Energy Bills

[Rebel]

Hi,

I will stay with the Solar hot water for the moment and wait and see what happens. The guy across the road from me spent $25,000 five years ago on Solar panels. He said he was happy, but he had a large young family and an electric car.

Thanks again for your posts.I believe people will be very interested.

Cheers.

[Welster]

With solar panels it’s just a matter of knowing where your power consumption is, the space available on the roof, overshadowing and if you have standard billing or time if use.

My pool uses up to 3.5kw over the three pumps so if they are going whilst the power is being produced it is a good saving. My system is 5kw so 3.5 is achievable directly offsetting the pool which I can set the timer to run during the day.   The ducted system probably uses 7 kw whilst it is running.  I

Halogen downlights 50watts each but they are unlikely to be on whilst producing the electricity.

I really think the key is to use the power you create rather than sell it at 11 cents. 

I have a lot of unshaded roof facing north so it works well for me. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by Welster

[zmk1962]

21 minutes ago, Welster said:

I really think the key is to use the power you create rather than sell it at 11 cents. 

Absolutely correct Jason ... thats the best ROI.  

My approach was, have solar cover the peak load heavy consumption devices... then since there was an "installation cost" amortise that over a few extra panels (no additional installation cost) that generated just enough (at 11-13c/kWh) to pay for my typical overnight consumption. 

I'm still left with the supply/connection charge (no getting away from being connected to the grid these days) and the peak and troughs in solar production due to weather and seasonal variations. 

You have to go in eyes open and work the averages.

Cheers Zoran

Edited December 30, 2018 by zmk1962

[JimT]

8 hours ago, Rebel said:

Hi All,

Thank you for your in put. I had no idea about solar panels, but I do now thanks to you. I am with Energy Australia have been for over thirty years, couldn't be happier with their pricing and their servicing. I have solar hot water, had it for about thirteen years, yes it saves money. We also have gas so I run a gas heater in winter and sometimes a log fire on the weekends. We have air conditioners and that is the only time the bill starts to rise. I give Energy Australia a nudge every twelve months asking for a better deal. Over the years they have been very good with their discounts. I believe if you stay with one company they will look after you.

Don't get too comfortable with the same energy company long term....always good to remind them to keep on being competitive.....I have been with AGL for a long while now but they needed prompting a couple of times to stay in the game...

Regards Jim

[Rebel]

Hi,

I will stay with the Solar hot water for the moment and wait and see what happens. The guy across the road from me spent $25,000 five years ago on Solar panels. He said he was happy, but he had a large young family and an electric car.

Thanks again for your posts.I believe people will be very interested.

Cheers.

[Rebel]

Thanks Jim.  If they look after you stay, if not move on. There are plenty on suppliers. They are like banks and insurance companies, there is one on every corner.

Cheers.

[savit]

Why solar is a scam if it was done without quality professional advice? I have seen solar roofs in a number of countries (where people count every $, actually - euro) that get  a fraction of australian sun, and not just separate houses or remote areas - whole streets in solar roofs.

Local retail energy pricing is a scam as it still has a lack of proper regulation.

[Sea Ranger]

We just had Solar installed in November and at the moment are in a unique situation as our power provider is dragging their heels to install a "Smart Meter"  so we Still have the old spinning disk meter.  In other words we sell the excess power back to the grid for the same cost as we purchase it,  No BS Fits No difference in price for power etc.  We have 6.5kw installed by a reputable company.  We did not take the cheapest quote.  Both my wife and I work shift work so our daily loads vary from daytime use to night time use depending on our shifts.

Over the last 3 years of keeping track we use 23.5 kWh per day on average.

Since November we have had 5 days where our system made less than 23.5kWh per day 

Most days run between 25kWh and 31kWh per day

Over Christmas we ran 2 ovens all day baking goodies.  Since we have guests we also ran the air con 24 hours a day since Christmas day.  Fans lights with no regard to saving power.

An interesting observation is that while our solar system cannot keep up with that kind of load day after day we are still spinning the meter backwards most of the time and we have not used any power since November (overall) according to our meter and it will be an interesting bill when they come to read our meter for January.  We have called them to come out and install their "Smart Meter" several times and they say they are coming lol.  

If there is any scam in solar it is that we use less power than we generate over a 24 hour period most days,  However I'm sure the utilities' smart meter will still issue us a bill when it comes in.  

 

A Happy Bear with Solar  🐻

Edited December 31, 2018 by Sea Ranger

[Welster]

8 hours ago, Sea Ranger said:

We just had Solar installed in November and at the moment are in a unique situation as our power provider is dragging their heels to install a "Smart Meter"  so we Still have the old spinning disk meter.  

 

A Happy Bear with Solar  🐻

Will the smart meter have time of use billing?

[Berleyguts]

11 hours ago, Sea Ranger said:

Over the last 3 years of keeping track we use 23.5 kWh per day on average.

Since November we have had 5 days where our system made less than 23.5kWh per day 

Most days run between 25kWh and 31kWh per dayI 

Wow! Our averages vary but 49kWh usage would be a low one. With the heat now and the air con and fans running we’re using about 74kWh per day! But... I try not to dwell on it. There’s lots of other things I could waste money on!

[Guest Guest123456789]

On 1/1/2019 at 10:55 AM, Berleyguts said:

Wow! Our averages vary but 49kWh usage would be a low one. With the heat now and the air con and fans running we’re using about 74kWh per day! But... I try not to dwell on it. There’s lots of other things I could waste money on!

Something is not right there, that’s small factory daily usage. I’d be getting a powerpoint meter reader from Bunnings and recording the draw of each and every appliance connected. I’d then be calculating the daily from there. Either an appliance is faulty or your meter is wrong surely - you can’t be drawing three times what an average family of 4 draws.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Guest123456789
Typo

[Berleyguts]

2 hours ago, flatheadluke said:

Something is not right there, that’s small factory daily usage. I’d be getting a powerpoint meter reader from Bunnings and recording the draw of each and every appliance connected. I’d then be calculating the daily from there. Either an appliance is faulty or your meter is wrong surely - you can’t be drawing three times what an average family of 4 draws.

You’d be surprised. Someone is at home at all times. Multiple living areas all being used at once. Multiple computers and TVs. Portable air conditioners in the workshop. Someone’s always up by 5am and I’m usually still up at 1am. 2 fridges, a wine fridge and an upright freezer. The ducted air con is an older system, not an inverter. I will change that one day. We were heavy users in the old house. We possibly used more and we had gas there. Honestly, we don’t turn anything off at the wall! I go to sleep with the TV on (sleep timer) due to tinnitus and insomnia. The air con’s running for most of the day and night, the pool filter for 5 or 6 hours a day. We have got it down a lot and I’m happy with that. It will reduce further when my son goes travelling and I can basically shut down his room and downstairs and the workshop.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Berleyguts

[zmk1962]

Well for comparison our daily average consumption is 31kWh.  Broken down as 17kWh Controlled Load (off peak) - no choice but to use that, and 14kWh Anytime usage. 

I mostly work from home these days - so thats my wife and I (+2 dogs at home)... two working adult children that represent a morning and evening load.

The following is on ALL the time:

• 920L Fridge Freezer
• 415L Fridge
• 415L Freezer upright
• Bar Fridge
• 3 x TV, DVD, Apple TV etc on standby
• 2 -3 Laptops
• 1 x Wifi and 3 x Wifi extenders
• 50000L saltwater pool - pump and salt cell chlorinator  (7hrs)
• numerous lights and ceiling fans and exhaust fans

When we turn on the A/C (about 35yo Daikin) - it draws about 6-8kW  ... so it really takes the average up. We ran the AC for 7hrs straight NYE as we had family over for dinner and it was too hot sitting outside - we used 79kWh that day, but solar whacked out 36 kWh and offset about half.  So Baz's figures are not out of the ordinary.

Cheers Zoran