About Bright Future Solar Energy Power Systems

For many years we dreamed of going 100% offgrid. To be totally energy self-sufficient. To be free of load shedding and the constant price hikes for grid-tied power.

Bright Future Solar Energy Power Systems was born from the entrepreneurial drive to create value by facilitating and assisting others to experience the freedom and joy of energy self-sufficiency.

The dream of many years came to be when we installed our 100% off grid Solar Energy Power Systems for our farm house and my fathers farm house.

Solar Energy Power Systems

Our Solar Energy Power Systems consists of a Sunsynk 16 kW Inverter, 21.3 kWh Batteries (2 x Sunsynk 10.65 kWh) and 24 x 545 Watt Solar Panels (13 000 Watts peak power).

See the pics on the Weduwees Kloof farm Solar Power project.

My fathers Solar Energy Power Systems consists of a Sunsynk 16 kW Inverter, 63.88 kWh Batteries (4 x Sunsynk 15.97 kWh) and 33 x 545 Watt Solar Panels (17 985 Watts peak power).

See the pics on the Dragonder Kraal farm Solar Power project

Our earnest exploration into going 100% off grid began about 3 years ago.

We were totally ignorant

In the beginning we were totally ignorant about the wiley ways of the solar system ‘Installers’ and also of the equipment specifications that our particular household may require in order to produce electricity independently and without discomfort.

We were shocked and disheartened by the high cost and the low equipment capacity levels being offered by several Installers that we approached.

One of the Installers truly amazed us when we told him that “The quote is way above our budget” and he responded by literally halving the already inadequately sized Inverter, Batteries and Solar Panels capacities and then re-submitting his quote. Eish. What to say??

It seemed that carefree energy independence was unobtainable for our budget. The quotes we received almost put us off solar as an option.

We blindly trusted their ‘expertise’ and we assumed their ‘reasonable understanding’ of our electricity needs. It was very disappointing.

We are very sure many many people are put off by the inflated costs quoted by short sighted beamy-eyed grinning Installers.

But there had to be a better way!!

We then got the idea that perhaps it will be more economical and one will be far more in control of the outcome, if one divided the transition-to-Solar Energy Power Systems process into 2 separate parts.

(1) Find and purchase the best equipment (Inverter, Batteries, Panels) at the best price

Educate oneself about quality brands (what are people saying about different brands)

Educate oneself about the suitable capacities (Inverters, Batteries, Panels) required to do the job of meeting ones household energy requirements.

(2) Commission a knowledgeable Master Electrician/Installer to perform the physical installation of the Equipment and the Solar Panels.

We began by doing extensive research into different brands of equipment (especially Inverters and Batteries), their capacities and their price levels.

The Best Solar Equipment Brand

The best equipment brand (most respected and successfully commissioned) at the best price turned out to be SunSynk in our opinion.

One can glean a lot of information by reading about other people’s real life experiences on various forums.

The Sunsynk Inverters are highly respected by Installers in South Africa.

They are robustly built, easy to set up, easy to understand and operate for the average person.

The Sunsynk batteries (now Eenovance) are manufactured using new CATL and/or BYD Lithium Iron Phosphate battery cells (LiFePo).

CATL and BYD are most probably the biggest and most respected LiFePo battery cell manufacturers in the world supplying the likes of Tesla and BMW.

Additionally, installing SunSynk Batteries with a SunSynk Inverter extends the battery warranty from 5 years to 10 years.

To analyse price and specification levels, we compiled a spreadsheet of around 15 online sellers to compare prices.

Two ‘truths’ became immediately apparent:

(1) The Installers were literally ‘ripping’ us off and hoping to make a profit amount that most people would consider ‘life changing’ if they earned that amount in a month… probably around R80 000.

We understand that a certain ‘level’ of ‘expertise’ is required but lets not be greedy and take advantage of the relative electrical ignorance of your fellow human being (?).

(2) The second truth that emerged is that even the online seller’s prices can differ radically from each other– by up to 20% for exactly the same equipment.

This got us thinking….

Our Plan:

(1) We found the best priced online supplier of Sunsynk equipment & Solar Panels

(2) We verified the suppliers legitimacy

This is very important… there are several 100% fake scam solar equipment sites that are operating in South Africa. They literally take your money and deliver nothing!!

When in doubt then Google search for the websites name and include words like scam, fake, ripped off, hellopeter, mybroadband, PowerForum

(3) We purchased the equipment (Inverter, Batteries, Panels) and had it all delivered.

(4) We asked two Electrician friends (a father and son team) with several years experience in physical solar installations (installing systems for customers who also bought their own equipment) to quote us on the:

— Physical Installation (labour)

— Structural Components (rails, clamps, screws, etc)

— Electrical Components (wires, plugs, switches, boxes, etc)

(3) We built the pole structure for mounting the panels.

(4) We built the baboon proof fence around the pole structure.

See Baboon-proof pics on the :

Weduwees Kloof farm project.

Dragonder Kraal farm Solar Power project

(5) We commissioned the Electrician/Installers to install the panels and the equipment and paid them industry level hourly rates for their level of expertise (Master Electrician accompanied by two skilled electrician assistants).

(6) We switched Eskom off and switched the Solar Energy Power Systems on… and never looked back!

Bye-Bye depressing loadshedding, price hikes and endless corruption… and hello Bright Future : )

We loved the process and the joy of energy freedom so much that we decided to set up a company (Bright Future Solar Pty Ltd) that creates value by assisting others to have the same wonderful experience.

Ironically, the experience with the installers issuing radically high quotes for minimum specification levels and the resultant journey into the world of solar energy systems is what made us realize:

If that happened to us; then it is happening to other people…

and thus Bright Future Solar Pty Ltd was born.

After much research into Solar Equipment wholesalers, We applied for and became approved online retailers of Herholdt’s Solar Equipment.

Herholdt’s is the largest and most highly respected Solar Equipment wholesaler in South Africa.

Bright Future Solar endeavors to provide SunSynk Inverters, SunSynk Batteries and reputable brand Solar Panels at the best online prices in South Africa.

Once you have purchased your Solar Equipment and the equipment is delivered to your premises then we can advise you on a trusted Installer in your area.

The Installer will quote you for the physical Installation of the Inverter, Batteries and Solar Panels as well as the Structural (rails, clamps, screws, etc) and Electrical Components (circuit breakers, boxes, wires, etc) required for your particular set of equipment.