Happy Solar Family: Chatswood
OK, Chatswood is not the Inner West, but when we ran into Chatswood resident Dr Craig Lewis at a school reunion in Ashfield recently and he asked for help going solar, we could hardly refuse.
Craig and his wife had been thinking about installing rooftop solar for four or five years, but for busy, time-poor people, it proved too hard to progress.
“The barrier was basically, trying to find the right person to help get advice,” Craig says. “You could do your searches, your Google search and all that, but you’d then be faced with a plethora of different thoughts, and different pathways to go down, quite often not easy to navigate, so it was just a case of looking too difficult, not knowing how we take the next step.”
So Inner West Community Energy came to his rescue.
“That was the game changer, basically,” Craig says. “Linking with Inner West Community Energy, I was able to get some good advice about the whole pathway, how to make it happen.
Craig’s newly installed solar system!
“The completion of the initial documents was very straightforward, done on-line, very easy, no searching questions, and then after that Inner West took over, had a look at all my data, and came up with a recommendation for a suitable company to work with, and that’s how I got in touch with [IWCE preferred solar installer] Phil Keenan, and from there, it just went.”
Craig, who retired from his position as a senior staff specialist in medical oncology at Prince of Wales hospital two years ago, now runs a 14-panel, 6.16 kilowatt system with Trina panels and a SolarEdge inverter.
The family wanted to go solar to cut the household’s carbon emissions, and to get their bills down. The first bill received since the system was installed showed consumption had dropped by around 40%.
“I think it’s been a good move,” Craig says.
If you’d like help going solar in 2025, we’re here to help. We can also help with batteries, heat pump hot water and the electrification of everything. Contact us at solar@innerwestcommunityenergy.org.au.