How much more do I now need to spend?

Welcome to the club!

My thoughts on:

  1. 'n Range Rover Sport,
  2. a petite blonde wife,
  3. dressed in exercise clothes since she’s going to the gym right after…

On 1) She drives an Isuzu … have you seen how fast Range Rover Sports et al “gives way” to diesel Isuzu’s? Wife picked it up herself one day. Even taxi’s know … steer clear.
2) She is the petite blond one.
3) She is also a granny, making the ladies in their sports gear going to the gym wonder WHAT(!) did they do wrong … when she parks Suzi next to said vehicles to go to the baby shop next door with a grandchild in the pram.

:slight_smile:

There has to be a competitive element in the mix but on this forum I detect more of a desire to get a handle on the technology.
This is a noble endeavor and is so rare these days. (there was a time when people repaired their own bicycle punctures!)
So if the challenge is getting a handle on the technology then that’s fine: We’ll each head out with our own pet design/product to prove to ourselves (and the world) that we were right all along.
But if one has to convince the ‘finance dept’ that you have to spend Rxxx on buying the next shipment of RE gear this isn’t a pushover. :frowning:

We’ve all been “there done that”. :wink:

Hence taking it all to the “next level”.

FWIW Richard. I started more than a decade ago with a Phoenix 1600VA off-grid setup with 24v Royal bank, 900w panels.

Today I’m grid-tied … took one bite at a time, learning all the way what not to do.

To get back to your original question.

I started similar, EV tubes, MASSIVE reduction in electricity costs.

9.5 years later, needed an entirely new system, it lasted well. Cost to replace it all, close to R30k as per insurance quotes.

Took the money, bought 4 more panels and Geyserwise timers, now the grid-tied system heats the geysers.

EV tubes, flat panels, or heatpumps, all work brilliantly to reduce the water heating costs in the first round.

For me, that worked until they need replacement. That got me in the end.

Today, if I could reset to where I took the geyser onto EV tubes, with today’s prices on panels and inverters, I would not have gone for EV tubes or flat panels or a heatpump. Straight to grid-tied. Geysers only need X hours per day to heat, rest of the day, night if you use batteries, you can save more per month.

My 2 cents, very simplistically put.

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So on that increase, more in the 10%+ range. Especially things with lipo batteries. Prices went up with about 8 percent this year, and about 12% since Mid November.

Base that on about 3 month’s to get things here via shipping, we are going to k@k af and betaal.

So if there is stock, and you have the cash, get the things now, as we are really in for a shocker.

My 5cents….

From my 2 cents to your 5 cents … helluva inflation just there! :laughing:

We see the same thing brewing.

Agree, I think the fancy ways of heating water with tubes and heat pumps is dead. Those solutions are far too expensive and complex. Just use the good old element + timers + extra panels like you have said.

Unless roof space is an issue, then you might need the efficiency of the tubes.

Thanks. I was pondering to install solar geysers and then pv panels.

Jaco will install in March or April 6 or 8 x 545w pv panels.

Have a 8.8kw sunsynk with 2 x 3.5 3000 pylontechs. Hindsight would have installed bigger different batteries.

They are good batteries, just buy more as fund allow but also dont wait too long.

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