12v lighting system for a South African house

[flatfourfan]

Introductions aside, My name is Gary and I'm from Sunny South Africa. And we have an issue here called (ESKOM) add that also with Loadshedding and you'll quickly see what I'm talking about...........go google it.

Pretty much our power supplier has done ZERO/ ZERO maintenance on our national grid for about the last 20 years and tied in with a corrupt government, most of South Africa gets shoved into darkness a few times a week as they’re rushing to do maintenance in the hope of avoiding a grid collapse.

Locals are taking this seriously as pretty much in SA we don’t use gas mains, we lack the infrastructure and also we lack the know-how. So people are now educating themselves.

Many have chosen the generator route, but then you have to buy petrol/ diesel and fire that sucker up, so honestly it doesn't solve anything.

So myself and a few other friends decided to run all our household lighting as 12v, that way we wouldn't have to go the inverter route or even have to tie it in with our regular power. For a country that gets so much sun, there is no assistance from Local government to go green, they want to keep up buying electricity and don’t want us to provide the basics for ourselves. I could panel the snot out of my roof, but the council won’t credit me for the power going in and in fact I’m seen as an independent producer and that’s illegal in many parts of the country.

Lights I have chosen a mix of LED strip lights and down lighters that are made locally to work with 12v DC. Each room is done using one or the other and so when we are down, I at least have lights (good quality light) in each room, my kids can do homework and life can go on. The plan was to route the cabling through our normal light switches and so the system would be integrated into our house and could be used as an alternative option, but on a daily bases.

Lounge and kitchen area has 12v LED pot lights, 8 in total that are 3w each.





LED lights mounted inside a standard light fitting and in all the rooms.



We have just changed the switches with ones that have an extra switch so it’s really integrated into everyday use.





Our DB panel that controls all the lighting in the house with a Stecca 1010 solar controller and a Lunar Mobile meter.



Our beast of a panel, Sunmobile 150w 12v panel from Solarword, really looks lost on the roof.



Our sun is so awesome here, my 150ah battery is usually fully charged at about 9am and we're actually going through the last of winter at the moment.

Next plans are to add 3 outside security lights that are made up of stripping the guts out of a 220v high beam spotlight and fitting it with 2 x 1.5watt LED strips as these will work on a 12v day night switch and will be one all night.



This is it during the planning stages, super bright and it only uses 3watts in total. Overall we’re pretty chuffed with the system, this is the first step which is all of the lights for the house, we already installed gas and have a borehole/ well with really good drinking water. SO next we will be going with a solar geyser x 2 and then I’ll be looking at a few more panels and power capacity.

I'm expecting the crappy electricity situation to be a part of South Africa for at least the next 5-7 years.

[SunEagle]

Interesting lighting system you have installed. While I admire your fortitude to resolving your power problems I have a couple of issues with what you did.

My biggest issue is running both 12vDC wiring close to 230vAC wiring and in the same switch boxes. The Electric code pretty much states that you have to keep the two voltage "systems" separated by barriers or raceways. Also the wiring needs to be identified with the voltage type and amount. That is to keep someone who might work on the wiring and not know what it is thinking it is 12vDC low voltage but is really the 230v AC wire.

You probably should have found a way to run the DC wiring and LED lights away from your AC lighting.

My second issue is that you may have problems with your home insurance should you have any fires they find that wiring job.

[flatfourfan]

Interesting lighting system you have installed. While I admire your fortitude to resolving your power problems I have a couple of issues with what you did.

My biggest issue is running both 12vDC wiring close to 230vAC wiring and in the same switch boxes. The Electric code pretty much states that you have to keep the two voltage "systems" separated by barriers or raceways. Also the wiring needs to be identified with the voltage type and amount. That is to keep someone who might work on the wiring and not know what it is thinking it is 12vDC low voltage but is really the 230v AC wire.

You probably should have found a way to run the DC wiring and LED lights away from your AC lighting.

My second issue is that you may have problems with your home insurance should you have any fires they find that wiring job.

100% with you on all accounts.

1) I'm fortunate enough to stay in an old house and the conduit pipes running into the roof from the wall sockets are huge and split in 2 sections, the 12v all run in their own casing. Still part of the pipe, but all on it's own.

2) All the cables in the roof for the 12v are marked clearly, it's just not marked where it comes out of the light fittings. (this has been operational for about a week now, so I still have some smaller things to tie up)

3) With the lights that integrate 12v DC and 220AC, they enter the fitting on opposite sides of the fixture and the fixture base is molded plastic. So having it mounted all on it's own would mean me cutting into a perfect ceiling to mount a pot light that's right next to the regular light. This may be changed if my electrician isn't happy with it though.

4) This has actually been cleared by my homeowners insurance with a few things that have to be changed, labeled and signed off by my electrician.

Eventual plan is actually disconnect all of the 220v wiring in the house and to just use the 12v DC lighting system.

Cheers for all the concern.............

[SunEagle]

100% with you on all accounts.

1) I'm fortunate enough to stay in an old house and the conduit pipes running into the roof from the wall sockets are huge and split in 2 sections, the 12v all run in their own casing. Still part of the pipe, but all on it's own.

2) All the cables in the roof for the 12v are marked clearly, it's just not marked where it comes out of the light fittings. (this has been operational for about a week now, so I still have some smaller things to tie up)

3) With the lights that integrate 12v DC and 220AC, they enter the fitting on opposite sides of the fixture and the fixture base is molded plastic. So having it mounted all on it's own would mean me cutting into a perfect ceiling to mount a pot light that's right next to the regular light. This may be changed if my electrician isn't happy with it though.

4) This has actually been cleared by my homeowners insurance with a few things that have to be changed, labeled and signed off by my electrician.

Eventual plan is actually disconnect all of the 220v wiring in the house and to just use the 12v DC lighting system.

Cheers for all the concern.............

Sounds like you have done your research to separate the AC/DC systems as well as work with your insurance company to get their blessings.

I just wanted to point out potential safety issues but it looks like you are in the process of fixing them. Nice job.

Before you enlarge your DC system you should determine what your daily watt hour loads will be to properly size both your battery and pv panel equipment. You also need to make sure your 12v wiring is big enough to keep the voltage drop below 3%. That could cost a lot due to wire size increasing. Just keep that in mind.

[flatfourfan]

Sounds like you have done your research to separate the AC/DC systems as well as work with your insurance company to get their blessings.

I just wanted to point out potential safety issues but it looks like you are in the process of fixing them. Nice job.

Before you enlarge your DC system you should determine what your daily watt hour loads will be to properly size both your battery and pv panel equipment. You also need to make sure your 12v wiring is big enough to keep the voltage drop below 3%. That could cost a lot due to wire size increasing. Just keep that in mind.

Yup, I've got some friends who have gone through this already and know the ins and outs. So it wasn't total virgin territory.

This system is only for the lights in the house, nothing else. Any extra additions to the house power will be a separate system running through an inverter.

[SunEagle]

Yup, I've got some friends who have gone through this already and know the ins and outs. So it wasn't total virgin territory.

This system is only for the lights in the house, nothing else. Any extra additions to the house power will be a separate system running through an inverter.

Sounds like a good plan. Thanks for explaining.

I just wanted to make sure it was safe for you or anyone else that works on it.

[Naptown]

My understanding is you cannot run pv source or output conductors in the se raceway
Unless they changed it it is permissible to run low voltage wire I'm with the 230 as long as the insulation on both wires are rated for the higher voltage. ( generally 600 v here in U.S.
However I do not know the electric codes in South Africa ( just a bit out off service area 😁

[SunEagle]

My understanding is you cannot run pv source or output conductors in the se raceway
Unless they changed it it is permissible to run low voltage wire I'm with the 230 as long as the insulation on both wires are rated for the higher voltage. ( generally 600 v here in U.S.
However I do not know the electric codes in South Africa ( just a bit out off service area 

That was my concern also. He states the 12v wire is run in a separate raceway but I am not sure of the legality of having it and the 230volt in the same switch box or light fixture junction box.

I am hoping his electrical "expert" is following the local codes because I too am very unfamiliar with SA rules.

[Naptown]

Just read a thread on Mike holt's
Seems they can be