ALWAYS ON

The March issue included a letter by Ian Gilmour on solar power, as well as your request for feedback from other readers. In November last year, impressed by an article in a financial newspaper comparing solar-power systems, we set the ball rolling.

The firm we selected installed a logging device that measured our total power consumption for a full week. The results indicated that we needed 10 solar panels, a 4 kW inverter and a 3.55 kW battery, at a rough cost of R198 000.

All the equipment is imported from either Holland or Germany, so the lead time is quite lengthy. Nonetheless, despite the many restrictions imposed by COVID-19, the system was fully installed by the beginning of April.

I should mention that the raison d’être of this undertaking was for the sole purpose of alleviating the misery of Eskom loadshedding. With both of us being well into our 70s and 80s, we laboured under no illusions as to the economy of this, and appreciate that you’d have to

8 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020