Can we Afford to Wait before Reverting to a Solar Solution? Asks Vincent Maposa CEO of Wetility

Hi Friends, 

Why it’s time for South Africans to put the power back in their own hands?

Here’s a fact we know all too well; loadshedding is costing the country billions. The latest interest rate rise is just another confirmation of an economy deeply scarred by the impact. Worse still, in recent months there has been an unprecedented escalation in loadshedding stages, which has sent many more South Africans racing to buy generators - but how feasible are they as a long-term solution?

For businesses who were looking to make the most of the recent festive season and even back-to-school retail booms, it may have seemed like a no-brainer. The tills can only ring when the power is on. Over the same time in homes where many were anticipating the visits of family and friends, expensive takeaway meals eaten around candles had to be planned. However, finding and using generators that run fridges and stoves then became an additional expense that instantly dimed the festive spirit for many. Loud, fuel-guzzling generators are costly, especially with the non-stop rise in the cost of fossil fuels.

Even seemingly cost-effective and relatively quiet UPS devices have their limitations. They were designed for emergencies, not regular ongoing use, which is exactly what the country expects of these devices for the foreseeable future. Breakdowns and repairs are inevitable. This means the reactive go-to solution is certainly not a long-term solution. The time to act wisely and decisively is now. As we enter this new year both businesses and homes need to actively look at sustainable solutions. If not, every major occasion and holiday in 2023 will have the same ominous shadow of loadshedding over it as last year.

“Harnessing the ever-present power of the country’s abundant sunshine is the long-term solution that must be embraced. Both economically and environmentally, solar power is a solution whose time has arrived. In fact, the cost of waiting is an expense nobody can afford, “says Vincent Maposa, CEO of Wetility.

Companies such as Wetility, which offer hybrid solar solutions that leverage the functionality of the existing power grid with the power of the country’s ample sunshine, are an exciting alternative. Wetility enables its customers to smartly generate solar power on their rooftops, and then store and use this clean consistent energy to power their homes or business - nonstop. However, as any South African will tell you – the decision to go solar comes down to numbers – Rands and sense. Does embracing what many consider to be merely an environmental solution make economic sense? Maposa takes a pragmatic approach to the question of cost.

“Those who embrace hybrid solar solutions now will certainly benefit in the long run. The relief of constant and reliable electricity is the immediate advantage. The initial investment or contract plan is often cited as a barrier when it is in fact one of those ‘I should have done this sooner’ decisions. The perceived cost versus the actual economic benefit is highly rewarding, “says Maposa.

He describes it as delayed economic gratification with instant day-to-day benefits. Like the offering, it is a hybrid thought. Some may not truly appreciate an investment in a contract that feels like an addition to their current Eskom supply. However, simply put, over a surprisingly short time the benefits are unquestionable:

• Firstly, Eskom rates will continue to rise, a fact as predictable as sunrise.
• Secondly, it will get darker before the dawn, with further increases in loadshedding stages that is bound to impact the bottom line of businesses as well as the monthly budget of homeowners.
• Thirdly, the ROI of not experiencing loadshedding is immense – no generators, no loss of business and no additional unplanned expenses for a home. In one hour of no electricity a business can lose thousands. Another drawcard which has encouraged many is that VAT-registered businesses can claim back what can amount to about 37% of their purchase costs on a system that includes solar panels. In homes, the cost of literally catering for every outage adds up every single time, while also jeopardising the plan of those trying to make a sustainable WFH solution work for the family.
• Lastly, for both homeowners and businesses, an in-built solar solution increases the value of the property. All the numbers add up.

Ultimately, the decision to go solar makes economic sense. The cost of waiting does not.

Cheers!!!

Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay. Support me with $3.34 only per month - https://www.patreon.com/TheLifesWay Namaste! https://t.co/gUHjo8DQ7h 

New Year Resolutions - Week 52 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Guys,

Week 52 - Sat 24 Dec 2022 - Fri 31 Dec 2022

This is the last week of the year 2023 and for the whole week, we will be sightseeing in Mauritius and seeing a lot of beaches and enjoying the warm tropical weather by switching on the AC inside the car. The temperature it seems is too hot to handle as we have never faced such kind in Johannesburg in the last 9 years of being here. The body has not adjusted itself to Joburg's temperatures and can't take any other without getting uneasy. The taxi drivers don't own the AC in Mauritius even after you say them to because they love the hot weather. 

1. 10 Years of The Life's Way - I celebrated the 10 years of The Life's Way by relaxing on a beach and seeing some new beaches in Mauritius. I ate food at the Sitar Restaurant in Tamarin, Mauritius. 10 years back when I started thinking about the name, it took me 2-3 days to come to finalize the name of The Life's Way. Also, many other people guided me to get the domain name from the start and another one told me to have the visiting cards made. It really guided me in the right direction and I still love those moments when I won some of the big contests via my blog writings. I am not going to please anyone again in 2023 and do what I love most, what I want to write and the brands who value me will get my total support. 

2. Last Week in Mauritius - We stayed in Mauritius till 30th Dec and so far we have come across a lot of good places to eat Indian food, especially since the taste is not matched even in Johannesburg restaurants. One of the main ones that really left an impression is in a food court of Super U Grand Baie mall called Indian Flames. Some of the items served are really nice like Idli Sambhar, Dosa Sambhar and Samosa Chaat. Even their golgappas are nice as the spicy tangy water they prepare is really great. Another one we loved is Sitar Restaurant in Cap Tamarin Super U mall. I didn't buy any local mobile number but the trick was that every restaurant & McDonald's now offers some kind of free wifi that helped us to book taxis and check our WhatsApp etc. 

3. Resolutions - It's time to make some resolutions but I think this year only a single resolution or word to follow is ACTION. Take action fast and with full force. Don't second guess as the universe likes speed. I am going to do things that I have never done before, take risks, fail fast and recover from the same. Let's create content that's not there on YouTube and the rest is in the hands of Lord Shiva. For a long time now, I have moved into the bhakti of Lord Shiva - bholenaath or Mahadev. When you close your eyes and chant MAHADEV the sensation emerges in your whole body? Have you tried it or do it now and let me know! 

4. Daily Walking - Finally after all the hard work and tracking the same, I completed the 1000 kilometres on 25th December 2022 and somehow it was done on a day that half of the world celebrates. I stopped tracking after completing 1000 kilometres so did around 13 kilometres in total. I am still thinking if I am going to continue the same in 2023 or will move to other kinds of exercises. I want to spend 2023 learning Yoga and meditation for sure. I ended the year with 1011.48 kilometres tracked using the Huawei Watch GT2e. 

5.  Happy New Year 2023 - We came only in the afternoon after the flight we booked was cancelled by Kenya Airways and spent all night running around the Nairobi airport I have not thought that never I am going to fly with them ever again. We came around 1pm to home with Pizza Hut and McDonald's takeaways. I totally loved the Pizza Hut Giant Chocolate cookie that came free with the large pizza. I only woke up at 8pm in the night and then the restaurants were getting closed at 930pm so we rushed to Punjabi Tadka for some dinner and thereafter spent the New Year countdown at the kid's zone in Montecasino. It was nice and we were satisfied that we could rest during this December break. 

I hope you guys have the wonderful new year 2023 and create goals that can help you move forward in your life, career, love and money. I wanted to change my money mindset last year but somehow the focus got lost during the year so I am renewing the same this year as this needs to be taken care of. I am so grateful to Universe for everything that they have given me throughout the year. 

Cheers!!!

Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay. Support me with $3.34 only per month - https://www.patreon.com/TheLifesWay Namaste! https://t.co/gUHjo8DQ7h 

New Year Resolutions - Week 51 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Guys,

Week 51 - Sat 17 Dec 2022 - Fri 23 Dec 2022

Week 51 is entirely spent relaxing on the beaches of Mauritius and enjoying the luxurious holidays of my life. Never ever I have spent so much money for a single day charge for a resort. This has been the most expensive holiday ever in my whole life span of 42 years. 

1. Daily Walking - I did a lot of kilometres during the course of this week around the resort and various other spots on the island I eventually reached 995 kilometres from the 958km I completed last week. It is a massive 37.26 kilometres in a single week. Now you will know how and why people feel tired when they go overseas on a trip to any tropical island? Even inside the resort, you do have to do a lot of walking around etc which makes your body stretch high because you are motivated to enjoy there but as soon as you hit the back/reset button and then every muscle of your body does a rendevous with your mind. 

2. Mauritius Trip - We booked into an all-inclusive resort thinking that it will be difficult otherwise but the cost of the same is also high. Considering I am vegetarian and a non-drinker of alcohol, it doesn't make any sense for me to go on an all-inclusive resort accommodation. In total, we must have drank 10-12 water bottles that were not covered in the package if we have taken half-board or full-board or even bed and breakfast then also I would have paid around ZAR 400 for the same whereas I paid ZAR 11000 per night for full-board and half-board would have been ZAR 6000. I would still get breakfast and dinner that's the main part of the food you want to eat. So for a person who's vegetarian or vegan, and doesn't drink alcohol or eat seafood, going half-board is the best option to choose and save a lot of money. The only pleasure was that we didn't have to check the price of anything before ordering as everything was covered from the first portion of the menu in most of the restaurants and lunch stalls. 

3. Sightseeing in Mauritius - After roaming around from corner to corner and all four directions of the island, there is nothing that's so important or that you will miss if you don't see it. We live in South Africa which is thousand times more beautiful than Mauritius so for me, Mauritius was nothing special. The only thing is that there are very less waves due to coral reefs around the whole island and white sand makes the water turquoise up to 1000 meters around the island. There is no taxi service like Uber but there is one Yugo app which only fetched us the same 2 drivers, again and again, every day. This app was working fine in the Gansbaai and Trou Aux Bitches areas. 

4. Meeting Your Best Friends - There is no great feeling than meeting your best friends after a gap of many years. I have some good friends from our MBA time in Hyderabad and we organized a meeting during the trip to India on 26-Jan-2020 didn't know that we won't meet again till this trip with one of them. My friend in question came all the way from Thailand to meet us in Delhi in 2020 and now he got transferred to Mauritius so we met him thrice during the trip. I think this is the longest we have spent time with him since 2007 when we used to all stay together in a flat in Srinagar Colony sharing a common dream to do something in life. Some of the dreams are not fulfilled but some got fulfilled for sure. 

5. Activities in Mauritius - I did some of the activities that I have not done earlier and did some after a long long gap of multiple years. I did the Kayak and there was a glass bottom kayak as well that I did twice and another one multiple times as per the energy I have in my body. The coral reefs that we see in Mauritius are not as colourful as shown in Australia's videos or we may be doing it in a particular area named Balaclava. Let me know if you went diving and saw some better colourful corals?

Let me know how did you like this series of weekly posts across the whole year of 2022! It's just like a written version of vlogs. I wanted to write more stuff but didn't get time as I still think of myself as a disciplined writer but I take a lot of breaks when I am not able to focus. I think of myself as a superman but I am only a man who needs rest and other tasks take priority sometimes but I keep The Life's Way in my mind. 

Join using my link on the TheSalt influencer platform and we will do some of the influencer marketing campaigns together in 2023 for sure - https://app.thesalt.co.za/join/ynwjv

Cheers!!!

Contact me at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate on your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #10YearsofTheLifesWay. Support me with $3.34 only per month - https://www.patreon.com/TheLifesWay Namaste! https://t.co/gUHjo8DQ7h 

New Year Resolutions - Week 50 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Guys,

Week 50 - Sat 10 Dec 2022 - Fri 16 Dec 2022

Now we are in our 50th week of 2022 and I am hopeful that you are liking these posts on my blog it's going to be my 10th year of The Life's Way. Though I have not achieved a large amount of success as I could not devote myself to creating networks and sponsorships on my blog I did get a large number of press releases and invites to several events throughout the last 10 years. Some of the things I have done in my life are only because of The Life's Way that I would not have explored also. 

1. Daily Walking - I only did around 16.89 kilometres during the course of this week as I was flying out of the country on Friday 16th Dec. I didn't take count of all the kilometres walked in Johannesburg and Kenya airports while reaching the necessary gates. In Kenya, the gate almost closed when we reached there because it was on the far end and it took some time to come out of the plane and then queue up for bathrooms and then for security checking. My total is now around 958 kilometres out of a 1000 km journey. Will I be able to do something in Mauritius is a question now? 

2. Entertainment - I watched the CAT season 1 on Netflix and totally loved the same. It stars Randeep Hooda as a spy who helps the police catch the criminals by becoming one of them and joining their gang. Then I watched Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery which was not so difficult to solve in my mind. The same is also available on Netflix. My wife is using the Netflix membership exclusively from the start on her phone and TV. We only get to watch if she is not watching anything or we watch together as a family. 

3. YouTube Creators Summit - It was my first time ever speaking in front of so many people about myself. There was a hesitation for sure and nervousness to top it up. I prepares some answers but totally forgot them. I just said what came to my mind on the journey I remembered during the course of 2022 in YouTube Shorts. It was great meeting everyone at the end of 2022 and good to know the plans they had for the rest of the year. 

4. Travel to Mauritius - This was my first time ever on an aeroplane after a gap of 3 years as I last travelled in Feb-2020 when I came from India via Dubai. What I have observed is that if the flights are going on time, everything works fine and if there is a delay or cancellation then the staff on the ground is too confused that they don't know what to do! I had problems with Kenya Airways while coming back but no communications no replies etc has been received. The staff kept sending us to different counters and the whole night was spent at the counters at the airport. Never ever flying again with Kenya Airways. It's better to go to Mauritius using the direct South African Airways flight rather than roaming to other countries and reaching there. Lesson Learnt!

5. theSalt - My only sponsored posts came from this influencer platform and I did 5 campaigns for them for brands like Uber Eats, OneCart, Ensure, OneDayOnly and SAB. They give you cash that gets deposited in your bank account which is much more beneficial than the free products we don't need or use. Also, they don't deduct any percentage of commissions as you get what they will tell you upfront at the start of the campaign. Also, as an added bonus there are always some gift vouchers or products that come as additional benefits which makes your earned money go a long way! My recent desk setup which had the arm for a monitor came using their ZAR 1k gift voucher only! So what are you waiting for? - Join using my link and I will welcome you at the other end of the influencer marketing campaigns - https://app.thesalt.co.za/join/ynwjv

I hope that I will get new campaigns in 2023 and will earn some money that can help me to build and enrich my lighting and other accessories required for the video creation exercise. I think I am definitely in need of a Mobile gimbal and secondly a dome light where I can control the temperature and brightness and softness as my main light. 

Cheers!!!

Contact me at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate on your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #10YearsofTheLifesWay. Support me with $3.34 only per month - https://www.patreon.com/TheLifesWay Namaste! https://t.co/gUHjo8DQ7h 

New Year Resolutions - Week 49 Achievements & Failures #TheLifesWay

Hi Guys,

Week 49 - Sat 03 Dec 2022 - Fri 09 Dec 2022

Week 49 started with watching some of the movies before I go on a trip of a lifetime. There are some of the learning from this trip as well as how and why I have fallen in love with South Africa. 

1. Daily Walking - Week 49 saw me slow down a little bit and reached only 14.61 km. I completed 940 kilometres to meet the target that I set for this week after taking 2 weeks off as planned. After reaching that point, I just rested for the next 3 days. Sometimes relaxing after achieving the kinds of kilometres is totally required for your body to come in its original condition. 

2. Entertainment - I watched the Ram Setu movie and it was a disaster. Other than watching the character of AP that gets solved during the climax that's really great. I also watched the Black Adam movie that stars Dwayne Johnson and Sarah Shahi. Sarah, you will remember from a famous Netflix series as well if you have seen the same. 

3. YouTube Shorts - This week I got the news that I will be part of the Creator's Community Spotlight at the year-end festival of YouTube Shorts. The team from the UK is going to come for the event and I will be on the stage where people will get to know more about me. Will it increase my subscribers, I am not so sure but I am grateful to YouTube for making a dream become reality! I attended my first YT event in May and there I thought about going on stage in Dec I am on the stage. All thanks to the YouTube Shorts community for believing in me and giving me this opportunity. 

4. Trip to Mauritius - A lot of the time went away planning clothes and packing for the upcoming trip to Mauritius. Along with that, there were school closing ceremonies and other events to take care of with family. Also, the office also had some important meetings for the planning of the future upcoming year 2023 so it all become a little hectic by the end of this week. 

5. theSalt - If you are an influencer or trying to become one! If you are a blogger or on any other social media platform - join #theSalt influencers platform to earn some money! 

By connecting your lifestyle with prominent brands, they help you become part of selected marketing campaigns. You’ve heard of Influencer Marketing, right? Well, in effect, they help you become an influencer for a brand. And the thing is that it is really simple to do! Once you have been selected as an influencer, all you will need to do is to interact with your community around aspects of the campaign. theSalt team will be at your side the whole way so there is nothing to be worried about. Then, the brands will pay you for the exposure. In fact, if you are selected for a campaign, you could earn up to R3000* per month just by doing your everyday activities and posting about it on your social media accounts.

To sign up, simply complete the application form and wait for them to find the perfect campaign for you. Link to action - https://app.thesalt.co.za/join/ynwjv

We are now in the last few weeks of 2022 and there have been some resolutions I didn't make any progress on but there are some that I have finished and completed with flying colours. The uncompleted ones will move to the new year based on if I want to still do it in 2023 and the rest will be marked as done and dusted. 

Cheers!!!

Contact me at thelifesway@gmail.com to collaborate on your services and products. Subscribe to my YOUTUBE Channel for product reviews and mystery unboxings. #TheLifesWay #10YearsofTheLifesWay. Support me with $3.34 only per month - https://www.patreon.com/TheLifesWay Namaste! https://t.co/gUHjo8DQ7h