We’ll also need hot swoppable batteries. Though these might be heavy, so I’m not so sure about the “running to the truck” scenario. 
Just now started wondering, if the grid falls away, I wont currently be able to heat my geyser.
I have no connections to AC 2 out and the geyser is not on AC1 out. So I’ve seen when load shedding hits, my CBI Astute geyser timer runs for another 20 minutes max on its own battery before it dies and I get a message to say its off line.
So if I cant get the power there, my solar setup wont help. How do I accomplish this?
Re wire the main db to get it also on AC1? This does not sound like the smartest idea.
Sorry, having real blond moments here. I cant figure this out. I have the Carlo Gavazzi installed, but if there power is not getting to the geyser, this will not help. And I wont be able to control the geyser timer.
If the grid is down, then you would just put everything on the output of your Multi and very very very very very carefully manage your loads. The Multi should output (I think) to a breaker on your DB and after that breaker will sit all your essential loads (probably on their own breakers). You will just have to move the rest of your loads from behind the Eskom breaker to behind the Multi’s output breaker.
I think.
Put geyser on a changeover, so you can decide whether it goes on grid or inverter. That’s a R350 solution (for a Hager SFT240).
Alternatively, install heat pump. 900W instead of whatever you’ve got now (2kW or 3kW). Then you can think about permanently moving it to the backup side. But that’s a 18k solution (roughly, materials plus labour all in).
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Unless you plan to be running on your own, probably not. But maybe a type of backpack per battery. You should be doing drills also, to get yourself practiced and strong. You would definitely be able to carry 100kgs on your back (7kWh?) and the Multi in front while doing a light jog. 
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OH! The changeover is a great idea! I think I’m going to do that with my non-essentials. Most of the time I’m actually 100% happy to run everything off my MPII, so that when loadshedding hits and the sun is shining, I can still do the geyser/pool pump!
I’ve got that 900W heat pump. Works super great on solar.
It is a must if you don’t want an angry wife when you ticker with the solar stuff. 
Agreed 100%. There’s nothing dumber than using RE power to heat a 3kW electrical element.
I saw these at Mopani camp in the KNP. Makes a lot of sense. I was looking at the date of manufacture of a number of them to see if they had replaced any…
Haha for sure. No I have a changeover on the essentials. What I need is a changeover on the non-essentials to able to move them between Multi output or directly on Eskom so that I have the option of putting them straight on the Multi when Eskom is down (and my wife promise to behave herself with the loads).
Sonoff POW with Tasmota and the MaxPower, MaxPowerHold and MaxPowerWindow suitably configured. I have such a solution in place for the hair Salon next door. It allows hair dryers up to 1.2kW (which is the low setting), but cuts out if you go over. This is a safety feature, not an anti-abuse thing, because we actually trust the people we have on the system
Thanks guys, I like the idea of a changeover switch to put the geyser on the Multi’s essential loads. My essential loads has their own changeover to get back on the grid of need be, so this make sense.
Just need to carefully figure out how I’m going to do this, and I don’t think I have space left in my db for another breaker.
Ai tog, toe is ek nog nie so prepared as wat ek gedink het ek is nie.
I want a heat pump, but I want it for heating the ground floor during the day. So I doubt I would be able to use it to warm the geyser as well, as they are very far apart and the losses in the piping would nullify all gains.
And 2 heat pumps will break the bank.
Yup, that’s the eternal problem we face. Though you could easily install a little 8-way sub-DB just for the geyser. If you have space for that!
Time to get my sparky friend here to come make recommendations as my wiring is starting to get complicated. I will have to write an instruction manual if I ever want to sell the house. Everything is above board and according to the book, but the new owner will not understand a thing and stuff everything up.
Especially if I add yet another changeover switch.
When I sold the previous place, the new owner didn’t want to take over the RE stuff. I ended up removing a portion of the things installed in the DB-board. For example I removed my very expensive impulse-resistant RCD. You always have a sparky poking around in things before you can get that all-important CoC anyway. I ended up leaving the changeover there, and simply told the new owner that if he ever wants to wire in a backup generator, everything is already there, but to simply leave the switch on “Grid” until such time.
Edit: Another way to deal with that. If you ever sell, remove the changeover from the sub-DB. And pull out the wiring no longer needed. If asked why there is a sub-db with just one switch, tell him “I had a geyser timer in there but it failed, you are welcome to replace it”
I may even end up doing this. Seeing as my panels are fairly safe and protected against wind, they are not fixed.
If I do sell and the buyer is not interested, I remove my panels and all Victron devices.
Where he will score is with the 2 extra db’s I had to wire in and the all the other ground work I had to do before I could go solar due to my house layout.
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That’s exactly why I put in two big db panels and I’m so glad I did, plan was to add sonof din rail mounted relays but its already getting crowded with changeovers and surge protection. But agree with plonkster, a small surface mounted db above the existing one will work, just don’t get too small again get a decent size cos you know you going to add more stuff in the future
Being prepared … let me share a tad more.
When being proactive, one needs to take serious cognizance of the real fact that in a major disaster that there are going to be “HAVE’s” and “HAVE’s NOT”.
The problem stemming from that there will be a moerse lot of “HAVE’s NOT”, desperate, angry, hungry wanting to take what the proactive HAVE’s have gathered ever so painstakingly, all of their goods being so easily accessible for re-appropriation by said HAVE’s NOT.
Solar panels on roofs … think about that for a moment.
Or that nice cosey production farm with food and water and all that, have an army to defend it?
That yacht with limited resources onboard, needing to return to land at one stage, pirates being the seas HAVE’s NOT.
That bugout vehicle you so carefully prepped, can you get out of the city intact/alive?
Then there are people who will in detail describe that they have weapons, a lot of them and bullets.
What one must then contemplate: How many bullets do you have? Ever shot another human being In cold blood? How fast can you reload? How accurate are you under extreme pressures?
Cause in that scenario, the HAVE’s NOT now being really angry at having been shot at, maybe their fellow friends/family killed by the defender with the bunch of weapons and bullets, them now “high” on adrenaline, come running roughshod over said defenders en-masse, ripping it all apart.
Shoot or run … trust me, running would be better.
Why do you come and spoil a good story with facts? Nee man!
Seriously, all the above is true. ALL OF IT.
But that wont stop us to prepare as well as we can, as we’ll last a little bit longer than most.
I have no illusion that when the paw paw hits the fan, you need to be out of town already. Hindsight is 20/20 vision.
If we can just get out in time. I have 3 areas within a 400km radius where I will be able to survive for months, if I can just get there. The signs will be there on when its time to get out, but we wont realize it in time.
I’d rather not say how many bullets I have. 
Dude. We’re talking of a period of 2 weeks to a whole month. Some are valid points: if looting starts to happen, I could well see solar panels being stripped from roofs. I could well see stock theft rising. I’m not quite sure that’s enough time for a captain to acquire a ship, a crew, have a Jolly Roger sewed by Grandma and taking to the seas in that time frame
Level I’m referring to is one of total anarchy, “back to the 18th century there we go”.
Those “pirates” would probably start off being decent folks batting their own way … till they “wisen up” and go for easier targets.
Makes sense to do that when you have “negotiable” morals. lazy, or believe that “your kids/wife/tribe are/is more important than mine” type of mindset.
People under stress/duress/hunger … bad mojo daai.