Theatre in a Jar

By |2024-07-30T17:43:35+00:00March 9th, 2020|

Consol Solar Jars set the stage for creativity. It’s a theatre in a jar with 360 degree views and unique stage lighting. Grab your favorite miniature object, colourful feathers, shiny gem stones, shells or flowers and place them in the glass preserve jar. Turn on your solar light in the lid and your creation is the focal point. The portability of our solar jars allows you to scout for interesting localities – mood makers as table décor at dinner; lanterns for moonlit romantic walks; light beams on a braai. So, let your Consol Solar Jar take centre stage. With our bottled sunshine you truly can have fun in the African sun!

For more creative ideas, check out our Gallery or make it a personal note.

Read More
 0

Rhino Solar Collars

By |2024-07-30T17:43:35+00:00January 14th, 2020|

Southern Africa’s rhino are in grave peril. The total number of rhino poached and killed in South Africa in 2012 was 618, up from 448 in 2011. At this alarming rate, by 2025 there will be no rhino left on earth. Crime syndicates are fearless. The rhino horns are ground into powder for traditional medicines in East Asia. Experts say this powder actually has no medicinal purpose though that has not stopped the demand. Rhino horns are made of keratin, the same substance that comprises human hair and fingernails. $65,000 a kilo…!

Suntoy is collaborating with specialist anti-poaching units and field ranger patrols. Rhino Solar Tracking Collars are in development. GPS tracking collars monitor position, speed and behavior over preset intervals. When battery power on these devises is depleted, the radio antennae stop sending information on the location of the rhino and poachers pounce. Charging these GPS tracking devices from solar energy prevents loss of battery power. Malleable solar panels have been sewn into leather collars. Prototypes are currently being tested on one rhino and two cows.

 

Read More
 0

SMT Assembly Machine

By |2024-07-30T17:43:35+00:00January 14th, 2020|

In leveraging our small business success, Suntoy’s strategy for effective growth includes increasing our capacity to produce products more efficiently. We’ve acquired a MyData TP9 Surface Mount Technology (SMT) Assembly Machine. Commonly called a pick-and-place machine, the TP9 is robotic and automates electronic parts assembly by placing surface-mount devices (SMDs), such as LEDs, onto printed circuit boards (PCBs). It offers high speed and high precision and is able to place approximately 8 000 pph (parts per hour).

Although second-hand and over 10-years-old, the TP9 has already assisted us on more than 10 000 printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies since its introduction to our Suntoy factory in January 2013. Two of our employees have been promoted to machine operators. Here’s to welcoming a sunny and sustainable measure to ensure our competency.

Read More
 0

Fireflies

By |2024-07-30T17:43:36+00:00January 14th, 2020|

A firefly’s bioluminescence makes for nights of glowing outdoor adventures. Referring to these remarkable tiny creatures while describing our Consol Solar Jars gave us sunny smiles. “They have a ‘firefly-in-a-jar’ look and feel,” wrote Louise Hardy from New Zealand.

Her mom, who lives in South Africa, visited Louise in New Zealand and gifted her Consol Solar Jars for her birthday. “My three solar jars hang from our newly constructed pergola in our home garden. I love outdoor lights and these are fantastic and solar powered. I enjoy my nightly ritual of turning each on and seeing them from inside and out. All our friends think they are brilliant and ask where they can be purchased. I am very proud of mine!”

Our Consol Solar Jars are reaching far and wide… just like fireflies!

Read More
 0

Message in a Bottle

By |2024-07-30T17:43:36+00:00January 14th, 2020|

In this age of quick texts and impersonal emails, make your 140 characters a handwritten note on recycled paper. A personal message makes for a cherished gift. Discovering a message in a glass bottle has been around for centuries and can be even more exciting if it’s a glass preserve jar with a solar light in the lid. There is no need to send the Consol Solar Jar floating across the ocean to bring delight to the receiver. Gifting ‘green’ results in a lower environmental impact and the Consol Solar Jar is an eco-friendly gift suitable for any celebration. Don’t let affection go unspoken… put a message in a bottle. It’s a Theatre in a Jar.

Read More
 0

Art Exhibition

By |2024-07-30T17:43:36+00:00January 14th, 2020|

We were excited to discover that our Consol Solar Jars were featured in an art exhibition called The Other World at InToto Gallery. Including functional everyday objects in contemporary art exhibitions harnesses creative thought especially when addressing environmental issues such as solar energy.

The exhibition was curated around the idea that art can transport you to another realm. It was filled with sensory experiences into other times, spaces and spheres. Dry autumn leaves covered the gallery floor crunching as visitors explored. There was a visual feast of fine artworks displayed. Unusual objects were placed inside Consol Solar Jars that hung from the ceiling rafters and elicited wonderment. There was a sense of being in otherworldly places – some horrific, some euphoric – most not known to us.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” ~ C.S. Lewis

Curator: Megan Kidd
Creative: Otto de Jager

Read More
 0

Living Off Grid

By |2024-07-30T17:44:01+00:00January 14th, 2020|

Eco-friendly is a lifestyle worth pursuing. In his book Off The Grid, Nick Rosen writes: “The era of 40 acres and a mule has been replaced by the era of half an acre, a laptop and a solar panel.”

Leshiba Wilderness is an eco game and nature reserve in the Soutpansberg Mountains. It is off-the-grid, without any connection to an electrical transmission grid. Nature plays an important part here and the sun is the primary power source. Leshiba is a perfect location for our Consol Solar Jars to light up starry nights and morph into lanterns on walking trails, just enough so that wildlife aren’t disturbed.

Kathryn Straughan, general manager of Leshiba Wilderness, wrote us: “We have used our Consol Solar Jars every day for nine months and we love them! We started off with two and ordered 50 for our lodge, camps and shop. They are in each room as bedside lamps, along our pathways and hanging in trees. Living off-grid, we have to conserve power. The solar jars are fantastic especially if the main solar power runs out and we need quick access to light. In the middle of the night, I get up for sick kids, taking the puppy out, checking on the horses or to see which animal is munching my garden. The solar jar is brilliant for this!”

Read More
 0

ScopeX Exhibition

By |2024-07-30T17:44:01+00:00January 14th, 2020|

Join us at the ScopeX Telescope and Astronomy Exhibition. We’re honouring the star at the centre of the Solar System, the Sun. Have fun learning about this hot plasma that gives us Earthlings solar energy.

Saturday, 20 July 2013
9h00 – 21h00
Star Party Lighting Ceremony at 18h00
National Museum of Military History
Erlswold Way, Saxonwald (adjacent to Johannesburg Zoo)

Visit our exhibition stand and assemble a SunFan or SunCar.
Check out our Solar Cooker.
Meet the Suntoy team.
Consol Solar Jars with RED LEDs will set the scene for optimum telescopic vision of sky charts.

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be know. ~Carl Sagan

Read More
 0

The Big Five

By |2024-07-30T17:44:02+00:00January 14th, 2020|

A visit to South Africa’s game reserves is incomplete without spotting the Big Five – lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhinoceros. Yet, with a surge in rhino poaching leading to possible extinction, South Africa could be left with just the Big Four. That’s not a sunny outcome.

Intent on protecting the rhino, we learnt of an initiative to fundraise for RhinoSA – lead by a group of savvy 12 year olds. Suntoy donated 50 Consol Solar Jars to these scholars and they sold them at their school. They made a donation to RhinoSA at their Enviro Assembly in front of the National Geographic film crew. There is a huge demand for the Consol Solar Jar at their school now, so Suntoy is donating more jars to these budding fundraisers.

Their teacher, Mr Hansen, emailed us: “I would like to thank the children for their participation and congratulate them on their contribution to save the South African rhino. I applaud their innovative thinking and practical approach. I would also like to express my gratitude to their parents, who have awakened in them a sense of responsibility for their environment and the animals and people in it.”

Well done Gaby, Chanel, Alex, Nina, Kirsten, Courtney, Klara and Katrina! Suntoy looks forward to you selling more solar lights to save the rhino. What would South Africa be with only the Big Four? Let’s make sure it stays the Big Five!

Read More
 0

Fun in the Sun at School

By |2024-07-30T17:44:02+00:00January 14th, 2020|

Steering our planet towards a greener sustainable future lies in the hands of our youth.

Mr Sunshine, also known as Harald Schulz, has created SunFan and SunCar assembly kits as practical learning resources for teaching the concept of renewable energy. In the classroom, these solar powered toys bring to life alternative concepts for electricity.

Parktown Senior School in Johannesburg invited Mr Sunshine to facilitate a workshop. Students in Grade 5 learnt to assemble their own hand-held SunFans. As the plastic blades spun in the sun, they excitedly cooled themselves. That’s a fun science lesson!

Each SunFan is made with a recycled tin – the type found in a supermarket. So, in addition to solar power, students learn about recycling too.

Mr Sunshine has visited approximately 16 schools and enjoys encouraging potential solar enthusiasts. Fun in the sun is what education should be!

Want to learn about solar energy? Invite Mr Sunshine to your school! Email: admin@suntoy.co.za

Read More
 0
Copyright © 2020 SUNTOY. All rights reserved.
Go to Top