Green Bum

Morning Pudljumper,
from your intro it is not clear if you intend to move onto the property immediately or if it is gonging to be a weekend project to start with, the 12 container brings up some clues....
My contribution would be to advise to go slowly and learn organically what works and does not work for you in your specific context. I am playing with cob, permaculture and sustainable lifestyle ideas in Tesselaarsdal (close to Hermanus). One of my first projects was to build a solar water heater which worked perfectly up until the day the copper was exchanged for a papsak. With a lot of wood available, today I work with wood heating a my water in a donkey which also works wonderful. Solar is gaining a lot of traction in Africa, typically one panel charging a cellphone or running a few LED lights therefore solar equipment is becoming sort after, A friend had 10 panels stolen from his roof within a few hours, therefore a generator might be a safer option to start out...
1. I have found that issues like security  of your equipment etc. is also important factors in some cases even more important than the technical specs.
2. Moving from ESKOM to living with solar requires some new skills and attitudes, not just for you but for the family,  again try to go slow, the social cost can easily be more that the cost of batteries I started out with the 3kw infini and are learning as I go..
It would be interesting to hear more about your project and best of luck to you

I would like to ad a new angle in the hot water.
Out of necessity I installed my old copper geyser 150L against my chimney as high as possible between the ceiling and the roof. Advantage is that with a simple T connector coupled to the inlet and hot water outlet I could use the thermo syphon effect from a flat plate collector salvaged from a scrapyard for R500. Past winter I realized that I had the opportunity to use the heat of my fire to heat my geyser... again two T's on the in and out of the geyser. One copper pipe (hot return) running up inside my chimney passing through the chimney into the geyser. the cold feeding line running down the outside of the chimney entering the firebox from a lower level than the hot water pipe going up the chimney. I have two pieces of about 300mm copper exposed to the heat. With a heat sensor on my geyser I can manipulate the fire not to get the geyser to hot! I can easily raise the temp by 15 to 20 degrees...
The big benefit is measured in the triple bottom-line ie. (a) Financial advantage (b) Social benefit with family and pets enjoying the fire and heated house  (c) ecological benefit despite the burring of wood I am lead to believe that wood fires are less damaging than coal to the environment.
After one year of use I really enjoyed the system.
On the picture two additional pieces of copper was soldered onto the water pie to try and get more heat transferred onto the water pipe... these two pieces burnt away within a month of use... not worthwhile

I would like to ad a new angle in the hot water.
Out of necessity I installed my old copper geyser 150L against my chimney as high as possible between the ceiling and the roof. Advantage is that with a simple T connector coupled to the inlet and hot water outlet I could use the thermo syphon effect from a flat plate collector salvaged from a scrapyard for R500. Past winter I realized that I had the opportunity to use the heat of my fire to heat my geyser... again two T's on the in and out of the geyser. One copper pipe (hot return) running up inside my chimney passing through the chimney into the geyser. the cold feeding line running down the outside of the chimney entering the firebox from a lower level than the hot water pipe going up the chimney. I have two pieces of about 300mm copper exposed to the heat. With a heat sensor on my geyser I can manipulate the fire not to get the geyser to hot! I can easily raise the temp by 15 to 20 degrees...
The big benefit is measured in the triple bottom-line ie. (a) Financial advantage (b) Social benefit with family and pets enjoying the fire and heated house  (c) ecological benefit despite the burring of wood I am lead to believe that wood fires are less damaging than coal to the environment.
After one year of use I really enjoyed the system.
On the picture two additional pieces of copper was soldered onto the water pie to try and get more heat transferred onto the water pipe... these two pieces burnt away within a month of use... not worthwhile

I have been thinking of forklift batteries that don't last a shift, or golf cart not getting to the 18th hole.

Excellent read in the daily maverick online newspaper. Rooftop PV will be a game changer
http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2016-04-21-rooftop-solar-pv-will-be-a-game-changer/#.VxzfEI9OLIU
How do we respond, are we trying to ride the early wave before they clamp us down for evading electricity tax etc. ? Are we doing it for our personal short term financial gain, yet the initial cost calls for  long-term legal stability to recoup our investment. Are we really part of the solution or a new problem? Like all modern-day challenges it seems this is a classic systemic challenge. Chris you will probably agree that getting water from under-ground is only a sort term solution. It seems the safest way to contribute is to reduce consumption! 
I hope this is not to heavy before the new week!
Godfried
 
 

Hey Ursi, thanks for your question with the same inverter and 12x 260 panels I am also dealing with my shopping list. Best answer I can help you with at the moment: move to CPT much cheaper, I can speak from experience! I am not intending to use any surge protection. (we only get wind surges)but maybe I am wrong?
What does the rest of your shopping list look like and how many baths do you intend heating with your setup?
 

Hi plonkster, i like your thinking! Look at corporate ups options. I will still persue the golf option, my thinking.... golfer buys a secondhand cart, wants to consentrate on his swing not on getting to the 18th, thows out the old batteries and with new batteries he basically has a new cart!

1.       Given relative low tech production requirements of flat panels there quality and therefore efficiency differ a lot. Issues of quality include, reflective glass vs non reflective, the quality of insulation of the thermal box, the quality of thermal absorption plates and connection to the heating pipes normally copper. Like anybody can, I built my own flat plate collectors. I went the whole hog soldering the heating pipes to a copper back-plate spending a lot of time with the insulation etc. etc. how efficient where they? Only in lab conditions would you be able to test and compare.
-          EV tubes require high tech production, quality is relatively safe because it is so expensive to make, only high volumes make them relatively cheap, poor quality is probably not worth the risk.?
-          Life expectancy. The biggest threat to flat plates is corrosion between the copper heating pipes and heat collectors, bad quality aluminium and copper, a bit of moist causes bi-metal corrosion. Bad quality boxes rust, disintegrate, leak moist into the box causing condensation… Most of the abovementioned challenges are not relevant to EV tubes, despite their fragile nature being glass there design and production standards seems able to withstand “natural” challenges of transport, installation and life on the roof in general for much longer than flat plates.
2.       I believe challenges of quality around flat plate collectors and opportunities of global demand for solar water heating created the opportunity for research leading to a superior product at a competitive price given huge production numbers.
3.       Given the same surface comparing ten randomly selected EV tubes systems with ten randomly selected flat palate systems EV tube will be more energy efficient!   

Great guys I learnt something new today!
Thanks

1.       Given relative low tech production requirements of flat panels there quality and therefore efficiency differ a lot. Issues of quality include, reflective glass vs non reflective, the quality of insulation of the thermal box, the quality of thermal absorption plates and connection to the heating pipes normally copper. Like anybody can, I built my own flat plate collectors. I went the whole hog soldering the heating pipes to a copper back-plate spending a lot of time with the insulation etc. etc. how efficient where they? Only in lab conditions would you be able to test and compare.
-          EV tubes require high tech production, quality is relatively safe because it is so expensive to make, only high volumes make them relatively cheap, poor quality is probably not worth the risk.?
-          Life expectancy. The biggest threat to flat plates is corrosion between the copper heating pipes and heat collectors, bad quality aluminium and copper, a bit of moist causes bi-metal corrosion. Bad quality boxes rust, disintegrate, leak moist into the box causing condensation… Most of the abovementioned challenges are not relevant to EV tubes, despite their fragile nature being glass there design and production standards seems able to withstand “natural” challenges of transport, installation and life on the roof in general for much longer than flat plates.
2.       I believe challenges of quality around flat plate collectors and opportunities of global demand for solar water heating created the opportunity for research leading to a superior product at a competitive price given huge production numbers.
3.       Given the same surface comparing ten randomly selected EV tubes systems with ten randomly selected flat palate systems EV tube will be more energy efficient!