Over Two Weeks Ago…
We finally took the step of ordering a solar hot water system. We live in a country that gets more than enough sun to heat our water, if we had the money we could probably get a solar paneling system that would supply the house with enough energy to run the house off the electric grid! And why not the sun is free!
My husband has always been reluctant as the house isn’t ours and he worries what would happen if we decided to move or the landlord wanted us out, but I can’t see that happening in the near future and if it does then we take the solar hot water system with us…It really is that simple dearest x.
Before Buying…
We did our homework and priced different systems and found that to buy a system on the island costs a damn sight more than from the mainland. This is one of the problems of living on an island, but what shops and businesses have to consider is that the world is not as big as it once was, so ordering and buying things elsewhere is pretty simple.
I do feel bad that we buy much of our stuff from the mainland or the UK, because local shops are struggling, but money is tight for all of us and we can’t justify paying a ridiculous amount more here than for the same thing from the mainland.
Usually…
What we order arrives in a day or two (Greece isn’t that big after all), but it has taken over two weeks to get the solar hot water system here from Athens (a six hour journey by car and ferry) and numerous phone calls. We’ve had excuses from the company (some of them legitimate as the ferries to the island were on strike last week) and when it finally arrived on the island the delivery company only wanted us to go pick it up from them. That wasn’t going to happen; a Fiat Punto may not be a small car, but fitting a rather large water tank and two solar panels into it would be impossible.
Anyone who has holidayed in Greece may have noticed the blatant disregard of road safety that happens here. It is not unusual to see a family of four, their pet dog and a weeks worth of shopping on moped, although it’s not as bad as it used to be.
The Waiting Is Now Over…
After two days in the depot here, we have finally got our solar hot water system!
And my husband didn’t waste time installing it, but it was much heavier than expected so we had to call my Dad in to help get it on the roof (of which I couldn’t take pictures of as me and the children were holding the ladder and guiding the parts up as Neal and Dad hauled them up onto the roof).
Neal is tightening some bolts and Dads overseeing (the answer is Dad worked for British Gas for thirty odd years).
To be fair Dad was a great help and Neal wouldn’t have been able to set the solar hot water system without him (the rest of us just weren’t big or butch enough!).
And the work is done.
Would You Believe It Though…
We haven’t seen a cloud in the sky since the end of October, but today as they were setting it up, guess what? Clouds appeared!
Tomorrow…
We hope to be able to use hot water from the solar system and have calculated that we will be saving around a Euro a day (maybe even more), in which case the system will pay for itself in two years.
Do you use the power of the sun to run any appliances or maybe you’ve got a solar hot water system too? I’d love to hear what you have to say.
Thank you for reading.
© 2015, Debbie. All rights reserved.
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