Should I bother/usable?

[Minerva10210]

Hey guys

So I am in a predicament of some sorts, and have itchy fingers. Ultimately, I am just about mind-made-up of what my ultimate setup is going to be - Multiplus grid tied, 12-15 panels, 2x pylons. The predicament is that I will only be able to put funds towards this around April/May 2020, so still some time away.

I do however have the following stuffs floating around at home already

2x 10w 12v solarwind panels, random 20a 12/24v pwm charge controller, 12v 120w inverter (that is probably at least 18 years old), 15x 7.2AH batteries. So as per the title, is there anything productive I could do with this? I was thinking of putting some China mall special 12v LED light strips throughout the house, replacing all my 220v lights essentially - other than outside perimeter/security lights. I am however not sure the 20w worth of panels are going to be enough to ensure decent charging of the batteries. Should I then look at getting say a 80-100w panel, and be done with it? Or should I look at adding a newer, more efficent (say 300w-500w) inverter, and then run my alarm system/fence energiser/lights off the unit and thus "saving" on the 20 or so units from eskom on a monthly basis, and have an "emergency" backup system in place so to say?

Or do I shelve the idea, and just save the R1000 for my big/proper setup come next year?

[Johandup]

Be realistic about this.

By next year the exchange rate might have hit new highs with crippling dollar prices. 

I would rather take an extended home loan and do what's necessary. 

BTW, financial motivations for solar do not work for me. Its about the security and convenience for my family. 

Also get something to measure the power consumption of the stuff you want to put on solar. 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Johandup

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13 hours ago, Johandup said:

By next year the exchange rate might have hit new highs with crippling dollar prices. 

True. There is a good chance (unless things change... fat chance right?) that a big hit to our currency is coming in November. Not to turn this into another scaremongering political thread, but either get the money out or get the equipment in... or both. Now is actually a bit of a bad time, should have done it last week. US/China stuff combined with out NHI act is doing a number on the ZAR (I see it has improved a little bit this morning).

[Guest]

58 minutes ago, plonkster said:

Now is actually a bit of a bad time, should have done it last week.

Scaremongering. Why? Their are still stock in SA on the old prices.  

Convenience and security for solar does not work for me. Camping equipment is cheaper.
It is about the saving financially ito Eskom costs and by doing that, you get that expense dealt with ASAP by any means required like substantial lifestyle changes etc.
Convenience and lights on is a bonus by default.  

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Minerva10210 said:

Or do I shelve the idea, and just save the R1000 for my big/proper setup come next year?

The prices are going up yes, don't know when, so here is my take:
- You can start that saving now by dealing with your geyser if you have not done so.
- Then start and see where the power is used and for what. 
- Then see if the family is open to substantial habit changes.

Because it makes very little sense to spend on solar and not see a R1000+ per month saving on your electricity bill. That takes some effort and habit changes!

And it would be very nice if you can copy someones system that has similar habits as your household. See what they did, how, why and what did it actually cost them in the end.

[Minerva10210]

Thanks for the replies guys.

So I already have a ET112 running, was my first step in trying to see where and how my energy usage happens. I have  a few months worth of data already. Already running a EV tube geyser, and a gas hob. So some steps have already been taken. Working on the family habits is slow going, especially with a toddler who will leave a trail of lights down to the other end of the house to go to the bathroom, but conveniently forgets to switch off on the way back

RE the R/$ yeah, noticed that would honestly love to put in now and reap the benefits, both from a saving on outlay + ongoing basis, but alas, just cannot make it happen now.

Think I may just do the China-mall 12V lights all over as a start for now.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Minerva10210 said:

Think I may just do the China-mall 12V lights all over as a start for now.

You are itching to do something right? Who would not!

Having been down the China-mall route myself in the starting times, if you are remotely like me, you would have a lot of stuff lying around after a while.  

Batts, inverter and MPPT are the costly items so keep some spare cash on hand and trawl Gumtree for bargains when people upgrade and sell what they have. Takes time and patience.
Buy like the panel frames so long, the low reaching fruits.
And / or sort the DB's so long, split them, for that is an expense that can bite you hard AFTER you have spent all the monies.

And work the family ... the day YOU become Eskom, they look at YOU when anything does not work, Practice that so long by i.e. switching off all the plugs in the house bar the lights after all goes to bed. Savings can be interesting.  

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11 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Scaremongering. Why? Their are still stock in SA on the old prices.  

I meant if you take the other option of moving the money out anticipating to buy later. Should have done that a around the end of month when the exchange rate was nice and strong (comparatively speaking, it was under R16 to the Euro). Of course that assumes you have the money to move right now, and that you have somewhere to move it to.

[Bobster.]

On 2019/08/12 at 9:21 PM, Johandup said:

Be realistic about this.

By next year the exchange rate might have hit new highs with crippling dollar prices. 

I would rather take an extended home loan and do what's necessary. 

BTW, financial motivations for solar do not work for me. Its about the security and convenience for my family. 

Also get something to measure the power consumption of the stuff you want to put on solar. 

I agree with all of this. The motivation is not just about rands and cents on the bill (though I am happy with savings being made there). There are the softer factors too, and different folks will assign different weightings. There are also savings, perhaps harder to quantify, other than the electricity bill. EG you are much less likely to lose the contents of your deep freeze.

And, yes, get a handle on your existing consumption first. You may find that by understanding where it's all going and putting some controls/disciplines in place that you can bring down the cost of the solar system you need. Though you say 20 units. That's not THAT much.

A lot depends on how you think things will go with Eskom. I think that in the short term at least it's going to be a struggle, and an expensive one. Tariffs are going to keep on increasing. And forget what those nice politicians say. The mayor of Johannesburg got all angry about Eskom's 13% increase and said that there was no way he was going to pass that on to the already hard done by citizens of Johannesburg. He didn't. He passed on a higher increase that will actually hit the poor people and low consumers hard. My own bill (had I not gone solar) would have gone up 19% (without the abandoned monthly surcharge they intended to impose on people who had a pre paid meter). I figured a 9 year pay back, but if COJ keeps on showing this level of concern for it's citizens, that's going to come down.

[GVC]

21 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Having been down the China-mall route myself in the starting times, if you are remotely like me, you would have a lot of stuff lying around after a while.  

 

I think most of us started out down this route.....I started out with a 12v 400W modified sine wave car inverter that i bought at Midas and 1 x 12v marine battery which i put in an old desktop computer case with a 8A car battery charger.....We were amazed to run a small black and white portable tv and a light for a couple of hours...From there i bought 2 x 24V 1200W Ellies power packs with the auto change-over....Now we were really styling....lol

I still have that first modified sine wave in the old computer case...

[Guest]

16 hours ago, plonkster said:

I meant if you take the other option of moving the money out anticipating to buy later. Should have done that a around the end of month when the exchange rate was nice and strong (comparatively speaking, it was under R16 to the Euro). Of course that assumes you have the money to move right now, and that you have somewhere to move it to.

Ok, this was quite a staggering read: Investors have been dumping South African government bonds at a rate of almost 2 billion rand ($132 million) a day in August.

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1 hour ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

Ok, this was quite a staggering read

Yup. I always wondered how it happens that you don't see it coming, you know, like it came in another oft-discussed African state. Now I know. You do see it coming, but you don't know where the bottom is, or if it might turn. It is so analogous to currency trading: deep in the red and you have to decide if you're cutting your losses or waiting for the bounce-back.

I am convinced a bounce-back is coming... I just wonder if it will be in my lifetime.

[Guest]

These economical titbits impacts on this thread.

15 minutes ago, plonkster said:

I am convinced a bounce-back is coming...

I have a different darker view: There are going to be bounce backs, but they would be temporary, next downturn even worse.

Why? What is overall is not sustainable. Something is going to give.
We need a major overhaul of what we do collectively on this earth. The rich getting richer comes to mind.

And then this in: SA should not take China’s warnings lightly
Ambassador Lin Songtian says Cyril Ramaphosa is SA’s last hope and Eskom is a debt trap
"... when China’s ambassador says something to a global news agency like “Cyril Ramaphosa is SA’s last hope”, ... "

[Minerva10210]

So the politics aside (but not forgetting about it as it is a cluster f)

I have started with getting something going as a start. Got a few of the 12v strip lights from the local China mall for R35 ea or thereabouts. Got warm and cool white LEDs, made a bit of mix to get better colour to my taste.
 

Not sure if the pics are going to get the idea across due to automatic light sensing and the like, but anyhoo. The original fitting, my hillbilly light, and a ”closeup".

 

[Minerva10210]

Forgot to mention, a 12led string like that pulls about 170mA, so not bad considering the amount of light.

In the bathroom or passage I will only run 6leds, so <100mA.

For the 5 areas I have allocated these so far, I am pulling less than 1A, so with my current 80odd Ah battery bank, that should do swimmingly (y)