› Flat Chat Strata Forum › Living in strata › Rant: Act up or shut up? › Current Page
@JimmyT said:
…A couple of years ago our committee voted against installing solar panels on our massive flat roof because it would “cost more to pump the water on to the roof than would be saved in energy”. In other words, they couldn’t tell the difference between a domestic hot water system and electricity generating photo-voltaic cells that could have run all our internal lighting and then enough power to sell to the grid. Worst of all, they wouldn’t listen to anyone who tried to explain…
I hear your pain. We did get our PV system but only after the third try. In our case the EC was for it, and I was part of that EC, but we had a massive campaign of disinformation from some other owners. Now as treasurer, I take some delight in drawing attention to various aspects of the proposed budget for each year, especially that we are budgeting zero dollars for electricity. I was very pleased recently to hear a neighbour who honestly admitted to having been sceptical at the time now proudly explaining to visitors how well it works.
Perhaps time to have another go at doing solar, particularly if you can have net metering and self-consume for lighting that runs all day? If it is ‘battery-ready’, it can be oversized enough to run the lights at night in due course. If a non-EC group gets a well-developed proposal together it would have to go on the agenda and the incumbant EC might look silly if they still oppose.