Yip its that time. I have done my fair share of generator, UPS and inverter installations, but never a solar panel install. Due to the ridiculously high demand from customers requesting not only a load shedding solution, but they want a money saving solution.
Before you ask, was a load profile for the property carried out for at least a week, the simple answer no, the only time we will do a load profile is if the customer has an open ended budget. That way the load profile will determine the size of the standby system.
What we have learnt is that the budget determines the capacity of the standby unit. You can install a recorder for months, spend 2 days doing all the calculations to come up with a perfect system for the application, however that is where the fight begins . When you hand the estimate to the customer who had this vison of being off grid with a 5 kva unit, 5 kwh battery and 5 panels , which would last a week with clouds and rain. Well the reality is that unless you have money to buy a 50 kva diesel generator with a 500 litre tank, a 12 kva inverter, maybe 3 X 10 kwh batteries in parallel and a roof full of panels, you going to wake up and your coffee will be cold with a skin covering it.
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