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The Truth About Off Grid Solar

Featured Replies

  • 2 weeks later...
On 2023/01/30 at 10:43 PM, zsde said:

With two full years of running this system, I have more perspective on it now than before and in this video I give a full tour and share everything I have learned. I also answer a bunch of common questions about solar and my system in general.

 

Check his latest video on farming with chickens 🙂

On 2023/01/30 at 10:43 PM, zsde said:

With two full years of running this system, I have more perspective on it now than before and in this video I give a full tour and share everything I have learned. I also answer a bunch of common questions about solar and my system in general.

 

So you are not in South Africa?

8 minutes ago, GreenFields said:

Yeah, watching the video, and seeing the lengths this guy has to go through to get 12-15kWh per day out of his system, tells me this is only one man's truth.

A 3-5kW rooftop system should do that in SA most days.

@GreenFields you are quite right, I have 4600 W of panels and my daily average over the last 6 months is 15 Kw, from solar and +_ 6 Kw from grid, the last three weeks have been very poor for solar but excellent for our farmers and storage dams, lots of rain. see attached dashboard. 

image.thumb.png.127ecb345507f457e60943da3af91bef.png

image.thumb.png.c0e71386bed9f5233b974bd48d92976d.png

Interesting video.
Does not state if grid is an option in Southern British Columbia Canada - seems not.
Pretty sure Eskom does not reach all the way to nowhere land - 🤣

Location: Southern British Columbia Canada
Schneider Electric Inverters & Charge Controller
3x16x435W panels (20.88kWp)
96kWh of battery storage - enough for 4-5 days with no solar.
13kW diesel generator for when it snows for more than 5 days in a row (only in Dec/Jan)
C$130k installed
Tesla Car, Starlink Internet

2 minutes ago, system32 said:

image.thumb.png.c0e71386bed9f5233b974bd48d92976d.png

Interesting video.
Does not state if grid is an option in Southern British Columbia Canada - seems not.
Pretty sure Eskom does not reach all the way to nowhere land - 🤣

Location: Southern British Columbia Canada
Schneider Electric Inverters & Charge Controller
3x16x435W panels (20.88kWp)
96kWh of battery storage - enough for 4-5 days with no solar.
13kW diesel generator for when it snows for more than 5 days in a row (only in Dec/Jan)
C$130k installed
Tesla Car, Starlink Internet

@system32 I think the C$130K it's only the solar installation costs, the geny maybe another C$ 3K, anyway, massive investment @ 18 ZAR to the $ = +_ 2,3 M ZAR ( pocket money ) for some of us poor retired South Africans. LOL

16 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

@system32 I think the C$130K it's only the solar installation costs, the geny maybe another C$ 3K, anyway, massive investment @ 18 ZAR to the $ = +_ 2,3 M ZAR ( pocket money ) for some of us poor retired South Africans. LOL

+1
Presenter did not explicitly state if the Generator was included, so you probably correct that should be a bit more.

Based on the fact that he owns a Tesla and some big excavators, C$130k does not seem to be an issue.

In South Africa we fortunate that we have plenty sunny days, so could get by with a much smaller system to support similar loads.
I've hear that Eskom charges $$$ to connect farms that are distant from grid.
In these farm cases, R2.3m may be quite reasonable.
In Australia, the grid provider is replacing long distance grid lines to farms with off-grid solar+battery systems as it's too costly to maintain the long distance power lines to farms in addition to the fire risks.
The operator owns the system and bills the farm owner.
See https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-02/thousands-of-renewable-standalone-power-systems-to-be-rolled-out/101479136

Edited by system32

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