Most love stories start in small ways – a smile here, a knowing gaze there, a first conversation, an outing together maybe.
That’s how my solar love story began – 27 years ago with this Citizen Eco-Drive wrist watch, whose pretty light-grey freckled face is a solar cell. Meaning the watch has been powered by the sun for 27 years, with no replacement battery or winding up ever required (**). But unlike a coy teenage flirtation, she was my fulltime companion from the first day, and has been ever since. My first solar love, still going strong.
My solar love story took a significant step about 12 years later when we had a solar geyser installed at our home in Rondebosch, with two panels of the thermos-syphon type – tried and tested technology that is excellent at heating water. At this point my solar love started doing much more than merely telling me the time – it noticeably reduced our electricity costs and significantly increased the feel-good factor of a hot shower.
Things didn’t stand still however – relationships evolve, insights deepen, and love finds new forms of expression. And thus 5 years ago we embarked on a full solar journey for our house, with 14 panels on the roof, an 8 kW inverter and a 10 kWh battery. I love seeing 70-75% of our annual electricity consumption coming from the sun. I love tracking the day-to-day production and consumption figures. I love learning to align our daily habits and seasonal behaviour patterns to match the sun’s rising and setting, knowing that in a small way we as a family we are treading more lightly on the earth.
But one family’s solar system was never going to be enough. Love grows, passions ignite, the stars align (or should I say the sun aligned with me) – and so it was that Solid Light Solar was born. I love the design – sizing and customising a solar system specifically to the home, the factory, the farm, the building in question. I love the engagement with the customers – exploring the options, explaining the benefits, developing the vision. I love the implementation – climbing on roofs and installing panels, routing cables, linking them with inverters and batteries, configuring the system and monitoring it via the online platforms. And the highlight of every project is the moment we switch on the solar and practically instantly see the panels producing power and starting to feed it to the house. Invariably I have a big grin on my face, I high-five my colleagues and co-workers, and find myself telling the home-owner, “I just love this stuff!”
So here I am, in the latter stages of my working life, loving what I do. The sun will still be shining long after I will need to down my tools. But my love for seeing the sun powering our lives in a renewable way will stay.
#solidlightsolar #everysolarpanelhelps
Post-script: I am deeply grateful that my love-affair with my wife, Trixi, goes back even longer, and that after 32 years of marriage our love-sun is still shining brightly. She has been a key companion on my solar journey, and has never been jealous of my other love 😊.
(**) For those too young to know: yes, in those days wrist watches had do be wound up daily to keep them going. Later, batteries started being used, which typically needed replacing every year or so. These days watches need daily charging…
