First off, I'm pretty new to the whole backup power and inverter stuff, but have been doing a lot of reading up and trying to catch up, so I might ask a few dumb questions which seem obvious to everyone else. I've had a look around and not managed to find a thread discussing the specifics of total off-grid solutions. If one exists, could someone let me know and I'll get a mod to move this to there.
I'm planning a build myself a cottage to retire to, at some point in the next few years. I've bought the land already and am happy with what I've got. It's not in the bush, but it is in a secluded area, and getting municipal power is an option, albeit an expensive one. The stand is a keyhole stand with a long driveway (about 70m) and the spot where I'd like to build is a bit away from there too, and so I'm looking at about 200m of cable on top of the municipal connection fee. Rough calculations show that the cable will cost close to R300 000, and given that the power in the area is notoriously unreliable (probably three to four power cuts a week), I'm looking at going fully off-grid, and rather spend the money on a decent system.
Total load is hard to gauge at this stage, I'm renting a five bedroom house with a pool etc, and no optimization of power consumption (due to the electricity being included in my rent), so I'm going off thumbsuck figures for that.
The cottage will be two bedrooms, two adults living there (possibly some guests from time to time). Stove is gas, geysers will be gas or solar and the main source of heat will be a wood burner, and if that's not enough, probably gas too. Essentially I'm not expecting the cottage to cause any issues. The problem is my workshop. I do wood turning, and that uses power - I'm happy to limit my work to when there is enough sunshine to keep me going, but between the lathe and the dust extractor, I'm going to need some capacity.
I'll make a couple more posts for specific queries, so that they're easier to find, rather than forcing everyone to read this great wall of text.
TLDR: I want to go totally off-grid, a two bedroom cottage and a workshop. Capital costs offset by not paying to connect to the grid, running costs offset by not paying Eskom every month.
I'm planning a build myself a cottage to retire to, at some point in the next few years. I've bought the land already and am happy with what I've got. It's not in the bush, but it is in a secluded area, and getting municipal power is an option, albeit an expensive one. The stand is a keyhole stand with a long driveway (about 70m) and the spot where I'd like to build is a bit away from there too, and so I'm looking at about 200m of cable on top of the municipal connection fee. Rough calculations show that the cable will cost close to R300 000, and given that the power in the area is notoriously unreliable (probably three to four power cuts a week), I'm looking at going fully off-grid, and rather spend the money on a decent system.
Total load is hard to gauge at this stage, I'm renting a five bedroom house with a pool etc, and no optimization of power consumption (due to the electricity being included in my rent), so I'm going off thumbsuck figures for that.
The cottage will be two bedrooms, two adults living there (possibly some guests from time to time). Stove is gas, geysers will be gas or solar and the main source of heat will be a wood burner, and if that's not enough, probably gas too. Essentially I'm not expecting the cottage to cause any issues. The problem is my workshop. I do wood turning, and that uses power - I'm happy to limit my work to when there is enough sunshine to keep me going, but between the lathe and the dust extractor, I'm going to need some capacity.
I'll make a couple more posts for specific queries, so that they're easier to find, rather than forcing everyone to read this great wall of text.
TLDR: I want to go totally off-grid, a two bedroom cottage and a workshop. Capital costs offset by not paying to connect to the grid, running costs offset by not paying Eskom every month.