I WROTE a couple of weeks ago about our visit to the farm in the New England district of the North Eastern Cape which is run by my brother-in-law.
Well, apart from a historic homestead, prize-winning gardens, magnificent cattle, woolly sheep and fine horses, there are other aspects of farm life that had me enthralled.
An interesting feature of the 140-year-old farmstead is the extensive use of solar lighting. They have had to turn to alternative energy sources because they have more electricity blackouts that do we, and I thought we had plenty.
Therefore, my brother-in-law has installed solar lights to illuminate the essential parts of the house, being mainly the kitchen (where, as is the case on most farms around the world, people gather in the evening) and the bathroom.
As a matter of interest they have a gas stove as well as a conventional one, so they are covered there as well.
Anyway, my brother-in-law gave me what amounts to a solar lighting kit, that being a small solar panel about the size of a foolscap sheet of paper and its attendant cable and attachment, a small power pack that consists of a lead acid battery and whatever it is that converts sunlight into a night light (the panel plugs into this). And the actual light and its cable and a switch of course, which also plugs into the power pack.
We did some research on the more-or-less north-facing wall of our house, the sunniest side, and decided where the panel needed to be.
This was quite easily installed with a slight tilt so it gets more direct sunshine and of course placed where it gets the sun from early morning (now, of course, things will change as we approach winter) to early afternoon when the sun ducks below the dune behind us.
The cable goes through a hole drilled in the kitchen window frame to the power pack, the light itself is mounted in the kitchen where it provides light for the whole room and also shines into the living area, and voila, we have joined the solar age!
The kit, or part thereof, that I inherited is very basic, but of course solar is the answer for so many power needs around the home, and the workplace come to that.
Depending on the size of the panels and the power packs, solar can power just about anything and although the capital outlay tends to be high, the power itself is free! So, think about going solar.
On the subject of lighting, as you know we spend a lot of time in the evenings in the Hide with nothing but a candle. There is one little problem, however – the wind.
This may seem very obvious, but a good solution to this is one of those glass funnels used for paraffin lamps.
Slipped over the candle it solves the wind problem and is most attractive. Just remember that the glass gets hot if you want to move it. Cheers!
