Page 46 - Energize May 2022

TECHNICAL

A further command auto-stops the generator when the Satellite view
battery state of charge has reached 40%. Ecotrades expects The scale of the water/electricity installation is best viewed
this programmed charging parameter to extend the life of the from a satellite. The farm is located between Hartswater and Jan
batteries from 11 to 16 years – with an assumed end-of-life Kempdorp in Northern Cape, South Africa.
residual capacity for the whole battery bank of 70%. Thus,
the programmable relay can deliver enormous economies by Successful water management maximises
extending battery life. crop harvest
The pecan nut farmer is really pleased with his investment. He
Swarm of bees owns other farms, too, and is in discussion with Ecotrades about
Izak recalls an unusual incident: After a week of poor weather a private power installation for those. In fact, there are many
the Cummins diesel backup generators roared into life as hundreds of farms in the region and Ecotrades is hoping that
expected but one of the units – with only three hours runtime the success demonstrated here will encourage other farmers
on the clock – soon stopped owing to a low oil pressure event to choose the reliability of private power. That will avoid the
and couldn’t be restarted. Ecotrades technicians arriving on headaches of power outages and interrupted irrigation schedules
site found a pool of oil on the ground and discovered it had and it will guarantee bumper harvests.
been blown out through the dipstick aperture – but couldn’t
find the cause. Click here to watch a video of the installation process
After two days without a successful restart, they decided
the unit would have to go off-site for investigation. But then Contact Gerrit Tromp, Victron Energy,
they noticed that a swarm of bees had taken up residence in the gtromp@victronenergy.com, www.victronenergy.com
breather-pipe! “We weren’t expecting anything like that”, he For sales, contact salessa@victronenergy.com,
says, “from now on we cover the breather with mesh.” https://www.victronenergy.com/where-to-buy

Figure 6: One of Ecotrades’ delivery trucks
Figure 9: Genuine beeswax, secreted exactly where it will be least useful

Figure 7: PV Panel arrays
Figure 10: Satellite view

Figure 8: Diesel standby generators Figure 11: Satellite view

energize | May 2022 | 44