Best Black Friday load-shedding deals

3 years ago 1

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Black Friday is here, and with the current load-shedding situation in the country, many South Africans may be looking to get a good deal on a backup power system.

MyBroadband looked for some of the best Black Friday deals on generators, inverter trollies, and portable power stations.

Notable deals include the Ryobi 1kW four-stroke generator and Gizzu 518Wh portable power station from Takelot for R3,999 and R6,799, respectively.

South Africans can grab the smaller 296Wh Gizzu portable power station from Chamberlains for R4,699.

The cheapest power trolley listed is the 1,200VA Mecer Inverter and 100Ah battery combination for R5,695 from Geewiz.

However, it should be noted that the 100Ah lead-acid battery is only rated for 150-200 charge cycles.

The largest generator included in our list is Ryobi’s 5.5kW four-stroke unit, which is available for R9,999 at Builders.

Things to consider when buying inverter trolleys and generators

There are a lot of backup power systems available in South Africa, but many of them could likely not support your needs.

Various factors must be considered when buying an inverter trolley or generator.

Regarding generators, it is vital to ensure the unit includes an automatic voltage regulator (AVR) to protect your electronic devices from damage while running on generator power.

All of the generators listed in the article feature an AVR.

It is also essential to consider the power output of the unit. For example, the Ryobi 1kW generator listed has a rated output of 1,000W, and drawing more than 1,000W will overload it.

Overloading a generator can significantly shorten the service life, so it is not advisable to run power-hungry appliances — like kettles or anything else with heating elements — on generator power.

Regarding batteries, there are two essential factors to consider — battery capacity and technology.

When considering capacity, it is crucial to determine your connected devices’ power draw over time.

For example, those who want to run their TV, Wi-Fi, and a DStv decoder should look at the watts consumed by each device and determine how much power it requires during a bout of load-shedding.

For example, a typical 55-inch TV uses around 60W. Therefore, during two-and-a-half hours of load-shedding, the TV alone will require 150Wh of capacity.

Similarly, the Wi-Fi router and DStv decoder will use around 15Wh and 112.5Wh, respectively, over the same period.

Therefore, your power capacity requirements for the setup over a 2.5-hour load-shedding stint will be approximately 278Wh.

This leads to the next consideration for inverter and battery combinations — battery type.

Lithium-ion or gel batteries are recommended over lead-acid batteries as the latter can only discharge to about 50% of its rated capacity without damage.

Alternatively, if lead-acid batteries are the only option, you will have to double the capacity. Therefore, you would need a battery capacity of over 555Wh if lithium-ion batteries are out of the question.

Although lithium-ion batteries are more expensive, they have significantly longer life spans and won’t need to be replaced as often as lead-acid ones.

According to Geewiz, lead-acid batteries typically provide 150-200 charge cycles, meaning constant load-shedding between stage 4 and stage 6 can kill its lead-acid batteries “within a few months”.

On the other hand, Lithium-ion batteries can provide up to 3,000 charge cycles.

Ten of the best Black Friday load-shedding deals available in South Africa are listed below.