SOLAR SOLUTION?

A lot has been written lately on the subject of solar power, mostly one-sided, by either salespeople, suppliers, or so-called experts, all pushing one agenda, while very little is written by users and those attempting to ‘get off the grid’. It would be wise for potential purchasers of these systems to listen carefully to the words once said by our former finance minister Pravin Gordhan: ‘Follow the money.’

Here are some of my own experiences with a set-up of 12 solar panels, 16 batteries and two 5 kVa inverters.

First, I need to mention that I’m not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but am blessed, I think, with a good dose of common sense. Second,

whatever is written or said, don’t be fooled for one minute that you can, economically, get ‘off the grid’, because you can’t. Of course you can spend an exorbitant amount of money,

and also have automatic, expensive and noisy generators on standby – but that’s a solution out of reach to 99.9 per cent of the population. Ironically, it was

Thomas Edison, the light-bulb man, who was quoted as saying: ‘When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.’ Well, Thomas, please preach this to our present breed of researchers in their quest for economical power storage.

You can have LED lighting, gas utilities, wood-burning stoves and the like. You can have all the alternatives in the present world, but they all cost in maintenance, running costs, replacements and more.

This blinkered ‘get-off-thegrid’ obsession also often loses track of the following: 1. The initial cost of equipment; 2. Maintenance; 3. The expensive replacement of equipment (batteries have a lifespan and need replacing);

4. The cost of alternatives

(for example gas heating and -cooking); 5. There is presently no reasonably inexpensive alternative to storing power other than batteries (and, believe me, you will need bakkie-loads to tide you over when the sun refuses to shine).

That’s right. You need to be prepared for typical Cape Town winters (for example), and many days, weeks and months when the sun just doesn’t shine properly, and your other half is working your case about the resulting lack of power.

Like everything in life, it’s human nature to look at the extremes, instead of exploring the ‘in-betweens’.

This in-between road is where solar lies at present, and the best approach at the onset of your solar design is to accept that any economical alternative to the erratic Eskom situation is presently out of the question. I recommend rather working around a system to reduce your total dependence. A good idea to kick this off would be a simple set-up to cater for the ongoing power outages. Then, take a breather and explore further if required.

Don’t let yourself be fooled or taken in by anyone who preaches the ‘off-the-grid’ scenario. For the residential household with two to three bedrooms, you won’t get off the grid unless your money grows on trees and you’re able to put up with noisy generators, and you enjoy throwing your money away.

Of course, you could take the log-cabin route – live in nature and say goodbye to the civilised world. (Mind you, in this day and age, with the daily doom and gloom we endure, it might be a good option.)

Excuse me for being more than a bit cynical on the subject, but be assured that I am very open to constructive criticism and look forward to sharing and reading about others’ experiences, good or bad, in agreement or not.

IAN GILMOUR

I’d be interested to hear from other readers who’ve gone down the ‘let’s-try-to-get-our-homeoff-grid’ path. I’ve certainly wondered about doing it myself, with dreams of shielding our home from the seemingly everpresent peril of Eskom loadshedding. I’m under no illusions that it would come cheap, but aren’t there reasonably priced solutions out there, which, while perhaps not taking you entirely off the grid, will reduce the stranglehold our national power supplier currently has on our lives? If that, along with our electricity supply fails, I’m down for a cabin-in-the-woods set-up. Where do I sign up?

– Mark, Editor