Getting a solar system for under R1,000 per month in South Africa

[mylesillidge]

Solar power systems for under R1,000 in South Africa

For less than R1,000 per month, South African households can get a fully integrated entry-level solar or backup power system to reduce their overall electricity bill or provide protection against power outages.

When installed by a reputable provider with the necessary qualifications, solar power systems comprising tried and tested equipment will typically cost upwards of R50,000.

 

[konfab]

An interesting option nowadays probably is solar + inverter with no batteries. Would be interesting to see the cost savings with that. Especially with Eskom's pricing increasing.

 

[Lupus]

An interesting option nowadays probably is solar + inverter with no batteries. Would be interesting to see the cost savings with that. Especially with Eskom's pricing increasing.

Without batteries, no thanks.

 

[Tomtomtom]

An interesting option nowadays probably is solar + inverter with no batteries.

Solar + existing geyser (thermal battery) is the real no brainer. 3-4 year payback worst case.

 

[Pythonista]

An interesting option nowadays probably is solar + inverter with no batteries. Would be interesting to see the cost savings with that. Especially with Eskom's pricing increasing.

A Cape Town winter would negate that. But for most other parts of the country, you could possibly run your pool, irrigation and maybe even geyser too - all sans batteries. I live in Cape Town, and I consider the 20 kWh batteries that I bought as well worthwhile.

 

[Lupus]

A Cape Town winter would negate that. But for most other parts of the country, you could possibly run your pool, irrigation and maybe even geyser too - all sans batteries. I live in Cape Town, and I consider the 20 kWh batteries that I bought as well worthwhile.

A jhb summer wouldn't work either

 

[RaptorSA]

An interesting option nowadays probably is solar + inverter with no batteries. Would be interesting to see the cost savings with that. Especially with Eskom's pricing increasing.

Without batteries, no thanks.

I would say it's a good start.
The trick I've learned is to not cheap out on the inverter.
This should be common knowledge by now, but even I have "wasted" money on that in the past while knowing this.

A decent inverter (+- R15K) will allow you to get away with all kinds of strange setups. Hell, you can use old car batteries for temp failover storage if you wanted to, inverters are amazing machines, decent ones are even better.... they will take and adapt to whatever the hell you give them and make the best of it. I still can't understand how my Deye 5kWh can be happy, passively cooled in a closet compared to the noisy dust sucking Growatt I used previously.

But, like Lupus likely tried to say, without batteries you're just f**ing around wasting time on the inevitable... you're also wasting money on the table doing that, unless maybe you're a very, very early sleeper.

Also, don't forget the 2nd hand market. We're barely one year into previously new and expensive LiFePO4 batteries becoming insanely cheap and some folks will be upgrading due to space constraints, making 2nd hand storage even cheaper. LiFePO4 has also started penetrating the EV market massively, so you'll be getting 2nd life cells from China etc. in products all over the place.

4000 to 6000 cycles 'till 80% DoD is a lot more than most people probably realise.

I used to be pretty OCD about this stuff but that's because I was used to cobalt lithium and lithium polymer batteries, this new stuff is on a different level, I can't even properly comment on them because I haven't had any LiFePO4 based chemistry storage run long enough to fail on me.

 

[leon.davibe]

An interesting option nowadays probably is solar + inverter with no batteries. Would be interesting to see the cost savings with that. Especially with Eskom's pricing increasing.

Depends on the home

Most homes consume after hours cooking tv etc or getting geyser hot after bathing sessions at night for any family members that do morning showers
Time shifting isn't as easy as people think

Especially if not working from home

Not like you can time shift kids gaming sessions to school/sport times

Or veg out
on the couch middle of the day on netflix

Dishwasher and geyser is a big help though if it can be time shifted

Small batteries is the limiting factor

 

[xera]

Next article headline:

300KW+ sports cars you can buy for under R100k

... PER MONTH

 

[Tom427]

"...for under R1.000 pm."

I let them calculate, and turns out I save R100 pm. If my roof points the right way.

 

[leon.davibe]

"...for under R1.000 pm."

I let them calculate, and turns out I save R100 pm. If my roof points the right way.

Roof doesn't need to point perfect north

I would take the saving of R100 a month with a 50kg bag of salt

ie that would mean you would have to get an avg full sun hours per day of 0.5

South africa avg is 5.5 i live in george and even on rainy days i often get 1 and on sunny days highest 6.95 george has an avg of 4..1 per year

Now naturally these setups look to be based on 24v setups which is just a bad idea for solar imo ie you can't use geyser on it without modificatikn (easy though)

24v system has another limitation they often have lower max on the PV,

Meanjng you will upgrade the system down the line when you bump up against limits

Imo if you want to go solar you need to go 48v 5kw minimum but yea that bumps up initial as you need more panels to meet the startup requirements

 

[Gudnews]

This is the way in SA. Copy the vehicle payment plans, parachute payments et al.

 

[konfab]

Depends on the home

Most homes consume after hours cooking tv etc or getting geyser hot after bathing sessions at night for any family members that do morning showers
Time shifting isn't as easy as people think

Especially if not working from home

Not like you can time shift kids gaming sessions to school/sport times

Or veg out
on the couch middle of the day on netflix

Dishwasher and geyser is a big help though if it can be time shifted

Small batteries is the limiting factor

I do work from home, and the prize I want is free air-conditioning in summer, and using it to dry clothes during winter.

My geyser is already on a timer, so I probably could get the kid's bath on the solar. So that leaves our morning shower.

 

[Tomtomtom]

I do work from home, and the prize I want is free air-conditioning in summer, and using it to dry clothes during winter.

My geyser is already on a timer, so I probably could get the kid's bath on the solar. So that leaves our morning shower.

Two 550 W panels will get a 150 L geyser to 75 degrees in the summer, and by the next morning it'll still be above 50 even if you ran a bath.

Your geyser is a ~5 kWh thermal battery, and it's a no-brainer to hook it up to panels. Requires an MPPT ("charger") but no inverter.

 

[leon.davibe]

I do work from home, and the prize I want is free air-conditioning in summer, and using it to dry clothes during winter.

My geyser is already on a timer, so I probably could get the kid's bath on the solar. So that leaves our morning shower.

Yea aircon is a lovely load
For solar once running it is a steady 1000w load

If you are paying for that , often it is used more sparing

With solar more freedom
There is nothing like burning free electricity

 

[joker08]

What is a geyser thermal battery ?

 

[wingnut771]

What is a geyser thermal battery ?

A normal geyser. It takes about 8 kWh of leccy to heat it up.

 

[Tom427]

What is a geyser thermal battery ?

Instead of feeding a battery (i.e. Powewall) you warm up water which you need anyway. Since it lasts a while, it's a storage system.

 

[Pegging]

An interesting option nowadays probably is solar + inverter with no batteries. Would be interesting to see the cost savings with that. Especially with Eskom's pricing increasing.

I would guess you could save 20% to 30% over a year.