How do you size a solar system with the electricity account

[Isetech]

I have noticed there are a few installers who request the elctricity account ot determine the equipment size.

I dont get it, if you use 15 kwh or 30 kwh per day how do you determine the equipment size?

One site has aircons running through the might and another has a home exec washing and very little power in the evening, both site use the same amount of kwh.

Anyone know how or why a person would use the elctricity account to size equipment ?

[GCE]

I have noticed there are a few installers who request the elctricity account ot determine the equipment size.

I dont get it, if you use 15 kwh or 30 kwh per day how do you determine the equipment size?

One site has aircons running through the might and another has a home exec washing and very little power in the evening, both site use the same amount of kwh.

Anyone know how or why a person would use the elctricity account to size equipment ?

Depends what you are trying to achieve -
If you want to run the complete house on the essential side of a hybrid then you need to know peak which is only good for the present owner /user
When the sale happens and the new owner moves in things could be different so be careful of SANS 10142-1 clause 5.3.1 and clause 7.12.2.4
We are already seeing problems where houses are sold and a 5Kw inverter feeds the complete dwelling

If you are wanting to reduce the account to almost zero and have a small load ( 500W to 1Kw) on the essential side then by having usage per day you can size panels and batteries to a point as an average

[Isetech]

How to get a peak load and useage trend from an electricty account?

I am trying to figure out how these installers are sizing equipment using lets say the 30 kwh average?

It has become common practise to use lets say a 5 kva with a 1 or 2 batteries and 6 panels.

I had a situation the other day where the customer asked why I split the DB, becasue he was told by anotehr installer that it is not neccessary to split the DB. I just smiled and told the customer I will refund the the cost of splitting the DB and join everything together, however there would be no warranty offered if the inverter is damaged due to exccessive load.

As we get invloved in more and more of these installtion, I see a common problem with these installation is the lack of identification of sockets, which results in the home exec plugging in vacuum, kettle, irons, tumble driers, etc all at the same time.

[Derlyn]

@ Isetech. Your posts have been very handy for me. Whenever someone asks me why I cannot help them with a pv installation, I show them your posts.

They then immediately understand why I'm reluctant to do it.

Thank you, my brother. Your posts have saved the day for me on a number of occasions.

[Justloadit]

Derlyn, you may missing on a good opportunity here. The load shedding will be here to stay for many years. There is no quick solution to solve this problem.
Had a chat with a fairly large installer, and he reckons his installing approximately 40 Hybrids a month, and can't keep up. Each system varies from R250K to R350K, and he is making more than a decent profit.

Maybe take the time and effort to get into the stream of things, it will be well worth it.
You still have the power to accept the work.

[Dylboy]

I too bit bullet and doing solar, very nervous of what will happen when they decide to register systems but I need to eat as well.

Also we competing against people who are not even electricians so if a couple of us do it as best we can and safe then that's one less to the rouge.

But the industry is so far ahead and the laws are catching up and when they do hopefully we will have proper guidance.

I mean the 10142-1-2 is still in draft...

Sent from my CPH2197 using Tapatalk

[Derlyn]

Nah! Busy downscaling and getting ready to go and sip sundowners next to a river somewhere.

Just one biggish project to finish and then it's fishing time. Keeping it simple and enjoying life without unneccesary stress. I've had a good innings.

The joke is that I'll have to get one of you guys to install a system for me wherever I'm going. Maybe a good oppertunity to have an eyeball to eyeball.