Quick answer
With Eskom tariffs rising in the region of twelve to fifteen percent annually, a 5kW hybrid system on a Johannesburg home with meaningful daytime occupancy typically pays back in five to eight years. Payback shortens considerably if you can shift consumption into daylight hours, and lengthens if the house is empty all day and the system spends its output charging a battery for evening use.
What you can do now
- 1Collect twelve months of bills so the calculation uses your actual consumption
- 2Work out how much of your usage already happens during daylight
- 3Consider shifting geyser, pool pump and laundry to daytime, which materially improves payback
- 4Separate the backup benefit from the savings benefit — they are different reasons to buy
- 5Ask for the assumed tariff escalation in any ROI model and sanity-check it
When to call a professional
Get a tailored ROI quote built on your actual usage data rather than a generic model. Ask the installer to show the assumptions — tariff escalation, self-consumption rate and degradation — because those three inputs drive the entire result. A reputable installer will also tell you when your usage pattern does not justify the system size being proposed.
Typical cost in Johannesburg
R150,000–R220,000 capital · R30,000+ annual saving typical
Indicative ranges only. We provide written, itemised quotes before any work.
Related services
Need a Plumber or Electrician Today?
Owner-managed by Garth Blair. We pick up the phone and book you in personally.