Got spoiled by solar!

General Discussions
21

Ja. Some can’t afford it even if they want it. In some cases they rent - which seems to me like not a very good long term deal, but it keeps their lights on.

The only reason I can think of for not getting solar when you can afford to is that you think that it will not increase the value of your property. I’m not sure about that - and experts can’t agree. I think it depends on the buyers, but they will still only add 50K or so to what they’ll pay because they could get it all brand new for 120K. So maybe you never make your money back, and those okes are right. (but they can’t watch TV when they want and I can)

I’m interested to see how it works out for me. We have driven our costs down so far now that almost any other situation I might move to would either up our monthly expenses and/or require a cash outlay. Or that is the wife’s thinking. I’m thinking I won’t need a gardener, won’t need to pay ADT, so there are some savings. But it looks like we’re trapped! Our neighbours are stuck with us.

22

Which is why, I am so chuffed that in my grey haired wisdom…bought a small middle class property that is level (no stairs) in a fairly good area. I can afford a much bigger house in the more affluent areas, but for what…I am retiring in about 6 years time and thinking of what I will be able to handle in the future. I have long since given a rats-ass what the Jones’ have or dont have.
I want to lock up my place, hook my caravan and see the best that Africa has to offer.

23

Same here but what I didn’t realize is how much stuff I had to get rid of. I went through the first batch, then the next etc. Not good for the hoarder in me to have to make those awful decisions!

24

Am I right in thinking that these days you can add a PV installation to your bond? In which case you’re paying off that 120k to 150k over 20 years. You won’t see a big difference in your monthly repayment. So my mates are right - you don’t add value that you can recover when you sell.

So it all comes down to what I call the soft benefits of solar. There is what you save on the meter (and every year your savings increase because there’s one price that always goes up), and then there are things like never losing the contents of your freezer, always having your security system running. Hard to put a rands and cents value on that, but it’s worth something.

25

What we’ve been told, is that certain additions to the home makes it sell faster, and for closer to the asking price, but not necessarily by enough to recover what you paid for the addition. These used to be things like a swimming pool. Spending 100k on a pool doesn’t add 100k to the house value, but does make it sell a little faster than the one without the pool. Probably the same also holds for solar systems.

It comes more to the other topic of overcapitalising on a property. If you have a 3 bedroom house in a neighbourhood that is predominantly 3-bedroom houses, and you build a 2-bedroom flatlet onto yours… you’re probably not getting that money back, but it will be more popular (for its income earning potential) come resale time.

26

I agree with all the above. But I’m still hardegat. I would want to negotiate separately for my solar system or it goes with. It is very portable and the potential buyer will have a setup ready to just plug in his own inverter and battery(ies). This is if a relocation is on the cards within the next 5 years or so.

Come retirement time I will probably be wiser and have sufficient funds for another system (I will definitely go blue again). If you’re not in a hurry, most of the time there’ll always be someone who has been looking for a place like yours their entire life and willing to pay your market related (perhaps even a tad more) price.

I think (hope) my house should appeal to some in terms of location, size, safety, entertainment areas and other, somewhat unique features etc.

My brother in law will soon learn a life lesson. Two years a ago he bought a sectional title unit in the Kempton Park area for about R850 000.00 fully furnished nogal). Did some renovations (ceiling in the garage, braai area and other small stuff) and added a similar as mine sized solar system.

They want to move to Pta within in the next few months and he reckons he can easily get R2mil for his place now. Yeah, maybe, NO, not gonna happen. But not my place to tell him this as he is one of those who gets easily offended.

They’re getting a property agent this week to test the water and he’s going to be in for a big surprise. I reckon he could look at R1,2mil max which will include he solar system.

If I’m wrong, I will come eat my hat here I promise. I’ve seen this too many times in the past and I have seen what the property market does in these turbulent times.

Another example, but this has a lot to do with location. A good friend lives in Pta West (which is a known low income area). House size twice that of mine with a very modern granny flat with own entrance. A few years ago he took a large personal loan and renovated his kitchen and the rooms (still not paid the loan back) which are also very modern now, save for one bathroom which must still be done.

In his mind, the property is worth R2,5mil. Its been in the market for more than a year now and they have had to drop their price to R1,6mil and still cannot get it sold. In this case, the improvements did nothing to up their value. It just brought the house to the condition one would expect it to be for a house of that size.

We have been telling them for years, cut your losses and start over and by that time they could’ve gotten close to R1,8 (before the renovations). Then junk status happened, Covid and all other nasties and now they’re stuck.

The last kid will finish matric this year and the house will be paid off end 2025. Now it makes little sense to move (they also wanted to move to the East as they both work here, kids in school and varsity here resulting in a fuel bill equivalent to small bond repayment.

But people don’t like to be told these things. Pride is a very real thing.

27

Be wise there. It could be an issue selling it separately as it is a fixture. Talk to experts.

After reading an article, and talking to two Estate agents, feeling is in some circles to not punt a solar system as a selling point to a buyer,

Reason, WHEN things go wrong, whomever installed it, is gone. As is the seller.

Methinks, if one has a solar system installed, make it moveable.
Or let the buyer understand it is voetstoots, that there are risks involved in taking over another man’s system, more so if there is DIY HomeAutomation.

Like us now, need to swap houses.
For months I sat and thought hard, for once I’m one step ahead.

When I last remounted the system, I planned 100% for moveability.
3 screws are taken out and the board is loose. The weight is on the floor, not the screws.
Maybe need to extend 2 x 10mm wires IF needed, I did not shorten them.
And the solar can move one level up, wife said so.

Read: I don’t need a sparkie to come and do things again. My system is 100% “plug and play”.
And no holes this time to patch either.

Panels, it is Diamond Deck sheets. No holes drilled. So it is screwing the frames/panels loose if I ever want to move them.

Just some thoughts for sellers to ponder on.

28

Yeah at my previous place. I removed all the DIY HomeAutomation before even trying to list the house. Everything was made to look stock. Neither the sales agent nor the buyers had any idea there ever was any HomeAutomation. Wasn’t fun for a short while to get used to none of it again, but it makes selling easier.

29

Valid points.

I think one should upfront instruct the realtor to value the property without the solar system, and then what he/she thinks leaving it in place would add to the asking price.

Then one can decide if you want to go through the schlep of removing it all (legally off course) and leaving the house “stock standard”

But yes, I would in such a case want to leave the buyer with a “solar ready” house in terms of infrastructure.

30

I was not happy from a few hours after the muni replaced my breaker on the pole. The tripping got worse and there was no way I could keep the power on for more than an hour at 3.5kwh.

I tried everything. Replaced the wires going through the roof up to the DB. Installed a 20Amp breaker as a main breaker in the home, still tripping. Installed a 16A and still tripping the 80A on the pole rather than the 16A in the house. By this time I was sure it’s someting wrong on the overhead line from the pole to my roof. Had to learn how to manage my consumption to make the battery bank last the night and just used solar for the last 4 days.

Got so gatvol I used my guys today to go through everything in from my roof to the last load in my house. Did an insulation test on each and every circuit and still could not find the cause. Ensured that they did indeed replace the breaker and found that they had.

Then I put one guy on the roof and one on the muni pole and started increasing load till it tripped. Again the trip happened at just over 3 kwh. By that time the guy on the pole send me a video and asked me if I know the sound he recorded. From more than 30 years in the electrical field I knew the sound all too well. It’s a wire sparking… Asked him to tighten the screws and both the screws were loose. At 3.5kw loads the spark were heating up the thermal part of the breaker enough to trip it.

After tightening we tested again and I could run the loads up to 18kwh for almost an hour without any trip.

Conclusion. Firstly I had a faulty breaker. Got replaced but wires were never tightened by the muni sparky. This let me to believe that I had accessed the whole thing wrong and that the fault had to be on my side. Wasted 4 says stripping and checking everything in my home only to find that they messed up while replacing the breaker.

1 Like
31

…but…now you definitely know your side is up to scratch :wink:

32

Reminds me of the brakes on Suzy. Replaced the rear cylinders. And then the drama started.

4 weeks later, in and out of the service center with every single thing checked and rechecked and checked again, pipes replaced, parts replaced, you name it … and the brand new cylinders at the back turned out to be faulty.

Same as you on the lectrics, we both now know what we have, is @*#&% sorted!. :rofl:

… and some interesting “lessons” learned.

33

Baie selde dat probleme minder word wanneer iemand op die paal is… :wink: … maar bly dit het hier gewerk :slightly_smiling_face:

[Translation and explanation for the non-Afrikaans capable]

34

Liewe magtag. If she slaps you, you are going to hospital!

35

Oooh, kinky!