Nancy and Geoff who live near Kyneton had a 5Kw, 20 panel MASH2 Premium system installed on their home on Wednesday 26 August 2015. Here’s their story in their own words…
Why go solar?
We believe in the principle of lessening our carbon footprint. Our home in St Andrews was burnt out in the bushfires in 2009. The bushfire was like a holocaust. We stayed and tried to defend our home, which was widely regarded as one of the finest mudbrick houses in the area. Our home had a pantry that had been especially built to withstand fire so we knew that we’d be relatively safe. 5 of our neighbours came to shelter in the pantry with us. 12 other neighbours died in the fire. Our home was completely destroyed – except the pantry.
We are worried that climate change is going to mean more bushfires like the one in St Andrews. We don’t want to see that happening. That’s why we try to do something to help tackle climate change.
We moved to Kyneton at the end of 2010 and bought a north-facing solar passive home. Our intention was always to put solar on it as solar is part of our lives. Our home is lovely and warm even in winter, without any heating. The other day it was 38 degrees celcius in our sun room when it was only 10 degrees outside!
We think all new homes should be mandated to face north and have the right pitch for solar panels!
Why MASH2?
We were ready to get solar installed and had started to look around. Lots of solar companies called us. They were mostly nice and helpful but we were unable to distinguish between them. Then we heard about MASH through the local newspaper. We liked the fact that MASH2 is a community effort; it sounded genuine with good principles and we trusted that the Hub Foundation, the organisation behind the MASH project, had done the homework.
Why go 5Kw?
Because our home is so energy efficient – and we are a 2-person household – our electricity bills are only around $260 per quarter. So probably a 3Kw 12 panel system would have been enough if our main motivation was purely to reduce our bills. However we see going bigger with a 20 panel, 5Kw system as a contribution we can make to lessen our use of brown coal and fossil fuels.
What’s your experience been like so far of MASH2?
Extremely good! Any questions or issues have been dealt with immediately. We are particularly impressed with the support provided by Jo Kaptein from the Hub Foundation who has been very responsive and helpful.
What do you think of MASH coming south to Kyneton?
It’s great to hear that MASH2 info meetings will be taking place at Kyneton at the Mechanics Institute on 21 October. We came to one of the Castlemaine MASH2 info meetings and it was very helpful.
We believe that the only way things are going to change are from the ground upwards. MASH2 is a terrific example of something that’s working successfully so we are very happy to be part of it. It is a community effort to change things so instead of feeling helpless we feel we can contribute a bit.
Notes:
Nancy and Geoff’s installation is a MASH2 Premium System which comprises of a Fronius Primo inverter and Trina Honey solar panels. The solar panels are split on two different rooflines – north facing and also west facing. The picture shows the west facing array of 10 solar panels; another 10 are on the north facing roof.
