I guess that some will recall this and even a follow up not linked here.
So today is the first anniversary of going off grid - completely.
Well, its been an interesting and satisfying ride.
1. Most intriguing is the point that we don't have to pay the R4500-ish for the mainline drugs anymore - but - we can't really say that its become disposable income (for some or other reason beyond us all).
2. The best thing is (and I love this part because The Pathetic One (eskom), always implements this on April Fools' Day), so, at the start of next month the monthly for the drug deals will go up by 12.7% AGAIN (not taking into account the compounded escalation of the past decades) the energy pundits say that this is effectively 18%/m (at the change over). The maths around this stuff is stupid foxy.
3. Past readers may recall, although for some in Italy and other places, this may be challenging given the age quotient of their existence, that because we could not afford a larger collection of batteries, that we bought a supplemental generator. In the past year we have had to run that probably six times. But, normally, that has been to offset a bit of paranoia over waking up with a self-generated load-shedding event, or, just ensure that we last through the night. What this represents in cost (versus the purists amongst you who say Its Still Fossil Fuels) is not very high and the generator runs for about 2 hours at the most using about 4 liters of fuel per run. I don't keep a fastidious note of this, just decant from the tin can and go.
4. Another best thing is Just Not having to think through : When is load-shedding today, or, well, what else is there? Spoiled stuff in the refrigerator I suppose. Truth to say, The Pathetic One managed 10 months without loadshedding - I suppose in an attempt to give me The Finger. Good for them. But, its not over yet is everyones' guess (the one nuclear plant shut down the other day - only half of it is working anyway at present).
5. I've had great success in our farming valley in that practically everyone along the "street where we live" has converted to solar (off gridding as well). Touche (sorry don't know what the code is for the accent). I grew up in the decades that left us with the lasting need to "stick it to the man" as it were. I hope he's feeling it.
6. What has been most pleasant is that the power supply to our system (dwellings, workshops etc..) is just SO stable. 230v 50hz bang on all the time. I am told that our appliances will last a bit longer than they did under the 240+v 50hz that The Pathetic One supplies. (South Africa is odd in that the urban areas work on 220v and the direct supply from The Pathetic One to rural users is 240+v - the national grid nominal). The thing I still can't get my head around is: the 13 year log I have of household consumption using The Pathetic One and the one year log of using the solar system differ significantly. We have not changed our behaviours - something I said to all - lets not go overboard on compensation - so the graph looks the same in pattern, but, the 13 year graphs are kilowatts higher up on the Y axis - and I mean 300 to 400 higher up. Two things here : there may be a logical explanation, and, that means that The Pathetic One has been RIPPING us off for years.......and then they still need huge bail-outs from the taxpayer. What's the Shakespearian thing about Denmak, again?
7. The worst was discovering that two or three weeks after we paid the installer the price of panels HALVED in price. Donder en Blitzen! My luck. So the nieghbours have been able to install more panels. We also were not able to take advantage of a tax rebate from the revenue service - which if you can get it - amounts to upto 120% - hell that's paying one to install the stuff. ANYWAY.
8. My wife does all the lawn mowing (I KNOW I KNOW) and we have a BIG lawn our immediate yard being about a hectare. She can keep that up for 5 hours a day for several days. There has been no strain on the solar system even when I use the workshop equipment at the same time or kettles etc.. She has a big wattage mower too. That's been a welcome aspect I must say (NO that's NOT about her doing the mowing!!! BYGT). (BTW the swimming pool is on is own set of three panels with direct drive and the river pump as well which supplies the whole property with water.)
9. BIG facination at the effectiveness of solar panels these days - they appear to run on the smell of the proverbial oil-rag. For instance, the sun this time of year goes down behind all the panels - and for a number of days its been pretty overcast - but the pool pump still turns over at a small speed so you can still feel water exiting the inlet to the pool. Dang that's clever DC current (I - know - its late here).
That's about it. I recognise that there's not a lot there to pursuade you to take the leap - and judging by the one neighbour's state of mind (off grid for less than a month now) it is a leap. He has 20kwh of battery storage and ran out over night on the first night - before he could curse me - I noted to him that its par for the course - but still a bit strange given that on arrival batteries should have had 10kwh available. Fell down laughing I did. He and his family are happy now, though. [[Just an aside - the day after they switched over he went to Denmark for 10 days leaving his wife biting her nails especially when the system kept cutting out for short periods then returned - really odd - turned out it was a faulty toaster they didn't know was faulty. Still on the floor laughing......]]
I suppose giving my biased opinion, its worth the leap, in every way. I still check the APP twice a day but hope to reduce that to once a day on overcast days just in case.
Of course, one of these days, something is going need to be replaced - must remember to make provision in my estate/will.
this is from yesterday - well overcast for the day - the negative blue part is the charging line.
So today is the first anniversary of going off grid - completely.
Well, its been an interesting and satisfying ride.
1. Most intriguing is the point that we don't have to pay the R4500-ish for the mainline drugs anymore - but - we can't really say that its become disposable income (for some or other reason beyond us all).
2. The best thing is (and I love this part because The Pathetic One (eskom), always implements this on April Fools' Day), so, at the start of next month the monthly for the drug deals will go up by 12.7% AGAIN (not taking into account the compounded escalation of the past decades) the energy pundits say that this is effectively 18%/m (at the change over). The maths around this stuff is stupid foxy.
3. Past readers may recall, although for some in Italy and other places, this may be challenging given the age quotient of their existence, that because we could not afford a larger collection of batteries, that we bought a supplemental generator. In the past year we have had to run that probably six times. But, normally, that has been to offset a bit of paranoia over waking up with a self-generated load-shedding event, or, just ensure that we last through the night. What this represents in cost (versus the purists amongst you who say Its Still Fossil Fuels) is not very high and the generator runs for about 2 hours at the most using about 4 liters of fuel per run. I don't keep a fastidious note of this, just decant from the tin can and go.
4. Another best thing is Just Not having to think through : When is load-shedding today, or, well, what else is there? Spoiled stuff in the refrigerator I suppose. Truth to say, The Pathetic One managed 10 months without loadshedding - I suppose in an attempt to give me The Finger. Good for them. But, its not over yet is everyones' guess (the one nuclear plant shut down the other day - only half of it is working anyway at present).
5. I've had great success in our farming valley in that practically everyone along the "street where we live" has converted to solar (off gridding as well). Touche (sorry don't know what the code is for the accent). I grew up in the decades that left us with the lasting need to "stick it to the man" as it were. I hope he's feeling it.
6. What has been most pleasant is that the power supply to our system (dwellings, workshops etc..) is just SO stable. 230v 50hz bang on all the time. I am told that our appliances will last a bit longer than they did under the 240+v 50hz that The Pathetic One supplies. (South Africa is odd in that the urban areas work on 220v and the direct supply from The Pathetic One to rural users is 240+v - the national grid nominal). The thing I still can't get my head around is: the 13 year log I have of household consumption using The Pathetic One and the one year log of using the solar system differ significantly. We have not changed our behaviours - something I said to all - lets not go overboard on compensation - so the graph looks the same in pattern, but, the 13 year graphs are kilowatts higher up on the Y axis - and I mean 300 to 400 higher up. Two things here : there may be a logical explanation, and, that means that The Pathetic One has been RIPPING us off for years.......and then they still need huge bail-outs from the taxpayer. What's the Shakespearian thing about Denmak, again?
7. The worst was discovering that two or three weeks after we paid the installer the price of panels HALVED in price. Donder en Blitzen! My luck. So the nieghbours have been able to install more panels. We also were not able to take advantage of a tax rebate from the revenue service - which if you can get it - amounts to upto 120% - hell that's paying one to install the stuff. ANYWAY.
8. My wife does all the lawn mowing (I KNOW I KNOW) and we have a BIG lawn our immediate yard being about a hectare. She can keep that up for 5 hours a day for several days. There has been no strain on the solar system even when I use the workshop equipment at the same time or kettles etc.. She has a big wattage mower too. That's been a welcome aspect I must say (NO that's NOT about her doing the mowing!!! BYGT). (BTW the swimming pool is on is own set of three panels with direct drive and the river pump as well which supplies the whole property with water.)
9. BIG facination at the effectiveness of solar panels these days - they appear to run on the smell of the proverbial oil-rag. For instance, the sun this time of year goes down behind all the panels - and for a number of days its been pretty overcast - but the pool pump still turns over at a small speed so you can still feel water exiting the inlet to the pool. Dang that's clever DC current (I - know - its late here).
That's about it. I recognise that there's not a lot there to pursuade you to take the leap - and judging by the one neighbour's state of mind (off grid for less than a month now) it is a leap. He has 20kwh of battery storage and ran out over night on the first night - before he could curse me - I noted to him that its par for the course - but still a bit strange given that on arrival batteries should have had 10kwh available. Fell down laughing I did. He and his family are happy now, though. [[Just an aside - the day after they switched over he went to Denmark for 10 days leaving his wife biting her nails especially when the system kept cutting out for short periods then returned - really odd - turned out it was a faulty toaster they didn't know was faulty. Still on the floor laughing......]]
I suppose giving my biased opinion, its worth the leap, in every way. I still check the APP twice a day but hope to reduce that to once a day on overcast days just in case.
Of course, one of these days, something is going need to be replaced - must remember to make provision in my estate/will.
this is from yesterday - well overcast for the day - the negative blue part is the charging line.
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