Morne van der Merwe

Thank you for all the replies. I just bought a combinder box ready to he installed.

Hi Moffat,
I spoke to a sales person who is big in this industry. He said just buy Victron MPPT. Then all sorted. I used this unit with a Blunova battery for only backup during loadshedding. Was fortunate to buy a house with a complete solar system. Reason for the sale.
Regards

Now that we know your batteries are not cycled each night. Also you don't have regular LS changes quite a lot from trying to give answer that suits you. 
Yes 4 panels as suggested can nicely cover your day standing load. Good for you for using the grid tied side. 
We tend do want the best of any equipment. Add Canadian, Enersol, Cinco or other tier 1 panels to your list. Supplier I cannot help. Just use a seller with a shop and be very wary of some on line sellers. 

I agree with @Scorp007 that ideally you need more panels and more battery. Then you are in a position where most days you can charge the battery and run the house off of PV during the day, and then discharge the battery (partially or fully as you feel comfortable) at night. You maximise this if, as discussed, you start using more power during the day to make best use of the PV.

OK... it's not my money. So maybe do this: Get those panels (I think 6 would be a better starting point). They are heavy and large, so you probably want to get somebody with the skills and manpower and tools to install them. Anyway, get them installed and then start watching your system. See when you get PV, see when you have loads, see what loads you can move to the hours when you have PV, and watch how the system reacts. Then plan from there.
 

Good Morning, 
is this still available?
Regards

Your 16hrs standing load during the no/low sun period is 6400wh. If you use 4000wh from the battery you are at 10400wh. Using 18kwh a day means you are using 8kwh per day from the grid. 
Thus to be able to charge the battery and cover the standing load you would need 2kw of panels on a sunny day. In summer up North we have bad days where this will not even charge your battery without accounting for the standing load. 
Seems like you must aim for 4kw of PV and also a 2nd 5kwh battery? 

You want to change that to make best use of PV. You need to use power during the day. Heat your water, run appliances, run the pool pump. Then you leave your battery less to handle when there is no PV. 
I don't even run the dishwasher at night. All the heavy lifting, so to speak, happens during the daylight hours. Then at night that's when we consume 200 to 400w per hour and our battery serves us all night long. 

Good evening,
I am always been fascinated by solar energy, and would like to take this further.
After 20 years in Aviation, looks like my career in flying has come to an end, time to make a career change. 
What training facilities are the best in Johannesburg/ 
Pretoria area to learn to become installer, and qualify with right paperwork?
Any tips, direction would be really appreciated.
Regards
Morne

Good day,
I am sure this question been asked about thousand times, but try my best to look up whats out there on the forum.
I would like to install solar system, to run my household during the day, and have a small backup system during power failures.
I am already on solar Geysors, gas stove, all my lights are LED, I just had a look at my electricity bill for last year, we use average of 17kw per day.
Been monitoring my loads during the year, looks about .7kw/hr that’s idling no dishwasher, owen, microwave and stove ect., we use a booster pump for water pressure, and swimming pool pump comes on at night between 20:00 - 22:00.
What I’ve been reading about the Victron units sounds good as you can add on.
But I am new, still learning all terms and lingo.
What would you gentlemen suggest? I was think grid-tie, using backup battery at night, and non-essentials with solar and Eskom, and essentials solar and if demand if higher on cloudy days, with help from Eskom.
Regards
Morne