My little project is nearly ready to go live…i have been slowly installing a p.v. solar system in my house and on Monday / Tuesday i will switch my computer room and all wug sectors and links over to free energy. Then it’s still my light circuit to do…
As i can afford to add to it, more panels and batteries for storage. i have 10 x 102ah so far.
Try to get battery bank to just hold the load for 30 min ±, get a engine that runs on compressed air + several tanks to hold the compressed air.
While the sun is out you can charge the batteries + fill the tanks with air and when you need that energy you can use the compressed air in the tanks.
With the compressed air you don’t have to replace the batteries every decade or two and its easier to expand.
Sounds awesome, keep us updated. Remember, pics or it didn’t happen
and also a 5.5kva genset for the bad weather days to boost the charge. I will update as i go along. Tomorrow is to reroute cables and fit trunking…
What regulator and inverter are you using?
How many solar panels? How many watts?
24V?
it is a 30A MPPT Load Controller with a 1kw pure sine inverter ( temp…going for a 3kw ), Panels picking up MOnday 2 x 235w Polycrystaline p.v. panels, It’s a 24Volt system. Want to add another 10 batteries and 4 more panels when i can afford them. With 20 batteries i will have 3 days backup for bad weather. At the moment i have 24 480Wh of energy or 1020Ah
Nice!
What do you estimate The Total Cost of Ownership to be once all is up and running?
Can you tell us how much they cost and where you’re getting them from?
Exciting project! 
Nebular as soon as i am finished i will post a full breakdown of costs. I must say the batteries are the biggest costing to date at R1030 each.
BigMike… I will confirm which ones tomorrow. I am looking at the German Solvino or the French panel…The German Panel is at R10 per watt for 235W panels, the French is at R11.50 per watt, just want to see what the biggest panel size is… then i have to try my hand at making a frame to mount them in. ANy metal/ Aluminium workers workers out there that can advise or even better do it for me?
Langgat, sounds to me like you’ve been getting kit from Mantech. Correct me if I’m wrong.
You may want to contact Current Automation to get a second opinion on prices and options. I’ve moved away from the Deltecs and now only use their Royal batteries for high sites.
When it comes to PV cells / panels. Is there really a difference between the expensive German stuff (I’ve got a couple of Solarworld panels) and the new cheap stuff from China?
Portcullis, the Mppt controller is from ManTech. The pv panels, i have been told to steer clear from China Solar and rather go for a quality manufacture. The Solvino panels carry a 20 year gaurrantee, and apparantly the French have the best energy ratio, but i will take a look at Current Automation but have never dealt with them… do i need an account there? I do need to get a 5 or 6kw pure sine shortly and dump my 1kw temp…
what are the Royals like? are they 105ah deep cycles?
The Royals are fantastic.
When I go into server rooms in big companies, all I see are Royals. Lots and lots of Royals. I bought two, two years ago and put them on Simonsberg. As of last night’s voltage report, they were still delivering the same power as when they went in. Two weeks ago there was a huge power failure, at which stage they kept the entire site (4 x RB411AH, 6 x Rockets, 1 x Nanobridge, 1 x RB493AH, 1 x RB750) up from lunch time Saturday, to Sunday 7:00pm when the power was restored. At that point power was down to 12.1V.
We’re not dealers / agents / resellers, but we still get better prices from them on Meanwell than we do as dealers of Mantech.
thanks , had a look at the website and i will give them a call tomorrow. thanks for your input
mike
right got some panels from Current Automation and some Aluminium from Wispeko and made the frame today… will fit tomorrow and link up and switch on. If you see smoke in Bothasig tomorrow…maybe it’s me 
@langgat.
Very impressive!!!
If you like, I can weld up some steel frames for you.
I get all my solar equipment from http://www.gwstorecapetown.co.za/
Their pricing and service is very good.
What angle are you setting the solar panels at? 35 Degrees?
Is that angle up from the horizontal, or down from the vertical?
Langat, you running a very tight ship there…
Hope you do not mind me adding some calculations here…
235W x 2 = 470W max solar input.
Lets say your load is 300W.
That is 300W x 24h = 4,2 kWh per day consumption.
With 10 hours max daylight @ 470W you looking at 4,7kWh per day input.
So, you might be ok in summer, but in winter you going to slowly loose momentum on your system.
By adding more battries, you will just lengthen your backup time, but the system will run empty eventually.
With the above calcs I did not even include losses or anything, just theoretical max.
Also with your existing solar charger, you might have a problem going with more PV cells, as 470W/24V= 20Amp.
Adding another PV bank would/could overload your controller.
Please do NOT take this as a negative as to what you doing, I am only trying to highlight something.
I have also been looking at going the solar route, but for now it is a bit expencive.
I was however looking at just 1kW PV cells with a 4kW grid tied invertor, so just power while the sun shines, with no battery backup.
As time progress, could increase the PV cells to 4kW and add some battries…
Apologies for hijacking…
WetKit, what price are you looking at for that inverter? R15K?
Was looking at the KYOTO4000 and the MLT 4kW Powerstar.
http://www.mltdrives.com/price-list.htm (Specs for above units)
http://www.alternagy.co.za/product-category/alt-inverter-range/ (Pricing on wide range of diffrent units)
The Kyoto4000 is around R15k and the MLT unit around R30k 
Problem is, most suppliers do not really know how each unit works/function, they just sell them.
I am propably too full of bull, as I would like to research each unit first to see how I can use it.
Problem is that I can not go too big, as I can NOT supply back onto the grid, but I also do not want battries
So basically I am creating my own problems by being stubborn
Droooool, ive been thinking about this for awhile and busy with research. My goal is to get my wugkit onto solar then move onto getting my PC or 2 on there. What would you guys recommend is a decent but expandable kit to look at?! Also thinking about adding in a Wind Turbine or 2 for the bad weather, what you think?