Scorp007 Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 Let's hear from members that have no need for grid and running from PV/battery. My yield less than 20% for the 2nd day running. Tomorrow at least a few hours of sun. Jacques Ester, JayMardern, PsyWulf and 3 others 2 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacques Ester Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 Even in the Northern Cape grid is needed WannabeSolarSparky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zsde Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 Absolutely marginal the last two days. Worst two days in a row I have experienced since I switched to PV. PsyWulf and Zweli 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenFields Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 The Eastern Cape has hardly seen the sun in the last 2 weeks, but at least our dam levels are something to smile about. As much as one hates Eskom, can't live with them, can't live without. WannabeSolarSparky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishRacingGreen Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 27 minutes ago, Scorp007 said: Let's hear from members that have no need for grid and running from PV/battery. My yield less than 20% for the 2nd day running. Tomorrow at least a few hours of sun. Ja, en ek charge my betteries vanaffie grit, en die loadsheddink experts kry a fit GVC, zsde, Virwat and 2 others 1 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbo Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 Yeah, I used 9.7kwh from the grid in all of September and have now used more than that in the last 2 days. It always gets me thinking if COJ starts charging a connection fee for prepaid, how big a gennie I will need to add for these cloudy periods... Sc00bs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JayMardern Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 Same here. Partly-cloudy/light-cloud-cover isn't usually a huge deal - but was raining a bit earlier and clouds containing rain seem to make a huge impact unfortunately. Yield yesterday in cloudy JHB was 7.8 kWh vs 26kWh the day before , for the same demand. 70% loss! Enough to run all the essentials for ~ 14 hours - but not enough to do any heavy lifting beyond that. Sc00bs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PsyCLown Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 (edited) I wish I was part of the "no grid" club but I am not there and I feel the costs to get to that point would not be justified for my needs and expectations. Crappy weather makes it even more expensive, yesterday I only managed to yield around 11kWh and today 9.1kWh so far. Compared to over 35 kWh on sunnier days. Already a shortfall is 24kWh and that does not account for night time usage. Edited October 11, 2023 by PsyCLown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carl Anthony Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 (edited) Been a bad 3 days so far this week…I’m not fully independent from the grid though but usage is higher from the grid. Edited October 11, 2023 by Carl Anthony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Louw Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 We dont need the grind. Only 2 pensioners so we use power when it is available. Load about 14 kWh per day. 7.8kW panels. Only use 4kwh out of batteries per day so they get full even if it is a cloudy day. State of batteries after today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Louw Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 (edited) 4 hours ago, GreenFields said: The Eastern Cape has hardly seen the sun in the last 2 weeks, but at least our dam levels are something to smile about. As much as one hates Eskom, can't live with them, can't live without. Gauteng dam levels is high but a lot off areas does not have water on tap. Some areas now 50 days without water. Edited October 11, 2023 by Chris Louw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritishRacingGreen Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 4 hours ago, Scorp007 said: Let's hear from members that have no need for grid and running from PV/battery. My yield less than 20% for the 2nd day running. Tomorrow at least a few hours of sun. A warning to alot of us, be carefull to try and go completely off-grid. Good Cape Winters and Highveld Summers may decide that its not a good thing. zsde and Scorp007 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorp007 Posted October 11, 2023 Author Share Posted October 11, 2023 2 hours ago, BritishRacingGreen said: A warning to alot of us, be carefull to try and go completely off-grid. Good Cape Winters and Highveld Summers may decide that its not a good thing. That's my way of thinking too. I don't have a problem using grid when I need it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimCam Posted October 11, 2023 Share Posted October 11, 2023 From the 15th of February to the 15th March this year we ran a full off-grid simulation. The weather was not the best either. We switched the main Municipal MCB off and under no circumstances would put it on until the end of the simulation. The result was with fine tuning and major usage changes we got through the month, and only ran the generator once for +- 6 hours during a spell of bad weather over a couple of days. The biggest problem is generating hot water, as the 20 tube solar geyser is useless in bad weather, and any PV available is used for battery charging and load. From this simulation, a 250L "Donkey Boiler" was purchased to overcome this problem. Current system is 1x SunSynk 8.8 kW, 3x Hubble AM-2 5.5 kW Batteries, 7840 kWp Canadian panels. Idle load at night used to be 1.1 kW, but worked this down to 400 to 500W. zsde, Chris Louw and BritishRacingGreen 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre Kruger Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 It has been a bit cloudy these last few days, had to use grid power much more than i would have liked Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyeye Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 15 hours ago, Robbo said: Yeah, I used 9.7kwh from the grid in all of September and have now used more than that in the last 2 days. It always gets me thinking if COJ starts charging a connection fee for prepaid, how big a gennie I will need to add for these cloudy periods... I would need atleat a 8kva one since I still have 4kw element geyser and I would need to heat water. It looks like it's not anyone's best interest for the country's utility to fail. Maybe it might be good for the generator sales but not anyone else. Robbo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorp007 Posted October 12, 2023 Author Share Posted October 12, 2023 It seems I got hit harder than all that have responded. Down from 13.8 to 2.9 and 2.2 kWh. JayMardern 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_S Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 It has not been easy in the eastern cape for the last week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobster. Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 I'm doing better than I thought. Maybe. Sunday I generated 9.73 kWh of 10.5 consumed Monday 9.92 of 10.96 Tuesday 7.07 of 15.73 - which is high for our property. Wednesday 7.4 of 14.69 - high, but not outrageously so, consumption again Thursday so far 5.48 of 6.4 The two days when I bought a lot from the grid just happen to be the two days with consumption on the high side. This may be coincidence, or it may be that the inverter's self consumption increases when I buy from the grid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slipx Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 Thank goodness for the gas geyser Buyeye and hoohloc 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobster. Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 17 minutes ago, slipx said: Thank goodness for the gas geyser Indeed. I'd be looking much better because I wouldn't have had to power a heat pump Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buyeye Posted October 12, 2023 Share Posted October 12, 2023 2 hours ago, Bobster. said: Indeed. I'd be looking much better because I wouldn't have had to power a heat pump 3 hours ago, slipx said: Thank goodness for the gas geyser 2 hours ago, Bobster. said: Indeed. I'd be looking much better because I wouldn't have had to power a heat pump The rest of us looking at the 2 people with the most efficient water heating systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMAC Posted October 13, 2023 Share Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) Limpopo does not have the weather issues that the cape has but we still opted for gas water heater (geyser) in place of solar geysers The plan now is to install an 100l electric geyser with on 2kw element controlled by an smart timer as gas is getting exspensive so on good days we can heat water from the inverter and on bad days use gas only. Being only 2 in the house 1 fridge and no air cons my 5.5 kw inverter and 5 kw lithium with 2.6kw solar is enough to for us to go of grid if weather is not to bad . Edited October 13, 2023 by GMAC zsde and WannabeSolarSparky 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobster. Posted October 13, 2023 Share Posted October 13, 2023 1 hour ago, GMAC said: The plan now is to install an 100l electric geyser with on 2kw element controlled by an smart timer as gas is getting exspensive so on good days we can heat water from the inverter and on bad days use gas only. Ja. I downgraded my 2nd geyser to a 2kw element. On good days like today I can heat it up in about 2 hours in the afternoons, without taking more power than the inverter can deliver IE I can heat it for free. zsde and GMAC 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scorp007 Posted October 13, 2023 Author Share Posted October 13, 2023 (edited) On 2023/10/12 at 1:02 PM, Scorp007 said: It seems I got hit harder than all that have responded. Down from 13.8 to 2.9 and 2.2 kWh. The joy of being in Gauteng in summer. It keeps you on your toes. From 3 bad days to a all time daily high yield. It could even be higher if 40% of panels are not flat on the car port roof and the same panels get shade starting at about 12h30. Edited October 13, 2023 by Scorp007 zsde and Carl Anthony 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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