Load Shedding Solar ROI Calculator — South Africa
Calculate the return on investment for solar panels in South Africa. See when your system pays for itself.
Last updated: May 2026
Your Electricity Usage
Find this on your monthly electricity bill.
Stage 4 ≈ 4 hrs/day. Stage 6 ≈ 6 hrs/day.
Generator Option
Inverter / Battery Option
Calculates how long it takes to recover the cost of a solar, battery, or generator installation — based on your current electricity spend and the expected savings or avoided costs.
Key inputs explained
- Installation cost
- Total upfront cost including hardware, installation, and any permits.
- Monthly electricity saving
- The rand amount you no longer pay Eskom each month after installation.
- Maintenance cost
- Battery replacements, inverter servicing — typically R2 000–R5 000 every 5–10 years.
Eskom tariff increases of 12–18% per year mean your break-even point improves every year — systems bought today typically pay back 1–2 years sooner than the initial estimate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Payback period depends on your installation cost, your current electricity tariff, and how much load shedding you experience. At current Eskom rates (around R3.50–R4.50/kWh in major metros), a typical 5kW residential system costing R80,000–R120,000 pays back in 6–10 years. Net metering (selling back to the grid) can shorten this.
Yes — many South African municipalities now allow net metering or Small Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG) registration, where you can feed excess solar power back to the grid and receive a credit on your municipal bill. The buyback rate is typically lower than the tariff you pay, but it improves your overall ROI.
A solar-only (grid-tied) system generates power during the day but provides no backup during load shedding. Adding battery storage allows you to store daytime generation and use it at night or during outages — the main reason most SA homeowners add batteries. Batteries add R40,000–R80,000 to the installation cost but significantly reduce grid dependence.
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