This months solar figures are a mixed bag with the system generating far more which is good yet the house consumed more which is bad. I have no idea what has changed for us to be consuming more and need to start paying attention.
There is very little i can do to change anything here until I add more panels and more batteries which should complete the system and take our property off the grid. The extra batteries will count for the almost 12kwh per day being tossed away and automatically tells me I need at least 3 or possibly 4 which would give us 40kwh per day of storage.
I am not overly concerned about the 716 kwh of bought electricity for now as this will change soon enough once we have received the funds from the Durban house sale. The Johannesburg house will be going through it's own upgrades which will include a gas stove etc once the gas lines are in place.
What i find really impressive is the actual electricity this system generated from the panels and am now wondering if the fine dust that was washed away from the recent rains has now bought us back to where we should have been all along.
Where we live in Johannesburg we have many old gold mine dumps and this fine dust blows in the wind and settles everywhere. These are now being mined for whatever gold is still left in them so this will not be a problem in 10 years from now. This dust has obviously impacted the solar panels and need to make sure these are washed down regularly if we have no rain. The difference this month in generation to the rest of the year is rather significant being around an extra 25% and the weather has not been overly exceptional either. This was purely the recent rain cleaning the solar panels.
Adding another 8 solar panels will give another 30% extra of generation so we will always have discharged energy and not enough storage. 8 x 5kwh batteries you would think would be enough and now thinking about this maybe having 10 would be the smart move. The batteries are not cheap and then again neither is electricity so rather have more storage which guarantees independence from the grid.
The system which is bigger than most suffices for about 60-70% of our needs currently and adding the extras will complete the system. The changing of the electric oven to a gas stove is the big move here and adding a solar geyser big enough to do the job is the other game changer. Once these two appliances have been changed then the electricity consumption levels will drop considerably and we would possibly have done overkill on our system once these changes happen. Rather have more than less in this situation as once the grid is cut there is no going back.
Eskom the national SOE electricity company has seen their wages rising way above inflation and from 2023 the salary bill has risen from R32.3 billion to over R50 billion this year. The electricity prices are going to keep on rising with double digits each year so getting off the grid is the right move. The investment will be rather large, but at the end of the day will be far worth the cost and will raise the value of the property.