Planning your own Solar Power System

MyLowBandwidth said:
I've done some research too and I've found some great alternatives to the battery you've suggested here. The battery we've sourced is a LiFE PO4, potentially at a really good price, landed. I'll send you a PM with more details as it becomes available.
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Please share this information with us. What sort of Battery Management System are you looking at? Ideally one should be able to retro-fit a LiFE PO4 battery bank to use a regular MPPT/PWM charger and the BMS balances the cells.
 
heartbroken said:
I agree - so tired of opening up articles about being off grid and then realising it was written for millionaires.

All these other threads of people spending thousands to watch TV during load shedding makes me mad. Go and read a book or go outside!!

/rant over
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+1. If youre going to invest all that dough on power might as well go completely off the grid and use prepaid Eskom as a backup.

That investment should include gas geysers and stoves; gennies and solar. A combo system that addresses all your needs.

Suddenly load shedding has stopped and now you're stuck with a fancy R60k setup that's of no use.
 
WaxLyrical said:
Suddenly load shedding has stopped and now you're stuck with a fancy R60k setup that's of no use.
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I think the load shedding will continue for a while still .... At least until the nuclear deal is signed , assuming this is just a scare tactic :)

In any case what you will have is "free" electricity , versus ever increasing costs from eskom. But I think the 60k is way under , if you thinking totally off grid.
 
WaxLyrical said:
+1. If youre going to invest all that dough on power might as well go completely off the grid and use prepaid Eskom as a backup.

That investment should include gas geysers and stoves; gennies and solar. A combo system that addresses all your needs.

Suddenly load shedding has stopped and now you're stuck with a fancy R60k setup that's of no use.
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No. You budget for future replacements, and add it to your Iinsurance. And never have to hear about another price hike.
 
akescpt said:
Did you have to put your lights on another db? Care to give more details on your system. I'm contemplating the same.
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I added an inverter near the solar installation and ran 220V into the house, and into the DB. Added a change over switch between the Eskom power and Solar system. Moved the breaker for the lights to after the change over switch. A earth spike was also added and wired to the inverter.

If I switch on every single light in my house, the power draw is about 200W, so the system came in quite affordable.
 
heartbroken said:
I added an inverter near the solar installation and ran 220V into the house, and into the DB. Added a change over switch between the Eskom power and Solar system. Moved the breaker for the lights to after the change over switch. A earth spike was also added and wired to the inverter.

If I switch on every single light in my house, the power draw is about 200W, so the system came in quite affordable.
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Did you have to get an electrician in? If yes, how much?
 
Hi

I'm actually quite interested in how people feel about the DIY route for this stuff. In my opinion its a good option because you can tackle these projects at your own pace one bite at a time if necessary. Not everyone has 50-100k lying around to off set Eskom's ineptitude.

Also, one of the nice things about solar power is its very scalable. You can stack modern inverters where necessary, you can add more panels as necessary, and even though its not ideal, you can scale up your battery bank as necessary.

So, I've been thinking for some time that what people should do is put a few panels on their roof to start with to power say LED lights and the alarm, router etc and just steadily grow from there.

If you do it yourself, the installation costs only your time and it doesnt matter if you do the thing in lots of small installments instead of one big bang which costs a lot?
 
alanB said:
Hi

I'm actually quite interested in how people feel about the DIY route for this stuff. In my opinion its a good option because you can tackle these projects at your own pace one bite at a time if necessary. Not everyone has 50-100k lying around to off set Eskom's ineptitude.

Also, one of the nice things about solar power is its very scalable. You can stack modern inverters where necessary, you can add more panels as necessary, and even though its not ideal, you can scale up your battery bank as necessary.

So, I've been thinking for some time that what people should do is put a few panels on their roof to start with to power say LED lights and the alarm, router etc and just steadily grow from there.

If you do it yourself, the installation costs only your time and it doesnt matter if you do the thing in lots of small installments instead of one big bang which costs a lot?
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A fair percentage of a solar installation can be performed by an enthusiastic DIYer.

That is, until you hit the DB, when a registered electrician must take over.

If you do your own thing - and something goes wrong - you will find that you have invalidated your insurance ...

My recommendation would be to pay an electrician for advice / connection to the DB / certification, but to do the actual work yourself.
 
akescpt said:
Did you have to get an electrician in? If yes, how much?
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Uhm, yes and no. I have a friend who is a registered electrician. Gave me tips on how to install myself and when it was done he came and gave me an updated CoC for the price of a few beers one evening after work :)
 
rrh said:
A fair percentage of a solar installation can be performed by an enthusiastic DIYer.

That is, until you hit the DB, when a registered electrician must take over.

If you do your own thing - and something goes wrong - you will find that you have invalidated your insurance ...

My recommendation would be to pay an electrician for advice / connection to the DB / certification, but to do the actual work yourself.
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That's exactly what I'm getting at.

Of course the work needs to be done properly, and anyone who doesn't want to do that will need to live with the consequences.

But all you really need an electrician for is to do the final connections to the DB. You can do all the donkey work of getting the panels on the roof, wiring up the batteries and inverters, running the cables through the roof etc. As long as you follow the correct procedures, which isn't hard, theres no reason why an electrician wouldn't give you a COC after inspecting the work. Its easy money for him, while you save from paying him for all the time consuming work (which they often dont want to do - crawling around in an old houses roof isn't that great for eg). Plus you can do it your way at a pace that suites your budget.
 
alanB said:
That's exactly what I'm getting at.

Of course the work needs to be done properly, and anyone who doesn't want to do that will need to live with the consequences.

But all you really need an electrician for is to do the final connections to the DB. You can do all the donkey work of getting the panels on the roof, wiring up the batteries and inverters, running the cables through the roof etc. As long as you follow the correct procedures, which isn't hard, theres no reason why an electrician wouldn't give you a COC after inspecting the work. Its easy money for him, while you save from paying him for all the time consuming work (which they often dont want to do - crawling around in an old houses roof isn't that great for eg). Plus you can do it your way at a pace that suites your budget.
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+100%
 
Stupid question, but where would I find the official South African Electrical wiring code and all the correct procedures and methods for domestic electrical work? Is there such a thing?
 
For the guys looking for the Rectron Axpert 5kva inverters, I just bought 2 from www.geewiz.co.za
Overnight delivery, so should be arriving at my house tomorrow.
 
Might be a while.
Still trying to decide on solar panels, and sourcing 120ah batteries at a decent price.
Just glad I found the inverters as no-one seems to have stock, and a lot of places have inflated prices.
 
viceroy said:
Might be a while.
Still trying to decide on solar panels, and sourcing 120ah batteries at a decent price.
Just glad I found the inverters as no-one seems to have stock, and a lot of places have inflated prices.
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The only thing about ordering from the small online retailers is that warantee claims will most likely be an issue.
 
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