Sidecar - Good Thing or What?

No one has that option here. I was several times invited to join a moderated
group. No thanks.

Have a safe and merry Xmas in your cave on the hill.

Theo

 

We've still only got six (6 x 185= 1100 watts) and are currently making 40
units per week. We 'sell' about 6 units a week. Unfortunately my consumption
is 20 a day. This is due mainly to not being connected to mains water and
from filling a tank from my bore and then pumping it again to my lawns,
plants, veggie garden. I reckon half my power goes to water. I'm probably
pumping around 5000 litres per day. On the other hand I am on "Smart Power"
so most of my water is pumped at $0.10 per unit. My current two-monthly bill
is $156, but I don't pay the $800-1000 per annum for water rates. If I used
that much scheme water my bill would be around $2000 per annum.

My oldest son paid $1200 for his last power bill and is expecting the next
one (summer months only) to be closer to $1500. He is also using gas for hot
water (two heaters) and for their cook-top on a separate bill. One of my
mates just paid $800 for power. Talk about unsustainable housing.

Theo

 

Cool. The more we do that the better.

Nice work.

 

Not all of them are blonde

 

AOL - an ale or three would be even better.

 

Unbelievable , we winge about $400 a 1/4 and about to install a 3kw
system , might be a thought for your lad to 1/ make an effort and use
natural cooling instead of a/c and two get some panels ?
Our cooling does use a little power but we pump air underground for
cooling via a modest fan set-up and underground pipes and a heat pump
during winter when needed .There are sustainable affordable ways to
maintain house temp don't you agree ?

 

Theo,
I can't understand your prices as per "unit"
e.g. "40 units a week"
By a unit, do you mean a kilowatt?
I have 6 panels installed and my output varies of coarse by the amount of
UV.
Yesterday. it was cloudy and some rain. yet I went out and checked the
output and it was reading 1200 watts at 210 volts.
My bills are charged at close to 20 cents a kilowatt
my input to the grid, is calculated at 66 cents a kilowatt,
so, with proper management, such as shutting down everything at the wall and
not using things during the day, then only the essentials will be using any
power from the panels and everything else, goes into the 66 cents rebate
And, by using all other electrical devices during the night, I am only being
charged 20 cents a kilowatt.
The installer told me that by using the devices during the day, when the
panels are active, then most or all of that generated panel power, is used
first, into your house, then anything left over, was sent into the grid,
where you get the 66 cents a kilowatt.
So, why use the 66 cent power, when you can benefit more by using the 20
cent power at night?
My bill, has gone from an average of $225 to $58 at the last bill, I am
expecting a new bill in the next few days, which I am hoping to be smaller
still.
I also have a solar hot water system with an electronic instant booster, gas
stove and a gas room heater.

 

I can't tell you the exact specifics , a friend who was trained in the
uk in a/c and heating who built it all but I remember the depth was
about 2metres and the pipe quite large about 25cm or so , we use a heat
pump in winter which is mounted on the rear of the house in it's own
enclosure and into the under floor heating although other arrangements
wouldn't be difficult
I would assume a google would give you more answer or speak to a
heating engineer

 

Nokia predictive text for beer. (when you don't do it carefully)
Moike

 

We're with TruEnergy who apparently haven't figured out how to bill
houses wuth PV systems. We haven't had a bill since the PV system was
hooked up in Feb.
The school I just left has some panels on the roof, and hasn't had a
bill for over a year. There appears to be legislation that stops the
power company issuing a bill for consumption more than three billing
periods (9 months) late, so we're effectively running on free energy.
The most they can charge us for is consumption for the past nine months.
The limitation does not appear to apply to power we have exported, so
they still owe us credit back to Feb (when they get around to it).

Moike

 

Sure, but you need to have some moxie when buying a house in the first
place. My son's place is two storey with the main living area having a
cathedral ceiling. This means there is at most 125mm between the ceiling and
the dark blue steel roof. Because of the layout and the cathedral ceiling
design he has nine (9) split-system air-conditioners in the house. Pretty
much one for each room He also has a 15 x 8 metre pool which requires the
filter pump running six hours a day. A passive pool heater (black poly pipes
on the roof) which still requires a pump to make the water run through it.
His pool uses more power than my house. The house has a Gable facing North
making it difficult to fit panels facing North. This is not a good starting
configuration now, is it?

Theo

 

Unfortunately, reality is something you can only ignore for just so long. It
has to bite you eventually. He has a while to go though. His youngest will
be turning 21 a few days before he turns 66.

Theo

 

If you can afford a house near the coast, you get the afternoon sea breeze.
That breeze is known locally as the Fremantle Doctor, or just the Doctor. As
in "What time is the doctor expected this avo?"

Theo

 

A Kilowatt-hour George. Is there some other unit commonly used for power
generation?

Your panels are powered by UV?

What is the maximum output of each panel George? Mine are 185 watts each and
couldn't achieve 1200 watts ever.

So it matter not when you use your power, except that you should not use
power when the sun is shining.
For Summer, I pay 40cents a unit between 11am and 3 pm weekdays, 20cents
between7 and 11am and between 5 and 9pm. Between 9pm and 7am I pay 10 cents.
On the weekends I pay 17 cents between 7am and 9pm, 10cents for the rest.
They pay me 47 cents for exported units.
So I try to minimise my essentials at peak time (but I'm not going to turn
the fridge off) and maximise my other uses (like watering and dishwasher
use) to the 10 cent periods.

Sure that makes sense.

You appear to be generating a lot more power than I so I expect you probably
have six 300 watt panels or something like that.

My bill has gone from close to $300 three years ago to $156 for the current
one, despite a 50% increase in power prices.

Theo

 

No, it isn't, but in Europe they often don't put the panels on the
farmhouse roof, they put them on frames in fields, and the sheep safely
graze underneath. It's actually cheaper to do that because you don't
have to worry about waterproofing the frame connections to a roof.

 

On 12/21/10 1:37 PM, Theo Bekkers wrote:

My first electricity bill since I installed our solar panels, arrived a
couple of weeks ago.

They owed us just under two hundred dollars.

I had switched to getting our electrical supply from AGL, think (stupid
of me, I know) that I'd get one bill for gas and electricity, so I
phoned them up and asked that they transfer the credit on the 'trickery
account to our gas account.

A couple of days later, a gas bill arrived.

They owe us almost thirty dollars.

This is with a small, 1.5 K watt system, which, so far, has only managed
one day of generating over 10 Kilowatt hours.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Yep. I live in Scarborough on the coast and temps here are generally about 5
to 10 degrees cooler than the city and eastern suburbs in summer.

Fraser

 

Ahhh... I remember now. That short tem memory thing agina, I guess.

 

The Doctor never arrives before lunch, usually more like 2pm. The longer you
live from the beach, the longer it takes to get there. It takes about two
hours to get to my place. My dad lives 100 klicks inland and it gets to his
place between ten and midnight. Not much use then.

Theo