What’s the thoughts on this? Do I use eskom or my generator (extra cost on petrol) I supply turn my 7.5Kw generator on during emergencies. Do I need site protection there taking consideration it’s like 5 mins before I turn the gennie on

14 hours ago, Raiden2912 said:

What’s the thoughts on this?

I installed solar water heating panel years before I installed PVs. As this is a thermal panel its efficiency is way higher than PV panels. It's also more cost efficient. And - it heats even during load shedding, provided you have a small PV panel for the pump. The system is also less vulnerable to failure. From my experience I recommend 1m² of panels per person in the household.

There are also the pump-less systems that have the geyser above the panel.

Edited February 19, 20233 yr by Beat

Solar geysers are expensive, require maintenance and can't be shut off. I prefer solar PV even though it is more expensive up front.

I cannot add but I will choose a heat pump again if I had to decide on a system. 

Great to heat water 24/7 using less than 50% of the power a AC or DC element uses. Due to this fact it's easy to use battery/PV. 

2 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

I cannot add but I will choose a heat pump again if I had to decide on a system. 

Great to heat water 24/7 using less than 50% of the power a AC or DC element uses. Due to this fact it's easy to use battery/PV. 

This is what I have. I can't say I planned it. I had the pump a few years before I got solar. 

It works well. Draws about 1.5 kw. This time of year takes 30 min max to get up to 55 degrees. So I run it off the battery and it is unaffected by power outages. It is affected by temperature but not by cloud. I don't run it outside of daylight hours. 

I also have a nice, thick blanket on the geyser and insulation on all pipes between the geyser and the pump. 

2 people in the house. 

Edited February 19, 20233 yr by Bobster.
Extra detail

3 hours ago, frivan said:

Solar geysers are expensive, require maintenance and can't be shut off. I prefer solar PV even though it is more expensive up front.

+1

If you installing Solar PV + Battery, then the recommend, most cost effective & simplest solution is to use excess PV electricity to heat your normal geyser.

Use a timer (eg GeyserWise / Sonoff Geyser) to limit geyser to solar time - 10:00am to 16:00pm.

Had a flat panel solar conversion done with Geyserwise controller on my 150lt geyser nearly 5 years ago.  
It works well enough. It included the small solar panel to charge the battery for the 12V circulation pump.
Disadvantage is the lifespan of the circulation pumps and they aren't cheap. Mine had to be replaced last week. Only 1 year guarantee and now they tell me I was lucky, expect 3 years lifespan.
Hindsight is 20/20 vision. If I had known then, I would have opted for a thermosyphon full solar geyser installation with evacuated tubes. No moving parts or pumps but rather more expensive.
Then I got my PV solar system and I sized it so I could run the 3kW geyser element too. Geyserwise timer is set to start at 10:00. When solar conditions are good my geyser is at it's max 65C by 11 to 11:30, depending on the starting base temp. After the element is disconnected at 65C, the flat panel on a sunny day will take the geyser to 70 - 80C.
Once again, had I known what I know now I would have probably just gotten a PV system with more solar panels and another Inverter as the efficiency of heating via the element is so much better than the flat panel, especially on cloudy days.