Today marks the first day that South African homeowners can take advantage of a rebate when purchasing solar panels.
This rebate is available up until 29th February 2024 so South Africans who have been eyeing going the route of solar energy would do well to start planning their installation.
The first step in this is determining how much energy is consumed in your home everyday. This will give you a better idea of how much energy your solar system needs to produce in order to move your energy needs away from Eskom. In addition, many solar power installers will need to know how much power they system needs to provide in order to properly configure your system.
Thankfully, working out how much power your home needs is relatively easy and we have two ways that you can calculate your kWh usage on a per day basis. Our first method is quick and dirty and should give you a rough idea of how much energy you need. The second is more accurate but requires a small financial investment.
Reading the label
All electronics should give you an idea of how much energy they consume. A 65W smartphone charger used for two hours a day for instance uses, 0.13kWh of electricity.
How to Calculate kWh
Device Wattage X How many hours it is used per day = Watt-hours
Watt-hours / 1 000 = kWh per day
kWh per day x days in the month = Monthly usage in kWh
Finding the maximum power draw of your appliances and other electronics can be found online by keying in the product name or serial number. Totalling these up can give you a rough estimate of how much power your system needs to provide.
Of course, this method isn’t accurate but even if you’re simply trying to curb your energy usage and need a rough idea of how much power you use, this is an exercise worth doing. We do recommend that if you are considering a move to a full solar power system that you use the method below.
More accurate measuring
This method of measuring your power usage requires a bit of a financial outlay in the form of a digital Watt meter.
The GeeWizz Kill A Watt retails for R391 at Leroy Merlin and it can display not only what an appliance or device’s Watt per hour (Wh) draw is but you can even see how much leaving your TV plugged in every can cost you each month. It’s incredibly convenient and you can measure the power draw of multiple electronics at once when using a multi-plug strip.
The Kill A Watt can measure the draw of an appliance – and other electronics – drawing up to 3 600W so you should have a good idea of how much electricity you’re using once you’ve gone through the motions and measured everything in your house.
For your geyser, electric hob and electric oven you will want to look up the power draw online. Gird your loins though, appliances that heat or cool tend to use more electricity.
It’s also recommended that you measure usage at its peak. We’d go one step further and measure your usage over a few weeks just to be sure you can account for any anomalies that could appear. For example if you have a weekend of entertaining you’d want your solar power system to be able to sustain that peak load.
You can also use these methods if you’re looking for a backup power supply to sustain you through loadshedding. Knowing how much energy you use can help you get a handle on energy bills.
While there are now provisions for Eskom and government to fully address the energy crisis, lessening one’s reliance on the utility is proving to be more of a necessity than ever.
[Image – Vivint Solar on Unsplash]
