USB to the GX device (I think I used some sort of converter type cable from lan to USB) And if memory serves, you have to wire the ET112 just after the main breaker.

So in my specific circumstances, I did not make use of the AC2 out port at all. In other words, my GX device are oblivious to the fact there is a geyser and oven. So even with grid on and full sunshine, no solar assistance for those heavy loads even if I had a doomsday switch.

That’s why an ET112 was absolutely not negotiable and as soon as I learned what was going on, I bought one immediately.

This meter allows the GX device to know all that’s going on consumption wise in the house. Because if your loads are split into essential and non essential, the AC2 port on the inverter which takes care of non essential loads goes dead when there’s a grid outage, those appliances cannot receive power. That’s where the doomsday switch also comes in.

Let me search for that thread.