Hi

Though I signed up on Nov ‘22. This is my first post! Am based in CPT.

Got inverter and battery in Dec ‘23:

Deye 8kw

SolarMD 14.4kw

Then added panels in April ‘24 when I thought let’s get something back from the sun, and coincidently coincided with loadshedding easing / stopping around that time. Decision however to do panels was unrelated.

i added JA 555w panels, of which:

8x E/NE facing, and 6x N facing. 

It’s been an interesting journey learning how this works. And the panels on the East side have proved to be amazing. Tend to get sun power from 10-20mins after sun rise. And then get a 3 step uplift as the sun moves above.
It has worked well in winter - only had 1 day in July where I only got 0.9kw from the sun. Otherwise I’m very efficient. Also think I probably spent too much based on my usage (560-650kw in winter to 750-900 when the sun cooks in Jan), but no regrets from my end. 
The house… got 3 aircons, pool, 150l geyser. Loads of smart plugs, geyser wise and so on. The stove is gas - which obviously helps. I did need to learn to do some balancing of what runs when. Concurrency of mainly kitchen appliances with the geyser was an issue from time to time, but wasn’t too bad.

Then…

Had a fun one in August when my 8kw inverter died, and was on grid for around a week, and my guy who is a rockstar made a deal with me to swap the 8 for a 12kw deye.  Since then, no more concurrency issues. And it’s been bliss. Touch wood, no tripping or need for checking what’s running before my domestic makes tea and toast which ironing. 

I'm now on a mission with Home assistant, and it’s proving quite fun. My fav device is my smart gate control with open/close sensor - means I get alerts when I leave it open after coming back from a run / walk etc. 

Looking forward to learn more from you guys. 

On 2019/08/06 at 12:52 PM, DeepBass9 said:

The EV tubes are just way more efficient, and cheaper than trying to do the same thing with PV.  To get 10kWh per day from PV you will need 1500W to 2000W of panels. 

I disagree. Was one of the first people to install tubes in Bloemfontein (some 20 years ago...), and was very frustrated with the system over heating, and not controllable. Ended up removing some 40% of the tubes in summer, and replacing them again every winter - real PITA. After about 7-8 years of use the first tube stopped working, and the whole lot packed up at around year 10. Waste of good money.

I am currently heating my geyser with power generated by my PV system (a 12kW Sunsynk and 14 x 575W panels), and have not used one cent of grid power during the last 10 months. The system also runs a stove, and all my electrical tools, including a 3kW lathe and a Tig welder (obviously not all at the same time...).

@profa Feel free to contact me via PM, and we can chat about your options. I am not an installer, and I don't make money from anything solar related - just a fellow Bloemfonteiner with some solar experience 🙂

2 hours ago, HennieL said:

Ended up removing some 40% of the tubes in summer, and replacing them again every winter

Jy kort 'n afdakkie wat jy kan opvou vir winter... :-)

6 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

Jy kort 'n afdakkie wat jy kan opvou vir winter... :-)

Ja Swaer 😁

Fortunately I don't need the "afdakkie" any more, given that I scrapped the tubes some years ago...

Oops... just realized now that I replied to a post that is 6 years old 🤐

Apologies for resurrecting this. 🤡

Solar is the way to go