Taking lights off the grid

[heartbroken]

Forgetting the lights, I would ALWAYS advise to go for the biggest inverter you can afford (especially if you plan to integrate it into a DB). The bigger units have much better solar capabilities, and you can obviously also add much more load to it over time as you go.

Either way, adequate inverters & batteries, aren't cheap...

Good advice!

I did it the other way round, got the smallest inverter that could do the job, but now if I want to run my TV or PC, I am boned.

Life choices....

/sighs

 

[heartbroken]

I'd probably need 250-300W in lightning.

When you feel the need to switch on every single light you own. That's why my system is so small, I figured I will at most use about 50% at once.

 

[savage]

When you feel the need to switch on every single light you own. That's why my system is so small, I figured I will at most use about 50% at once.

With small / young children, you don't really have a choice in the matter But yes, circumstances are different from person to person.

 

[supersunbird]

would love to take my lights solar. why would lights be so expensive to take solar? shouldn't household lights come in under 150w. if a solar setup to feed that costs more than 10k then someone is getting screwed.

150W if you have like 10 x 15w energy savers altogether. Then you have to have at least double the batteries of what the theoretical calculation says you must have, because you shouldn't discharge them more than 50%.

Now if you have those lights on just a few hours a night, you can get away with R10 000.

If you just have 150W of security lighting that has to be on ALL night, that's 14 hours in winter, costs start adding up.

And they have to be on ALL night to act as a deterrent from entering the yard in the first place, so no movement sensor things to save energy.

 

[mmacleod]

150W if you have like 10 x 15w energy savers altogether. Then you have to have at least double the batteries of what the theoretical calculation says you must have, because you shouldn't discharge them more than 50%.

Now if you have those lights on just a few hours a night, you can get away with R10 000.

If you just have 150W of security lighting that has to be on ALL night, that's 14 hours in winter, costs start adding up.

And they have to be on ALL night to act as a deterrent from entering the yard in the first place, so no movement sensor things to save energy.

No reason to run the security lighting all night long on batteries though, just do that part with the grid. Or better yet don't leave a 150W light on all night long, get a properly installed motion sensor, your neighbours will hate you less and your security will actually improve.

 

[akescpt]

No reason to run the security lighting all night long on batteries though, just do that part with the grid. Or better yet don't leave a 150W light on all night long, get a properly installed motion sensor, your neighbours will hate you less and your security will actually improve.

I was thinking more along the lines of those spot lights with the solar and motion sensor built in....

 

[ToxicBunny]

I'm looking at a similar thing myself...

Has anyone looked at Micro Inverters out of interest? I like the idea of being able to scale the system up over time, without having to buy a massive inverter to start with.

 

[savage]

I'm looking at a similar thing myself...

Has anyone looked at Micro Inverters out of interest? I like the idea of being able to scale the system up over time, without having to buy a massive inverter to start with.

The bigger inverters can be parallelized in order to scale up over and above the 5KVA region (in increments of 5KVA). And no, 5KVA isn't massive at all, it's tiny actually.

If you seriously want to go this route, the best advice I can give you is to PLAN it properly, SAVE until you have enough money, and install it properly.

These things by their nature (PV Panels, Batteries, Inverters, etc.) does not scale well. Especially not on the battery / PV side. Proper planning and not skimping on hardware, is paramount IMHO.

 

[Marvo]

The problem with the very small camping type inverters is that you'll need to buy a decent battery charger, a minimum of 3 stage charging and float charge as well. By the time you include this you might as well but a 1kw Axpert inverter which comes with charger included and gives you better power quality etc. There's lots of threads on the forum about these inverters already if you search for them.

 

[savage]

The problem with the very small camping type inverters is that you'll need to buy a decent battery charger, a minimum of 3 stage charging and float charge as well. By the time you include this you might as well but a 1kw Axpert inverter which comes with charger included and gives you better power quality etc. There's lots of threads on the forum about these inverters already if you search for them.

Those things also can't legally be connected to your fixed electrical installation (DB), there are numerous reasons for that. With that in mind, it is illegal to connect those up to your house's existing lighting too...

 

[ToxicBunny]

The bigger inverters can be parallelized in order to scale up over and above the 5KVA region (in increments of 5KVA). And no, 5KVA isn't massive at all, it's tiny actually.

If you seriously want to go this route, the best advice I can give you is to PLAN it properly, SAVE until you have enough money, and install it properly.

These things by their nature (PV Panels, Batteries, Inverters, etc.) does not scale well. Especially not on the battery / PV side. Proper planning and not skimping on hardware, is paramount IMHO.

Completely agree on the planning aspect...

And I fully intend to do it this way, I just want it to be cost effective, since taking lights off grid is not a huge power draw. At most I'm looking at 60 5w LEDs and possibly a few 20 or 30w LED spotlights... so a 5KVA inverter is massive overkill for that job. I may end up taking more off grid over time, but only if its cost effective.

 

[savage]

Keep in mind - just because you have a 5KVA Inverter, it doesn't mean you need batteries to carry 5KVA for x amount of hours...

You can very easily for example go 5KVA Inverter, and only 200Ah batteries, to carry +- 1.5kW over a 2 hour load shedding period.

But yes - on the other side of the coin, when your load 'gradually' grows over and above the 1.5kW region your batteries will not be enough, and you would need to replace them all.

I also initially thought the same as what you did, but I got myself a 5kVA and a 225Ah battery bank. Within a week, my load on my inverter jumped from a mere 600W to 1.8kW on average, as I started putting more and more things on the Inverter. Today, my entire house except my Stove and Geyser are connected, and powered during load shedding.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Keep in mind - just because you have a 5KVA Inverter, it doesn't mean you need batteries to carry 5KVA for x amount of hours...

You can very easily for example go 5KVA Inverter, and only 200Ah batteries, to carry +- 1.5kW over a 2 hour load shedding period.

But yes - on the other side of the coin, when your load 'gradually' grows over and above the 1.5kW region your batteries will not be enough, and you would need to replace them all.

I also initially thought the same as what you did, but I got myself a 5kVA and a 225Ah battery bank. Within a week, my load on my inverter jumped from a mere 600W to 1.8kW on average, as I started putting more and more things on the Inverter. Today, my entire house except my Stove and Geyser are connected, and powered during load shedding.

*ponders*

I may have to go this route at the end of the day, even though I don't want to.

I wanted to avoid spending ridiculous sums on the Inverter since I was going to put PV's into the mix, but maybe I will have to buy the relevant sized Inverter and then scale up the other aspects of the installation as and when money allows.

**EDIT**

This is not actually to avoid load shedding, this is just to reduce reliance on the grid for certain things. I want my lights to be completely off grid as it were, and may over time take more and more things off grid, but things like the oven, etc will stay on grid since I can live comfortably without them.

 

[savage]

If you're going to put in PV - then you MUST spend as much as possible on the Inverter - I wouldn't recommend ANYTHING less than the 5KVA Axpert, or (even better), the 3KW InfiniSolar...

The Axperts < 5KVA, has really, really, small solar charge controllers. The amount of PV that can be put on them IMHO, is actually disappointing (make sure to CHECK and UNDERSTAND the datasheets).

 

[supersunbird]

No reason to run the security lighting all night long on batteries though, just do that part with the grid. Or better yet don't leave a 150W light on all night long, get a properly installed motion sensor, your neighbours will hate you less and your security will actually improve.

:-/ I covered that but if you want a lecture on security...

The lights being on can be seen from the road/piece of veld, a deterrent, I don't want the crims to even be on the yard before there is light on the situation, so its a beyond perimeter deterrent even and covers the perimeter and yard layers as well. Studies have proven that lighting acts area crime deterrent, with well lit neighbourhoods having less crime.

Yes, lets put them on the grid... the grid that crashed 4 minutes after loadshedding ended at 18:04, due to equipment failure, and came back 3am in the morning.

The lighting is not flood lighting and does not impact neighbours and is installed in a discreet manner that very little filters of the yard in a big fashion, beyond seeing the yard is lit when looking from outside.