SUNSHINE


There were some solar panels on the roof of 106 Archibald St but in the flush of finance, saving some money by buying in Willagee rather than a fancier suburb, we decided to help the environment and invest in both more panels and a battery. Of course I have to confess that I know nothing about how to make the best choice of a new solar system but luckily Susan had a well informed friend and we have a self-described electricity Nazi as a neighbour. So between these two helpful blokes, we signed on the dotted line for:

  • 10kw inverter
  • 16kw battery
  • 36 new solar panels
Plus all the wiring, switchboard upgrades and even a bollard to protect the battery from bad drivers!

The team that came to do the installation included Phil, the boss, an electrician for 40 years, plus a team of young apprentices including his godson. They were all nice folk, grateful for the cool drinks and biscuits we provided, and good at cleaning up after themselves. Usually, the company takes away old solar panels and ships them off to Africa to be recycled but in this case, our helpful neighbour Paul took them for his son to reuse. I must confess that I've adopted some of Paul's habits and have started keeping track of the electricity patterns just to see what uses up the most power. I'll stop this slightly aberrant behaviour soon but it is good to see how much CO2 we're saving already.





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