You can even hearken to this podcast on iono.fm here.
This transcript is a translation from the unique interview carried out in Afrikaans, which aired on RSG Geldsake, right here.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Every night for the previous couple of weeks we have now chatted about load shedding. Load shedding hurts not solely corporations, however the disruptions are obliging households and companies to plan forward, and the preferred resolution turns into buying an inverter or a photo voltaic vitality system.
Read: Solar infrastructure imports spike, displaying up the Reippp
The demand for such options has elevated dramatically over the previous couple of years, and is anticipated to escalate for the following couple not less than. This growing demand has resulted in lots of unqualified or fly-by-night installers, who don’t at all times set up the very best tools or options, popping up. They can take shortcuts with the set up, ensuing within the proprietor being saddled with issues afterwards.
This night we might be chatting about how households and companies ought to method the matter. DeVilliers Botha is on the road. He is a administration committee member of Sapvia [the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association] , in addition to the chief working officer of Solareff [a specialist SA renewable energy solutions provider]. DeVilliers, welcome to the programme. What is the extent of this drawback?
DEVILLIERS BOTHA: Good night, Ryk. Thank you for chatting with us. This is a rising drawback amid the escalating demand. But the issue has been coming for fairly some time, and I can refer again to 2015 once we because the business organisation wished to begin writing the SANS (South African National Standards) [and] realised there have been many former, what one may name ‘solar-geyser installers’ on the rooftops.
These then migrated to photo voltaic techniques, solar energy techniques, electrical techniques. The installers are basically plumbers doing {the electrical} work. We have recognised the rising drawback of many individuals approaching board, from so-called ‘drone pilots’ to former lawnmower-service suppliers, all saying, ‘Great, let’s buy a bakkie and do the job’.
So we have now an issue, however we additionally recognise it as a chance for coaching and utility.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Let’s say a family says it might probably now not take this load shedding, and plans to put in a photo voltaic vitality system. The proprietor may draw from financial savings, and even borrow cash from the financial institution. That’s some huge cash – these items are costly – we’re speaking about R70 000 to R80 000-plus. What ought to that family then do to verify it will get the very best system for the cash accessible?
DEVILLIERS BOTHA: I might begin by asking who will do the job, and what that individual’s {qualifications} are – not solely the corporate’s qualification, however the {qualifications} of these in that firm.
Typically, there must be an electrician who can present the mandatory certificates of completion or certificates of compliance, which everyone knows as a ‘CoC’.
We know that that CoC is important within the occasion of one thing going improper or must you want to promote your home. The vital factor is, ought to a hearth get away and insurance coverage turns into concerned, the insurer will instantly request the CoC for the system [and ask] might an illegally put in system not be the reason for the fireplace? So it’s essential to ask for that CoC and to verify all the things is above board.
Also make it possible for individual is greater than an electrician certified to concern a CoC, however one who has acquired additional coaching within the business.
That is how we launched the programme Sapvia refers to because the ‘PV GreenCard Programme’, a five-day coaching programme the place candidates additional qualify themselves on the direct-current side of those techniques.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Is it a really difficult system to put in in a typical residence? Is it tough, do you actually should know what you’re doing?
DEVILLIERS BOTHA: Let me say this. The establishing side is extraordinarily vital. This week alone I occurred to see a information report during which various retailers have been promoting how they’re importing techniques. But these techniques haven’t been designed to fulfill particular consumer wants. This week I occurred to listen to a dialog going down at a sportsground the place a man stated he simply wished to ‘pull the load’, the expression we use as we speak, for his lights and his fridge. The different man stated, ‘Man, my house is off the grid’.
Those are two completely totally different situations. You want a certified individual for the job. An engineer is typically required to do the design. It’s not like saying: ‘I’m simply going to the store to buy one other garden mower, and I’ll convey it residence and set it up myself and have it working inside two hours.’ You actually should make it possible for the product meets your wants, and that it matches what you have already got at residence and the load you want to pull.
Then there may be the scale of the batteries. Many folks come to us, being the business’s organisation, and say, ‘The system has not been providing what I wanted’. When correctly technically authorised folks from our organisation go and examine, they uncover that the system was by no means designed for that utility, however that the client wished to spend lower than was wanted for an applicable system.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: Yes. A pal advised me some time in the past that he had an inverter, and wished to put in photo voltaic panels. The installer got here out and stated that the batteries he had bought at nice expense have been the improper batteries. How can one make it possible for the tools being put in is basically good and never simply ‘cheap Chinese rubbish’.
DEVILLIERS BOTHA: First, I’d prefer to appropriate that assertion – not all the things coming from China nowadays is unhealthy. [Chuckling] I do know that within the vernacular we used to say that. But I believe first allow us to take a look at the assure. We are all on Google nowadays, and we now use it as a verb.
When a provider provides you a citation, analysis the parts he specified, it doesn’t matter what the model. Go on the web, Google that product, look at the ensures, and verify the great and unhealthy feedback from different customers about that product.
I might usually say, ‘Really try to keep to products that have at least a five-year guarantee with regard to turnover. And then, as to the batteries, look for something with at least a 10-year guarantee’. It can be improper to say battery model names. But go and take a look at merchandise which can be assembled regionally. There are a number of, they usually often give a 10-year assure on their batteries.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: I agree that the assure is essential. But when most of these techniques, it might be a case of: ‘Buy cheap, buy twice’.
DEVILLIERS BOTHA: For certain. We have recurrently seen that. It might imply having to exchange your total system. As the business organisation and, as you talked about, having had prospects on the photo voltaic aspect are available with techniques the place we are able to reuse nearly nothing we discover on the premises, and we have now to begin from scratch, you then wind up paying double for a similar resolution. That is one thing we don’t wish to see as an business. If folks wish to shield themselves towards load shedding, they should do it in a smart method.
RYK VAN NIEKERK: So the message is to do your homework and don’t [necessarily] settle for the primary citation…. These issues are costly, and it can save you your self numerous future issues.
DeVilliers, thanks for time this night. That was DeVilliers Botha, a administration committee member at Sapvia and chief working supervisor at Solareff.
Listen to the total RSG Geldsake present right here.
