House & Home I'm too stingy with my Solar

Discussion in 'Living Room' started by Angel, 17th Dec, 2018.

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  1. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    This time last year, Mr Angel signed a contract with Origin to provide our house with 24 you-beaut top of the range solar panels and the best of the best Inverters from Europe, with no fee to us up front. 20-something pages of contract later, I was no more sure of what he had signed us up for, but heck - no $$$ down and the thrill of getting Solar. My Frugal Green Goddess was glowing.

    Glowing with apprehension, that is. "Dont you ever trust me" he shouted into the phone every time I rang him at work to ask yet another question. What the contract he forwarded to me stated and what Mr Angel kept telling our friends what he had bought were seriously two different things. "Oh well, this is going to be good", I reassured my nervous self. At the Inner Northern Suburbs Family (who hate us) Christmas Party he proudly boasted that His Mrs is getting 24 Solar Panels for Christmas when my Dutch Diamond-Dripping sister in law was discussing her cache of jewels, dresses and their new million dollar house in inner northern Brisbane. We haven't been invited back for Ashgrovian Christmas Party v2

    The financial tally goes like this:
    Total Cost of Grid Power for 2017 - $2605.
    Cost of grid power for 2018 = $774
    add Lease Charges to Origin 2018 = $763
    =$1537
    Saving: $1068

    I smugly run one air con unit in the house each day for my dog when I go to work.

    "What is the problem?" you ask. We have just had three days of rain and our kids don't have a washing machine at their townhouse. Yes I am delighted that they have moved out of home; they are both older than 30. The use of any appliances here is free to us on sunny days but we get charged for use from the grid when it is raining. I've just put about ten loads of clothes, towels and sheets through my washer and drier since Friday, which doesn't phase me one bit. But you should have seen my consternation at the thought of running a fully laden smelly dishwasher after dark just then rather than wait until it is light again tomorrow.
     

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    Last edited: 18th Dec, 2018
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  2. Stoffo

    Stoffo Well-Known Member

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    Don't feel too bad about it all ;)

    As you are far from alone, having solar can definitely make you re think your power usage and times :cool:

    I even go to the extent of turning the pool timer off on rainy days, and never run the washing machine and dish washer at the same time :confused:

    Oh sorry, I should be posting in the "First World Problems" thread :p
     
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  3. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    I get free Solar too, no feed in tariff, no contract. In summer I get 16-17 hours of daylight and warmth, in winter it's a bit more unreliable with only 10 hours and not much heating. They even push the clock out by an hour so we can enjoy that daylight when we're out of bed.
     
    Last edited: 17th Dec, 2018
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  4. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    We don't have solar power, but I generally use solar power for clothes drying. A Hills hoist and pegs.

    We wash clothes in cold water, so I guess the dishwasher would be the main energy user this time of year.

    We have solar hot water, but that's ineffective during winter. And the heating is on most of the time during winter. The cooling cycle doesn't get used often in the milder Canberra summer.
     
  5. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    Bah Humbug.
    In Qld for half the year we get less sunshine than you bloody Sydneyites. Not fair
     
  6. Islay

    Islay Well-Known Member

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    Haha, we are like that too. So proud to have got our electricity bill down to a grand total of $964 for the whole year this year! Much of that is those pesky daily connection fees and rainy/cloudy days. My gadget loving other half has measured everything and assures me we have produced more power than we have used but the 6c feed in tariff we get is not enough to cover the power we use after dark/wet days etc
     
  7. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    I know, right. It's so hard to run them at the same time when I know I really have to.
     
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  8. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    Those pesky Taswegians get more than both of us.
     
  9. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    (Ant)Arctic Circle for you lot!
     
  10. Scott No Mates

    Scott No Mates Well-Known Member

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    Now you'll get the cold shoulder.
     
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  11. chindonly

    chindonly Well-Known Member

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    Nice! Do they have a deal with a battery as well?
     
  12. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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    Perhaps not cold shoulder, but sitting on ice in the Arctic Circle could give you polaroids.
     
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  13. Redwing

    Redwing Well-Known Member

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    Looking at Solargain

    Queenslanders are being offered interest-free loans and grants for solar power systems and battery storage to home owners and small businesses.
     
  14. Lizzie

    Lizzie Well-Known Member

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    ... and that's why we paid the extra and got the battery.

    My last winter bill was $64 and, although we heat with the fireplace, I wasn't shabby about using the dryer. Neighbours have given up ringing to check whether we're also suffering from a power cut as we'd never notice with everything still working.
     
  15. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    Gotta be nice to Geoff.
    He's a moderator.
     
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  16. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    Our contract strictly forbids attaching a battery. When we sell one of the IPs we will have the cash to pay out the lease.
     
  17. Angel

    Angel Well-Known Member

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    I just remembered that those figures aren't accurate anyway. The contract was signed the week before Christmas, but the hardware wasn't installed until the end of January. Then it took another two months before anyone came back and connected the smart meter. Therefore the first two Energy Australia bills for 2018 were without any solar or feed in tariffs. Our last two have been $54 and most recently $6 credit.

    I'll get back to you same time next year.
     
  18. geoffw

    geoffw Moderator Staff Member

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  19. Dan Donoghue

    Dan Donoghue Well-Known Member

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    I have a battery (Tesla).

    When we moved up (Pre battery) our power bill was in the order of 400 per qtr with the pool pump running 2 hours a day.

    We just got a power bill, our pump now runs 6 hours a day since we got the battery and the bill was $100 including the $1 a day connection fee.

    We have 5 air-con units but they are inverters so once the place is cool they run at around 100 watts.

    Most nights the battery gets us through, it's usually charged by mid day then every extra watt after that is fed back to the grid.

    Right now, it's overcast on the GC, the house is using 300 Watts and I am pushing 1.5KW ot the battery.

    The battery will "probably" fully charge today however this week because the weather has been so awful, we have sucked 50KW from the grid (180KW total home use so 130 from Solar and battery).

    This month the house has used 697kWh

    231 from the Battery
    129 from the Grid
    337 from the Solar

    As an owner of the battery, is it worth it?

    For us yes. This is because we bought the house with the Solar on it already so we didn't pay for that, if you don't have Solar already it isn't worth getting both. It's better to get Solar now with all the rebates then next year when the government moves the incentive from solar to battery then get the battery.

    The battery has 100% efficiency life of 10 years with a rating of 80% for 20. We are saving $1,200 a year so after the 10 years the battery will have paid for itself (with the false assumption there will never be any price rises).

    You can very clearly see when I got my battery :):


    17 Aug 18 - 15 Nov 18 - 91 days - kW Usage: 251.230
    17 May 18 - 16 Aug 18 - 92 days - kW Usage: 169.880
    16 Feb 18 - 16 May 18 - 91 days - kW Usage: 1,361.000
     
    Last edited: 18th Dec, 2018
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  20. chylld

    chylld Well-Known Member

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    Nice one. Powerwall 2 doesn't quite work for my solar setup yet; our current daily bill is $2.00/day, with battery it would drop to $0.66/day which means an $11k install (heard it's more expensive now) would take 22.5 years to pay off.
     
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