Anyone considering a solar power system for their homes needs to know one vital thing… How much is this going to cost?
This is unfortunately not an easy question to answer. It really does depend on what the needs of the end user are. In an attempt to provide the best answer we can, we have considered a few different types of home situations.
When meeting these hypothetical families, it is very important to keep in mind that the specifics of the home need to be taken into consideration including; actual needs, geographical location, state of the homes electrical wiring, type of roof, roof space availability, and a few other considerations.
The Individual with limited needs
Think of an individual living alone with limited needs, possibly a retired person.
Our retired person who would like to keep the fridge freezer, TV, Lights, and plugs next to the bed on during load shedding.
As the power crisis in South Africa is going to deepen before we get through it, we have included solar panels.
An aspect of solar power that is sometimes conveniently ignored in advertisements, is that these systems need to be installed. This will require some work on the electrical system of the home, and a new COC (certificate of compliance).
An estimate cost for a system like this could be in the range of R65 000 fully installed and commissioned.
A small family
Lets consider the young couple, newly married and moving into their starter home.
They have busy lives, like to entertain their friends and need a dishwasher, washing machine, and other home conveniences.
While being careful not to have all their appliances running at the same time, they have a slightly larger system, with a bit more energy storage and a few extra solar panels.
This lovely couple will need to spend approximately R100,000 to ensure that load shedding is something that other people have to deal with.
The busy mid sized family
Now our happy couple have moved into a larger home and have teenage children, and their friends. Teenagers can morph into bats at times, making it essential to have computers, TV’s and lights on all night long. For this extra battery storage is needed.
A dishwasher is no longer a luxury, but a basic tool of survival. Running large appliances during the day when the sun is shining makes good sense. A few extra solar panels have been added to the system.
For our growing family to save money and help our limping utility, our parents will need to spend approximatly R150,000
We are all going off-grid – Good Bye Eskom
Our family has come full circle. One of the children will just not leave, and the grandparents are now living in a cottage downstairs.
The multiple insults of having to pay more and more for electricity, connection fees, and lots of other (just because we can) charges, while getting less and less service has become unbearable.
An intergenerational meeting decides to go off grid entirely. This means that even on cloudy days some power is needed. We can no longer rely at all on the grid to fill batteries to get through load shedding and battery storage becomes more important than ever.
Different parts of the family live in different parts of the home, and cannot easily coordinate which appliances can run and which cannot, making a large peak load a basic part of the design.
Our family will need to spend approximately R250,000 to R350,000 to reliably live with a large family and have nothing to do with Eskom … ever again.
Please contact Clean Earth Energy, so that we can discuss your exact needs and design a system for you.