FAQ

Our house appliances use 230W AC power. Solar is DC power. The inverter changes DC power to AC power.

There are as many inverters manufacturers as car manufacturers.

Out of our years of experience, we have cut out the brands that caused a lot of issues or problems and we have decided to avoid these brands altogether. 

We have found that  Luxpower, Deye and Sunsynk are good and have reasonable prices. Victron is the best brand, but very expensive.

Your peak power, that you need, at the time when most of your appliances is in use, will be the inverter size that you need.

Like a generator, you cannot use 6kW power on a 5kW generator or inverter.

A 3kW inverter can connect up to 4000W solar panels. This is 700kW per month or R2000pm  electricity.

A 5kW inverter, can connect up to 6000W solar panels. This is 1000kW per month or R3000pm electricity.

An 8kW inverter can connect up to 10,000W solar panels. This is 1650kW per month or R5000pm electricity.

Your total electricity that you consume per month, will determine how many panels you need.

If you use R1000pm electricity, and you pay R3 per kW. You need 333kW per month.

333kW per month divided by 30 days, is 11,1kW per day. In South Africa, divide 11,1kW by 5.5 = 2,02kW. So, you would need 2,2kW solar panels for every R1000pm electricity.

If you use 500W solar panels, you need 4 panels.

Each 500W solar panel generate R250pm electricity. This means, if you need R1000pm electricity, you need 4 panels of 500W.

The sun shines only in daytime. For households, we use power early in the morning and late afternoon or evening. We need to have batteries to save daytime sun power for nighttime use.

Basically, there is two types of batteries for solar systems: Deep cycle/Lead-acid and Lithium batteries.

Deep cycle/Lead-acid batteries are cheaper but usually last 2-3 years.

Lithium batteries are 40% more expensive, and last 5-15 years.

If your budget, allows it, install Lithium batteries.

Very important! SIZE DOES MATTER !

Because a solar geyser only heats the water once in 24 hours, size is the most important thing.

For 2 people 150lt

For 3 people, 200lt

For 4 people, 300lt

For 5 or more people, we would suggest a heat pump.

For new buildings requiring new geysers, a whole new solar geyser can be installed on or inside the roof. 

Geysers use up to 50% of the total of your electricity bill. To save on your electricity bill, the geyser is the very first component to address.  Most people already have an electric geyser. It is cheaper to convert your existing electric geyser to solar than to installing a whole new solar geyser.

Many people do not like the appearance of an external geyser on the roof, we can then install only the solar panels on the roof, whilst the geyser remains inside the roof.