Free, independent calculators built from real-world experience — not guesswork.
Most online calculators in the solar and biltong spaces are either biased toward selling you something, or based on generic data that doesn't reflect real South African conditions. Home Calc Hub was built to fix that.
Every calculation on this site is grounded in real, hands-on experience: a functioning 10kW solar system with live sensor data, and years of home biltong making with instrumented monitoring. The numbers come from actual measurements, not marketing assumptions.
The solar calculator is built on data from a SolaX X1-Hybrid-G4 10kW hybrid inverter with a 10.2 kWh battery, dual solar strings (house and garage roof), and over 12 months of live logged sensor data in Pretoria, Gauteng. The system runs through Eskom outages, logs every energy event, and has real-world data for geyser overload thresholds, overnight usage averages, battery behaviour, and seasonal production. That's what powers our estimates — not textbook assumptions.
The biltong drying model comes from a fully instrumented biltong box with absolute humidity sensors logging inside and outside conditions, a 7-method ensemble drying ETA algorithm, and a 4-phase drying model derived from real batch data. The spice ratios come from traditional South African methods, cross-referenced against multiple authoritative sources. This is the most scientifically grounded biltong calculator available online.
Home Calc Hub is a personal project by Raymond van Buuren, a South African home automation and solar enthusiast based in Eldoraigne, Pretoria. This is an independent personal project, not affiliated with any employer or commercial entity.
Raymond runs a fully instrumented Home Assistant setup with a 10kW SolaX hybrid solar system, 869 connected entities, 8 Node-RED automation flows, and a custom biltong drying monitor — the real systems that power the data behind these calculators. He has been making traditional South African biltong, droëwors, chilli bites, and mince wiele at home for years.
Questions or suggestions? Get in touch.
We're working on additional calculators including a Home Assistant automation suggester for South African homes. If there's a practical home calculator you'd like to see, let us know.