Solar power.
Your roof, your numbers.
Measure your roof on the satellite map, type your electricity use, and see the panels, battery, inverter, saving and payback for your own town. Then ask for a formal quote: the office gives you a reference and connects you with the solar installer Africa Estate works with.
Your roof on the map, your numbers, then a quote.
Your estimate
Your roof, your use, your system.
Pick the town, measure the roof, type your electricity use or bill and your supplier. The example house is there to start; type your own.
1. Where the panels go
Or the farm's own point (decimal degrees)
2. Your electricity
From your bill or prepaid history. The example house is there to start; type your own.
3. Night, backup and the biggest load
Equipment prices (type your quote)
Median of South African shop prices read on 2026-10-24, VAT included.
Engineering assumptions (change any of them)
The answer
In Bloemfontein, 14 panels of 600 W (8.4 kWp) facing north cover your use even in June, the darkest month. A 6 kW inverter and 5 batteries of 5.12 kWh carry the night. At this tariff it saves about R 42 172 a year, and pays back in about 2.5 years (the equipment only: installation not added yet).
No installation cost added yet: type your installer's figure.
Check: a complete grid-tied rooftop system under 100 kWp costs R13.50 to R16.50 a watt (GreenCape 2025); this equipment comes to R12.75 a watt before installation, with a battery.
The fixed charges stay: R 690 a year. Solar saves only on the kWh. Spare power is not paid for here: feeding it back needs your supplier's approval, a meter and an export tariff.
Month by month
Bars: what the panels make. Line: what you use. The darkest month sizes the system.
Get a formal quote
This estimate is the website's. Leave your details and the office will pass them to the solar installer Africa Estate works with; you receive a reference first.
The year in a table
| Month | Sun, kWh per kWp a day | Use kWh | Panels make | Used from the sun | Spare | Bill now | Bill with solar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 4.81 | 815 | 1 252 | 815 | 375 | R 3 159 | R 57 |
| Feb | 4.86 | 736 | 1 143 | 736 | 347 | R 2 841 | R 57 |
| Mar | 4.84 | 815 | 1 261 | 815 | 375 | R 3 159 | R 57 |
| Apr | 4.66 | 789 | 1 175 | 789 | 312 | R 3 053 | R 57 |
| May | 4.71 | 815 | 1 227 | 815 | 331 | R 3 159 | R 57 |
| Jun * | 4.64 | 986 | 1 170 | 986 | 84 | R 4 908 | R 57 |
| Jul * | 4.91 | 1 019 | 1 279 | 1 019 | 157 | R 5 080 | R 57 |
| Aug * | 5.12 | 1 019 | 1 332 | 1 019 | 216 | R 5 080 | R 57 |
| Sep | 5.40 | 789 | 1 361 | 789 | 501 | R 3 053 | R 57 |
| Oct | 5.25 | 815 | 1 368 | 815 | 485 | R 3 159 | R 57 |
| Nov | 5.24 | 789 | 1 320 | 789 | 470 | R 3 053 | R 57 |
| Dec | 4.99 | 815 | 1 299 | 815 | 423 | R 3 159 | R 57 |
| Year | 10 205 | 15 187 | 10 205 | 4 074 | R 42 862 | R 690 |
* Winter tariff (June to August) where the supplier has one.
How It Works
An estimate first. Then a quote with a reference.
- 01Measure the roof on the satellite map and type your electricity use: the estimate is worked out from your own town's sun and your supplier's tariff.
- 02Press Ask for a quote and leave your details: you receive a reference, and the office passes your request to the installer.
- 03The installer contacts you and quotes under that reference; Africa Estate follows up with you.
Read before you decide
What this estimate does not tell you.
- The roof: Google measures the building where it has imagery (Bloemfontein and the larger cities); elsewhere you draw the outline and choose the pitch, and the panel count is provisional until the installer confirms it on site.
- The sun is the average of 2005 to 2023; a cloudy week in any month gives less, and the grid or the battery covers it.
- Spare power is not paid for: feeding it back needs your supplier's approval, a bidirectional meter and an export tariff.
- Equipment prices are shop prices on one day; the installer's quotation is the price.
- No price increases, no battery replacement, no panel ageing, no finance cost.
- Not a design: a registered installer checks the roof, the wiring, the inverter's surge and panel input, and registers the system with Eskom or the municipality.
Sources
Every figure has its document.
- PVGIS 5.3, European Commission Joint Research Centre (PVGIS-SARAH3, 2005 to 2023): daily yield of 1 kWp per month, per town (read 2026-10-24)
- NASA POWER climatology (sun on flat ground), the cross-check on PVGIS (read 2026-10-24)
- Centlec: NERSA approved MMM (Mangaung) electricity tariffs, 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 (effective 2026-07-01)
- Moqhaka Local Municipality: final tariff schedule 2025/26 (section 13, electricity), plus the 9,01% increase in its 2026/27 budget (effective 2026-07-01)
- Moqhaka Local Municipality, narrated draft annual budget 2026/27: electricity increase 9,01% (2026-05)
- Eskom Tariffs and Charges Booklet 2026/2027 (NERSA approved, non-local authority) (effective 2026-04-01)
- PVGIS user manual: "a default value of 14%" for system losses
- NREL Annual Technology Baseline 2025, residential battery storage: 85% round-trip efficiency
- Duffie and Beckman, Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes: day length from latitude and date (eq. 1.6.10)
- Equipment: median of South African solar shops' listed prices, VAT included (read 2026-10-24)
- GreenCape, Energy Services Market Intelligence Report 2025, Table 4: benchmarks for embedded PV 2024/25 (2025-04)
- Town coordinates: GeoNames gazetteer (CC BY 4.0)