October 11, 20232 yr 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. 😀😀😀😀
October 11, 20232 yr Absolutely marginal the last two days. Worst two days in a row I have experienced since I switched to PV.
October 11, 20232 yr 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.
October 11, 20232 yr 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 😄
October 11, 20232 yr 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...
October 11, 20232 yr 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.
October 11, 20232 yr 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, 20232 yr by PsyCLown
October 11, 20232 yr 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, 20232 yr by Carl Anthony
October 11, 20232 yr 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.
October 11, 20232 yr 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, 20232 yr by Chris Louw
October 11, 20232 yr 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.
October 11, 20232 yr Author 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.
October 11, 20232 yr 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.
October 12, 20232 yr It has been a bit cloudy these last few days, had to use grid power much more than i would have liked
October 12, 20232 yr 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.
October 12, 20232 yr Author It seems I got hit harder than all that have responded. Down from 13.8 to 2.9 and 2.2 kWh.
October 12, 20232 yr 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.
October 12, 20232 yr 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
October 12, 20232 yr 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.
October 13, 20232 yr 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, 20232 yr by GMAC
October 13, 20232 yr 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.
October 13, 20232 yr Author 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, 20232 yr by Scorp007
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