Eskom energy costs have increased so it is viable go off-grid and get your capital costs back with return

[Saba'a]

Like below

Solar - Paloma Gas South Africa

Paloma's gas geysers can easily be retro-fitted as a gas booster for your solar hot water system - eliminating the need for heavy electrical back up.

palomagas.co.za

 

[deesef]

So in NP days small group only were freeloaders at my cost.

Yep

 

[Crush]

Its just that @Sinbad had a solar geyser plus gas to heat up water if too cold.

I know one can do this with a solar geyser. Not sure how it works exactly. Would be great if it could be done with a heat pump.

The gas only kicks in if water not hot enough.

Thats actually brilliant.

Gas can be set at a specific temperature. So it monitors input and output temp. I'm guessing that it actually doesn't matter what the input temp is... u would just set output at say 60deg, with the gas geyser being the last part in line before the taps. So if geyser temps are over 60, it stays off. As the geyser temp drops, it will just use more gas to keep temps up at 60 output.

Could probably be used with any setup, normal geyser, solar geyser, heat pump or standalone.

 

[Saba'a]

Theoretically yes, yet I only know of the solar geyser option.

Given my intention to install pv panels, I'd prefer heat pumps. So if gas available as a backup if heat pump water cold or maybe power unavailable, it would be ideal.

 

[Priapus]

Hoping they allow feedback into grid in Gauteng.

Then it would be truly worth investing in pv panels. Until then my system only to reduce costs and mainly to counter loadshedding.

Don't see it happening anytime soon.

 

[Vrotappel]

You aware because they catered to only a small percentage right? In other words, bulk of population was supporting a small minority.

Eskom is a mess but lets not pretend the NP was that great.

LOL they catered for the whole of SA. What did the ANC add the last 25 years? Get your education sorted out.

What we use today is mostly what the NP produced.

 

[Saba'a]

LOL they catered for the whole of SA. What did the ANC add the last 25 years? Get your education sorted out.

What we use today is mostly what the NP produced.

Whole of SA? I tbink you need to beef up your education. Majority of SAns had no electricity connections. Hell, even now most townships lack access to basic services.

 

[Vrotappel]

Whole of SA? I tbink you need to beef up your education. Majority of SAns had no electricity connections. Hell, even now most townships lack access to basic services.

Eskom installed capacity over last 50 years. Google it. Get clued up.

 

[zerocool2009]

At what stage would one say : consider solar? (It isnt a dumb question)!

I personally use very low consumption.

 

[Paul_S]

Whole of SA? I tbink you need to beef up your education. Majority of SAns had no electricity connections. Hell, even now most townships lack access to basic services.

In 1994 60.8% of the population had access to electricity. That has since grown to around 85%.

The majority of South Africans thus had access to electricity before the ANC took over. Yes, there were lots of townships which were not on the grid yet but that was already being rectified by Eskom pre-94.



One can see that the connecting of customers to the grid which started before the fall of apartheid simply carried on. I doubt the ANC had much hand in it although they obviously claim it as one of their successes.



Yes, there are still a lot of townships without access to electricity but I do wonder if that was more to do with economics than anything else. Even a lot of white people living in rural areas had no electricty before the 1980's. Pariffin lamps and a Lister diesel engine hooked up to a generator were common sight. Now we sit in a situation where township residents refuse to pay for electricity which is leading to de-electrification (Eskom performing load reduction or not replacing infrastructure).

 

[Priapus]

At what stage would one say : consider solar? (It isnt a dumb question)!

I personally use very low consumption.

Depends on your needs and why you'd consider it. I went the solar route with my house. Mainly because of load shedding and that I work from home - so I needed reliable power.

My house now runs on renewable energy from 23:00 to 16:00 the next day, every day. The only thing in the house that doesn't run off the solar is the stove.

For me the cost savings are a side bonus, but never the reason in getting the system installed.

 

[Saba'a]

In 1994 60.8% of the population had access to electricity. That has since grown to around 85%.

The majority of South Africans thus had access to electricity before the ANC took over. Yes, there were lots of townships which were not on the grid yet but that was already being rectified by Eskom pre-94.

View attachment 1137410

One can see that the connecting of customers to the grid which started before the fall of apartheid simply carried on. I doubt the ANC had much hand in it although they obviously claim it as one of their successes.

View attachment 1137412

Yes, there are still a lot of townships without access to electricity but I do wonder if that was more to do with economics than anything else. Even a lot of white people living in rural areas had no electricty before the 1980's. Pariffin lamps and a Lister diesel engine hooked up to a generator were common sight. Now we sit in a situation where township residents refuse to pay for electricity which is leading to de-electrification (Eskom performing load reduction or not replacing infrastructure).

Nope. Maybe in theory or NP propaganda.

Irl most townships had no electricity, not even street lights. I am referring to my actual irl experience growing up. We had electricity but the houses across the road had none.

I admit this not national, limited to my EC and WC days.

But even recently a few years back, visiting in NC township, water had to be boiled on wood stoves.

But thanks, will read up as I suspect these stats may be limited to select urban areas? Nevertheless interesting.

PS also note it may be that there was electricity for lights but not for geysers and stoves. You now stretching my memory there but what I recall of houses with electricity. Most of the average households used wood stoves.

Only a few select neighbourhoods (where mostly teachers, nurses, drs etc resided) had full electricity. Like today the gulf was vast. The "well off" non whites had cars, TVs, telephones, fridges, ovens etc while the majority lived basic lifestyle. Weird thinking of nurses teachers and policemen as "well off" in the pre-1994 era

 

[deesef]

PS also note it may be that there was electricity for lights but not for geysers and stoves. You now stretching my memory there but what I recall of houses with electricity. Most of the average households used wood stoves.

I grew up in the Eastern suburbs of Johannesburg. We never had an electrical stove.

The coal stove was fired up everything we needed to cook. The water was also heated by the coal stove. All this, despite bring white! Family of ours on a farm had a pit toilet... We never cried "racism"

 

[RonSwanson]

I was inspired by a very neat recent install, and I did a quick calc, if it were a household that consumes 2000 kWh/units per month (large home), and budget for R250K (for kit only), I would personally choose (based on current Powerforumstore prices):

Item​	Quantity​	Unit price​	Subtotal​	Warranty​
17.2K (2x8.8k) Sunsynk super hybrid parity inverter	2​	31,741.15​	63,482.30​	5 Years​
22K (4x5.5k)Hubble AM-2 5.5kWh battery	4​	25,999.20​	103,996.80​	10 years​
15,68kWp (32x490) JA Solar 490W panels	32​	2,601.30​	83,241.60​	20+ years​
TOTAL​	​		R 250,720.70​

I would base my choices on:

• Sunsynk's renowned flexibility globally, as well as local support;
• Hubble's proven local manufacturing & support:;
• JA Solar panels' global track record, and upgradability to 20kWp even 3-4 years later;

This would easily serve a large-ish household (6-8 people) with a big appetite for electricity, and dependent on discipline, virtually (99.9%) off-grid.

Installation kit, wiring and breakers would be roughly R20k max (dependent on roofing structure) and installation labour roughly between 15 and 25K (each install is different).

 

[Tariqe]

As humans, we should always dream

 

[Saba'a]

I was inspired by a very neat recent install, and I did a quick calc, if it were a household that consumes 2000 kWh/units per month (large home), and budget for R250K (for kit only), I would personally choose (based on current Powerforumstore prices):

Item​	Quantity​	Unit price​	Subtotal​	Warranty​
17.2K (2x8.8k) Sunsynk super hybrid parity inverter	2​	31,741.15​	63,482.30​	5 Years​
22K (4x5.5k)Hubble AM-2 5.5kWh battery	4​	25,999.20​	103,996.80​	10 years​
15,68kWp (32x490) JA Solar 490W panels	32​	2,601.30​	83,241.60​	20+ years​
TOTAL​	​		R 250,720.70​

I would base my choices on:

• Sunsynk's renowned flexibility globally, as well as local support;
• Hubble's proven local manufacturing & support:;
• JA Solar panels' global track record, and upgradability to 20kWp even 3-4 years later;

This would easily serve a large-ish household (6-8 people) with a big appetite for electricity, and dependent on discipline, virtually (99.9%) off-grid.

Installation kit, wiring and breakers would be roughly R20k max (dependent on roofing structure) and installation labour roughly between 15 and 25K (each install is different).

Went for 8.8kw sunsynk with intention to add another if necessary for off grid.

But currently single 8.8kw fine and doubt I'll go fully off grid. Too expensive currently for batteries.

 

[RonSwanson]

Went for 8.8kw sunsynk with intention to add another if necessary for off grid.

But currently single 8.8kw fine and doubt I'll go fully off grid. Too expensive currently for batteries.

Yes, the difference between fully off-grid and supplementing power is quite substantial.
But if you are clever and start small, you can make Eskom pay for the batteries by putting a large dent into their monthly bill, and using those saved funds towards batteries.

 

[RonSwanson]

Brace yourselves:

Eskom's De Ruyter warns of coming electricity tariff hikes

'The bad news is that we will probably have to have a greater increase in electricity tariffs in order to make up for a series of adverse Nersa decisions which we have successfully challenged in court,' Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said.

ewn.co.za

 

[PaulMurkin]

Utter overpriced nonsense. R125K will get you off the grid. R48K 10kW Battery, R30K 5kW Solar Panels, 8kW Hybrid Inverter R17K, Cabling, Switches, Fuses, Panel Brackets etc R10K, Installation and Registration R20K. Geyser can be charged during the day from solar, if not R25K extra or conversion, if possible, for R15K.

This is about right, having a look at the spend I myself have done

 

[gimpex]

This is about right, having a look at the spend I myself have done

Never ever will that get you off grid