Eugenevz

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.
 
 

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. 

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.

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?

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.

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

@zsde So regarding my statement above, the BMS actually seems to be balancing the cells and cell 1 is no longer as imbalanced as it was when I checked on Sunday and my other 2 batteries are pretty well balanced.
The below was battery #2 on Sunday

 
This is Battery #2 today

 
For comparison, below is battery #1

 
Here is battery #3:

 
 
I do plan on doing a review on these batteries when I have a bit of time.
I know this is a bit off topic, but did not want to leave my previous statement there as that is no longer the case - I will continue to monitor it though and ensure it does balance the cells fully and properly.

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.

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

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

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

No were did I advice any one on my setup   but only shared my experience only at the end did I mention a bigger system would be better for bigger family and loads.
When is comes to gas for me take note FOR ME gas works for us as we only 2 in the house and both shower so 10kg gas bottle last us 2 month in summer to shower and cook, an 10kg bottle cost R280 swop so R140 month on gas but using gas was not for saving but was to get around shower in cold water due long hours of load shedding or power failure,  the saving is just an bonus  . This setup won't work for bigger family that bath and shower . 
A friend wanted to install an 12kw system at a cost of R400k plus but only him and his wife in the house I showed him my system take note SHOWED him not adviced him  and he decided on an 8kw system as he then understand more about what can all run from smaller system and so he  realized an 12 kw system was totally over rated  
For most in SA going solar and gas is just to get through this load shedding frustration and saving if any is just an bonus. 
 
 

To add on I would recommend the Luxpower from a scalability perspective, often times when specing a system you have an idea of what you essentially need backed up but as you start using it you may find that there are additional items you may want to power.

Like mentioned by @GMAC when you find that you would like to add items with heating elements such as kettle, toaster, microwave if you try using the kettle and microware at same time you will quickly reach the limit of the 3KW Growatt inverter. At this point when you want to upgrade the system you will need to but a bigger inverter and battery which is the bulk of your initial investment wasted.

Another thing to consider is the voltage difference between the 2 units, the Growatt being 24v would use double the amperage supplying the the same load as the Luxpower 48v Inverter. Meaning your batteries in the 24v system is going to be working twice as hard when supplying the same power.

Lastly the price on the Growatt with battery and panels, does this include installation and mounting hardware for the panels? If not the initial cost would most likely be greater than the initial setup cost of first doing the Luxpower setup. At a later stage, save up for solar panels, mounting hardware and installation.

So my setup is very simplistic, basically a glorified ups. I can run most essentials (tv, lights, wifi, fridge) from it. My issue is that i'm moving soon to a bigger place with a pool and borehole. And only now discovered that the 3kva inverter cannot handle the borehole pump start up spike, i realize there are ways around this, ie replacing the pump with a more efficient/solar pump, but those things would not have been needed if i thought my purchase through a bit better

So first off i realise all these decisions are dictated by budget, so this will depend on your budget. But personally i would go for the bigger setup, my reasoning for this is that i decided to go with a 3kva trolley setup with 2.56kw hubble batteries, for financial reasons as well as because i currently live in a apartment. But after using it for a while now (and it does work great), the more and more i realise i would have preferred a bigger option that i could upgrade in the future.
Combine that with that the current trend of loadshedding becoming just slightly worse each year, planning your system around future loadshedding stages is in my mind the most prudent coarse of action. And might actually save you money in the end.