Here are the solar figures for May and not much difference from April as we are still waiting on the one battery that was sent back to the suppliers in March. All they have to do is check that the battery is not working and replace it as this is still brand new and an out the box failure. This kind of non service does my head in and is just unacceptable. I bought the system through my friends account as he is a registered supplier and I have not been able to personally get involved, but I am very close to taking a drive. This would have been sorted long ago if I was involved directly.
The problem I have with the one battery short is I cannot risk running the batteries too low due to the problem of having loadshedding in South Africa. The one extra battery would make a huge difference and then i would be able to play around and then definitely say if I need one more battery or two to go entirely off the grid.
Currently we are still tied to the grid for top ups even though we are discharging or throwing away 240Kwh every month. Utter madness that this cannot go back to the grid or better yet that would be in another battery or two and enough to say a big goodbye to electricity bills each month.
If we could supply the grid then I would invest in more panels and generate more electricity and supply back. Solar panels are not expensive and this would pay off that investment very quickly and would guess in less than 12 months. The problem is I do not need credits as the plan is to never have to use them ever again and I am not certain if they would pay back into your bank account.
The house appliances all run during the day receiving direct current from the sun and after sun set we draw from the mains until around midnight and then let the batteries do their work until sun rise. This is only done this way due to the threat of load shedding which hangs over our heads each day not knowing when the next power cut is going to happen and for how long. The batteries last for around 5 hours before I start getting nervous knowing they need to be switched over. The one extra battery would take us to over 6 and a bit hours and adding a second battery would take us to a comfortable 8 hours and totally off the grid. One has to remember this is winter time here in South Africa so we are having sunsets far earlier than summer time and load shedding is going to hit hard any day now.
As frustrating as this might be the end is in sight and this is a great investment which will pay itself off many times before it would need replacing. This solar system adds serious value to the property and one can see how few other houses have what we have when the power is out. Our house is literally a light beacon with all the outside security lights shining bright and pitch darkness everywhere else. Life is so much easier knowing this does not affect the way we live like it used to living by a time table.
I am hoping the next monthly report of June we will see a big difference by having the 4th battery operational. We need this as soon as possible because all it would take to screw my life up right now is an 8 hour power cut.