Justipoohs

I recently restored an old farmhouse in the Kalahari just outside Upington NC. I rebuild the house with solar power in mind, but was a little scared of the assumed cost. I must point out that  if I was going Solar I wanted to go 100% solar as just the standing charge on the Eskom pole is R850 per month.
Anyway, earlier this year I decide to take the plunge. The house is three bed, dining room, living room, kitchen, large stoep and a granny flat.
We also work from home full time.
We have a gas geyser for hot water and a gas range and oven to cook.
In the summer, and it's a hell of a summer in the Kalahari we use an evaporator cooler.
I did the calculations over and over again for daily kW used but still it only came to 3kw. So on that basis I installed 4x305w panels, a 3kw inverter and two 200ah gel batteries. Cost R28000
So we run a fridge freezer, a chest freezer, 2 x TV, microwave (just for re heat max 5min) lighting, washing machine 1xload per day, charge phones, laptops and the internet modem, pressure pump for the house water and evaporator.
We have not noticed the difference between Eskom and solar, the batteries seem to use 30% overnight.
My takeaway is that if you are prepared to look at alternatives to Electric stoves/ovens, and electric geysers and foresake aircon for evaporation then off grid solar need not be an expensive proposition.
 
 

I recently restored an old farmhouse in the Kalahari just outside Upington NC. I rebuild the house with solar power in mind, but was a little scared of the assumed cost. I must point out that  if I was going Solar I wanted to go 100% solar as just the standing charge on the Eskom pole is R850 per month.
Anyway, earlier this year I decide to take the plunge. The house is three bed, dining room, living room, kitchen, large stoep and a granny flat.
We also work from home full time.
We have a gas geyser for hot water and a gas range and oven to cook.
In the summer, and it's a hell of a summer in the Kalahari we use an evaporator cooler.
I did the calculations over and over again for daily kW used but still it only came to 3kw. So on that basis I installed 4x305w panels, a 3kw inverter and two 200ah gel batteries. Cost R28000
So we run a fridge freezer, a chest freezer, 2 x TV, microwave (just for re heat max 5min) lighting, washing machine 1xload per day, charge phones, laptops and the internet modem, pressure pump for the house water and evaporator.
We have not noticed the difference between Eskom and solar, the batteries seem to use 30% overnight.
My takeaway is that if you are prepared to look at alternatives to Electric stoves/ovens, and electric geysers and foresake aircon for evaporation then off grid solar need not be an expensive proposition.
 
 

I recently restored an old farmhouse in the Kalahari just outside Upington NC. I rebuild the house with solar power in mind, but was a little scared of the assumed cost. I must point out that  if I was going Solar I wanted to go 100% solar as just the standing charge on the Eskom pole is R850 per month.
Anyway, earlier this year I decide to take the plunge. The house is three bed, dining room, living room, kitchen, large stoep and a granny flat.
We also work from home full time.
We have a gas geyser for hot water and a gas range and oven to cook.
In the summer, and it's a hell of a summer in the Kalahari we use an evaporator cooler.
I did the calculations over and over again for daily kW used but still it only came to 3kw. So on that basis I installed 4x305w panels, a 3kw inverter and two 200ah gel batteries. Cost R28000
So we run a fridge freezer, a chest freezer, 2 x TV, microwave (just for re heat max 5min) lighting, washing machine 1xload per day, charge phones, laptops and the internet modem, pressure pump for the house water and evaporator.
We have not noticed the difference between Eskom and solar, the batteries seem to use 30% overnight.
My takeaway is that if you are prepared to look at alternatives to Electric stoves/ovens, and electric geysers and foresake aircon for evaporation then off grid solar need not be an expensive proposition.
 
 

I recently restored an old farmhouse in the Kalahari just outside Upington NC. I rebuild the house with solar power in mind, but was a little scared of the assumed cost. I must point out that  if I was going Solar I wanted to go 100% solar as just the standing charge on the Eskom pole is R850 per month.
Anyway, earlier this year I decide to take the plunge. The house is three bed, dining room, living room, kitchen, large stoep and a granny flat.
We also work from home full time.
We have a gas geyser for hot water and a gas range and oven to cook.
In the summer, and it's a hell of a summer in the Kalahari we use an evaporator cooler.
I did the calculations over and over again for daily kW used but still it only came to 3kw. So on that basis I installed 4x305w panels, a 3kw inverter and two 200ah gel batteries. Cost R28000
So we run a fridge freezer, a chest freezer, 2 x TV, microwave (just for re heat max 5min) lighting, washing machine 1xload per day, charge phones, laptops and the internet modem, pressure pump for the house water and evaporator.
We have not noticed the difference between Eskom and solar, the batteries seem to use 30% overnight.
My takeaway is that if you are prepared to look at alternatives to Electric stoves/ovens, and electric geysers and foresake aircon for evaporation then off grid solar need not be an expensive proposition.
 
 

He meant he would need to keep the aircon on throughout the night which would require R100k worth of lithium batteries and panels to charge them hence the R200k budget.

I recently restored an old farmhouse in the Kalahari just outside Upington NC. I rebuild the house with solar power in mind, but was a little scared of the assumed cost. I must point out that  if I was going Solar I wanted to go 100% solar as just the standing charge on the Eskom pole is R850 per month.
Anyway, earlier this year I decide to take the plunge. The house is three bed, dining room, living room, kitchen, large stoep and a granny flat.
We also work from home full time.
We have a gas geyser for hot water and a gas range and oven to cook.
In the summer, and it's a hell of a summer in the Kalahari we use an evaporator cooler.
I did the calculations over and over again for daily kW used but still it only came to 3kw. So on that basis I installed 4x305w panels, a 3kw inverter and two 200ah gel batteries. Cost R28000
So we run a fridge freezer, a chest freezer, 2 x TV, microwave (just for re heat max 5min) lighting, washing machine 1xload per day, charge phones, laptops and the internet modem, pressure pump for the house water and evaporator.
We have not noticed the difference between Eskom and solar, the batteries seem to use 30% overnight.
My takeaway is that if you are prepared to look at alternatives to Electric stoves/ovens, and electric geysers and foresake aircon for evaporation then off grid solar need not be an expensive proposition.