Hmmm 🤔 

hola yo vivo del sol todo el año tengo 22 placas de 450w 4 inversores de 5 kw en paralelo total 20 Kw y 80Kw de  Baterías de Litio todo es eléctrico cocina horno etc. El agua la caliento en el punto que la necesito atreves de resistencias ducha y grifos. con aire acondicionado y una temperatura de 22 Grados. Instalación en Barcelona España

6 minutes ago, gabriel cano said:

Hello, I live off the sun all year round. I have 22 450W panels, 4 5kW inverters in parallel, a total of 20Kw and 80Kw of lithium batteries. Everything is electric, stove, oven, etc. I heat the water to the point where I need it using shower resistors and taps. With air conditioning and a temperature of 22 degrees. Installation in Barcelona, Spain.

That sounds like a great system! Unfortunately here it would be very expensive to upgrade the batteries to 80kw, but I think I will increase the panels. Thank for your input!

On 2025/02/02 at 4:12 PM, johnna said:

Thanks, I am normally fully charged by 10am, think I may start with 1 extra battery and see how it goes...

If that is the case, you are over indexed on panels/ or under indexed on storage. Cheapest option is to get a second geyser, in serie with your main geyser on a timer from example 11am onwards, off at 15:00. In the evening, your geyser fills with hot water after shower hour. Saves you 3kw of battery.

You did not specify what the size of your geyser is, but a typical 200L geyser has a 4 kw element. If this is your case, consider switching the geyser element to a 2k element, on cloudy days where the sun is sneaky you will find you can still run the geyser long enough to heat the water suitably, We are a family of 6 +2 farmworkers with their own fridges, I outlawed their electric cookers outright. I have a near identical system to yours in sizing, I switched Eskom off completely in Jan 2024 and have not looked back.

I few this to consider: Off grid does require subtle lifestyle changes at times. ex the dishwasher doesn't HAVE to run after 16:00, nor does the washing machine or pool pump. Invest in a 5-6km generator, you can pick up almost new ones REALLY cheap now that they have lost their appeal. They are very useful as top up units to the batteries early evening if you have had a low sun day. Winter sun may not be as hot as summer but its brilliance that the panels respond to, not infra red. So winter sun generally is more stable and outperforms summer sun, although admittedly their are less hours of it. If you do add extra panels consider facing them true west to get the most of late sun in winter and summer.

On 2025/03/03 at 8:49 AM, dacruzpa said:

You did not specify what the size of your geyser is, but a typical 200L geyser has a 4 kw element. If this is your case, consider switching the geyser element to a 2k element, on cloudy days where the sun is sneaky you will find you can still run the geyser long enough to heat the water suitably, We are a family of 6 +2 farmworkers with their own fridges, I outlawed their electric cookers outright. I have a near identical system to yours in sizing, I switched Eskom off completely in Jan 2024 and have not looked back.

I few this to consider: Off grid does require subtle lifestyle changes at times. ex the dishwasher doesn't HAVE to run after 16:00, nor does the washing machine or pool pump. Invest in a 5-6km generator, you can pick up almost new ones REALLY cheap now that they have lost their appeal. They are very useful as top up units to the batteries early evening if you have had a low sun day. Winter sun may not be as hot as summer but its brilliance that the panels respond to, not infra red. So winter sun generally is more stable and outperforms summer sun, although admittedly their are less hours of it. If you do add extra panels consider facing them true west to get the most of late sun in winter and summer.

Some great advice here!

Going offgrid requires one to be mindful of your power usage, especially on days when you have poor sunshine

So I am and have been totally off grid for 3 Years already that includes all services electricity water sewage garbage etc.

Current system

7.3KW PV East West configuration JA Solar all Black panels.

2 x Solis S6 6KW advanced inverters

7 x Hubble AM-2 Batteries

1 x 2KW Odin Wind turbine.

My Summer off grid production and consumption hovers around 25 to 30 KWH per day

I run 6 Fridges and freezers air fryer microwave oven LED flood lights most are on 24 Hours per day 3 small hydroponics systems CCTV system with 8 cameras laptops wifi equipment laser printer (not useds a lot) Aircon always on in the day in summer and 1 hour at night 3 electric fans always on in the summer 1.8KW Borehole Pump once a day for 30 Minutes 350 Watt pressure pump for Irrigation runs 20 Minutes twice a day 2KW Geyser element always on Element kicks in 6 times over a 24 hour cycle for 10 minutes and 45 Minutes after a Shower I use a electric 1.2 KW lawn mower to mow around 3000 squares of grass once or twice a week I can use my Angle Grinder Welder electric drills skill saw etc almost any time of day.

I have a 3KVA petrol generator and in the 3 years that i have been off grid I have only run the generator for about 18 hours

Cooking is mostly done on the Gas Oven Stove. We cookc everyday no takeaways here.

In winter time my consumption goes down a little to 18 to 20 KWH using the aircon a lot less use gas heaters and a fire for heat in the winter.

Adding a Donkey to my system for this coming winter with a piggy back geyser with an 2KW element however the donkey will provide most of the hot water in winter I have tons of decent Black wattle firewood so reducing my need for electric elements will have a small 15 watt solar geyser hot water pump to circulate the hot water between the geysers.

The water tank that feeds the main house with water is on a 5 Meter Stand so I don't need pressure pumps to provide pressure on my taps in and around the house.

I have a water filtration system for drinking water etc.

All our toilet waste goes to a bio digester and we have a grey water system that feeds shower water and dishwashing water into my garden.

The reason for the large battery bank is as follows.

If you want to have off grid power when using solar only you will need a battery bank equal to your normal 24 hour consumption however this does not cater for overcast and rainy days.

Hence the reason I have 35 KWH Storage got this before I got the turbine installed.

Because my consumption goes down in winter and my production from the PV in winter is lower the storage is perfect and I never run out of power however if we do have rainy overcast days in winter I would switch the Geyser off to reduce night time consumption and only run it when we need it the Donkey will eliminate this need this coming winter.

Because I have the turbine it will help a lot with Winter energy production because my Windy season starts and maintains through winter so my turbine will produce anything between 15 and 25 KWH per day

During that time and would make my battery storage and solar power almost obsolete.

However in Summer time I rely very much on solar production because the wind power production in summer per day would only be about 1 to 2KW per day.

The short and long is if you go solar alone and want to be completely off grid I would say your battery storage needs to be about 150% of the Power Consumption for a 24 Hour cycle that is if you do not want to run a petrol generator for emergency power needs.

You can reduce your nightly consumption by adapting your heavy consumption times to when you have solar power available.

Certain things you cannot get away from is your 24 hour loads or base loads and you need to cater for those in battery capacity or alternative power generation.

My Base loads in winter is a lot lower because the fridges and freezers have lower ambient temperatures so I turn them all down in the winter reduces base load significantly.

I don't need the aircon or fans to run all the time and that reduces the base loads at night quite a bit 3 electric fans can run at about 250 watt.

Other factors to consider is redundancy for potential failure that is why I have 2 x 6KW inverters if one fails I still have power and all of my appliances can still work with a little management.

I hope this gives you some context each person will have varied loads and base loads however it is important to plan you system and size it correctly to suit your specific requirement.

Been offered a 7kW diesel generator from someone emigrating

Although we only use between 6 and 9kWH a day, only have 8 x 455 watt panels, 7kW inverter and 15300Wh batteries. There is a Geysewise ECO with 2 additional panels. Excellent in summer but no good in a Cape winter

Is a generator useful, or should get an additional 2 panels and a 200 a/h battery?

Solar is cheap, it can't hurt to add more panels. However, like you pointed out, in winter there will be cloudy weeks. Do you have reliable grid power or do you want to be self sufficient?

6 hours ago, chrisc said:

Been offered a 7kW diesel generator from someone emigrating

Although we only use between 6 and 9kWH a day, only have 8 x 455 watt panels, 7kW inverter and 15300Wh batteries. There is a Geysewise ECO with 2 additional panels. Excellent in summer but no good in a Cape winter

Is a generator useful, or should get an additional 2 panels and a 200 a/h battery?

The problem in the Cape is the long bad weather. At times even if you have 2 x the summer panels it might still not be enough.

Go for the generator quick.

Even if you have 8 batteries you need a means to charge them and at present you are running short on panels to even charge the 15kwh in a day if they were discharged to 20%. So yes you do need more panels.

7 hours ago, chrisc said:

Been offered a 7kW diesel generator from someone emigrating

Although we only use between 6 and 9kWH a day, only have 8 x 455 watt panels, 7kW inverter and 15300Wh batteries. There is a Geysewise ECO with 2 additional panels. Excellent in summer but no good in a Cape winter

Is a generator useful, or should get an additional 2 panels and a 200 a/h battery?

Wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. Just take the generator.

Is this an off-grid inverter installation, or are you catering for a complete and utter collapse of Eskom? If so, then yes, by all means, hook up the generator and install additional panels, for the gloomy Cape weather.

But what about if you are connected to the grid? Personal 2c worth, to each his own. In that case I'd say simply... do nothing. Considering the amount of battery power you have relative to your daily needs - between 1.7 to 2.5 times your daily consumption - I'd just run down to a 50% battery reserve for loadshedding, and otherwise once you reach that 50%, switch to grid.

I just don't think the other options are worth it relatively speaking. Instead of running the generator at say R10 per kWh, you could just as well wait for loadshedding to be over and charge batteries from the grid.

Also, you've already got enough panels connected to cater for normal sunny days and even partly cloudy days most of the time. The extra 2 panels, if it's 1kW of nameplate capacity you're adding, then during the worst weather they'd be generating maybe 20-30% of what they are rated for, and other parts of the year they'd be superfluous to your needs. For maybe, say 30 really miserable days a year that would be just 1-2 extra kWh roughly available on the bad days. Call it R100-R200 return on investment per year, very roughly thumbsucked. Again, may as well just ensure you keep some reserve battery capacity, and run and charge from grid around the loadshedding slots, than incur the cost of the panels for a meagre additional benefit.

On 2025/02/02 at 2:22 PM, Youda said:

Assumptions:

• all the panels are facing north, with a slope at least 15°

• no shading of panels with trees, buildings etc

• daily consumption around 10 000 Wh (based on 40% of 15kW battery remaining in the morning after a cloudy day)

 

Looks like you will be good, even during winter:

https://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvg_tools/en/tools.html

 

There will be a couple of days when your battery will run flat (below 20%), but you can bridge this with a genset easily.

Just really watch your daily consumption:

• With the assumed 10kWh/day it's okay (as seen above).

• With 15kWh/day of consumption there will be 4% of days with the empty battery.

• And 20kWh/day is not feasible with the current system (you would need to double the amount of panels and add another 5kWh of battery at least).

Good luck!
Youda

 

 

 

Hi there. Thanks so much for the great post?.

Wonderful program, does it support different panel orientation for different facing roofs, on the same calculation?

Sincerely

Jay

On 2025/03/29 at 10:18 AM, Energy-Jason said:

Hi there. Thanks so much for the great post?.

Wonderful program, does it support different panel orientation for different facing roofs, on the same calculation?

Sincerely

Jay

Hi Jay,

for a shame, the PVGIS tool is very simple. It accepts just one PV array on the input, where all the panels are having same direction and angle :(

For users that have multiple different PV arrays, each one of them has to be calculated separately and the results combined manually in Excel then. But since the PVGIS can export its results to a CSV, it's doable. For the on-grid installations the above works OK, while for the off-grid it's not really perfect, as the info about the state of battery cannot be easily combined.

Anyway, if someone would invest his energy into convincing PVGIS developers that adding input boxes for 2nd and 3rd PV array on the Off-Grid calculation tab would be great idea, I will be pleased :)

PVGIS contact points

Questions and comments about PVGIS can be sent to our PVGIS team:

[email protected]

Our address is:

European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Energy Efficiency and Renewables Unit
via E. Fermi 2749, TP 450
I-21027 Ispra (VA)
Italy

46 minutes ago, tony Lampard said:

this is a resistive load so it doesn't matter if its connected to AC or DC

Watch out when switching DC. If the contacts burn, the element doesn't switch off.

52 minutes ago, tony Lampard said:

AC currents and voltages are three to five times more dangerous than DC

...when passing through a person. In circuits, DC likes to track and arc.

Having had 10 panels working for a year...

From October to March, PV panels provide 50% to 200% more electricity than the load

From April to September, they provide less than 70% to 50% of the load

On cloudy days, solar input is 1/10th of that in full sun

15 minutes ago, chrisc said:

Having had 10 panels working for a year...

From October to March, PV panels provide 50% to 200% more electricity than the load

From April to September, they provide less than 70% to 50% of the load

On cloudy days, solar input is 1/10th of that in full sun

Thanks Chris. I decided to add another battery (so 20kw in total) so far I am getting it charged up to between 95 and 100% but my neighbors nut tree is now throwing full shade on my panels in the morning. It only starts charging around 09:30

1 hour ago, johnna said:

Thanks Chris. I decided to add another battery (so 20kw in total) so far I am getting it charged up to between 95 and 100% but my neighbors nut tree is now throwing full shade on my panels in the morning. It only starts charging around 09:30

Gift him a chainsaw on his birthday 😂

Side comment. Small setup, so not a huge loss. This only became noticeable as a mid-day dip around 3 yrs ago, and it's only a problem at the depth of Winter when the sun is low. But this year it's grown to where I'm at the point of saying, purely on principle, that tree's got to go.

2 hours ago, GreenFields said:

Side comment. Small setup, so not a huge loss. This only became noticeable as a mid-day dip around 3 yrs ago, and it's only a problem at the depth of Winter when the sun is low. But this year it's grown to where I'm at the point of saying, purely on principle, that tree's got to go.

I wish in my case it was a tree that "just has to go" 1st a bit of shade at 10h15 but then at 11h40 a major drop from my 2nd string on a car port which is attached to a high wall. It will get worse before it gets better. Can't say the wall must go. Yes these panels can be moved but at extra cost for rails etc. After 12h it is mostly my 1st string doing the lifting in winter.

Luckily I still get my battery full and at around 13h-14h 😀. Still only using about 600Wh grid power some evenings during cooking. Grid use of only 11 units for the month makes me 😀

Hi Tony,

2 hours ago, tony Lampard said:

Hi Youda, you seem a bit shy on Demand Side Management (DSM) to manage demand with available solar.

AFAIK, I provided three consumption examples to @johnna so he can imagine how the system will operate normally and how much comfort he has to give-up on a certain days. Of course, a sane person would not charge an EV and bake a turkey in the owen when the weather is terrible and panels make no juice. On the other hand, once you have a family with a couple of kids or even a newborn, you have to take care of them, no matter what. Therefore, postponing laundry for a week is not an option, I learned. (Well, to be precise, my wife taught me...):

On 2025/02/02 at 1:22 PM, Youda said:

Just really watch your daily consumption:

• With the assumed 10kWh/day it's okay (as seen above).

• With 15kWh/day of consumption there will be 4% of days with the empty battery.

• And 20kWh/day is not feasible with the current system (you would need to double the amount of panels and add another 5kWh of battery at least).

So yes, DSM is a way to go, but the wife rules here. Therefore, everybody has to plan accordingly, based in his/hers situation.

2 hours ago, tony Lampard said:

Your supplement "with generator" is also a drift from "renewable energy" principles;

10 yrs ago, I had my dreams too :( For a shame, the reality is that in some cases the fossil fuels are economically best option. Not to mention 24x7 availability and ease of storing large amount of energy. The best WORKING alternative to a genset is a small hydro, as it works 24x7 during most parts of the year (depending on a water source and climate, of course) But there's not much people who have access to a river or a suitable water stream on their property. Not to mention paperwork needed in a certain countries when you want to build a hydro. Another option is wind, but to be honest the yields of the wind turbines, when compared to a yields of hydro, are not sufficient nor reliable. Wind might be good option for a hermit, but definitely not a realiable backup source for a family.

2 hours ago, tony Lampard said:

perhaps rather use Lifted Weight Storage (LWS) at times supply exceeds demand, this can work in the same way "with generator" by running a generator with LWS instead of diesel?

Exuse me, but Lifted Weight Storage aka Gravity Storeage is a pure scam. I digged into this topic years ago, dreamt about those cranes moving towers of concrete blocks up and down. Then I learned that it will not work in reality: the opearational margin is too high, capex is extreme and there are number of problems with safety and maintenance. Only sensible way to use gravity for storing energy is Pumped Hydro. Everything else is just not feasible. Sanity check: Let's say you need to store 100kWh of energy using LWS. If you will be able to lift the mass 20meters above terrain, then you would need roughly 2 000 tonnes of weight. Now calculate the costs for building, maintaning and operatin something like that. Especially if there's a risk of wind storms or floods.

More on the topic here:

Ingeniøren

“It makes no sense”: DTU professor questions gravity batt...

It is a waste of money to bet on gravity batteries with a crane and heavy concrete blocks or sandbags in abandoned mine shafts, a DTU physics professor says.

Edited June 8, 20251 yr by Youda
wording

Oh, here's even the video: Why Lifted Weight Storage, aka Gravity Battery, is a dumb idea:

Hi everyone,

Will we be able to go off grid? And what would help to make it more comfortable?

We don'tuse ac and we are in the process of cutting down all the trees for full sun throughout the year.

Ps. We have planted about 40 other trees to make up for it over the past 10 years. 🙏

☀️ PV System Overview

Location: Krugersdorp, South Africa

PV Array: 24 × 565 W = 13.56 kW

Tilt: 5°

Azimuth: -85° (east-facing)

Inverter: 16 kW SunSynk

Battery Bank: 3 × 10 kWh = 30 kWh usable, 90% DoD = 27 kWh usable capacity

7kw Rated genset

Integration: MQTT/SunSynk Logger (ESP32) with Home Assistant

🏠 Household Overview

🏡 Household 1: Married Couple (Away 6 AM – 6 PM)

Daily Estimated Consumption: ~13.5 - 14.5 kWh/day

* Geyser (150L, 3kW element):

* Morning Run: 3:45 AM – 4:30 AM (45 min) = ~2.25 kWh (drawing from battery)

* Midday Run: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM (3 hrs) = ~6.3 kWh (ideally covered by solar production)

* Subtotal: 8.55 kWh/day

* Refrigeration:

* 1 Medium Freezer: ~1.2 kWh/day

* 2 Small Fridges: ~1.2 kWh/day

* Subtotal: 2.4 kWh/day

* Washing Machine (Shared 12kg Samsung Inverter):

* 5 warm loads/week = ~0.43 kWh/day (average)

* Dishwasher:

* One 30°C cycle/day = ~1 kWh/day (estimated)

* Television:

* Old 55" HD TV: 1-3 hrs/day (estimate for shared TV use among all households, but attributing a portion here). Let's estimate for this household: ~0.2 - 0.5 kWh/day

* Lighting:

* LED Lighting: Low impact, likely used during early mornings and evenings. Estimate: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Other Loads:

* Wi-Fi Router: Constant, but low power. Estimate: ~0.15 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Electric Kettle: Occasional, high surge but short duration. Daily average: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

🏡 Household 2: Newly Married Couple

Daily Estimated Consumption: ~2 - 3 kWh/day

* Refrigeration:

* 1 Small Fridge: ~0.6 kWh/day

* Washing Machine (Shared 12kg Samsung Inverter):

* 5 warm loads/week = ~0.43 kWh/day (average)

* Television & Soundbar:

* 43" FHD TV + Soundbar: 5-10 PM. Estimate: ~0.3 - 0.6 kWh/day

* Air Fryer:

* Occasional use. Not factored into daily average, but note as a potential ~0.5 - 1 kWh/use load when active.

* Lighting:

* LED Lighting: Low impact. Estimate: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Other Loads:

* Wi-Fi Router: Constant, but low power. Estimate: ~0.15 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Electric Kettle: Occasional, high surge but short duration. Daily average: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

🏡 Household 3: 5 People (Including Baby; 2 People Home During Day)

Daily Estimated Consumption: ~14 - 15 kWh/day

* Geyser (Assumed 150L, 3kW element, similar to H1):

* Morning Run: 3:45 AM – 4:30 AM (45 min) = ~2.25 kWh (drawing from battery)

* Midday Run: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM (3 hrs) = ~6.3 kWh (ideally covered by solar production)

* Subtotal: 8.55 kWh/day

* Refrigeration:

* 1 Large Fridge/Freezer: ~1.5 kWh/day

* Washing Machine (Own 8kg machine):

* 8 warm loads/week = ~0.57 kWh/day (average)

* Dishwasher:

* One 30°C cycle/day = ~1 kWh/day (estimated)

* Television:

* 75" 4K LED TV: Runs from 9 AM – 10 PM. This is a significant load. Estimate: ~0.5 - 1.5 kWh/day (depending on actual TV power and usage time)

* Lawn Mower:

* 2 kW mowing ~2000 m². Bi-weekly mowing = ~0.5 kWh/day (winter average)

* Lighting:

* LED Lighting: Low impact, but more people home during the day might mean slightly higher usage. Estimate: ~0.2 - 0.3 kWh/day

* Other Loads:

* Wi-Fi Router: Constant, but low power. Estimate: ~0.15 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Electric Kettle: Occasional, high surge but short duration. Daily average: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

* "Other daytime loads" (fans, chargers, small appliances, etc. due to 2 people home): Estimate: ~0.5 - 1 kWh/day

Summary of Total Estimated Daily Consumption Across All Households:

* Household 1: ~13.5 - 14.5 kWh/day

* Household 2: ~2 - 3 kWh/day

* Household 3: ~14 - 15 kWh/day

* Grand Total: ~29.5 - 32.5 kWh/day

Edited June 9, 20251 yr by JanKotze
Spelling

22 minutes ago, JanKotze said:

Hi everyone,

Will we be able to go off grid? And what would help to make it more comfortable?

We don'tuse ac and we are in the process of cutting down all the trees for full sun throughout the year.

Ps. We have planted about 40 other trees to make up for it over the past 10 years. 🙏

☀️ PV System Overview

Location: Krugersdorp, South Africa

PV Array: 24 × 565 W = 13.56 kW

Tilt: 5°

Azimuth: -85° (east-facing)

Inverter: 16 kW SunSynk

Battery Bank: 3 × 10 kWh = 30 kWh usable, 90% DoD = 27 kWh usable capacity

7kw Rated genset

Integration: MQTT/SunSynk Logger (ESP32) with Home Assistant

🏠 Household Overview

🏡 Household 1: Married Couple (Away 6 AM – 6 PM)

Daily Estimated Consumption: ~13.5 - 14.5 kWh/day

* Geyser (150L, 3kW element):

* Morning Run: 3:45 AM – 4:30 AM (45 min) = ~2.25 kWh (drawing from battery)

* Midday Run: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM (3 hrs) = ~6.3 kWh (ideally covered by solar production)

* Subtotal: 8.55 kWh/day

* Refrigeration:

* 1 Medium Freezer: ~1.2 kWh/day

* 2 Small Fridges: ~1.2 kWh/day

* Subtotal: 2.4 kWh/day

* Washing Machine (Shared 12kg Samsung Inverter):

* 5 warm loads/week = ~0.43 kWh/day (average)

* Dishwasher:

* One 30°C cycle/day = ~1 kWh/day (estimated)

* Television:

* Old 55" HD TV: 1-3 hrs/day (estimate for shared TV use among all households, but attributing a portion here). Let's estimate for this household: ~0.2 - 0.5 kWh/day

* Lighting:

* LED Lighting: Low impact, likely used during early mornings and evenings. Estimate: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Other Loads:

* Wi-Fi Router: Constant, but low power. Estimate: ~0.15 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Electric Kettle: Occasional, high surge but short duration. Daily average: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

🏡 Household 2: Newly Married Couple

Daily Estimated Consumption: ~2 - 3 kWh/day

* Refrigeration:

* 1 Small Fridge: ~0.6 kWh/day

* Washing Machine (Shared 12kg Samsung Inverter):

* 5 warm loads/week = ~0.43 kWh/day (average)

* Television & Soundbar:

* 43" FHD TV + Soundbar: 5-10 PM. Estimate: ~0.3 - 0.6 kWh/day

* Air Fryer:

* Occasional use. Not factored into daily average, but note as a potential ~0.5 - 1 kWh/use load when active.

* Lighting:

* LED Lighting: Low impact. Estimate: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Other Loads:

* Wi-Fi Router: Constant, but low power. Estimate: ~0.15 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Electric Kettle: Occasional, high surge but short duration. Daily average: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

🏡 Household 3: 5 People (Including Baby; 2 People Home During Day)

Daily Estimated Consumption: ~14 - 15 kWh/day

* Geyser (Assumed 150L, 3kW element, similar to H1):

* Morning Run: 3:45 AM – 4:30 AM (45 min) = ~2.25 kWh (drawing from battery)

* Midday Run: 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM (3 hrs) = ~6.3 kWh (ideally covered by solar production)

* Subtotal: 8.55 kWh/day

* Refrigeration:

* 1 Large Fridge/Freezer: ~1.5 kWh/day

* Washing Machine (Own 8kg machine):

* 8 warm loads/week = ~0.57 kWh/day (average)

* Dishwasher:

* One 30°C cycle/day = ~1 kWh/day (estimated)

* Television:

* 75" 4K LED TV: Runs from 9 AM – 10 PM. This is a significant load. Estimate: ~0.5 - 1.5 kWh/day (depending on actual TV power and usage time)

* Lawn Mower:

* 2 kW mowing ~2000 m². Bi-weekly mowing = ~0.5 kWh/day (winter average)

* Lighting:

* LED Lighting: Low impact, but more people home during the day might mean slightly higher usage. Estimate: ~0.2 - 0.3 kWh/day

* Other Loads:

* Wi-Fi Router: Constant, but low power. Estimate: ~0.15 - 0.2 kWh/day

* Electric Kettle: Occasional, high surge but short duration. Daily average: ~0.1 - 0.2 kWh/day

* "Other daytime loads" (fans, chargers, small appliances, etc. due to 2 people home): Estimate: ~0.5 - 1 kWh/day

Summary of Total Estimated Daily Consumption Across All Households:

* Household 1: ~13.5 - 14.5 kWh/day

* Household 2: ~2 - 3 kWh/day

* Household 3: ~14 - 15 kWh/day

* Grand Total: ~29.5 - 32.5 kWh/day

Your PV should be sufficient. We share roughly the same daily consumption.

The only thing you can do now is just add more battery as you are able to, but then again, you have a genset for rainy days.

8 hours ago, JanKotze said:

Will we be able to go off grid? And what would help to make it more comfortable?

Very efficient system nice installation. The Sunsynk 16kw is a beast.

My suggestion seeing your solar array is at 5° tilt on a flat roof you will sacrifice 7% of your array output during summer months and 10% during winter. Solar panels prices are good at the moment so i would add( should space allow) 6 x 565w panels to existing array increasing your output to 16950w well within the 18kw spesification of the inverter's 3 mppt's.

Looks like there was some shading when the photo was taken of the solar panels.

Shouldn't there be more of a gap between the rows of panels? I would imagine that can help with cooling.