Abstract
Many South African citizens and residents are dependent on Eskom for
electricity distribution. Its’ limited energy distribution and its’ ever increasing
cost has taken its toll on the consumers. The citizens might be motivated to
adopt solar energy technology to circumvent this problem. It is therefore
imperative to establish, additional information that warrants investment in
solar energy technology. Furthermore, it is imperative that consumers are
presented with a database of information to the efficiency of solar power in
households who have already implemented solar energy technology. It can
therefore be suggested that there is paucity of research in South Africa in
relation to challenges and benefits of using solar energy. In this regard a study
was conducted in Gauteng province, in the city of Johannesburg, in South
Africa to fill this gaps. The data was collected using semi-structured
interviews. The target population for the current study were the suburban
households which had solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar water heaters (SWHs)
installation. A total number of 15 respondents were interviewed. The data was
analysed using Tesch’s open coding approach. The findings suggest that these
Johannesburg suburban households shared similar positive experiences and
negative experiences from the use of solar energy systems. The findings
suggest that the use of solar energy saved on electricity. However they
experienced water leakage from their geysers. The findings from this
qualitative research is of particular importance to the South African
households who are considering an alternative solar energy supply.