Going solar 40% cheaper than three years ago

Hanno Labuschagne

Hanno Labuschagne

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Going solar 40% cheaper than three years ago

South African households installing an off-grid solar power system in 2025 will spend nearly 40% less than those who did the same during the country's load-shedding crisis.

The prices of photovoltaic (PV) panels, inverters, and batteries have plummeted in the past few years, driven by increased demand from solar power producers.
 
Hanno Labuschagne said:
Going solar 40% cheaper than three years ago

South African households installing an off-grid solar power system in 2025 will spend nearly 40% less than those who did the same during the country's load-shedding crisis.

The prices of photovoltaic (PV) panels, inverters, and batteries have plummeted in the past few years, driven by increased demand from solar power producers.
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I can confirm this, sadly...
 
PCWARITM said:
Yeh, but please okes... install at least TWO inverters and at least TWO batteries minimum, because you're going to cry when it's off for repairs.
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I also had a similar outlook when I saw my solar quote, but when my solar was installed, it took 2 days for a team of 6 trained guys to setup everything.
 
wingnut771 said:
@denmendez65 disagrees.
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I self-installed, so my inverter breaks. It's a drive to a solar shop, 15 minutes to remove the dead inverter and 15 minutes to add a second one. I won't be repairing my inverter, will bin it or give it away. They are cheap. (If it's on a Sunday, though, then I will be without power for the day, but I lived without power for 3 days with power cuts/failures with the Grid, so 1/2 days is fine.

Spending an extra 10s of thousands for a second inverter is not really worth it for a 1/2 day power outage every couple of years.

For me, Off-grid makes sense. But for others, no, as discussed already. I can't justify giving 15k a year to CP when I can buy a new inverter like the one Lupus has for that price or a new 5kWh battery.
 
denmendez65 said:
I self-installed, so my inverter breaks. It's a drive to a solar shop, 15 minutes to remove the dead inverter and 15 minutes to add a second one. I won't be repairing my inverter, will bin it or give it away. They are cheap. (If it's on a Sunday, though, then I will be without power for the day, but I lived without power for 3 days with power cuts/failures with the Grid, so 1/2 days is fine.

Spending an extra 10s of thousands for a second inverter is not really worth it for a 1/2 day power outage every couple of years.

For me, Off-grid makes sense. But for others, no, as discussed already. I can't justify giving 15k a year to CP when I can buy a new inverter like the one Lupus has for that price or a new 5kWh battery.
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Was talking about line fees.
 
wingnut771 said:
It took 2 days to get inverter repaired?
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Why repair, throw that thing away unless its super expensive. Savings on line fees and electric means you can buy some 3 15 to 20k inverters every year. I like convenince and sending stuff in for repairs seems very inconvenient unless you have 2 inverters and can wait and deal with the process.

Also useful I guess during warranty claims as they can repair for you for free. I am not a certified installer so I forfeit all warranties with DIY stuff so another reason I dont care about repairing stuff.
 
denmendez65 said:
Why repair, throw that thing away unless its super expensive. Savings on line fees and electric means you can buy some 3 15 to 20k inverters every year. I like convenince and sending stuff in for repairs seems very inconvenient unless you have 2 inverters and can wait and deal with the process.

Also useful I guess during warranty claims as they can repair for you for free. I am not a certified installer so I forfeit all warranties with DIY stuff so another reason I dont care about repairing stuff.
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because its a sunsynk.
 
wingnut771 said:
Was talking about line fees.
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Yeah and I'm talking a person who got an installer to install his system having to worry every time his system coughs that he wont have power. The line fees are a small cost for a silent generator so 90% of people.
 
denmendez65 said:
Yeah and I'm talking a person who got an installer to install his system having to worry every time his system coughs that he wont have power. The line fees are a small cost for a silent generator so 90% of people.
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until the stars line up and you and the city have a failure at the same time.
 
wingnut771 said:
because its a sunsynk.
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They are about 18k I see for an 8kW one. I guess its worth the repair. But if Off-grid? you are stuffed.

I would buy the MUST, ECCO brands that give you a 12kW for 12k rand. Thing fails in 4 years I will bin it and buy a new one. Rather than buying 2 or 3 inverters for redundancy.
 
denmendez65 said:
Yeah and I'm talking a person who got an installer to install his system having to worry every time his system coughs that he wont have power. The line fees are a small cost for a silent generator so 90% of people.
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90% of people haven't figured out yet that LPG generator is cheaper than eskom.
 
denmendez65 said:
They are about 18k I see for an 8kW one. I guess its worth the repair. But if Off-grid? you are stuffed.

I would buy the MUST, ECCO brands that give you a 12kW for 12k rand. Thing fails in 4 years I will bin it and buy a new one. Rather than buying 2 or 3 inverters for redundancy.
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Yeah, I'm only considering sunsynk so I can spin meter backwards during the day.
 
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