In a previous article I introduced and talked a little about some of the reasons why many people have had the terrible experiences they have had with renewable energy equipment installation. We are going to be going a lot deeper into that. So, if you have not read the previous article, kindly use the button below
The first thing you need to understand is that just like any other kind of product out there in the market, be it fabrics, phones, electronics, even Biro and pencil, there are always variance in quality of product and brand, which also determines the cost of whatever it is you are buying. For those of you who are economists and accountants, you will agree with me that another factor that affects costs of items is the demand for it. What leads to demand? – reliability, durability and recommendations that stems from satisfied users.
Having said that, the very same thing applies to solar energy equipment. There are varying brands, different standards, varying quality and all. There are brands from Germany, China, US and many more countries. Different manufacturers have different level of technological advancements and market scope. This means that different brands are never going to have the same level of efficiency, protection circuitry built in, ruggedness, durability or lifespan.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you desire quality, then be prepared to pay for quality. I mean, you can’t go to a car dealer to pay for a Kia-Picanto and then drive off in a Range rover or an Audi RS 8 or a Benz GLS 550. We all agree that it doesn’t work that way.
Next up, is the issue of usage. Assuming you head to the market to buy and install a, let’s say 2.5KVA petrol generator. You would constantly be on guard, monitoring what is being powered per time so as not to exceed the threshold that the generator can handle, otherwise, it goes off or worse, the alternator coil burns off and you are left just a noise generating piece of machinery. Likewise, the inverter, the device that allows you convert the power of the sun into usable electricity in your home or office, have various capacity as well. So depending on the capacity you have installed, there are gadgets/appliances you can’t have on at the same time, otherwise, you overload the system – and if yours is the cheap one that doesn’t have overload protection, you are left with a fried inverter. Well, more like roasted because there is no oil involved!
At this point, you call the company or engineer or whoever installed to say you don’t know what happened, “but the solar thing is not working again.” The man comes over to inspect and diagnose and discovers the circuitry is burnt. How? And the answer given most times appears like this… ”I don’t know o. One moment it was working and the next was a blackout”. The next question will be what and what did you put on? At this point, let me not even try to mimic a response. I am sure you get the point.
The summary of all that has been identified so far is that, there are several manufacturers, and or brands, whose quality differs at different levels of technological advancements. Hence, when it comes to solar equipment or any other kind of renewable energy equipment for that matter, go for the options that gives the best balance between cost and quality. We all know quality comes at a cost. Garbage in, garbage out:
Please note, how you control usage of these renewable energy –solar systems are very much similar to the petrol or diesel generator. You can’t get more power than the system you have installed is capable of. It’s that simple.
