ActivateD
Expert Member
As promised I said I will do a post about moving most of my house onto solar and battery. This is phase 1 and I will be doing phase 2 and maybe phase 3 next year. For phase 1 my requirements were simply and here are the list of things I wanted to be on solar/battery:
Changed all halogen globes to LED (23 of them)
Light outside
Split circuit from CityPower to solar
Solar DB and reticulation including all switch gear and Surge protection.
Main House
Sever room/Cabinet/ Dedicated circuit.
Replace to all 50 watt Halogen globes to 5 watt warm white 220 volt LED Globe
Replace all outside, ceiling and wall light globes to LED, including Chandeliers
Replace the 500watt Halogen flood light to 50 watt LED Flood light
Split the plug circuits for the TV, Alarm CCTV and Fridge
Supply cabling to Solar room.
Axpert 5KVA Hybrid Inverter
BAK 5kw Lithium-Ion Battery
Seraphim 72 Cell 330 watt Solar panels
Web Based solar monitoring system
*Longer list of things but these were the main ones in my quote.
Total cost R130k including labour materials
Installation day - Day 1
They arrived nice and early Monday morning and I was told they will be done by thursday/friday if they run into issues. They installed the solar panels as they said this was the longest and hardest part of the whole project.
Starting off the installation of the panel rails
The solar panels that will put up
Some stats for the nerds in us
The end result of the solar panels after they have been installed. I get really good sun on them even in the morning and afternoon so happy days.
Day2
Day 2 was replacing all the bulbs in the house which I do not need to share but yeah they did that but also they installed the inverter and battery. I had a small room built that will store the inverter and battery and it is big enough for phase 2 and phase 3 when I am ready. It has its own door and good ventilation.
The inverter about to installed
Surge protection and all that.
The other main guest the battery. It is a single 5Kw telecom battery
End result. As you can see there is more than enough space for 2 other inverters and batteries.
My load is small. When we did the stress test it didn't pass 10% load so I am happy with that.
I have a third DB in the house (one for main house, one for cottage and one for solar). All the plugs in the house have been labelled solar or CityPower but when phase 2 is complete everything should be in solar so the labels will be removed. I hope this helps someone else if you have questions ask away I will try answer them.
- All lights (including flood lights)
- Main computer
- Server rack
- Printer
- DSTV
- TV
- Fridges x 2
- Some of the plugs that are in use (6 I think in total got moved)
- Geysers x2
- Pool pump
- Oven
- Plugs that are not used in the house (about 10 or so)
Changed all halogen globes to LED (23 of them)
Light outside
Split circuit from CityPower to solar
Solar DB and reticulation including all switch gear and Surge protection.
Main House
Sever room/Cabinet/ Dedicated circuit.
Replace to all 50 watt Halogen globes to 5 watt warm white 220 volt LED Globe
Replace all outside, ceiling and wall light globes to LED, including Chandeliers
Replace the 500watt Halogen flood light to 50 watt LED Flood light
Split the plug circuits for the TV, Alarm CCTV and Fridge
Supply cabling to Solar room.
Axpert 5KVA Hybrid Inverter
BAK 5kw Lithium-Ion Battery
Seraphim 72 Cell 330 watt Solar panels
Web Based solar monitoring system
*Longer list of things but these were the main ones in my quote.
Total cost R130k including labour materials
Installation day - Day 1
They arrived nice and early Monday morning and I was told they will be done by thursday/friday if they run into issues. They installed the solar panels as they said this was the longest and hardest part of the whole project.
Starting off the installation of the panel rails
The solar panels that will put up
Some stats for the nerds in us
The end result of the solar panels after they have been installed. I get really good sun on them even in the morning and afternoon so happy days.
Day2
Day 2 was replacing all the bulbs in the house which I do not need to share but yeah they did that but also they installed the inverter and battery. I had a small room built that will store the inverter and battery and it is big enough for phase 2 and phase 3 when I am ready. It has its own door and good ventilation.
The inverter about to installed
Surge protection and all that.
The other main guest the battery. It is a single 5Kw telecom battery
End result. As you can see there is more than enough space for 2 other inverters and batteries.
My load is small. When we did the stress test it didn't pass 10% load so I am happy with that.
I have a third DB in the house (one for main house, one for cottage and one for solar). All the plugs in the house have been labelled solar or CityPower but when phase 2 is complete everything should be in solar so the labels will be removed. I hope this helps someone else if you have questions ask away I will try answer them.
