3KW or 5KW setup - please advise

Pineapple Smurf said:
Higher during the day because I do washing in the day as well as cooking. Too drunk at night to go near my stove
Grid tie does work with pre paid meter, there is an additional box you buy for about R6k
Yes grid tie doesnt work during loadshedding, but I am not worried about loadshedding.
I have enough battery backup juice for the essentials
I am not interested in going totally offgrid, too expensive for 1 person
Click to expand...
1689583288543.png
I would rather spend the money on a hybrid (that does grid tie) inverter and battery with solar and keep all your other setups for redundancy.
 
wingnut771 said:
View attachment 1558067
I would rather spend the money on a hybrid (that does grid tie) inverter and battery with solar and keep all your other setups for redundancy.
Click to expand...
Thats the one I have been looking at from Sustainable

Edit: Except that one is a 900W DC element, I am looking at the 900W DC and 2200AC element so you can dip into ESKOM if need be in cloudy winter months
 
Benedict A55h0le said:
That will never be enough, to me the problem is clear: Not enough roof space. To me the only solution to that is to buy another house.
Click to expand...
To me the easiest is to let go of the attachment to the solar geyser freeing up roof space and then get the super cheap 5kW inverter for R8k.
 
My goodness - there is a beautiful beef here between an Eggs Benedict and a Smurf. I am getting so much more than solar advice. Bargain!
 
wingnut771 said:
So you want to spend R70k on a geyser element and 1kW inverter?
Click to expand...
Yup, I need to get ready for retirement
Spend the money now while I have a salary
Coz when I go onto Government pension one day I will need my monthly running costs down to as low as possible
 
Rouxenator said:
I think the confusion comes in with the batteries I plan to use.

If I go 5KW it will require 48volt DC so I will buy a new lithium battery.
If I go 3KW it will require 24volt so I will just add another AGM to a 12V 200ah I already have.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this and I think it may be time to actually buy a ladder and get on top of the roof and do some measurements. It sure would be a pity if I go with 3KW and there would have been space for 4 panels with a little rooftop tetris.

Edit - the green is the one I have, the black below it is the geyser panels (below that is the stoep afdak in the shade). If I can fit 3x 550w in the layout of the blue blocks it would be awesome.

View attachment 1558015
This is a very tiny plot, especially with the pool in the back. I think out house floor space is 1.7x that of the erf.
Click to expand...
Maybe I'm misreading this picture, but it seems like you have plenty of space.

Unless it's subdivided into different units. Even if it is, you could move the geyser panels to that small east/west roof, and even though it's a last resort, put panels on the south roof on a different MPPT.

My neighbour has a similar conundrum with roof direction, he has south-facing panels with no issues. The amount of sun hours you get is less, but it's better than nothing...
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Maybe I'm misreading this picture, but it seems like you have plenty of space.

Unless it's subdivided into different units. Even if it is, you could move the geyser panels to that small east/west roof, and even though it's a last resort, put panels on the south roof on a different MPPT.

My neighbour has a similar conundrum with roof direction, he has south-facing panels with no issues. The amount of sun hours you get is less, but it's better than nothing...
Click to expand...
Misreading - I am the tiny one in the middle between the red lines.

1689584346009.png
 
Pineapple Smurf said:
Yup, I need to get ready for retirement
Spend the money now while I have a salary
Coz when I go onto Government pension one day I will need my monthly running costs down to as low as possible
Click to expand...
You can get 5kW and 48V battery for that price and heat your geyser with AC and still do all your washing and cooking and charge all your backup devices.
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Maybe I'm misreading this picture, but it seems like you have plenty of space.

Unless it's subdivided into different units. Even if it is, you could move the geyser panels to that small east/west roof, and even though it's a last resort, put panels on the south roof on a different MPPT.

My neighbour has a similar conundrum with roof direction, he has south-facing panels with no issues. The amount of sun hours you get is less, but it's better than nothing...
Click to expand...
east/west sucks donkey balls in winter.

south facing panels with no issues? :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL:
 
Rouxenator said:
Misreading - I am the tiny one in the middle between the red lines.

View attachment 1558073
Click to expand...
wingnut771 said:
east/west sucks donkey balls in winter.

south facing panels with no issues? :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL: :ROFL:
Click to expand...
Yep, just run it on a different MPPT. We all know it's the worst direction in SA, but not completely useless as a supplement to your main MPPT.

Your production just starts later and stops sooner and the angle is not great, but you'll still get sunlight during the late morning to mid-afternoon. If you have no other options, it's better than nothing.

It's 11am now, here's his south roof. Including sun as a reference...

1000012295.jpg
 
Mike Hoxbig said:
Yep, just run it on a different MPPT. We all know it's the worst direction in SA, but not completely useless as a supplement to your main MPPT.

Your production just starts later and stops sooner and the angle is not great, but you'll still get sunlight during the late morning to mid-afternoon. If you have no other options, it's better than nothing.

It's 11am now, here's his south roof. Including sun as a reference...

View attachment 1558077
Click to expand...
Thats fine for him
Rouxenator has a very steep pitch roof
The panels are gonna struggle on his south facing roof pitch
 
Pineapple Smurf said:
Thats fine for him
Rouxenator has a very steep pitch roof
The panels are gonna struggle on his south facing roof pitch
Click to expand...
So steep in fact that today I only removed the weeds from the gutter with my new ladder, I did not climb onto the roof.

Instead, I got into the ceiling and measured from within, looks like my plan for 4 panels will fit in - if only just.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X