Loadshedding solutions

[Dexter-morgan]

37 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

how did this work for you this past week with the substation issue ?

Short answer, it didn't but we made a plan, I used the generator during the day to charge the inverter's battery and used it during the night.

As mentioned previously, I did set my inverter down to 20A charging, then the genie could do its trick but I am still going to invest in a proper AVR.

We bought an inverter generator for the complex and it charges the trolley inverter with no problem.

Edited September 26, 2023 by Dexter-morgan

[Fisan]

Need some Hub advice and experience for a relatively clueless person here.

The EcoFlow range is currently on sale, and one particular option intrigues me: the Delta2 powerstation with a auto transfer switch - allowing you to hook up the powerstation to your house/apartment's DB.

I have an apartment, so solar isn't an option, an my db board is located in a smallish kitchen - so size wise this makes sense to me (the 'standard' inverter units+batteries would definitely not fit).

I'm aware that the capacity would just be enough for essentials, but that's fine. And yeah, I'm not helping to reduce the electricity load in any way, but, this household doesn't use a lot to begin with.

So what am I missing here? 

[Fruity]

Loadshedding solutions? well, I have a UPS that's just enough to power our router, I bought a 2nd wireless powerbank for my phone yesterday, and I have 2 braai's, that's enough for us, for now.

[The Ouzo]

Some advise please.

 

With electricity prices going up and the frequency of outages in my area I'm strongly considering solar and gas geyser to be as much off grid as possible.

The thing is, I'll need to do one of the rent to own options as the bank wont approve finance for me.

What I want to know is, will it be cheaper month to month renting solar vs paying eskom.

Currently using around 25 kwh per day

Geyser is around 12 of those, so gas will right away drop that. Our showering/bathing times means either running geyser from batteries or going gas, so I'm leaning to gas even though it will be more costly in the long run than solar.

Big power items like pool and dishwasher are easy to schedule to run once batteries are full, so no problem there. I do have a bunch of lights on the outside wall that run all night, but all are LED so power draw wont be to bad.

 

A quick google tells me I can get a rent to own option that will power everything but the geyser for around 50% of my monthly eskom bill. Obviously cloudy/rainy days or weeks will change the balance, that will need to be factored in.

 

Before I go down this route I just want to hear from those with experience on what pitfalls to look out for, anything I'm over looking etc.