Wedaz Posted October 4 Share Posted October 4 Hi Team, i am looking to go for a 5KW OFF GRID option for a rural home to power basic appliances like energy efficient fridge, lighting & entertainment. What could the best budget options on offer, i was thinking of a Voltronic 5KW VP inverter coupled with PylonTech UP5000, i already have 8 by 330W canadian panels. Could this the best inverter/battery option? I am new to solar. Kindly assist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarel Posted October 4 Share Posted October 4 Off grid is good, but…. What do you want this system to do for you? How much independence from the grid do you want/need? Do you have the option of using the grid at all? How do you plan on using the system? What are your energy consumption currently and for what? Are you considering using gas at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Katakuzinos Posted October 4 Share Posted October 4 54 minutes ago, Sarel said: Off grid is good, but…. What do you want this system to do for you? How much independence from the grid do you want/need? Do you have the option of using the grid at all? How do you plan on using the system? What are your energy consumption currently and for what? Are you considering using gas at all? @Sarelposing some very good questions here. In my opinion if you can get access to the grid affordaly it is worth getting the connection as you can essentially undersize your system, spend less on storage and perhaps not have to even considder a generator for those cloudy/rainy weeks. I am really not a fan of voltronic inverters at all(Seen two infinis fail after about 1 year...). But I can not deny they are very affordable. and judging by the views of people on the forums these were very much edge cases. If you are going completely off grid i would strongly recomend a gas cooker, vaccume tube solar geyser + gas water heater for bacup (if your budget allows). is this a new house or an existing house? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PowerUser Posted October 4 Share Posted October 4 Either one of the Voltronic 5kW inverters or Growatt SPF5000ES. I think both options are priced at the same range. You need to do some research into the settings and behaviours of both options when used off-grid and see which will suit you better. For batteries, lead acid will be the most budget option but do you really want to go that way. For lithium batteries - either PylonTech or Hubble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wedaz Posted October 4 Author Share Posted October 4 1 hour ago, Basil Katakuzinos said: @Sarelposing some very good questions here. In my opinion if you can get access to the grid affordaly it is worth getting the connection as you can essentially undersize your system, spend less on storage and perhaps not have to even considder a generator for those cloudy/rainy weeks. I am really not a fan of voltronic inverters at all(Seen two infinis fail after about 1 year...). But I can not deny they are very affordable. and judging by the views of people on the forums these were very much edge cases. If you are going completely off grid i would strongly recomend a gas cooker, vaccume tube solar geyser + gas water heater for bacup (if your budget allows). is this a new house or an existing house? I think i left out some facts, cooking is completely Gas Stove and Water Heating we have a solar geyser. Essentially i will be running A+ Energy rate fridge from 9am to 4pm per day, 32 inch TV will run for 6 hours a day & 2 by 10W LED lights for outside from 7pm to 6am & 4 by 5W lights for 3 hours during the evening. I would like a Lithium Battery for better lifespan though. Can i do Axpert 5kw coupled with UP5000 Pylontech? Or there are better options Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wedaz Posted October 4 Author Share Posted October 4 2 hours ago, Sarel said: Off grid is good, but…. What do you want this system to do for you? How much independence from the grid do you want/need? Do you have the option of using the grid at all? How do you plan on using the system? What are your energy consumption currently and for what? Are you considering using gas at all? I think i left out some facts, cooking is completely Gas Stove and Water Heating we have a solar geyser. Essentially i will be running A+ Energy rate fridge from 9am to 4pm per day, 32 inch TV will run for 6 hours a day & 2 by 10W LED lights for outside from 7pm to 6am & 4 by 5W lights for 3 hours during the evening. I would like a Lithium Battery for better lifespan though. Can i do Axpert 5kw coupled with UP5000 Pylontech? Or there are better options Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Katakuzinos Posted October 4 Share Posted October 4 Not sure of costs, take a look at the hubble batteries and see if those are more/less affordable. I am an owner of 3 Pylon us3000c and they have been solid so far so either Pylon or Hubble i would say. Freedomwon and BYD are both generally more pricey. Lets take a look at your solar side. 8 X 330 Watt panels so 2.6 Kwp (Quite small but your power needs sound miniscule so you will probably be fine) Even all in series this should be fine for the Axperts i think, hope someone can confirm(i think those pannels have a current of about 7A and Max Voltage of 42 volts) so max voltage of just under 300V Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoohloc Posted October 5 Share Posted October 5 Eish! asking a question on how to start up in solar, one ends up with more questions back at them. Simple, you want budget, my advise, go for growatt SPF5000ES and the Pylontech battery that you mentioned. Just pull the trigger and install. As to how much you use and how independent you want to be from the grid, you will determine that as you go on. Start somewhere and build from there until you achieve the results you want. Your 8 x 330w panels will be ok to run your house the whole day and charge the battery. You are already cooking with gas and your geyser is a solar geyser, those are the only main consumers of your power. You do not have to turn your fridge off at night, the battery can handle that. I used to run mine plus a chest freezer on two 2.4Kw Pylon batteries through out the night Buyeye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tariq Posted October 5 Share Posted October 5 Agree with @hoohloc, same set up, even the batteries, also run a 65 inch tv from 1800 to 2230 hours (approximately) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobster Posted October 5 Share Posted October 5 15 hours ago, Wedaz said: I would like a Lithium Battery for better lifespan though. Can i do Axpert 5kw coupled with UP5000 Pylontech? Or there are better options That won't get you off-grid. Assuming it gets you through the night (may, may not, you have to try it and see) what happens when you have 2 or 3 overcast days in a row? The battery will not get properly charged, will run down and then? Going off-grid just with solar and batteries can't be done. OK... maybe it can be, if you have a lot of batteries and a lot of panels and a system that can handle the batteries and panels. So you're going to need a generator, or to go for a hybrid solution and retain the grid connection. If you go gennie then ideally you want a system that can start the genny up for you, in case the batteries run down at 2 in the morning. Reducing your bill and your dependency on the grid can be done reasonably. Going all the way off-grid is more costly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarel Posted October 5 Share Posted October 5 1 hour ago, Bobster said: Going off-grid just with solar and batteries can't be done. OK... maybe it can be, if you have a lot of batteries and a lot of panels and a system that can handle the batteries and panels. Right you are somewhat. Lets put some figures to that, broadly speaking You need about (for residential use) 3 - 4 times your 24hr consumption for the worst time of year in battery capacity, so if you consume 20kWh (roughly my daily usage) in 24hrs, you need between 40 and 80kWh battery then on top of that you would need about 4 times the capacity of PV Panels to get it to remain somewhat charged during bad weather days. This is not really a cheap solution then is it.... My system can charge a 48kWh bank in about 5 hours theoretically, with the rest being used for running daytime loads. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basil Katakuzinos Posted October 7 Share Posted October 7 On 2021/10/04 at 5:50 PM, Wedaz said: Hi Team, i am looking to go for a 5KW OFF GRID option for a rural home to power basic appliances like energy efficient fridge, lighting & entertainment. What could the best budget options on offer, i was thinking of a Voltronic 5KW VP inverter coupled with PylonTech UP5000, i already have 8 by 330W canadian panels. Could this the best inverter/battery option? I am new to solar. Kindly assist How is the design going, any progress? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wahki Posted October 9 Share Posted October 9 On 2021/10/04 at 5:50 PM, Wedaz said: Hi Team, i am looking to go for a 5KW OFF GRID option for a rural home to power basic appliances like energy efficient fridge, lighting & entertainment. What could the best budget options on offer, i was thinking of a Voltronic 5KW VP inverter coupled with PylonTech UP5000, i already have 8 by 330W canadian panels. Could this the best inverter/battery option? I am new to solar. Kindly assist So have you bit the bullet yet and made the installation? I'm new to the forums and to solar. I am currently in an off grid situation where I have to lug a battery to work every couple of day to get it charged, lights are some of these inexpensive solar lights packages from Takealot ( not sure if name dropping is allowed), so I'm really interested to know how this setup works for you! I can't seem to wrap my head around some of the consumption figures that I see many talk about as from my experience our family of 5 on average went through 6-7kWh per day (we spent about R250.00 per month at a charge of R1.68 if that makes sense) with some days being less than that. Obviously we didn't run a geyser and all cooking was on gas, but we occasionally used the electric oven for baking and grilling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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