Power Bill

[the_new_darren]

or buy a chinese grid tie inverter and plug the solar panels into a socket outlet. Just don't produce more than you use otherwise it looks like you are stealing power. h34r:

Sounds interesting. Where do I get one of these?

tnd

 

[Nick JD]

Sounds interesting. Where do I get one of these?

tnd

If it was economically viable to save money with solar panels the world's energy problems would be already solved.

False economy.

 

[Snow]

If it was economically viable to save money with solar panels the world's energy problems would be already solved.

False economy.

Actually, in local situations, it is more than economically viable - it is profitable at the moment. Due to Govt subsidised feed-in tarifs and the rising price of electricity (tipped to double in the next 3 years), it is affordable to go down the solar PV route.

Granted, on a global scale, it is currently unsustainable due to the resources required to provide every household with panels and inverters, but hey - it works at my house! I have 4.2KW on the roof and just got a cheque for $200 from Origin for the last quarter. Even factoring in rainy days, short winter days, etc, at current feed-in rates, the system will pay for itself in 6 years or so. And that's running 5 fridges and a tank pump. After that, I'll be making a profit.

The savings from installing solar PV are more than the interest you would pay on the loan for the system, so it makes no sense NOT to have solar PV if you live in a sunshine-rich country. Obviously if you live in a deep valley or your roof is covered in shade all day or you live in melbourne it's a different story h34r:

Cheers - Snow.

 

[Airgead]

If it was economically viable to save money with solar panels the world's energy problems would be already solved.

False economy.

Even without government rebates, utility scale solar is already at almost grid parity with peaking gas... On a domestic scale solar will be grid parity with coal inside 5 years. Germany (which isn't known for its sunshine) is already 30% solar and plans 100% renewable by 2050.

The problem with solar isn't cost its storage. That's what is slowing utility scale adoption. Lots of interesting work with compressed gas and molten salt storage being done and there are plants running in Europe providing solar baseload power.

The initial investment is high (which is why its slow starting) but once up, the production costs are pretty much 0.

4Kw on my roof and a $300 credit every quarter. That's after running 2 internet businesses and associated servers from home as well as the brewing (4 fridges.. ouch). Best decision I ever made.

Cheers
Dave

 

[user 384]

I can't believe some of the figures being quoted, like using an average of 28kWh per day.

When we moved into our new house our electricity bill hit a peak of 11.8 kWh per day. This was a Jan-March quarter and pretty hot. We were using the air-con, which is a massive unit and I regret installing one large compressor instead of 2 or 3 smaller compressors. This summer has been much cooler and our last quarter was back down to 5.6 kWh per day, which is a little lower than what we have used each quarter for the past several years that I've been keeping records.

I just can't understand how people use so much energy. I'm not a hippy living in the bush, sitting around a single light bulb, powered by a converted bicycle, we live in a large modern inner city town house. We have all the mod-cons, even luxuries like a touch screen computer mounted on the kitchen benchtop and a large refrigerated wine cabinet. We try (but often fail) to stick with the mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Reduce is first because it's most important. Some of you guys need to seriously reduce your electricity usage.

When we built our house, we had it pre-wired for solar panels, which we finally installed when we had more savings. Last quarter was the first full quarter of production. We made 1119 kWh of energy and used 519 kWh. This meant a cheque of $383.53. More important than the cheque is that we created a surplus of 600 kWh of low/no emissions energy that could be used by others.

 

[QldKev]

Are solar panels covered by insurance if they are damaged in a hail storm ?

serious question. Just thinking that could hit the pay of period hard.

 

[Airgead]

Are solar panels covered by insurance if they are damaged in a hail storm ?

serious question. Just thinking that could hit the pay of period hard.

Yep. Considered part of the building so covered by the storm damage clause of your insurance.

Cheers
Dave

 

[robbo5253]

Are solar panels covered by insurance if they are damaged in a hail storm ?

serious question. Just thinking that could hit the pay of period hard.

Most policies will cover them for Storm (hail) but exclude atmospheric conditions such as frost & mildew.

Cheers

Robbo

 

[Amber Fluid]

WoW... I am astonished at how low most of your bills are. My bill for a 1/4 is usually between $1000 and $1200. I'll need to have a look at the last one when I get home.

Sheesh... I'd kill for a bill as low as some mentioned in this thread!

 

[donburke]

WoW... I am astonished at how low most of your bills are. My bill for a 1/4 is usually between $1000 and $1200. I'll need to have a look at the last one when I get home.

Sheesh... I'd kill for a bill as low as some mentioned in this thread!

why is it so high ? what are you running ?

 

[mikk]

why is it so high ? what are you running ?

He must be forgetting about the bank of 40 UV Growing Lamps in the spare room?!

 

[donburke]

He must be forgetting about the bank of 40 UV Growing Lamps in the spare room?!

right, didnt realise it was a place of business

 

[komodo]

Re insurance Surely you could nominate them if they weren't.
Hell I have my CD collection nominated. If I can nominate that then surely solar panels can be.

I cant do solar at my place because I have a great honkin' gum tree that covers 2/3 of my roof with its canopy
I use an average of 19.25kW a day. I live in a 17 square (157sq/mt) brick veneer home with a klip-lok style deck roof sheeting in a light color with a 27.5degree pitch coupled with cathederal ceilings throughout most of the building.
But being a home built in 1986/7 its not thermally efficient. Single glazed windows made of oregan. Foil wrap insulation to the roof and walls. No insulation to the cielings (and no space through most of the house to put any). No floor insulation (house is on stumps).

MAH the reality is that to make my house energy efficient as your modern town house I would need to rip the lid off drop the cielings a few inches to get a cavity deep enough to insulate. Rip all the plaster off the walls and use a batt style insulation in the walls. Insulate the floor, replace all the windows with aluclad type units or uPVC - preferably double glazed. Replace my ducted heating unit with a more efficient unit and better insulated ducting. Change my inverter reverse cycle AC to either ducted or several smaller units.
Fact is that to do all that I'd be up for the best part of $80k on a house thats only worth $450k and is only 25 years old. For around 3 times the price of modifying my house I could knock the existing dwelling over and build a super efficient home of a larger size that I could design with solar and other energy saving solutions in mind. But the reality is that its just not worth it.
Admittedly I could change all my down lights from halogen to LED (I've got about 30 of them). But they are hardly ever on except the kitchen lights which are on whilst my partner is cooking.

My parents have a home thats around 60sq (560sq/mt) no solar but it has hydronic floor heating, ducted evap cooling, good insulation, good thermal mass (poured earth construction), miglass double glazed windows etc. Their house costs them LESS per quarter for 5 adults (mum, dad, my 25 yr old brother and my grand parents) to live there than my partener and I (working full time only home from 7:30PM - 8am) to live in our house. They have 3 plasma TVs on nearly constantly, 3 PCs, the house is light up like a christmas tree and theres no need to ever wear a jumper in their house. They have an AGA stove thats on all the time (quite litterally - you dont turn it off).
But the difference is that their house was built using modern materials and was designed to be (some what) energy efficient. My house @ 25 years old was built with no thought towards energy efficiency.
You cant just assume that people with high utility bills are wasting energy because they dont care - many dont have a financially viable alternative.

 

[Amber Fluid]

why is it so high ? what are you running ?

5 Bedroom house
2 kids
2 air conditioners (1 upstairs, 1 down stairs)

3 freezers
2 fridges
1 keezer
1 FV fridge fulltime
1 FV part time
1 FV yet to be used

Washing machine and dryer is used everyday

65" plasma
42" plasma
28" LCD
Huge Stereo/HiFi/Theatre system

All the usual things like stove/oven/microwave, coffee machine and other kitchen appliances. No gas where I am so all run on power.

Price for power is about .21c per kW and .23c for another tarriff. I'll need to dig out the last power bill when I get home to confirm.

 

[mikk]

You cant just assume that people with high utility bills are wasting energy because they dont care - many dont have a financially viable alternative.

True, but my place is about 370 sqm & a sauna in summer/freezer in winter. Reverse cycle split system air cons (2 of) are on very frequently, & 6 fridges are on at various temperatures all the time.

$1000 a quarter for other peoples bills mean that i could run 4 air conditioners & 12 fridges plus the normal household appliances/hot water/clothes dryer & it STILL wouldn't cost that much. Just seems a bit wrong, really, doesn't it?!

 

[Amber Fluid]

I find it amusing that some people think that just because something is not the same as them then something else must be wrong.

I assure you there are no grow lights anywhere and the fact remains that this is what the power bill is.

Do you use gas at home?... if so then that is one big difference.
Do you go to bed early?.... if so then that is another.
I guarantee your house is not as hot as what mine gets in the summer. I have had a heat analysis done on the property which gets direct sun all day and the loungeroom's external wall is all standard glass as is about 2.5 meters of the roof. The kitchen is butted to the lounge and that too has an external wall that is all standard glass. We were advised to get tinted double glazed windows and use external roller covers for the windows. That's is all well and good if you have the money for it. Unfortunately I am not in a position to have this done at the moment so we are in a catch 22 situation.

The fact remains, what I mentioned above is our standard bill with no illegit activities. It is a bit hard to prove what activities are conducted so you can only take my word for that. However, it is easy to prove my billing costs which I can do when I get home.

 

[Airgead]

5 Bedroom house
2 kids
2 air conditioners (1 upstairs, 1 down stairs)

3 freezers
2 fridges
1 keezer
1 FV fridge fulltime
1 FV part time
1 FV yet to be used

Washing machine and dryer is used everyday

65" plasma
42" plasma
28" LCD
Huge Stereo/HiFi/Theatre system

All the usual things like stove/oven/microwave, coffee machine and other kitchen appliances. No gas where I am so all run on power.

Price for power is about .21c per kW and .23c for another tarriff. I'll need to dig out the last power bill when I get home to confirm.

The dryer every day won't be helping. Those things are terrible for your power bills. The other things that bumps up the power is aircon. Especially if its on a lot. You don't mention how often you use them. Did a power audit on a place once that has $2000/quarter bills. mostly because they ran the aircon all day, every day. With a big house that's only partially occupied (5 bedroom 2 kids) you may well be heating/cooling a bunch of unused space. Make sure the doors to the unused (or less frequently used) rooms are shut and you may find the aircon bills come down.

If you are on a time of day meter you can run the washer and dryer after 9pm to get the lower rates. if you're on a fixed tarriff there's nothing you can do there.

I'm assuming you are on electric hot water. That usually accounts for 40% of your power usage. Make sure its on off peak if its a storage type. You can replace with a heat pump type which is much more efficient or solar with electric boost when the system needs replacing.

I'd also check the insulation in the roof and see if its up to scratch (or present).

Cheers
Dave

Edit: oh yeah... and if you have problems with radiant heat through glass, an external shade or planting a shade screen can make a massive difference. My house has huge windows facing west. used to be an oven. A few plantings later and we don't use the aircon any more.

 

[stux]

Aircon, Dryers and Pools.

These are a few of the expensive things!


I'm in the same situation, power bill of between 1000 and 2000$ per quarter. (Before solar)

My 1.5KW paid for itself already... (66c GFIT FTW)

 

[Morrie0069]

I've come to the conclusion that women cost a lot to run!

Just wondering what kind of tarrifs everyone is paying? In Tassie they are:

Standard residential rates

Light and Power Tariff 31
Fixed Charges 89.145 /day
Energy Rate (all units) 25.132 /unit

Note: Curtilage conditions may apply

Hot Water Tariff 41
Fixed Charges 17.266 /day
Energy Rate (all units) 15.157 /unit

The Aurora Heating Discount (HydroHeat) (hot water and space heating)* - Tariff 42
Fixed Charges 17.266 /day
Energy Rate (all units) 15.157 /unit

* a minimum output of 3.5 kW in the main living area applies for space heating under HydroHeat.

OffPeak with afternoon boost period Tariff 61
Fixed Charges 21.878 /day
Energy Rate (all units) 12.202 /unit

* available for a period of at least 9 hours between 8pm of every day and 7am of the following day and 2 hours between 1pm 4.30pm of every day.

OffPeak, night period only Tariff 62
Fixed Charges 21.878 /day
Energy Rate (all units) 11.492 /unit

With the fixed charges, just by having the power connected is costing around $120 a quarter.

Cheers,

Morrie

 

[Mayor of Mildura]

I've got a 5 bedroom low set home in Mildura. 2 Adults 2 Kids.

Our last quarterly bill was around $750. Middle of summer. Wife and kids home from school with the Aircon (ducted refrigerated) Cranking. My brewing usage (urn, 3x fridges) pales in comparison.

Our consumption will drop in the next quarter with the better weather. Then it will go back up again in winter with aircon running (for heating).

It's interesting that our power bills aren't much different to our last place (tiny old weatherboard on stumps). This has a lot to do with superior insulation and the way that the house is positioned on the block (long part of the house east-west).