{"id":232198,"date":"2022-07-23T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2022-07-23T10:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/?p=118791"},"modified":"2022-07-23T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2022-07-23T10:46:08","slug":"how-to-measure-whether-your-solar-system-can-function-off-grid-or-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/how-to-measure-whether-your-solar-system-can-function-off-grid-or-not\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Measure Whether Your Solar System CAN function Off-Grid or Not?"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1 \">\n<aside id=\"republication_tracker_tool-2\" class=\"republication_tracker_tool clearfix\">\n<h5 class=\"adtitle\">Republish for Free<\/h5>\n<div class=\"license\">\n<p><button name=\"Republish This Story\" id=\"cc-btn\" class=\"republication-tracker-tool-button\">Republish This Story<\/button><\/p>\n<p><a class=\"license\" rel=\"noreferrer license noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/how-to-measure-whether-your-solar-system-can-function-off-grid-or-not.png\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Creative Commons License\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/how-to-measure-whether-your-solar-system-can-function-off-grid-or-not.png\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"message\">\n<p>Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe have seen many people on social media saying that they are installing a 5 kW inverter and 12\/16 solar panels so that they can say goodbye to Eskom and, in many cases, I would say that they have been misled,\u201d says Alan Straton from <a href=\"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar.\">Straton Solar.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A 5 kW inverter will NOT support all the power required (if all appliances and motors were switched on at the same time) in a typical South African home.<\/p>\n<p>A quick exercise to measure your peak power consumption on startup of every appliance, light and motor in your home will soon reveal the folly of a 5 kW system being relied on to power your entire home in an off-grid situation.<\/p>\n<p>The simplest way to see if any system specified for your home will support you going off-grid is to measure the power rating of every appliance, geyser, stove, light and device plugged in to your home currently.<\/p>\n<p>The next thing to note is the start up draw of each appliance or motor that you will require.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Then make assumptions based on the above:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>What will you power draw be if every single one of your appliances, geysers, stoves, lights and devices were turned on at the same time<\/li>\n<li>Then, add up what the number will be if you add the start up draw of each motor \u2013 for example a motor may be rated at 1 kW but it\u2019s start up may be rated at 1.5 kW for a certain amount of time.<\/li>\n<li>Use the start up draw from each of the above in point 1 above.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>An example:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>25 Lights rated at 15 watts each = 375 watts per hour<\/li>\n<li>15 devices (computer, TV\u2019s, chargers, bedside lights etc.) plugged in at 150 watts each = 2 250 watts per hour<\/li>\n<li>1 Geyser at 1000 watts = 1000 watts per hour<\/li>\n<li>1 Pool pump at 2000 watts = 2000 watts per hour (peak at 2 750 watts)<\/li>\n<li>1 Water Tank pump at 500 watts = 500 watts per hour (peak at 750 watts)<\/li>\n<li>2 fridges at 600 watts each = 120 watts per hour<\/li>\n<li>1 Stove at 3000 watts = 300 watts per hour<\/li>\n<li>1 Hairdryer at 2700 watts = 2 700 watts per hour.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Adding the above up = 10245 watts per hour or 10.245 kW per hour<\/p>\n<p>The other way to see what you consume per hour is to take your monthly bill and see how many units (kWh) you are being billed for. A typical small home will consume around 1200 units per month or 1.66 kW per hour (as an aside \u2013 we know of homes consuming 5 kW per hour WHILST the owners are on vacation!).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q.<\/strong> So why do we as installers look at the HIGHER figure of 10.245 kW and NOT the lower figure of 1.66 kW?<\/p>\n<p><strong>A.<\/strong> In order to protect you and your valuable inverter and load shedding equipment from being roasted in a surge when your entire home is switched on at once.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Often what happens is:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The cost to ensure that an entire homes power demand is met is pretty prohibitive for most homeowners<\/li>\n<li>Most homeowners balk at installing a \u2018backup\u2019 for their solar panels and batteries in the form of a generator or wind turbine.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Frankly it makes better sense for homeowners in an urban environment to rather use the grid as a backup if anything does go pear shaped.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What to look out for when specifying an inverter and battery for your home:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Match your expected power draw to the inverter and battery rating<\/li>\n<li>Make sure that your battery has sufficient capacity to outlast a 4 hour outage after being run down to a minimum of 40% of capacity<\/li>\n<li>Make sure that your battery can be charged up relatively quickly after an outage<\/li>\n<li>Check what the power peak is for your inverter and battery and the duration thereof.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you DO NOT go the off-grid route then make sure that your installer divides your electrical distribution board into \u2018essential\u2019 and non-essential\u2019 distribution boards to power your essentials which, in most cases, are to power the fridge, TV, Router, small lights, charge a laptop, alarm, electric gate, intercom and electric fence.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Video:<\/strong> How to Measure Whether Your Solar System CAN function Off-Grid or Not?<\/p>\n<p><strong>More Info on How to Measure Whether Your Solar System CAN function Off-Grid or Not? here:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/straton.co.za\/solar.<\/a><br \/><strong>Twitter<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MyPE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/twitter.com\/MyPE<\/a><br \/><strong>Facebook<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StratonElectrical\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/StratonElectrical\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mypr.co.za\/save-with-myprs-monthly-flat-fee\/\">CLICK HERE to submit your press release to MyPR.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <span class=\"post-views-icon dashicons dashicons-chart-bar\"><\/span> <span class=\"post-views-label\">Press Release Views:<\/span> <span class=\"post-views-count\">61<\/span> <\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-pagination pagination\">Pages: <span class=\"post-page-numbers current\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>1<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\/how-to-measure-whether-your-solar-system-can-function-off-grid-or-not\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Page <\/span>2<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mypr.co.za\">Source: MyPR.co.za<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republish for Free Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. \u201cWe have seen many people on social media saying that they are installing a 5 kW inverter and 12\/16 solar panels so that they can say goodbye to Eskom and, in many cases, I would [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":232199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3331,18,3332,9021,3336,1],"tags":[3257],"class_list":{"0":"post-232198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-town","8":"category-durban","9":"category-johannesburg-south-africa","10":"category-mypr","11":"category-pretoria-south-africa","12":"category-south-africa","13":"tag-mypr","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/how-to-measure-whether-your-solar-system-can-function-off-grid-or-not.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}