Happy Solar Family: Newtown

Newtown resident Dr Mark Askew has now received his first full quarterly power bill since his solar was installed in late May. Normally at this time of year his bill would be around $350 but this latest bill came as a pleasant surprise: it was a credit of $30. 

“So that’s certainly an improvement,” he told us. 

Mark, who works in the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney, now runs a 12-panel, 5.28-kilowatt solar PV system on his Newtown terrace. Plus he has a household battery storing 9.7 kilowatt-hours, more than enough to run the house overnight off the solar generated by day.

We asked Mark why he wanted to go solar. “Bills kept going up,” he told us. “That would have been one consideration but most importantly I just thought it was a contribution to the planet, you know. It was something I could do - a relatively small thing in many ways - but it was something I could do to try and look after the planet a little bit. 

“It’s the only planet we’ve got. So we’ve got to look after it. If it becomes uninhabitable that’s going to leave people in the future in a tough spot.”

Mark had been struggling to work out the best system for his terrace when he found Inner West Community Energy online. As we’ve now helped over 400 households go solar, we offered our advice, put him in touch with one of our preferred installers, reviewed his quote, and gave him the confidence to make a decision.

“I’m really happy,” Mark says. “It’s the best thing I’ve done for a long time, I reckon.”Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

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