Transcript
FAHIM JAMADAR: Now it’s 4:35. There’s been wide, wide condemnation and expression of shock to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa granting Eskom an electricity tariff increase of 18.65%, effective on the 1st of April, and a further increase of 12.74% for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
Now, many private homes and businesses are starting to seek alternative energy generation, such as solar and wind on- and off-grid systems. Gas is also generated as well, with the hope of finding relief from Eskom’s load shedding.
Joining us on the line this afternoon is Mark Blomeyer of Blomeyers Electrical. Good afternoon and welcome.
MARK BLOMEYER: Thank you, Fahim. It’s great to be on your show. And to you and your listeners, thank you for having me.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Absolute pleasure. Now, as an owner of a business dealing with solar, how important is it for people to consider alternative energy sources?
MARK BLOMEYER: You know, that’s a valid point, and we get it asked all the time. Just a few pointers out there for your listeners is, one of the one concerns people have is there’s people that need oxygen. They rely on oxygen, and yet power goes out continuously. So we’re very involved in supplying solar for them. Then we had over the matric exams learners battling because the lights kept going out, and a lot of study is through the Wi-Fi and their computers, and of course they couldn’t. So we were frantically putting installations in a lot of homes.
The other one is people working from home. It’s so frustrating, and they’re losing thousands of rand every week because of the loadshedding problem. Security. No security round the homes because these batteries don’t last. Old folks stumble and falling in the dark, trying to light candles and causing fires. Shop owners, their perishables always being destroyed because the fridges are not working. And it just goes on and on and on.
FAHIM JAMADAR: I can see there’s a very long list of many problems that this is causing.
MARK BLOMEYER: Yeah.
FAHIM JAMADAR: But when it comes to alternative energy, most people are worried about the costs because we are under the impression that it does cost a lot. So are there affordable systems for households?
MARK BLOMEYER: Look, one needs to be careful of the pitfalls. We’re often having to go to homes and rectify what people have bought, only to find they’ve bought the wrong thing for their application. I don’t want to become too technical, but you’ve got two types of systems: your modified inverter and your pure sine inverter. Just quickly to brief you here, your pure sine inverter is the same as what comes out of your plug, the Eskom power. A modified is like a manmade electronic version of Eskom’s power, and these can make your fridge motors run hot and burn out.
Another very expensive commodity is your batteries. If you don’t buy the right batteries, these batteries you will be ending up changing every second to third year. So you’ve got to make sure the batteries are correct and tie up with your inverter.
But other than that, you can get cheap systems, you can get expensive systems. You just need to go to a proper shop that can guide you or your folks.
FAHIM JAMADAR: I’ve got a question coming in saying, “Kindly advise if a sectional title block on the beachfront can have solar panels.”
MARK BLOMEYER: It all depends on the Body Corporate.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Okay.
MARK BLOMEYER: We get a lot of situations where owners want installations. Internally, you can put a battery bank with the inverter, but to have solar panels on the roof, you are going to need authority from the Body Corporate.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Perfect, thank you so much. What are some of the most common questions that people approach you with, and what advice would you give to someone who was looking into purchasing solar or any other form of energy supply?
MARK BLOMEYER: You know, Fahim, we get asked this question so often, we’ve actually started to set up a questionnaire. If I’ve got time, I’ll quickly read it through, and any questions you want to ask off this, we’ll be grateful.
They ask, “Can we run a TV, Wi-Fi, fridge, DStv and computers?” The answer is yes, of course you can. One just has to be careful of high-demand systems like heaters, geysers, stoves, ovens. Anything that has an element requires a lot of power, and that’ll flatten your battery very quickly.
And then the other question is, do you have a north-facing roof? Because we are south – if you look at the globe of the world, we are south of the equator, so we want our panels to face towards the equator, north, so that the east sun will reach the panels, middle of the day will reach the panels, and as the sun sets in the west, it’ll still be absorbing heat from the panels. From the sun, rather.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Right. Are there any safety concerns that people should be aware of?
MARK BLOMEYER: You know, we’ve been called to a few situations where there have been fires, and one of the common problems is that the cable that have been used have been underrated. So these cables run hot, they run in the roofs, and they burn. Circuit breakers are not being installed, which should trip in case of a fault. No earth leakages. No fuses protecting the solar panels feeding the batteries. No fuses from the batteries to the inverters. These inverters produce hydrogen. We’ve seen people stick these things in the roof, in cupboards, the inverter sitting on top of the battery. As the battery charges, the hydrogen is given off, and that’s very explosive. We’ve seen batteries explode.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Where are you based, and how can people get hold of you?
MARK BLOMEYER: We’re based in Pietermaritzburg. And our email address is solar@blomeyers.com. Our landline is 033 39 24 250.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Perfect. Mark Blomeyer, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us and look forward to talking to you again very soon, and hopefully we shall get some inverters sorted out with you as well.
MARK BLOMEYER: Yes, and if your members want to ask any questions, they’re free to email us.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Well, we have your number, we have your email address, and I’m sure you’ll get quite a few emails and calls as well.
MARK BLOMEYER: Thank you, Fahim.
FAHIM JAMADAR: Absolute pleasure. That’s Mark Blomeyer of Blomeyers Electrical talking to us about the different alternatives of energy supplies. You can contact Mark Blomeyer on 033 39 24 250. That’s 033 39 24 250.
You’re on the Afternoon Jam with Fahim.