SOLAR SOULMATES
 You’ve heard all this talk about saving electricity and using the sun’s rays to heat water, of course.
Well along comes this guy with the yellow umbrella and he claims that his insurance company is one of the main players in the solar game.
Get the connection? Neither did I, at first.
Turns out that in SA we have about 120 000 geysers (or Hot Water Cylinders as some Capetonians call them) which pack up every year. When I say ‘pack up’, that doesn’t fully describe the huge damage which a lot of them cause when they develop holes and then spew hot water all over your ceiling. Think of that geyser in Yellowstone National Park in Obamaland and you’ll get the picture.
Once the ceiling is truly wet, it collapses, and that’s when the fun starts. Everything beneath, including your new laptop, dancing shoes, and leather jacket will take an unscheduled shower.
Not nice. Big mess, big hassle. Lots of time and paperwork to get your insurance company to pay.
Workmen banging around for days while at night you try to catch some sleep on the low couch in the TV room, wondering whether that new colour you chose for the carpet will match your replacement jacket.
When these insurance chaps need to replace your leaking or burst geyser, they cut a discount deal with the geyser manufacturers. Makes sense when you’re buying thousands of the things every year, doesn’t it? That’s called ‘buying power’. Now, these insurance guys have worked out that these new Solar Water Heaters (SWH) don’t give nearly as much trouble as the electric ones which are powered by an element controlled by a thermostat. The SWHs last much, much longer, because they suffer less internal wear and tear. Also, in most cases they are placed on a rack attached to the outside of your roof, close to the solar panel which catches the sun’s rays. So, if and when they leak, the water runs down the outside of your roof, and doesn’t mess up your ceiling. Clever, hey? Less wear and tear, fewer leaks, and no messed up ceiling, carpets and contents.
All they need to do is to get you to agree to use the new technology when they replace your geyser.
And of course, being a cool citizen, you’d want to help the planet and all that stuff.
The only question remaining is the little matter of the price. OK, these fancy suncatcher panels don’t come cheap. But this is where these insurance boffins have really put their thinking caps on.
They get Eskom to chip in a couple of moolah (because you’re going to save a lot of electricity and ease Eskom’s pain), and then they themselves also contribute some cash from the sale of carbon credits. Nothing to do with your credit card, these carbon credits are like brownie points you get awarded for doing your bit to save the planet. Things like using gas instead of electricity, turning off your PC when you leave work, installing a wind turbine on your roof to power a battery, recycling water and making compost.
So you get awarded brownie points, your insurer sells them, and this brings down the cost of your new Solar Water Heater. It might mean you have to contribute a bit yourself, but you’d be doing the right thing to help the threat of climate change.
And you won’t ever have a fountain in your bedroom again!
Clive Hill | Financial Services Manager |
