Electricity Saving measures & Off Grid Solutions
Before you install solar have your made your building as efficient as possible
1. Replace all lights with low energy Lights ie LED's
2. Incorporated Solar Geyser to reduce load on solar system - If you are replacing a geyser due to failure it is now law to replace with an energy efficient option, Solar (Evacuated tubes, Solar Flat plate, Heat pump (for areas with less sun) Gas demand geyser or demand electric systems.
3. Appliances to be energy efficient ie Fridge, Washing machine, Dishwasher.
Below are some tips
1 . Ensure you have the most efficient devices on your system ( This is recommendations for Residential installations)
1.1 TV Std Old 40inch LED TV can use up to 150Watts New LED TV 50W
1.2 Water pump Normal (0.85KWatts) Vs Variable speed pump DAB mini is suitable for residential low demand
1.3 Pool Pump Normal vs Variable speed pump Variable speed pump uses just enough power manually set to your requirements to run the purification or heating system.
2.0 Hot water Geyser - Solar evacuated tube system for every day use, Flat plate for Holiday use and Pre feed for day time commercial and residential use. For Detailed information please contact us.
3.0 Coming Soon Peak rates with the new smart meters
3.1 Set all timers to heat water during off peak rate times winter and summer.
Timers that can be installed in DB and keep their time through load shedding. Note All electrical installation have to be done by a registered Electritian. Also note the SONOFF devices default to off through load shedding.
4. Typical residential Solar installation
Designing and getting a system priced can be sized ensuring you are maximising the usage with the minimum cost.
1. Average Day time usage in Kw/h This allows you to size the solar panels to be above the average.
1.1 Average night time usage when you are asleep can range from 200 Watts to 600watts constant
1.2 Note the following has been experienced on a Victron System. If you inverter is a 5kw system you will required Double this in batter power for the system to work correctly and not trip out. ie 10 KW of Lithium batteries which will be able to give you an output of 5KW's your system should in essence need a little more than your average KW usage throughout the day ie recommended then to have the same as your inverter. as the system should be designed for off grid usage.
1.3 Solar on the Roof. It is important to have sufficient north facing roofs and if your architect is designing your new building endure that suficient north facing roof space is allocated. East Roof space is slightly more important than west Facing roof space
