We finally want to pull the trigger & go Solar

[SauRoNZA]

BUT I run 2 x Fridges and a Deep Freezer these won't use much? Why do people think fridges and freezers use a lot of power? At most these would be 1.5 units a day on hot days with people opening and closing them, so two fridges and a freezer would be 4 to 5 units a day, less then a geyser uses in an hour and a half.
What is making it so you're barely making it is the geyser, rather look at something more efficient. I've got 20kWh of battery and most mornings I'm at 50% and I have a base load of 300 to 500, which has been higher since the new inverter which actually seems to include it's usage in the figure unlike the old Axpert.

No they don’t use much in isolation, I was just illustrating that things all add up together.

As for the geyser this wasn’t a complaint or need to fix on my part. I’m fully aware and this is a decision I chose to make.

In the peak of summer when batteries are full every day it’s no problem at all, but this time of year that doesn’t always happen.

 

[Lupus]

No they don’t use much in isolation, I was just illustrating that things all add up together.

As for the geyser this wasn’t a complaint or need to fix on my part. I’m fully aware and this is a decision I chose to make.

In the peak of summer when batteries are full every day it’s no problem at all, but this time of year that doesn’t always happen.

Cool

 

[NR7]

We only have 80K at the moment, if we looking at 40K for installation we going to need to hold off for a bit which is disappointing as we felt we were so close last thing I want is a small loan that will negate any savings on electricity via the panels, so bit of a catch 22

Hey, same budget. Installer quoted R81k for 12 panels on a 5kw Deye with 5kwh battery. A little less if you go with less panels.

MyBroadband got around 10.5kwh generated from 6 panels so I'd imagine that 12 panels gets 21kwh on a good day. Sadly a lot of that will go to waste with just a 5kwh battery and small inverter.

How much money we saved with one month of solar power

We slashed our electricity bill by 80% in our first full month with solar power, using a system many would consider to be entry-level by today’s standards.

mybroadband.co.za

Another quote was a 8kw Deye with 3x5.12kwh batteries and 15 panels (26kwh on a good day if my sums are right). R126k.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I’ve paid R23,600 for labour, COC, mounting kit, etc. (July last year). This was for 12 panels, a 5k inverter, and 2 × 5.12kWh batteries—just to give you an idea.
The company has apparently been around since 1962.

Sheesh, how do installers like that make any profit. Did the installer also sell you the inverter and everything or just do the installation?

 

[BLG]

Hey, same budget. Installer quoted R81k for 12 panels on a 5kw Deye with 5kwh battery. A little less if you go with less panels.

MyBroadband got around 10.5kwh generated from 6 panels so I'd imagine that 12 panels gets 21kwh on a good day. Sadly a lot of that will go to waste with just a 5kwh battery and small inverter.

How much money we saved with one month of solar power

We slashed our electricity bill by 80% in our first full month with solar power, using a system many would consider to be entry-level by today’s standards.

mybroadband.co.za

Another quote was a 8kw Deye with 3x5.12kwh batteries and 15 panels (26kwh on a good day if my sums are right). R126k.

This is quite the interesting article and lekker motivation, up to 80% savings in that scenario is pretty damn good

 

[BLG]

I’ve paid R23,600 for labour, COC, mounting kit, etc. (July last year). This was for 12 panels, a 5k inverter, and 2 × 5.12kWh batteries—just to give you an idea.
The company has apparently been around since 1962.

Thanks for this, what is the Company name? We are in JHB South if anyone has any recommendations for reputable, reliable installers we can make contact with - even just to come out and assess and quote based on our home layout etc...

 

[Pho3nix]

Thanks for this, what is the Company name? We are in JHB South if anyone has any recommendations for reputable, reliable installers we can make contact with - even just to come out and assess and quote based on our home layout etc...

I'll pop you a PM with an installer I used. Got his details from another forumite also but as @Lupus mentioned it sounds like you first need to do an energy audit and figure out what is using all your power. Maybe consider a gas stove also.

Loan isn't bad, look at PayJustNow or CC to close the gap to get you fully off-grid possibly BUT remember it is Winter and it's been kak cloudy some days in JHB

 

[BLG]

I don't mind taking a 15 to 20K loan if the power savings will be sufficient to pay the loan back quickly - at the end of the day this whole thing is for peace of mind and being less reliant on the grid - yes fair enough power generation has stabilized somewhat across the country, but for how long and what guarantees do we have? Those few times you sit there in the dark during an outage, even if only for 3 to 4 hours when they allocating someone to "trace the fault" are enough to irritate and annoy a person. We might not have as frequent loadshedding anymore, but for several Sundays now we have had to sit without power while they do "Maintenance" that pretty much lasts from 8am to 4pm, sometimes they go over their maintenance window. We are a very "homely" family, we don't get out much and all have our hobbies that unfortunately rely on some sort of power, I realize for some or most families a Sunday without power won't even be felt when you are out and about. For us, it's a matter of convenience.

 

[spit]

Sheesh, how do installers like that make any profit. Did the installer also sell you the inverter and everything or just do the installation?

This included the removal of the inverter and one battery from my rental property and installation at my new house. They also supplied 12 x 550W Trina panels and one additional battery. Everything came to R60,500.

FYI, I've linked it to PVoutput.org

 

[spit]

Thanks for this, what is the Company name? We are in JHB South if anyone has any recommendations for reputable, reliable installers we can make contact with - even just to come out and assess and quote based on our home layout etc...

Sorry no, I'm in the Garden Route.

 

[BLG]

ok i think I just pinpointed one of the culprits haha - our kids live on toast, everything must get toasted, from peanut butter to marmite to chocolate spread, you name it - i just checked using one of those power meter plugs that thing pulls 1921 watts! So besides the 6 cups of coffee (each) we make ourselves a day on our 1500 watt coffee machine, we have some serious contenders in the kitchen alone....

 

[Lupus]

ok i think I just pinpointed one of the culprits haha - our kids live on toast, everything must get toasted, from peanut butter to marmite to chocolate spread, you name it - i just checked using one of those power meter plugs that thing pulls 1921 watts! So besides the 6 cups of coffee (each) we make ourselves a day on our 1500 watt coffee machine, we have some serious contenders in the kitchen alone....

A toaster only works for like 5 minutes, so you need to take that and work out how much power that would be over 5 minutes, which is about 150w.

 

[Tomtomtom]

A toaster only works for like 5 minutes, so you need to take that and work out how much power that would be over 5 minutes, which is about 150w.

Here we go again! Power over 5 minutes is still 1900 W. You want to build in the time factor. That leaves energy, 150 Wh. Equivalent to a 150 W appliance running for 1 hour.

OP needs to do the energy audit everyone is suggesting. But we can already predict the biggest consumer is going to be the geysers. Especially since baths were mentioned. A 150 L bath costs on the order of 5000 Wh = 5 kWh = 5 units.

Between the 3 kids and 3 adults and two geysers I'm guessing about 15 kWh a day is going to water heating.

And just to put it out there again, running a geyser off solar does not require an inverter or batteries. Just one of these.

 

[Lupus]

Here we go again! Power over 5 minutes is still 1900 W. You want to take away the time factor. That leaves energy, 150 Wh. Equivalent to a 150 W appliance running for 1 hour.

OP needs to do the energy audit everyone is suggesting. But we can already predict the biggest consumer is going to be the geysers. Especially since baths were mentioned. A 150 L bath costs on the order of 5000 Wh = 5 kWh = 5 units.

Between the 3 kids and 3 adults and two geysers I'm guessing about 15 kWh a day is going to water heating.

And just to put it out there again, running a geyser off solar does not require an inverter or batteries. Just one of these.

Ok for simplistic sake, the 5 minutes that toaster is running will only use 0.150 of a unit rather then 1.9 units. People see the big number and go oh this is why my electrical bill is high, unless the kid is making this 12 times an hour, it's not going to be the reason .
He also says they don't bath every day.

 

[BLG]

A toaster only works for like 5 minutes, so you need to take that and work out how much power that would be over 5 minutes, which is about 150w.

Ja so this plug (killawatt?) will sort of let us run it over a few days to see what its adding up to in Kwh but I know for a fact it gets used to make the kids lunches and our breakfast in the mornings, then when they get home from school they make their sarmies on there again (apparently cinnamon toast is a thing) i have a feeling we pulling quite a bit from those two devices alone, might start making coffee on the skottel lol. i think we'll find theres a big difference in usage watt hours between a family that maybe works from office all day and uses their toaster once a week compared to us and our scenario

 

[BLG]

Here we go again! Power over 5 minutes is still 1900 W. You want to build in the time factor. That leaves energy, 150 Wh. Equivalent to a 150 W appliance running for 1 hour.

OP needs to do the energy audit everyone is suggesting. But we can already predict the biggest consumer is going to be the geysers. Especially since baths were mentioned. A 150 L bath costs on the order of 5000 Wh = 5 kWh = 5 units.

Between the 3 kids and 3 adults and two geysers I'm guessing about 15 kWh a day is going to water heating.

And just to put it out there again, running a geyser off solar does not require an inverter or batteries. Just one of these.

Oh wow, so this doesnt require a special element like some of those i have seen Standard Bank advertise? (they apparently come out and replace your element and mount some panels if i recall)

 

[Tomtomtom]

Ok for simplistic sake, the 5 minutes that toaster is running will only use 0.150 of a unit rather then 1.9 units. People see the big number and go oh this is why my electrical bill is high, unless the kid is making this 12 times an hour, it's not going to be the reason .
He also says they don't bath every day.

Even if only 5 of them bath, and only bath every other day, that's still equivalent to 250-300 L of hot water per day on average, which is about 10 kWh per day in winter. Or in terms of toast that's about 67 toastings.

Oh wow, so this doesnt require a special element like some of those i have seen Standard Bank advertise? (they apparently come out and replace your element and mount some panels if i recall)

Correct, that's it's selling point. EDIT: Geysertech may be easier to source. The downside is you generally need one more panel to get equivalent energy production, so it might be swings and roundabouts vs the Geyserwise element retrofit. Either way these systems are a no brainer as a first step. Nothing stops you adding another 10 panels, inverter and battery system as well, and you'll have more headroom because you won't be worrying about running the geysers off it.

 

[Crowley]

Oh wow, so this doesnt require a special element like some of those i have seen Standard Bank advertise? (they apparently come out and replace your element and mount some panels if i recall)

We've had our system for a year now and have saved north of 60k on prepaid. We buy R1000 worth of power on the first of the month and we usually have some units left. We run everything off solar including the geysers and the stove

Why do you want to go with Deye inverters and Dyness batteries? We saved a lot of money by going with Luxpower inverters and Revov 2nd life batteries.

 

[biena]

And just to put it out there again, running a geyser off solar does not require an inverter or batteries. Just one of these.

There are some other but you need to read the fineprint, some are only for kwikhot geysers others element 3kw max

 

[Tomtomtom]

View attachment 1905805

Yes I updated the link to Geysertech's unit which is also cheaper.