Eugenevz
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Posts posted by Eugenevz
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From my understanding this is based on how profitable your business is, the rebate gets deducted from the tax on your profit. I know a few small business owners which essentially do not qualify as their business showed little to no profit
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Very cool competition
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You will need to check if you can get a shading analysis done on your roof, as it's pretty hard to base this off a drawing especially if things like trees are excluded. But looking at the pitch on the roof i would be worried about shading in your proposed red area, i would personally suggest the section above the x, but I'm not a pro here only a guy trying to escape eskom.
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On 2024/01/25 at 1:05 PM, bobmabena said:
Is there one portable power station (brand/model) that stands out above the others?
I'm looking for a solution for my mother who's battling with her Mecer inverter with 2 lead acid batteries... The solution works, but, the 4 hour sessions are worrying her for battery life...
Essential she want to be able to run her TV, with router/modem/ONT for the full 4 hours, and not have to worry about battery degradation.
And cost is an ongoing concern.
The one ring...uhh i mean...inverter to rule them all...
Don't think that exists mate, but you can checkout geewiz's trolley options.
https://www.geewiz.co.za/2464-geewiz-inverter-trolleys
Without knowing the usage of the TV (router/modem/OTN should be less than 10watts each), you would need to check the required watts per hour times the number of hours plus check which one falls in your budget. But fairly sure most of the offerings there should cover the requirement
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1 hour ago, PsyCLown said:
I got quotes from the following companies:
- GoSolr
- Alumo
- Hohm Energy
- Versofy
I was not impressed with any of them, Hohm energy was the company that wanted to charge me a R22k project management fee.
There was a separate line item for installation & labour and another line item for the switch gear. I could not justify forking out an additional R22k for someone to make as profit for not doing all that much.
I was looking for affordability (prices they charge vs what I could purchase the items for) as well as what brands they had on offer (ie. Did they only offer SunSynk & Deye or were there other inverters on offer and the same with batteries).
End of the day, none of them were able to offer me any cheaper inverters such as the LuxPower or Growatt and none had more affordable batteries such as the Svolt batteries. Majority insisted on smaller panels in the 400w range (this is an issue for me in terms of maximizing roof space).
Maybe things have changed since I enquired with the above companies. I am not saying they are not viable options, although I would recommend them as a last resort and ensure people read through the small prints, T&C's and fully understand what they are getting themselves into.
If I was forced to go with one of the above, I'd likely look at Alumo or Versofy based on my experience. Versofy outsource to installers which are closer to your area (at least in my case) and this might allow for some slight customization of ones system.
You can check out solar advice, they do a rent to own option as well. Not sure how their rent to own contract is structured though
Ps...personal experience with getting a quote and almost a system from Hohm energy...be very very careful, i was attracted by their "low deposit" advertising but they hide a lot in legalese, which ended up in them essentially requiring 100% payment upfront before installation starts which this 22k "management" fee was part of...which i did not like. I realize a lot of installers require a big deposits to cover the cost of the equipment, but be upfront about it and don't hide it in contract t & c's.
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35 minutes ago, LandyMan said:
I hear you, and after your initial post, I am now considering this ... trying to work out what my Eskom savings will be should I manage to cycle between PV and batteries
Calculate your daily usage and try to ascertain whether most of your load is during the day or night. If it is possible to shift more load to during the day, your savings could be massive.
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On 2024/01/09 at 9:29 PM, Scorp007 said:
Interesting comment. I have been using a timer to cut the power to my heat pump as well as all the cuts via LS. My pump has been running trouble free for 12 yrs.
This is exceeded a typical life expectancy. Not saying it is because of the timer
I can only assume I84RiS meant when it gets shutdown mid heating rather than a controlled timer shutting it down.
To be fair though, i cannot see that getting variable spikes between 230V and 250V could be good for any electrical device's life span
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1 hour ago, Bobster. said:
They are silent on that. They did say that any faulty units will be replaced at no cost (OK... no direct cost) to the property owner. And it's hard to imagine that part of the game is not catching out and warning folks who have bypassed or flat out removed a ripple switch.
I must confess that I am ignorant of the regulations here. Is every geyser required to have a ripple switch? Every geyser circuit? And what if a granny flat gets built and has it's own geyser? Is one then supposed to notify the City and have them install a ripple switch?
I'm not opposed to the idea of ripple switches, but others may differ. It comes down to individual rights V what is best for the City as a whole. Clearly they can and should be used to reduce load at times of high demand. And once upon a time, later than 2000 but before load shedding, they were being used for exactly that.About 30 to 60 years ago i guess it was mandatory, not really sure now.
I do remember hearing the ripple switch turn on and off in my first place back when loadshedding just started.
My concern is, having moved now, that i do not know whether this place has a ripple switch or whether the previous owners removed/disabled it, so i would see it very unfair if they expect us to carry the cost directly
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22 minutes ago, Bobster. said:
There is discussion about this in my neck of the woods. People are saying things like "well I can manage my consumption better than City Power can" etc.
I suspect that it is very simple, that the by-laws say that you must have a ripple switch between the main breaker and the geyser breaker.
If City Power do actually pull out their finger and do this (like they didn't do for the prepaid meter upgrades) then the guys who come to your house can't get bogged down in endless discussions about timer switches and geyserwise controllers and so on. They will just check for conformity with bylaws.I kind of agree with the people that say they can manage their own consumption better than COJ, if the most recent debacles with COJ loadshedding schedules is anything to go by.
But then again i understand the need also as so many people just have such a wasteful attitude of "i pay for electricity so i will use electricity" type of thing.
Personally i just think it will be an exercise of futility, people will pretend not to be home or actually not being home when they do come by, some will argue with the municipality staff and others will just out right refuse them entry. Not too mention all the delays that will be caused by people like me that will want to verify whether they are actual employees.
Side question, did they indicate who would be carrying the costs of these devices if it is found that none are installed or that they have possibly been disabled?
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You will need to provide some more detail on the entire quote. As the number of panels that are required as well as number of batteries and such affect the total price. Most installers price increases with each panel added. You can check comparisons online with solar advice/hohm energy/alumo energy to get a relative idea.
But from my research 2300 for a 550watt panel are in the ball park of good to decent pricing. Longi is one of the best brands you can get, so no worries there.
For the rest as i said we need to know more detail
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On 2023/10/19 at 10:53 AM, Bobster. said:
But you will consume more water. My dishy on eco mode uses just 9l of water for a full load. You couldn't do that washing by hand.
You can, recent randburg water issues proved that....well it was 10L...just not a great way of washing dishes. So yes, its one of those it depends things, i found that the more people you are in a house, the dishwasher turns out to be a better option, or if you are less people and only put it on once it is full. But for our 2 people in the house usage scenario the once a day washing dishes works out great. But all of this doesn't matter if you have your dishwasher running off solar
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26 minutes ago, Lee2 said:
As in even if you fed it from the hot line the water in the pipes would still be cold and by the time it has pulled in 8 liters it has only just gotten warm?
i.e a waste of time?
Not have data points, just personal experience from a few years back and the electricity bills. Dish washer alone will be more efficient as it takes less energy to warm up a smaller amount of water, regardless of how inefficient your dishwasher is. The issue with drawing water from the geyser is that the temperature will not be a guaranteed say 50C (50C is my dishwashers eco mode) as you will be hard pressed to time your dishwashing for exactly after you geyser completed heating. So what will happen in most cases is you will be drawing water from your geyser which will be heated again by the dishwasher and will result in your geyser needing to heat up sooner to replace the lost heat.
All in all better just to let the dishwasher heat it up on its own, or better yet...although for most a big no no, handwash you can save between 1kw and 2kw a day by doing so.
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Has anyone bought the longi solar panels from leroy merlin, they are a fair amount cheaper than anywhere else at R1999 a panel, trying to figure out if this is a bargain or a possible scam
https://leroymerlin.co.za/longi-solar-panel-mono-555w-81482623
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A 30W and 50W version, they have been working really well for just over a month now I think. It seems to last the night but I have them dimmed down a lot (I think one click away from the dimmest). It comes on automatically each night based on the lighting levels and turns off in the morning.
Thanks for the response, i will keep this one in mind on my next purchase. I purchased https://www.takealot.com/ecomlight-solar-flood-spot-light-strobe-series-60w/PLID73308903 about a month ago and it seems to be working very well for the moment, i guess i will have to see when it gets to the 6/12 month mark. A number of people complain about it's brightness, but it serves the purpose i needed from it, using it at reduced brightness and last about 12 hours so far.
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I see some pricing here: https://loadshedder.co.za/shop/
Thanks not familiar with this website, but it at least provides an idea.
My parents are pensioners that stay in the northern cape, so something at a decent price point that doesn't require too much specialized installation is right up their alley
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Interesting product, do you know who stocks this and what the pricing is?
Asking for a friend...family actually
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I've been considering this https://www.takealot.com/ecomlight-solar-flood-spot-light-strobe-series-60w/PLID73308903 to illuminated the dark spots in the garden
And then this for the walkway https://www.takealot.com/gigabloc-motion-sensor-solar-flood-light-led-garden-spot-light/PLID90598263
But would like recommendations/ideas/alternatives
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Can anyone recommend any standalone solar lights that have backup battery?
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Can anyone recommend any standalone solar powered flood/spotlights that comes with backup battery that can be used in the garden to light up dark areas. It doesn't have to be extremely bright, but something that would last most of the night ie 8 to 12 hours.
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8 hours ago, WannabeSolarSparky said:
After many happy months paying less than R50 per month for eskom units this last few weeks have been sad.
I have bought almost R600 in units this month due to the bad no-sun weather here in Cape Town.
Is it time to upgrade my battery bank with a few more batteries?
Currently have 200AH with about 9600WH usable capacity. Not nearly enough to remain off-grid with the current weather we are experiencing.
If I add another 200AH of batteries I might make it back to the R50 per month mark, but I would then also need to add at least another 1000 watts of panels.Or do I just stick it out and ride the winter weather for a few more weeks.
What are your experiences with your battery banks and this crazy winter we are having in the cape?
Yea, saving R550 a month for 3 to 4 months a year is going to take a long time to justify the 60k that the extra batteries alone will cost you. I guess it will all depend on the annual electricity price increases
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This question is two fold, first off most inverters have a minimum voltage requirement to actually start up, i think the one you mentioned has a 150V start up requirement. So you are going to require the minimum number of panels to achieve this.
Other important considerations to make is whether you want to off load some of your current usage onto the solar energy so that you can offset some of the cost via your electricity bill, will the solar panels produce enough energy for all situations to charge the batters ie cloudy days and so on, or are you simply content with charging the batteries from the grid.
Secondly tho and honestly this decision can only be made by you, do you want to simply "survive" loadshedding, do you want to become semi self sufficient, will your system cover worsening stages of loadshedding, do you aim to go off-the-grid on day, can you afford what ever setup you decide to go with ie don't go with short term loan/bond repayment, you'll end up paying back a multiplier of 2.5 times depending on interest rates and terms of the agreement.
Finally also consider that there is cost associated with installing panels on a roof (unless you do it yourself), these costs are often so large that it rarely makes sense to get them installed if you go with a small number of panels
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Cape town also announced they are going to drop the grid feed in charge to R5 as per below article
A lot can be done quickly if you aren't trying to benefit your buddies and yourself from a horrible situation rather than simply fixing the issue.
Devils advocate here though, the benefitting here might be a political move. Ie to show the rest of SA ct governing party can end loadshedding if you give them a chance
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On 2023/06/05 at 4:24 PM, GMAC said:
The Esener 25.6 is an 8 cell pack so I set my bulk on 28.4 and float on 27.4 but with a multimeter on Lithium they test 27.1 so inverters not perfect but close I have plaid around with setting but 27.4 v on inverter is good .
When we started with cheap mod wave inverters years ago we quickly got an idea what will work for us so we decided on 3kw as bigger going to cost more than we need and just going to be a waist of money so we started with this 3kw hybrid inverter 2 gel batterys then 4 gels 2S 2P and 2 solar panel and worked great with stage 1 and 2 load shedding but with stage 6 plus we need more battery power and solar panel as 3kw is all we need but gels could not handle the loads over time and so voltage drops and inverter shut down due to low volts under load from warming appliances .
So we first upgraded to 6 PV panels worked great at day but at night gel still a problem so we bought first one lithium then a second .
Now with this system we run at day from solar making the system pay for it self and utility at night and battery at night in load shedding and charging only from solar . Our load is low max at night 300w 12amps unless we use warming appliances this giving 15 hours run time if the load is constant all night but 22h is bed time and it drops to 150w when the fridge runs . So I have enough battery storage and solar to go 24/7 if need be .
For me any bigger system of 120k to 220k would just be a waist of money as my system as it stands is about 60k , perfect 24/7 system if need be
I have gas stove and gas water warmer (geyser) so what more do I need there's always hot water always electricity
But others have 5+ plus people in the house aircons and pools and so a perfect system for most will be about an 5 to 8kw inverter with 3 lithium and 12 panels
I guess financial sense depends on each person.
For example, 200K at fixed interest rate of 10% is pretty decent, but it provides you with a rand value of R1666 a month, if this covers your electricity bill than great, if you cover you electricity bill and make a small profit from it fantastic.
But now the reveres logic applies, if i spent 200K on a solar setup and it saves me R1666 a month in electricity, its a bit of a either or situation, but add in the possibility of a average annual increase of 15% a year in electricity price, a 200K investment sounds a lot better with a 15% interest rate.
Factor in the fact that most homes and apartments do not come standard with gas geysers, which will require a conversion cost and that this adds an additional monthly running cost and a bit of a logistics headache as you are only legally allowed to store 100kg of gas on a domestic property, you need to balance this with your usage requirements, add in the fact that gas itself is subject to prices fluctuations as well as availability issues. And if you use a service which handles the logistical headache for you, this comes with its own set of charges
I do feel that if we are going to advise someone on options, we do need to point out that other capital expenditures where made, and the running costs need to be weighed up. I realise counter arguments for solar maintenance and replacement applies, as you essentially become your own utility service provider, but factoring in a "maintenance" plan becomes a bit of a headache to calculate, so i will leave it there.
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Does anyone know if the rules surrounding solar registrations have changed in jhb. Ie are you required to register your solar powered system yet?
Savings
in General Discussion
Posted
Ok i need to ask Mr Coetzee from melkbos, what are you selling here?
Could you also keep your story stright...as now suddenly all this is achieved with 30 panels and some additional inverters popped up magically?
Saw a article on mybroadband from today with a very suspiciously similar values. Great for you, but as already pointed out...these savings and benefits don't apply to all of us.