Rage quitting Eskom, my setup...

S

shadow_man

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Location
Cape Town
The wife and I decided to bite the bullet - and get clear of Eskom before winter started!

Goals:
1.) Power is a must as we WFH
2.) Pay Eskom as little as possible
3.) Over spec for winter so we can add appliances later / I don't need or want to play solar police

We got 4 quotes, spec'd it out, and then proceeded with the installer we felt the most comfortable with.

We went for:
1x 8kW Sunsynk inverter
18 x 540w panels (Canadian Solar)
1x 20/16 (20kW) Freedomwon battery (big bastard at 211kg!)

Our roof is NE facing.

It's now day 3 and as I'm getting more of an idea of generation / usage my wish list is growing.

Wish list:
1) Dump first geyser on aux (gen aka smart load) on the Sunsynk so it only kicks off when battery is say >90%.
2.) Add smart timers to both first (if I don't use aux or as a backup / alternative) and second geyser (on essentials under a sub db, so I need some way to regulate it).
3.) Play with Home Assistant to integrate the above timers.

Stressful, but fun ;)

Installer: SomeWatt Solar
Contact: Dean - [email protected]
Location: CPT
Cost: 262k all in (9.72kwh panels / 8kwh SunSynk inverter / 20kwh FreedomWon battery / installation)

Could I have gotten it cheaper - possibly, but I wanted an installer who would take accountability and pick up the phone when I called / if I had an issue.

Verdict:
A month later and all is working as intended. I'm happy.

A few teething problems during the install (partially on my side, partially on his) - but Dean was happy to work through them and keep me as the customer happy - with open communication at all times.

Dean is very responsive via phone and Whatsapp and is willing to help with any queries / niggles that may occur (case in point my CoCT meter having a wobble due to suspected tampering).

I'd recommend using him if you're looking for an installer in the CPT area.
 

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Congrats!! Go big or go home is your motto it seems :)

Looking forward to see how the system performs with time -> especially that battery!
 
shadow_man said:
The wife and I decided to bite the bullet - and get clear of Eskom before winter started!

Goals:
1.) Power is a must as we WFH
2.) Pay Eskom as little as possible
3.) Over spec for winter so we can add appliances later / I don't need or want to play solar police

We got 4 quotes, spec'd it out, and then proceeded with the installer we felt the most comfortable with.

We went for:
1x 8kW Sunsynk inverter
18 x 540w panels (Canadian Solar)
1x 20/16 (20kW) Freedomwon battery (big bastard at 211kg!)

Our roof is NE facing.

It's now day 3 and as I'm getting more of an idea of generation / usage my wish list is growing.

Wish list:
1) Dump first geyser on aux (gen aka smart load) on the Sunsynk so it only kicks off when battery is say >90%.
2.) Add smart timers to both first (if I don't use aux or as a backup / alternative) and second geyser (on essentials under a sub db, so I need some way to regulate it).
3.) Play with Home Assistant to integrate the above timers.

Stressful, but fun ;)
Click to expand...
Very very nice, congrats mate. Where are you located? GP / WC? interesting that they placed the panels in landscape vs portrait
 
Mzezman said:
Very very nice, congrats mate. Where are you located? GP / WC? interesting that they placed the panels in landscape vs portrait
Click to expand...
CPT - I needed to do landscape as I couldn’t fit 2x panels vertically - so I would have had to have a mix of portrait and landscape to make it fit and I didn’t want to do that.
 
Congrats. Looks like a super system. Enjoy
 
shadow_man said:
CPT - I needed to do landscape as I couldn’t fit 2x panels vertically - so I would have had to have a mix of portrait and landscape to make it fit and I didn’t want to do that.
Click to expand...
Nice - looks good - how has the generation been the first couple of days? Did you end up putting geyser etc on Aux or did you just add them to non Ess and wire the CT coil with solar export?
 
Mzezman said:
Nice - looks good - how has the generation been the first couple of days? Did you end up putting geyser etc on Aux or did you just add them to non Ess and wire the CT coil with solar export?
Click to expand...
The first geyser is on the main db - it's drawing non essential load, so LS or substation blows and it's out of commission.

The second geyser is on a sub db - ex flatlet that was brought back in to house - that whole db is marked as essential as it provides lights / plugs too - so that geyser will stay up regardless.

I've done an aux cable run, and left it in the roof should I want to test that - but I think for now I'll settle on timers until I can do the aux run and add a little db for pumps / geyser etc.
 
grok said:
Congrats on your successful de-decolonization!

You never mentioned much cost tho?
Click to expand...
That's because I'm still crying and rocking myself to sleep in the shower :ROFL:

It's probably a bit higher than it should be:
a) as there's so much demand
b) lithium pricing world wide is through the roof
c) i went for a decent big brand battery with a good bms

In the interim I'll let forumites guess and confirm / append the post with values later ; )

 
Snyper564 said:
Sweet setup is similar to mine although you have 6 more panels and panels were around R2700 when
I bought mine and are now 3500-4500 each
Click to expand...
Yep - what most seem to forget is pricing has shot up +-20% since last year... Hell the battery shot up 15% in between me ordering / taking deliver (they still honoured the old price).
 
shadow_man said:
Yep - what most seem to forget is pricing has shot up +-20% since last year... Hell the battery shot up 15% in between me ordering / taking deliver (they still honoured the old price).
Click to expand...
Ah thats good, I snagged a 4th hubble putting our storage on par with each other just because of planned increases will get additional panels in the future. Beautiful set up and welcome to the club
 
Snyper564 said:
Ah thats good, I snagged a 4th hubble putting our storage on par with each other just because of planned increases will get additional panels in the future. Beautiful set up and welcome to the club
Click to expand...
Thanks - I just wasn't sold on the Hubble in terms of time in the market / build quality, thus I opted to splurge a little and grab the Freedomwon. I also put a lot of stock in my brothers advice and he recommended I steer clear, so I did.

There are a hell of a lot of Hubble installs happening now though, so I guess time will tell!
 
Snyper564 said:
@shadow_man just remember dedicated plug if you prepaid the sunsync unscyncs prepaid coms
Click to expand...
I've ready about that - but I've been told that SSEG registration in CoCT prevents this from happening (the city cutting your power due to suspected tampering if you're not using any credits).
 
shadow_man said:
That's because I'm still crying and rocking myself to sleep in the shower :ROFL:
Click to expand...
It's ok, you're crying now.. watch the rest of us crying later when they completely fubar'd Eskom & there's no money to repair..
 
shadow_man said:
I've ready about that - but I've been told that SSEG registration in CoCT prevents this from happening (the city cutting your power due to suspected tampering if you're not using any credits).
Click to expand...
you dont tamper you just put the prepaid box on this switch - your sunsynk will unsynk it I dont think anything "external/SSEG" will prevent it.

In short your inside terminal will not be able to sync with your outside terminal if it hasnt unsynced already. You will not be able to top up your units till it syncs again

@RonSwanson can provide further insight
 
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