termdj

As this is an ongoing Eskom process.Switch off the Eskom mains from today to ascertain if what you have is enough to sustain your household and apply this across a few months.Try not to be too conscious of saving electricity because you want to get thru the days but rather live normally until Spring and you will get a reasonable idea of what you require to get off the grid.
I applied this process from April- November 2024 and now i am busy plugging all the gaps and pitfalls so that i can move off the grid next year.
Note that you will get the estimated billing from your grid supplier for sometime until they correct it.
Another suggestion is to consider using the option of a heat pump instead of the geyser or reliance on gas for any heating as that adds up to your gas cost.The heat pump uses a quarter of energy to heat up the same amount of water when compared to a geyser.Your geyser simply becomes a storage facility for the heat pump.
if you have a pool,covering the pool allows your pool pump to run less in a day.I actually got away with 2 hours a day in Winter and 4 hours a day in Summer.My pool was sparkling clean despite being around trees.
With this experiment,you will be able to have a reliable data specific to your household to work with so you can safely go off the grid.

You did not specify what the size of your geyser is, but a typical 200L geyser has a 4 kw element. If this is your case, consider switching the geyser element to a 2k element, on cloudy days where the sun is sneaky you will find you can still run the geyser long enough to heat the water suitably, We are a family of 6 +2 farmworkers with their own fridges, I outlawed their electric cookers outright. I have a near identical system to yours in sizing, I switched Eskom off completely in Jan 2024 and have not looked back.
I few this to consider: Off grid does require subtle lifestyle changes at times. ex the dishwasher doesn't HAVE to run after 16:00, nor does the washing machine or pool pump. Invest in a 5-6km generator, you can pick up almost new ones REALLY cheap now that they have lost their appeal. They are very useful as top up units to the batteries early evening if you have had a low sun day. Winter sun may not be as hot as summer but its brilliance that the panels respond to, not infra red. So winter sun generally is more stable and outperforms summer sun, although admittedly their are less hours of it. If you do add extra panels consider facing them true west to get the most of late sun in winter and summer.

So I am and have been totally off grid for 3 Years already that includes all services electricity water sewage garbage etc.
Current system
7.3KW PV East West configuration JA Solar all Black panels.
2 x Solis S6 6KW advanced inverters
7 x Hubble AM-2 Batteries
1 x 2KW Odin Wind turbine.
My Summer off grid production and consumption hovers around 25 to 30 KWH per day
I run 6 Fridges and freezers air fryer microwave oven LED flood lights most are on 24 Hours per day 3 small hydroponics systems CCTV system with 8 cameras laptops wifi equipment laser printer (not useds a lot) Aircon always on in the day in summer and 1 hour at night 3 electric fans always on in the summer 1.8KW Borehole Pump once a day for 30 Minutes 350 Watt pressure pump for Irrigation runs 20 Minutes twice a day 2KW Geyser element always on Element kicks in 6 times over a 24 hour cycle for 10 minutes and 45 Minutes after a Shower I use a electric 1.2 KW lawn mower to mow around 3000 squares of grass once or twice a week I can use my Angle Grinder Welder electric drills skill saw etc almost any time of day.
I have a 3KVA petrol generator and in the 3 years that i have been off grid I have only run the generator for about 18 hours
Cooking is mostly done on the Gas Oven Stove. We cookc everyday no takeaways here.
In winter time my consumption goes down a little to 18 to 20 KWH using the aircon a lot less use gas heaters and a fire for heat in the winter.
Adding a Donkey to my system for this coming winter with a piggy back geyser with an 2KW element however the donkey will provide most of the hot water in winter I have tons of decent Black wattle firewood so reducing my need for electric elements will have a small 15 watt solar geyser hot water pump to circulate the hot water between the geysers.
The water tank that feeds the main house with water is on a 5 Meter Stand so I don't need pressure pumps to provide pressure on my taps in and around the house.
I have a water filtration system for drinking water etc.
All our toilet waste goes to a bio digester and we have a grey water system that feeds shower water and dishwashing water into my garden.
The reason for the large battery bank is as follows.
If you want to have off grid power when using solar only you will need a battery bank equal to your normal 24 hour consumption however this does not cater for overcast and rainy days.
Hence the reason I have 35 KWH Storage got this before I got the turbine installed.
Because my consumption goes down in winter and my production from the PV in winter is lower the storage is perfect and I never run out of power however if we do have rainy overcast days in winter I would switch the Geyser off to reduce night time consumption and only run it when we need it the Donkey will eliminate this need this coming winter.
Because I have the turbine it will help a lot with Winter energy production because my Windy season starts and maintains through winter so my turbine will produce anything between 15 and 25 KWH per day
During that time and would make my battery storage and solar power almost obsolete.
However in Summer time I rely very much on solar production because the wind power production in summer per day would only be about 1 to 2KW per day.
The short and long is if you go solar alone and want to be completely off grid I would say your battery storage needs to be about 150% of the Power Consumption for a 24 Hour cycle that is if you do not want to run a petrol generator for emergency power needs.
You can reduce your nightly consumption by adapting your heavy consumption times to when you have solar power available.
Certain things you cannot get away from is your 24 hour loads or base loads and you need to cater for those in battery capacity or alternative power generation.
My Base loads in winter is a lot lower because the fridges and freezers have lower ambient temperatures so I turn them all down in the winter reduces base load significantly.
I don't need the aircon or fans to run all the time and that reduces the base loads at night quite a bit 3 electric fans can run at about 250 watt.
Other factors to consider is redundancy for potential failure that is why I have 2 x 6KW inverters if one fails I still have power and all of my appliances can still work with a little management.
I hope this gives you some context each person will have varied loads and base loads however it is important to plan you system and size it correctly to suit your specific requirement.

Its A Grounded DC Cable And A Thorough Check Of Your System Should Reveal, A Braized Cable, MC4 in water or i contact with moisture quire a few points to check

Thanks people...I will give it a go this winter...I feel a lot better and more relaxed regarding the can and can't with the inverter etc.

Thanks for the feedback,  much appreciated. Will try as advised...won't have need for the whole day...

The installer set the discharge limit...it's currently at 115ah. So, basically the heaters won't damage the inverter/batteries...it's more to do with the soc of the batteries and managing the load on the inverters when using the heaters so I don't go over the max load of the inverter/s

That time of morning we get dressed for the day etc...food was prepped the previous evening...there is almost no load in my house untill 07h30 when my sprinkler system comes on..that time of morning a microwave won't throw me over the limit. My biggest concern is that the heating "element" may cause damage as per some people's advice that I spoke to.
 
I can manage the time the heater is on when getting up and leaving the house manually, so if there isn't enough battery, then I will adjust the time I run the heater

My biggest concern was that I can't run the heaters on a solar system...If I can run the batteries on solar without "damaging" them, I know I will be able to manage the battery/usage to not deplete the batteries completely...

The ceilings are insulated. The reason for my question is that I got various answers for my question...some saying that your'e not allowed to run heaters/elements on a solar system....some say only a specific infra red type of heaters or specially designed heaters for inverters. At that stage in the morning my battery is at least 40% and my total house usage is less then 1kw at that stage. The load gets split between the 2 inverters, so not even 500w per inverter...This is at 5-7 in the morning...Have a gas stove for boiling water etc....so minimal stuff is on...I think the 1 heater draws about 800w and the other maybe 1.5kw....not big heaters...is used just to warm up so you don't "freeze" while getting dressed...:)

Hi there
 
I'm fairly new to the whole solar thing. Had a previous question and you guys gave awesome advice. I'm back with a new question. My current system is 2 x 5kw Deye inverters, 4 x 5.2kw batteries and 20 x 545w bifacial panels...I sorted all the stuff out from my previous issues regarding the low voltage etc. For the summer I have a lot of fans for cooling the house down. This winter will be my first winter with solar. I spoke to a few people and I get mixed answers...Currently I have a few heaters that I used last winter. We usually only use them fore an hour or 2 in the morning to heat up the room when getting dressed. What is the do's and don'ts regarding heaters and the inverters/solar/battery?