The weather might have been grey but spirits were high on Thursday 16 July as the installation of the Longs’ new 3Kw solar rooftop took place.
“We wanted to go solar because we want to be part of moving towards a sustainable future and to see our electricity bills come down. We like the idea of tapping into sunlight. Australia has so much of it and it is a wonderful resource we should be using”, said Helen Long at her lovely leafy home in central Castlemaine.
Morgan Kurrajong (in yellow), Owner of Universal Power and Light, installing the Longs’ 3Kw system with Daniel and Ben
“We are grateful for the Hub Foundation for putting the MASH2 solar bulk-buy offer together. Bob went to an info meeting and, on the basis of that, we made the decision to go ahead.
“We are hoping to invest in batteries down the track, so what is stored during the daytime can be used 24 hours a day. We see our MASH2 system as the start of continuing to invest in solar technology as it evolves. We look forward to battery pricing coming down to an economic level.”
Shading issues overcome
The Longs’ roof is partly shaded for a few hours each day by a huge heritage tree. So how are shading issues managed in MASH2? If a standard inverter had been used, then shading of just one panel would have resulted in all the panels failing to work during the time of the shading. The solution was to put a micro-inverter on each panel. Although they’re a little more expensive, they allow most of the panels to work most of the time and good $ savings to be earned.
Smooth installation
“The installation went very smoothly, it looks great and we’re rapt that we’ve finally managed to go solar. We’re now looking forward to seeing the savings on the bills and the cut in our CO2 emissions”, said Bob Long.
