A lodge in the North West needed to keep running through load shedding without guests noticing a thing. We installed a 50kW Sigenergy hybrid inverter with 36kWh of SigenStor battery storage, and started with 32× 650W AIKO panels (20.8kWp) on the roof.
The system runs on full AI control. It watches the tariff and switches between solar, battery and grid on its own — buying from the grid when power is cheap and running the lodge off stored solar when it isn’t. It also gives the lodge a full backup path whenever Eskom drops.
We went back later and added another 21kWp of AIKO panels, taking the array to 42kWp, so the lodge now carries most of its daytime load off solar. The first phase went in before the Easter weekend and the lodge ran through the holiday on solar and battery. With one more row of panels and a few extra SigenStor batteries, the whole place could run off-grid entirely.
Key Specs
- 50kW Sigenergy hybrid inverter
- 36kWh SigenStor battery storage
- 42kWp AIKO 650W solar panels (array expanded in phase two)
- Full AI tariff optimisation
- Automatic off-grid backup during outages
- Remote monitoring and management
Solar equipment supplied by Herholdt’s Group, with panels on site as soon as stock was available.
