Most households in South Africa can save money with a solar system capable of supporting 80% of their demand

mylesillidge

mylesillidge

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Reality check for people without solar power in South Africa

Most households with Eskom's average electricity consumption in major metros and municipalities in South Africa can save money with a solar power system capable of supporting 80% of their regular demand.

MyBroadband has recently noticed many homeowners without solar power online complaining that they had high electricity bills in the multiple thousands of rand following recent municipal tariff increases.
 
I'm now at only using about 20 units a month, with my previous system at 80% it was still 200 to 300 units a month.
I pay more for the service and connection fee than actual units.
 
Its nice but based on the figures in the article most homes will be still breakeven. The only real gain is if a cable is stolen you dont have to worry too much.

Saving some 300 rand is not worth it considering you will be in debt for 6 years. They should have calcs for when one pays for it in cash and see the savings.
 
Lupus said:
I'm now at only using about 20 units a month, with my previous system at 80% it was still 200 to 300 units a month.
I pay more for the service and connection fee than actual units.
Click to expand...
Eskom is basically a generator at this point to you. And last I checked they dont like being treated as one, you must pay more than the 300 rand you buy every month :ROFL:
 
denmendez65 said:
Eskom is basically a generator at this point to you. And last I checked they dont like being treated as one, you must pay more than the 300 rand you buy every month :ROFL:
Click to expand...
It sort of really is :-), even though I've got a generator, that was last fired up in September for it's servicing. Guess I may need to actually fire it up again but it's just such a schlep.
 
Lupus said:
I'm now at only using about 20 units a month, with my previous system at 80% it was still 200 to 300 units a month.
I pay more for the service and connection fee than actual units.
Click to expand...
How much battery capacity do you have installed?
 
How much are connection fees, mine seems to be close to R1k a month now just in fees. Solar ain't helping that part...
 
denmendez65 said:
Its nice but based on the figures in the article most homes will be still breakeven. The only real gain is if a cable is stolen you dont have to worry too much.

Saving some 300 rand is not worth it considering you will be in debt for 6 years. They should have calcs for when one pays for it in cash and see the savings.
Click to expand...
I don't know, it's all about implementation and usage patterns

I have a small system
5kw inverter
7.2kwh battery
3.6kwp solar

And i generate approx R1200 a month avg over a year
Naturally june is kak and summer way better

On a perfect day i produce R75 of electricity , avg over the year is R40
 
Lupus said:
It sort of really is :-), even though I've got a generator, that was last fired up in September for it's servicing. Guess I may need to actually fire it up again but it's just such a schlep.
Click to expand...
My inverter and most have a contact that closes when the battery cut-off is hit. I am strongly considering wiring it to the generator starter when I get one. I am hoping that once the contact opens again, when the inverter reaches the SOC to indicate batteries are sufficiently full, it will auto switch off the genie.

I know I can start it, I just don't know if I can switch it off the same way. I haven't really researched that. It might be worthwhile for you just to get the genie running here and there every few months.
 
leon.davibe said:
I don't know, it's all about implementation and usage patterns

I have a small system
5kw inverter
7.2kwh battery
3.6kwp solar

And i generate approx R1200 a month avg over a year
Naturally june is kak and summer way better

On a perfect day i produce R75 of electricity a day , avg over the year is R40
Click to expand...
If I check how much I averaged from CP before solar, I am saving 2k a month at the moment. Now that my geyser is off ESKOM, it should be about 2.6k a month. But some of the savings post solar are because of making the house more efficient.

If I calculate now, post solar and changing electric usage habits, upgrades, I was using about 950 rand a month worth of generation from solar. With the gesyer off, 1651 rand a month.

Kind of interesting that without solar, I would have shaved off 1k off my bill with just being more efficient with my electricity.
 
denmendez65 said:
If I check how much I averaged from CP before solar, I am saving 2k a month at the moment. Now that my geyser is off ESKOM, it should be about 2.6k a month. But some of the savings post solar are because of making the house more efficient.

If I calculate now, post solar and changing electric usage habits, upgrades, I was using about 950 rand a month worth of generation from solar. With the gesyer off, 1651 rand a month.

Kind of interesting that without solar, I would have shaved off 1k off my bill with just being more efficient with my electricity.
Click to expand...
What did you make more efficient?
 
denmendez65 said:
Its nice but based on the figures in the article most homes will be still breakeven. The only real gain is if a cable is stolen you dont have to worry too much.

Saving some 300 rand is not worth it considering you will be in debt for 6 years. They should have calcs for when one pays for it in cash and see the savings.
Click to expand...
There are still a few benefits of going this route.

  1. After the five year payback period you still have your system, so you're saving the full amount at that point.
  2. You protect yourself against electricity tariff increases each year.
  3. You have load shedding / outage protection.
  4. Good inverters also offer a level of protection against dirty power (over or under voltage) which can also protect your appliances.
 
denmendez65 said:
If I check how much I averaged from CP before solar, I am saving 2k a month at the moment. Now that my geyser is off ESKOM, it should be about 2.6k a month. But some of the savings post solar are because of making the house more efficient.

If I calculate now, post solar and changing electric usage habits, upgrades, I was using about 950 rand a month worth of generation from solar. With the gesyer off, 1651 rand a month.

Kind of interesting that without solar, I would have shaved off 1k off my bill with just being more efficient with my electricity.
Click to expand...
I now save R2k to R3k a month on electricity, the scary thing is when I moved into the house 7 years ago with prepaid, the 750 units or so cost about 900 bucks. Now that costs R2500
 
wingnut771 said:
What did you make more efficient?
Click to expand...
1. Fish pond pumps are used to run 24/7. I just put a shade over the pond (prevents algae), and now the pumps run between 7 am and 5 pm.
2. Pool I would run the whole day and night and only off on weekends (Noob I know), but I changed it to 4/5 and realised I could get away with that. Now its at 8 though to use up excess PV.
3. Timer on geyser (yes, it works contrary to opinion) and changing showering habits. I would almost max open the shower (bad habits), and then I realised I could shower with normal pressure. The measured difference in kWh when I experimented for me alone was a 1/1.5kWh vs 3kWh. 1.5/2 kWh saving by just not opening the valve like a madman.
4. Replaced all the lights outside with high-power (25W) motion sensor ones. Also have on my garages outside the home. Not as significant a saving, but we used to always forget to turn the lights off due to rushing out in the morning.

Those were my main culprits. The fish pond pumps used about 110kWh a month. Pool between 200 and 300kWh. And the geyser was hitting 300/400kWh also a month. Now it's 45kWh for the fish pond, 80 to 100 kWh for the pool, and the geyser, when on Eskom, was always under 200kWh. Even with 2 extra people at one stage (visitors), the water was still plenty hot.

My wife and I were very wasteful. Now it's the opposite, too much kWh available.
 
sjm said:
There are still a few benefits of going this route.

  1. After the five year payback period you still have your system, so you're saving the full amount at that point.
  2. You protect yourself against electricity tariff increases each year.
  3. You have load shedding / outage protection.
  4. Good inverters also offer a level of protection against dirty power (over or under voltage) which can also protect your appliances.
Click to expand...
That's true. But some people are scared of debt.
 
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