Home solar power - not worth cutting Eskom off completely if you don't have to

[Jan]

Goodbye Eskom — the true cost of going fully off-grid

South Africans looking to go 100% off-grid with no backup power from Eskom should be aware that it could come at an unjustifiably high price.

The recent re-emergence of Stage 4 load-shedding has many people riled up and some threatening (again) to finally kick the power utility to the curb.

 

[Unreal]

Given the content, I think the article headline should be: Hello Eskom my BFF: True costs showing why you’ll never go off grid.

 

[mypetcow]

#dontbepoor

 

[Magnum]

Well im running off solar in the day and using battery during LS. just want to fiddle with nightly power consumption and move thins to day only... Can get interesting. for the Last two days I have had no loadshedding. The inverter handles it nicely in UPS mode.

 

[Priapus]

Well im running off solar in the day and using battery during LS. just want to fiddle with nightly power consumption and move thins to day only... Can get interesting. for the Last two days I have had no loadshedding. The inverter handles it nicely in UPS mode.

Try going a week without Eskom.

 

[Priapus]

Goodbye Eskom — the true cost of going fully off-grid

South Africans looking to go 100% off-grid with no backup power from Eskom should be aware that it could come at an unjustifiably high price.

The recent re-emergence of Stage 4 load-shedding has many people riled up and some threatening (again) to finally kick the power utility to the curb.

Not going to read the article. But I’ve come to the same conclusion.

I have a full solar setup and only use Eskom for a few hours during evening peak.

However, to be proper off grid imho. You should be able to go a week without Eskom and bad weather combined.

Can be done if you throw enough money at it. But the cost is unjustifiably high.

 

[Willie Trombone]

"Rubicon chief product officer Nick Roche agreed, saying that households using 1,200kWh on average per month are looking at R727,000 excluding VAT to go completely off-grid."
Way to go Nick, you just told a ton of potential clients to not waste their time.

 

[Willie Trombone]

Not going to read the article. But I’ve come to the same conclusion.

I have a full solar setup and only use Eskom for a few hours during evening peak.

However, to be proper off grid imho. You should be able to go a week without Eskom and bad weather combined.

Can be done if you throw enough money at it. But the cost is unjustifiably high.

Guy around the corner from us is off grid - Eskom even came and fetched their meter. He's been off for a while and it's not some R700k system. He just adjusts his habits during extended overcast periods.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Given the content, I think the article headline should be: Hello Eskom my BFF: True costs showing why you’ll never go off grid.

That's never the intention. The only time you'll need to do some planning is when there's an outage/load shedding and the weather is bad. We've never been without power the past few weeks because of this...

 

[mypetcow]

That's never the intention. The only time you'll need to do some planning is when there's an outage/load shedding and the weather is bad. We've never been without power the past few weeks because of this...

Exactly. Which begs the question why is everyone so overly obsessed with the terminology and concept of ‘going off grid’. It’s like everyone is made of money and have no issues completely replicating Eskom’s infrastructure to a point where no matter the weather and the duration of bad weather you will have power.

Don’t get me wrong I like power too but why should I spend R300k+ upfront so I can tell everyone im off grid (like really off grid, none of this ‘can’t run the toaster and oven at the same time’ nonsense)?

I offset my R2.50/kWh from Eskom as much as I can during the day with solar and I have a portable li-ion battery for load shedding. The whole setup cost me less than R20k. I have internet, TV and lights all day every day. All good.

Will I be able to run the toaster and the pool during load shedding? No. But I don’t need to. The power will come back in a few hours and then I can make all the bloody toast I want and it it in a clean pool.

 

[Enzo Matrix]

Exactly. Which begs the question why is everyone so overly obsessed with the terminology and concept of ‘going off grid’. It’s like everyone is made of money and have no issues completely replicating Eskom’s infrastructure to a point where no matter the weather and the duration of bad weather you will have power.

Don’t get me wrong I like power too but why should I spend R300k+ upfront so I can tell everyone im off grid (like really off grid, none of this ‘can’t run the toaster and oven at the same time’ nonsense)?

I offset my R2.50/kWh from Eskom as much as I can during the day with solar and I have a portable li-ion battery for load shedding. The whole setup cost me less than R20k. I have internet, TV and lights all day every day. All good.

Will I be able to run the toaster and the pool during load shedding? No. But I don’t need to. The power will come back in a few hours and then I can make all the bloody toast I want and it it in a clean pool.

Unless u live in wilgeheuwel. We had a 48hr outage then a 30hr and then a 12hr.

We now dont have to worry about eksdom anymore

 

[AchmatK]

Exactly. Which begs the question why is everyone so overly obsessed with the terminology and concept of ‘going off grid’. It’s like everyone is made of money and have no issues completely replicating Eskom’s infrastructure to a point where no matter the weather and the duration of bad weather you will have power.

Don’t get me wrong I like power too but why should I spend R300k+ upfront so I can tell everyone im off grid (like really off grid, none of this ‘can’t run the toaster and oven at the same time’ nonsense)?

I offset my R2.50/kWh from Eskom as much as I can during the day with solar and I have a portable li-ion battery for load shedding. The whole setup cost me less than R20k. I have internet, TV and lights all day every day. All good.

Will I be able to run the toaster and the pool during load shedding? No. But I don’t need to. The power will come back in a few hours and then I can make all the bloody toast I want and it it in a clean pool.

Except when the substation down the road trips after loadshedding and it takes another 24hrs to be fixed.

We just came out of loadshedding and power went out 3 minutes after coming back on. Street lights are still on so its most likely the substation in our area.

I did choose today to install a new battery and I should have let it charge from the grid just to be on the safe side.

Still have 5kwh of battery charge left to get me through the night.

 

[LCBXX]

Is MyBB spreading propaganda...?

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Exactly. Which begs the question why is everyone so overly obsessed with the terminology and concept of ‘going off grid’. It’s like everyone is made of money and have no issues completely replicating Eskom’s infrastructure to a point where no matter the weather and the duration of bad weather you will have power.

Don’t get me wrong I like power too but why should I spend R300k+ upfront so I can tell everyone im off grid (like really off grid, none of this ‘can’t run the toaster and oven at the same time’ nonsense)?

I offset my R2.50/kWh from Eskom as much as I can during the day with solar and I have a portable li-ion battery for load shedding. The whole setup cost me less than R20k. I have internet, TV and lights all day every day. All good.

Will I be able to run the toaster and the pool during load shedding? No. But I don’t need to. The power will come back in a few hours and then I can make all the bloody toast I want and it it in a clean pool.

To go truly off grid you'll need a ridiculous amount of storage. It's not practical for most.

But the hybrid systems work great to get you 90% off Eskom, 90% of the time. You just need enough battery to get you through the night. Most of us can live with this.

Unfortunately smaller backup systems won't help you deal with a 2 day outage, so you'll need to lay down at least some cash on batteries to get you through the night, as well as enough panels to charge them during the day and run the house load...

 

[LCBXX]

To go truly off grid you'll need a ridiculous amount of storage. It's not practical for most.

But the hybrid systems work great to get you 90% off Eskom, 90% of the time. You just need enough battery to get you through the night. Most of us can live with this.

Unfortunately smaller backup systems won't help you deal with a 2 day outage, so you'll need to lay down at least some cash on batteries you get you through the night, as well as enough panels to charge them during the day and recharge the batteries...

I remeber where a system like that would cost nearly R500k just a few years ago. Now a similar system is R250k, with lithium batteries taking up half the space too.

Demand will keep driving cost down. My concern is the ANC government looking to heavily tax self-sustaining home power setups.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

Demand will keep driving cost down. My concern is the ANC government looking to heavily tax self-sustaining home power setups.

Sure, but taxed based on what? Trying to be environmentally friendly? Choosing not to use their unreliable, legally protected monopoly to secure our right to electricity (which amounts to extortion)?

I'm sure they will find some way to introduce it, but it won't pass constitutional muster...

 

[zerocool2009]

Sure, but taxed based on what? Trying to be environmentally friendly? Choosing not to use their unreliable, legally protected monopoly to secure our right to electricity (which amounts to extortion)?

I'm sure they will find some way to introduce it, but it won't pass constitutional muster...

I cant wait for off the grid taxes! Its already in the news!

 

[Aghori]

*Laughs in Fusion generator*

 

[McGuywer]

I cant wait for off the grid taxes! Its already in the news!

Why?

 

[neoprema]

ok now i'm confused.

I was seriously thinking of going with solar+inverter+batteries on a grid-tied solution (8kw) but now I don't know - also however my quotes have not been as high as they are saying in the article?

I feel like i'm back to square 1 and i've got people coming to give me a final estimate tomorrow lol.