This month the load and usage is up which is not surprising as we have set up office at home for the business and there are more people on site daily. The discharge is similar to the other months which is the amount we throw away and does not go back to the grid. The 367 kwh binned I am happy with as I want no part of the grid.
Work has been the focus this month and the month of April will hopefully see some changes with regard to our solar system. The difference this time around is I will be using a bank loan by extending the bond on the property to cover all the solar additions. A 300 liter solar geyser/boiler plus the extra solar panels and 2 additional batteries which will store the current discharge amounts. There will still be excess thrown away due to increased amounts of electricity created with the additional 8 panels so we shall play around.
Thankfully solar systems are modular and you just add and grow the size of your system as required and this has been an ongoing project for close to 16 months now. A fun project with the aim of leaving the grid and becoming fully independent at whatever the cost as this is worth it. By the time this has been completed I would have expect o have laid out somewhere in the region of R400K which is $25K. Every cent spent is worth it as this will be recouped in under 5 years and still part of the property value when you eventually sell.
Thankfully we have OUTA (Organization Undoing Tax Abuse) who has been fighting ESKOM and why they are hesitant to fine people as they know this is illegal and will be challenged in courts.
Eskom the State Owned Enterprise that has been threatening the solar households and businesses with various fines and being cut from the grid has backed down. They have now moved the registration of all solar installations to September so at least I have some extra time to be fully off the grid.
The month of April sees electricity price increases and expect somewhere around 10% so the system is paying itself off far quicker every time there is a price hike. The current utility bills make no sense and I am busy fighting with them as I am not consuming what they are saying and refuse to pay R7K monthly which is roughly $450. Additionally there are 2 hidden penalties for having solar and these are administration fees of over R1K or $170 monthly.
The power suppliers are crooks and see solar as their enemy and are not embracing those leaving the grid or partially using the grid. The revenue they receive each month is on the decline and that is where the problem lies hence the hefty increases trying to keep that income stable.
The next 6 months leading up to September has given my household the time required to leave the grid and need to make this happen quickly. The current set up has the water geyser running directly off our solar set up and would be responsible for a good 30% off the usage. With this part being removed and running independently on it's own solar system this should be enough to leave the grid without the additional 8 panels and batteries.
I am not one to take any risks and would rather have far more than required than just scraping by each day. I need to see this all installed and operating before I ask to be disconnected from the grid. The other back up would be a generator that could charge the batteries directly if required and this I may or may not need and will have to wait and see. Winter will be the true test with shorter days and longer nights yet I do think we will have sufficient power or may need 1 more battery so we would have roughly 35kwh of storage.