Selected Energy, a member of the Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa (SESSA), has installed Solahart solar water heating systems at the Martie du Plessis School in Bloemfontein in the Free State and at the Save the Children Centre in Tjakastad, Mpumalanga.
Martie du Plessis School, established in 1985, caters for schoolchildren with special needs, from Grade R to Grade 12. The school was looking for a solar water heating solution that would provide sufficient hot water to meet the requirements in its three boarding houses, which accommodate about 150 pupils, and nine flats, which house school personnel. Selected Energy supplied and installed 26 solar water heaters to the school. In the first phase of the project 21 systems were installed, delivering a total of 6 069 litres of hot water, daily, for the boarding houses. A further five systems were installed in the second phase, to supply hot water to the flats.
According to Selected Energy dealer Piet van den Berg, the overall installation saves more than 50% of the previous hot water system’s proportional kilowatt consumption per year. “At current electricity prices, this saving is sufficient to ‘pay for the system’ in three years,” he said.
“By investing in Solahart solar water heaters, the school can now provide its pupils with hot water through rain or shine and in times of unreliable power supply,” said Van den Berg.
Ensuring access to hot water all year round was also the intention behind Selected Energy’s donation of a 300-litre Solahart solar water heater to the Save the Children Centre in Tjakastad. This is an organisation that has been giving a helping hand to many communities in the area over the past 60 years.
Selected Energy managing director Jim Hickey said, “The solar water heater installed at the centre will have a positive impact on the lives of those who need it most and make their everyday lives a little bit easier.”
Chairman of Save the Children: Gauteng, Mapitso Malepe, said that it was a pleasure to work with the Solahart dealer from Witbank. “We are grateful for all that the crew from Witbank did for us. Everybody is thrilled to have hot water on the premises, something they haven’t had for a very long time.”
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