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Solar and backup power in East London
East London, Eastern Cape, gets 4.72 peak sun hours a day on average. The dullest month is June at 2.71 hours, 59% less than December, the sunniest at 6.64. That makes it sunnier than 5% of the 21 cities we cover in South Africa.
Sunshine in East London is clearly below its yearly average for 5 months, from April to August. That stretch decides how many panels you need if solar has to keep up all year. Across the year, East London gets 13% less sunshine than the average of the cities we cover in South Africa.
What a home in East London needs
Three example homes, each covering a 12-hour daily outage with a lithium battery and solar panels to recharge it. Panels are 450 W. The month-with-least-sun figure is what keeps you covered all year.
| Home | Inverter | Battery | Panels, June | Panels, yearly average |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials 6 lights, 2 fans, a fridge, TV, Wi-Fi and phone charging | 1 kW | 2.6 kWh | 3 | 2 |
| Family home Essentials plus a freezer, more lights, a laptop, a desktop and a water pump | 3 kW | 7.4 kWh | 7 | 4 |
| With air conditioning The family home plus two small air conditioners for 6 hours a day | 5 kW | 14.9 kWh | 14 | 8 |
Your own appliances will differ. Put them into the calculator below, which already has East London's sunshine.
Size your own system in East London
Planning tips for East London
- Size panels for June, not for the yearly average. A system sized on the average falls short in the dullest weeks, which is when you most need it.
- Dust, heat and shade cut output. Keep panels clean, leave air space under them, and avoid anything that shades them between mid-morning and mid-afternoon.
- Ask installers for the inverter's continuous and surge ratings, the battery's usable capacity and chemistry, and the panels' total watts. Compare those numbers with your plan rather than the package name.
Guides for planning in East London
- Peak sun hours and your dullest month
- How many solar panels you need
- Lithium vs lead-acid batteries
- Questions to ask an installer
Nearby cities
- Bhisho 48 km · 4.9 h
- Gqeberha 238 km · 4.99 h
- Botshabelo 432 km · 5.81 h
- Pietermaritzburg 445 km · 4.72 h
- Durban 459 km · 4.66 h
- Bloemfontein 462 km · 5.81 h
Sunshine: NASA POWER climatology, ALLSKY_SFC_SW_DWN, monthly averages for 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025), at -33.0153, 27.9116; retrieved 2026-11-09. Peak sun hours equal kWh of sunlight per square metre per day on flat ground; tilted panels usually collect a little more.