Common man's solar project - help/advice

[The_Traveller]

Would you mind sharing how you did it and approximate cost. PM if you don't want to go public with it.

I have a know someone who know's someone electrician that takes care of my stuff. He recently installed a changeover switch for my genny and is now planning how to go about integrating a battery backup into my DB board. Planning pretty much the same as what you have done.
We are however in the "how do we do xyx" stage still, and getting info from you would greatly accelerate what we need to do. Would really be appreciated.

Don't mind sharing at all, will photo's of the setup help you understand what was done ? Its just that me explaining wont go down too well due to my limited knowledge.

As for the price point, well the UPS set me back R6.5k but its a really advanced UPS and any competitor wanted nothing less than R10k at the time. Batteries were R2k a pop with decent spec like 12 year life and 400 cycles at 100% DoD. So at 50% DoD its a very high cycle rate. The UPS manages the batteries automatically to keep them in excellent shape. I bought a cheapy R500 cabinet because my storage area is perfect for battery storage, so didn't need to worry about certain conditions that affect battery life etc. And then the Electrician charges, it was around R800 if I remember correctly. DB rewire , installing circuit breaker etc.

I purchased the same setup for my uncle and he's storing the batteries and UPS 30m away from the DB in the basement. I am curious to see how much the electrician will charge for this as it is much more complicated then my setup. I purchased the (10mm) cable myself and that alone costs R2850 for 60m. Installation happening tomorrow so lets see final cost(s).

 

[russellw1]

12 volt downlights will save about 20% in power usage because that is about how much power is lost in charging batteries and then running the inverter. A good sinewave UPS can then be used only where it is needed (microwave and fridges). I have a cheap squarewave pc UPS for my tv and decoder.