Upgrade Time
Loadshedding is an absolute headache. With an office at home, two school kids, and a few pets, load-shedding can be a drama.
We have a great backup system, but eventually, our old-school lead-acid batteries gave up the ghost. With everything turned off except the TV and the Internet, it went from 4 hours to 2 hours to 30 minutes to about 5 minutes.
It was time to upgrade to a lithium-ion battery system.
Local Busines Kouga Renewables
When we contacted Frank Ellis at local business Kouga Renewables with our battery issue and financial constraints, we were pleasantly surprised as Frank took the initiative to devise a solution that would meet our needs.
After discussing a (more affordable) modular approach to enhancing our backup system with Kouga Renewables, we were stoked to see the first phase of the upgrade, namely getting those lithium-ion batteries in play, within our grasp. This upgrade not only extended our backup time radically but also improved the efficiency of our system.
Call Out
The job was quick and very neat. When we had a further problem with one of our external fittings crashing the system, his team returned, traced the problem, showed it to me, and fixed it quickly and efficiently.
Now, we don’t even know when we have load shedding, as everything on the essential line works perfectly, and we have yet to run out of battery (touch wood, we don’t get one of those 12-hour f-ups, but that will be a test).
Local business Kouga Renewables has done tremendous work in the community. The information below is from their Facebook Page.
“2023 was the worst year to date for load-shedding in our country with 6907 hrs of load-shedding, almost double that of 2022, with 2024 unlikely to be any better,
This situation was a catalyst for our business, and we saw record numbers of installations over the calendar year. We are pleased to share that we installed 138 systems of various sizes in the Kouga region, bringing our total installed base to 462 clients.
Flagship Installation
Our flagship installation for the year was at the Humansdorp Spar, where we installed a 216Kwp solar array and carport coupled to 160Kwp grid-tied inverters, in turn, AC coupled to 2 x 150Kw hybrid inverters with 900Kwh of batteries. This system has performed beyond our expectations and the client’s. The savings on diesel alone make a compelling ROI argument, and adding the solar generation, time of use arbitrage and SARS incentives, we are looking at realistic payback periods of less than four years! We believe this is the largest storage system in Kouga at this time.”
For more information or to contact Frank Ellis, go to the Kouga Renewables Website and Facebook Page – all contact details are there.
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