I’m W. David Jollymore, founder of Home Energy Solutions and CEO of GreenElectric Power Corp. For more than 20 years, I’ve worked across two fields that don’t often overlap: hydrogen technology and water treatment. That combination taught me something fundamental: impurity, contamination, and system reliability are the same problem wearing different names.
How I Got Into Hydrogen
Early in my career, I was engaged by Bill Ross, a hydrogen pioneer and documented electrolyzer inventor, to solve a specific engineering problem: carryover contamination in electrolyzer output. My water treatment background turned out to be exactly the right lens for that problem. A field incident in 2002 has stayed with me — impurity carryover from an HHO unit caused an ambulance throttle body to fail. It’s the kind of failure that doesn’t show up in textbook diagrams, but it’s exactly the kind of detail that matters when you’re responsible for a system working in the real world.
The Lesson That Changed Everything
In 2011, I was summoned to Umuahia in Abia State, Nigeria, to evaluate solar technology being sold to the region. What I found changed how I think about energy solutions entirely.
Umuahia is known for excessive rain and cloud cover — the climate alone makes solar panels a poor fit. But the real problem was on the ground: streets were garbage-riddled, with people burning waste on empty lots for lack of any other disposal method.
The lesson was immediate and clear: solar wasn’t the answer to Umuahia’s problem. The city had an energy crisis, yes, but it had a waste crisis first. I designed and proposed a waste-to-energy pyrolysis system that would convert the garbage being burned into electricity. The technology matched the actual local problem, not an imported solution.
A dangerous field incident — an attempted kidnapping in 2011 — led me to pivot my focus away from Nigeria. My team was not comfortable to continue working in that country. But the lesson stayed with me.
Why This Matters for Home Energy Solutions
That experience taught me something most energy consultants never learn: technology choice is secondary to local resources, climate, and infrastructure. You can’t sell a homeowner in British Columbia a wind turbine designed for Kansas. You can’t recommend a ground-source heat pump when the soil won’t support it. You can’t build a solar array without understanding your local sun hours.
Home Energy Solutions is built on that principle: fit the technology to the resources and conditions you actually have, not the other way around. It sounds simple, but it runs counter to how most energy systems are sold — as products first, site-specific strategy never.
What I Write
I write nonfiction, technically grounded books on energy systems aimed at engineers, students, and anyone who wants the real mechanics, not marketing language. My titles include The Hydrogen Energy Handbook, The Zero Emissions Engine Is Here, The Engineers H2 Energy Handbook, and the four-volume graduate-level textbook series, Hydrogen Energy Systems. I deliberately avoid hype in my writing. If a claim can’t be backed up with real engineering or field experience, it doesn’t go in the book.
That same standard governs how I approach home energy consulting. No greenwashing. No technology-first recommendations. Just: what works here, for this property, with these resources, at this stage.
Beyond the Page
I’m based in Cobble Hill, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. My wife, Mary E. Graydon, is a credentialed English teacher and author of the Learn English Easy series.