An increase in electricity tariffs is not good news for any business or homeowner and unfortunately, you do not have the choice to shop around for electricity providers to get the best deal.
The choice to provide your own electricity is, however, within your control and the use of solar power is becoming inevitable and, financially, a complete no-brainer. A small installation for a domestic household to supply 3 kWp (kilowatt peak) of solar panels along with 7kWh lithium battery would cost R170 000 installed.
A system of this size would produce 450 kWh per month resulting in savings of R10 470 in year and these savings would increase in-line with the Eskom increases: if there is a 10% increase in the second year, the savings would increase to R11 500 and so on. Most significantly, the batteries would provide the energy storage to allow you to use the energy created in the day during night-time hours as well, as providing back-up for the very annoying, and now costly, power outages.
As a direct comparison, 1kWh from Eskom is currently R2.30, whilst 1kWh of solar from the above system would equate to R1.54. A 450kWh system is generally not large enough to take you totally off-grid in an average 3-bedroom house, but it does take care of approximately 50% of your usage.
As we are using a residential dwelling in the example it is interesting to note that even a bond of R1 000 000 would have cost R9 900 per month in repayments in February 2020. With the 3% decrease in the repo rate, that same bond repayment is now R8 100 per month.
Many of the large financial institutions have flexibility in their offerings and certainly where you are seeking to improve your property by adding solar and standby power, they may be amenable to adding the cost to the existing facility. Thus, rather than laying out R170 000 in cash, which you may not have, you could use the now comparatively inexpensive bond facility to procure a hybrid solar system with batteries.
The repayments could be offset, at least in part, by the savings on your monthly electricity account and the value added to your home is significant as many buyers are now looking for homes with energy and water efficiency.
A hybrid solar/battery system will amortise in approximately eight years, where after your 450kWh is free.
The choice to move to renewable energy used to be predominantly about eco-friendliness, but with the exponential growth in solar, the solar choice is a matter of economy for all homes and businesses. The addition of batteries to the system becomes more important as many of us now work from home and power outages affect our productivity, security and overall lifestyle.
You DO have the power to choose – connect with Sinetech through the enquiry form below and start your own journey to energy independence:
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