All things Solar (merged threads)

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Mowdit

I joined the solar team last year.
Before the rebate dissappears, with the hope of getting batteries one day.
20kw micro inverter system over 4 different roof area's, put a lot of them facing North West, trying to get the best out of them when the family gets home of an arvo.
1st full quarter bill was $50, down from $700, next bill due any day.
....
If electricity prices keep going up I expect to have the system paid for within six years.
.....

In your calculations you need to also add the following cost to your electricity bill which is a "hidden cost" in solar systems

-the interest you could be saving on your mortgage
-the fact that your system will depreciate
-an inverter might fail etc. as they don't have that long a warranty. $$$$$

[Mowdit]

Originally Posted by zilo

In your calculations you need to also add the following cost to your electricity bill which is a "hidden cost" in solar systems

-the interest you could be saving on your mortgage
-the fact that your system will depreciate
-an inverter might fail etc. as they don't have that long a warranty. $$$$$

Agree, mortgage will forever be a problem, sold a car to pay for it :-(
But with intrest rates so low, better late than never.
The system will depreciate, but I do hope to get 20 years out of it, and by then hopefully the technology will have advanced and be "cheap as chips".
The inverters, are part of the panel and covered for the same warranty period, 10 years, if the company is around in 4-5 years !!!!

Having said all of that, my luck will end in divorce or some sort of catastrophe prior to getting to the 6 year mark, but am hoping it will make the place more saleable should it all turn to ****...........

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

Damo, listen to Zilo, my experiences echo his exactly, 10% discharge is well within operating range for these batteries, not 50%, I know folks who I've helped get off the grid are discharging well below 20% everyday, one household has done so for over 9 years now on the same set of batteries.

Tell you what if I do get my own place in the next 10 years the power company can go jump off the Westgate Bridge, I'm not feeding back into the grid.

I'd be inclinded to spend up big on solar panels, batteries and a decent diesel generator, something say 30KW worth to cover everything worst case scenario at night time if you wanted to run A/C or something in summer or tide you over because of failure of an inverter, panels or battery bank etc.

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Tell you what if I do get my own place in the next 10 years the power company can go jump off the Westgate Bridge, I'm not feeding back into the grid.

I'd be inclinded to spend up big on solar panels, batteries and a decent diesel generator, something say 30KW worth to cover everything worst case scenario at night time if you wanted to run A/C or something in summer or tide you over because of failure of an inverter, panels or battery bank etc.

I will never be without solar now, batteries are on the shopping list for our next place (looking at a place with 10 acres), there we could go totally off grid with our own water and power.

I kinda reckon a decent genny would be the go for refrigerated, a lot of folks here have not got one and do fine on smaller coolers, ducted evaporative's are cheap as chips to run (half horse motor and a 300 watt??? water pump), they run fine off a battery bank, reverse cycle such as ours would need a minimum 15 KW start up.

all depends on what you want to go without, we have done half a dozen shacks that have run well just off solar for years with evap coolers and large 12v/gas fridges.

a lot of inverter type white goods getting around now that are very economical to run, seen a front load washer the other day that was an inverter, quite happy off solar/batt's.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

I will never be without solar now, batteries are on the shopping list for our next place (looking at a place with 10 acres), there we could go totally off grid with our own water and power.

I kinda reckon a decent genny would be the go for refrigerated, a lot of folks here have not got one and do fine on smaller coolers, ducted evaporative's are cheap as chips to run (half horse motor and a 300 watt??? water pump), they run fine off a battery bank, reverse cycle such as ours would need a minimum 15 KW start up.

all depends on what you want to go without, we have done half a dozen shacks that have run well just off solar for years with evap coolers and large 12v/gas fridges.

a lot of inverter type white goods getting around now that are very economical to run, seen a front load washer the other day that was an inverter, quite happy off solar/batt's.

My new Samsung inverter fridge is 280L and uses...40watts!

[Spinner77]

My new Samsung inverter fridge is 280L and uses...40watts!

Care to give us a short review? There is a bit of bad-mouthing about these, noisy and so on.

How do you compare the performance of the Samsung with the traditional ones?

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Spinner77

Care to give us a short review? There is a bit of bad-mouthing about these, noisy and so on.

How do you compare the performance of the Samsung with the traditional ones?

,


It works as a fridge andn freezer in my stand alone grid.

It uses less power than my laptop when charging.

It is 4 stars.

It has no faults or noises, i lifted it into the van, on the boat and on a wheelbarrow up the hill on my own.

It uses 40 watts when first out of the box....much less when cold.

Declared power consumption is 229 kw a year.

I seriously will say that even if you have a perfectly working fridge one of these new technologies will pay for itself in 12 months of power consumption.

I tried a small bar fridge with conventional compressor and it used 5 times the power.

Just do it.

[xisled]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-1...energy/6537814

Interesting to see the coal mine and plant shutting down. Alinta Energy are also not going ahead with the solar farm.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-1...utlook/6540200

[davenl5l]

yes I think us south aussies are about to be screwed even more on power prices

[Mr Hardware]

Queenslanders who have solar and hot water on Tariff 33, do you find that your solar production during the day gets consumed by your hot water system or not?

I switched my electric hws off last night (at the breaker) so this morning it was pretty lukewarm. I turned the breaker back on this morning at about 8, and when i went to check the meter at 5pm, tariff 11 hadn't moved, my solar had fed in some decent kw but my tariff 33 had clocked an extra 7kw. Which leads me to believe that solar production doesn't take over from grid feed tariff 33?

[ebxr8240]

Yes you need to use these things through the day now ..

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by zilo

,


It works as a fridge andn freezer in my stand alone grid.

It uses less power than my laptop when charging.

It is 4 stars.

It has no faults or noises, i lifted it into the van, on the boat and on a wheelbarrow up the hill on my own.

It uses 40 watts when first out of the box....much less when cold.

Declared power consumption is 229 kw a year.

I seriously will say that even if you have a perfectly working fridge one of these new technologies will pay for itself in 12 months of power consumption.

I tried a small bar fridge with conventional compressor and it used 5 times the power.

Just do it.

Do you mind chucking a link up to these types of fridges? I'm after a small fridge for my workshop, makes sense if we get something energy efficient.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Do you mind chucking a link up to these types of fridges? I'm after a small fridge for my workshop, makes sense if we get something energy efficient.

No problemmo....mine is the smallest.

http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/h...RT29FARACSL/SA

[deesun]

This link came up on my Facebook page today regarding the new Powerwall from Tesla.
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/power...gn=powerwallfb

[Mowdit]

Sounds really good

was at battery world this week, asked about solar storage units, was told to wait 12-18 months as there will be some great more advanced units coming onto the market then, way more efficient and cheaper.

This sounds like one of them.

Still, my summer bills are $0-50, autumn $100-150, yet to get thru winter for the first time, but an outlay of $6k to save $400 a year is a stretch still....

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by deesun

This link came up on my Facebook page today regarding the new Powerwall from Tesla.
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/power...gn=powerwallfb

yes, seen them a while back......give the industry a little more time, say 2 years and we will be seeing a lot more of this "stand alone" technology.......and it will become cheaper as it is mass produced.

Mr Rabbit has just given the industry a huge kick in the gut in an effort to continue his "Australia's future lies in coal!" statement made in parliament a while back.

funny how China is reducing it's purchase of coal by a huge margin next year.......clean energy will continue regardless of his thought processes and his energy mogul driven paycheque.

[ebxr8240]

Originally Posted by Mowdit

Sounds really good

was at battery world this week, asked about solar storage units, was told to wait 12-18 months as there will be some great more advanced units coming onto the market then, way more efficient and cheaper.

This sounds like one of them.

Still, my summer bills are $0-50, autumn $100-150, yet to get thru winter for the first time, but an outlay of $6k to save $400 a year is a stretch still....

Your not counting the elect produced by solar through the day that your using ..
Turn your hot water or large elect draw on through the day...
The pittance they pay you isn't worth it ..Better off using it when it's free..

[Mowdit]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

Your not counting the elect produced by solar through the day that your using ..
Turn your hot water or large elect draw on through the day...
The pittance they pay you isn't worth it ..Better off using it when it's free..

Agree, we do, have to be all over it, rain forecasted and the pool filter gets turned off, wait till the sun is out to put the dishwasher or washing machine on too.

Would love a battery bank, but cant justify the cost so soon after getting the system.

One of our neighbors has been bagging solar since he got it 2 years ago, but he runs his pool filter 6 hrs a day rain hail or shine It gets worse, no feed in on his plan !
As no one is home his use is at night, so his bills are still excessive !

Still, glad we took the plunge

[Mr Hardware]

Originally Posted by Mr Hardware

Queenslanders who have solar and hot water on Tariff 33, do you find that your solar production during the day gets consumed by your hot water system or not?

I switched my electric hws off last night (at the breaker) so this morning it was pretty lukewarm. I turned the breaker back on this morning at about 8, and when i went to check the meter at 5pm, tariff 11 hadn't moved, my solar had fed in some decent kw but my tariff 33 had clocked an extra 7kw. Which leads me to believe that solar production doesn't take over from grid feed tariff 33?

Answering my own question, it seems that tariff 33 is 100% grid fed.

[Blue Ice]

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/vi...01-gi2oda.html

5c feed in effective from Jan 1 2016 makes it hardly worth having a feed in at all, it seems it would be better going to battery storage or using every drop during the day.

[Franco Cozzo]

I keep getting joints ringing up my business phone about 'free' solar panels, is there some sort of rebate on or something or are they just trying to talk me into something that is gonna cost me up the ***?

[LG17]

Originally Posted by Blue Ice

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/vi...01-gi2oda.html

5c feed in effective from Jan 1 2016 makes it hardly worth having a feed in at all, it seems it would be better going to battery storage or using every drop during the day.

With these pathetic feed in tarrifs you have to do all your major electricity usage while the sun is out - washing machine, dishwasher, ironing, welding etc. After daylight you have to be extremely frugal.

[CJR09]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

I keep getting joints ringing up my business phone about 'free' solar panels, is there some sort of rebate on or something or are they just trying to talk me into something that is gonna cost me up the ***?

They give you the panels - they maintain ownership and charge you for the Power consumed at a slightly cheaper rate than the power co

[zilo]

Originally Posted by Blue Ice

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/vi...01-gi2oda.html

5c feed in effective from Jan 1 2016 makes it hardly worth having a feed in at all, it seems it would be better going to battery storage or using every drop during the day.

Either sell the panels on ebay and invest the money or....

Isolate the lighting circuit in your house...charge batteries with your panels and run the lights 100% of the time with an inverter and batteries.

Doing that noone can stop you from having a battery based system and a grid connect system.

We did that for years and it doesnt take much to do it.

We had a two way switch for the lighting circuit...brown coal/batteries was the label on it.

[supershifty]

Originally Posted by Mowdit

Agree, we do, have to be all over it, rain forecasted and the pool filter gets turned off, wait till the sun is out to put the dishwasher or washing machine on too.

Would love a battery bank, but cant justify the cost so soon after getting the system.

One of our neighbors has been bagging solar since he got it 2 years ago, but he runs his pool filter 6 hrs a day rain hail or shine It gets worse, no feed in on his plan !
As no one is home his use is at night, so his bills are still excessive !

Still, glad we took the plunge

Fully agree with you Mowdit, Although I've got the high FIT, batteries will be the way to go.

They'll get cheaper and more affordable as time goes by - just gotta wait it out for batteries to get cheaper to go off grid with my panels.

I'll have to change out my inverter, but it's worth it.

Cheers!

[ebxr8240]

Has this been posted .. I guess this is the guy at battery world is talking about..
http://www.teslamotors.com/en_AU/powerwall

[Yellow_Festiva]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

Has this been posted .. I guess this is the guy at battery world is talking about..
http://www.teslamotors.com/en_AU/powerwall

I registered my details then called them to get specs and they couldn't tell me anything at all.

I just need to sit back and wait for the phone call....

[davenl5l]

Just received my new power bill another $200 credit gotta love summer

[supershifty]

Fully love those credits rolling on in, mild winter in QLD this year - so no bills.

Cheers!

[deesun]

Anyone in QLD have one of these powerwall thingy's. Can you add one without it affecting refunds etc? How will it affect usage and KW hour used?