Electric vehicles and alternate fuel sources

We've got a 6.2kw 3 phase system on the shed and a 1.6kw single phase on the house. Both face due north. Prior to solar our place would burn just short of 24kw/hours per day. Tank water pumps, swimming pool filter, pool solar heater pump etc. We don't consciously save power, just use it as and when wanted, rather than needed.

On average our bills are less than half what they were prior to having the systems installed. Might add, the most profitable day I recorded generated 48.8 kw/hours from both systems on a good hot summer day.
Have contemplated batteries, just for power when the grid goes out, as in last bushfires.

I think battrey thing is a good deal if people have the disposable income to purchase it

Not so long ago I would of said people are better to pat their house off but with very low interest rates this might not be the case anymore

As with all things it would be a horses for courses type of deal

Paul

Have been looking around getting quotes for solar and as grid supplier now limits some rural connections to piss all feed back our system will have to be designed to maximise self consumption so battery will be needed to achieve that. recently one of those really clever Aussies who advises American governments commented that batteries are more expensive than they needed to be due to government regulations and that kw for kw you could buy a Tesla 3 and get the car thrown in for free. The upshot being that payback period for batteries is still too long. Other thing happening is that in the last year the cost of panels has nearly doubled - because we gambled on China giving us cheap stuff forever.
Quotes have varied enormously from $40k down to $15k but still trying to get the cheap ones to match their spec and provide exclusions in writing to the dearer ones. The most expensive one was happy to put all the panels on east facing pitch and said perfect north facing unshaded shed 60 m away couldn't be done - so I know he is having a lend.

Our small array of solar panels when fitted sent the power to the grid for buy back. Wasn't bad in the beginning but soon the buy back money offered was an insult. Spoke to a local electrical mob who under no obligation or cost came out and spoke to us about our needs and uses.
He made a suggestion that we use this other meter that puts the generated powe straight into ou house and we use it at the poor buy back price which is still cheaper than buyin git at the normal rate. As both of us at that time were working fom home it worked well for us. Now working far less but probably still using just as much by playing with the toys it was a good decision to use what we generated but excess went to the grid. So dishwashe, washing machines and all that stuff gets sparked up during the sunny parts of the days.

Id think air conditioning would be a good load for solar.....the woman down the back says she spends $800 a quarter on A/C on top of the rest of the power bill.........Ive been planning for a house down the back next to the new shed with 3 phase to both .....but everything seems to be against it.

JOHN.K. wrote:

but everything seems to be against it.

Against what John ? Building a house, putting solar on, putting solar with batteries on ?

The biggest problem with roof top solar is the grid, if for example you put a battery and panels on that generated enough solar to provide all your own requirements and sent the rest back into the grid you will never get paid for that power going into the grid and as such are virtually giving your excess power away

From my understanding the power just gets paid to you as a credit that you can never cash in

I understand if you had another electricity account else where you can sell it to that account but I guess the supply authority would still want a cut for using the power lines

Like all things it does pay to do your research before sticking your hand in your pocket I guess

Paul

Building a house ....Id think the floods just made it even more difficult.................I will look into three phase solar for the shed ....but ATM,id say a diesel genset will be the solution.

Paul, my next door neighbours are on the aged pension. They are frugal with power and they have solar. They get paid. I didn't ask if it was cheque, or direct deposit, but they get it.

Jarrod.

asw120 wrote:

Paul, my next door neighbours are on the aged pension. They are frugal with power and they have solar. They get paid. I didn't ask if it was cheque, or direct deposit, but they get it.

Jarrod.

A friend of mine is in a similar situation. Every quarter the the bill is credited. Once a year they apply to have the credit transferred to their bank and use the funds for a cruise.

Those who got solar early on have good payment deals......if you get solar on now ,the payment is very much less ...............I also see claimed that EV s are in big demand and sell for more than new price secondhand..................but i think that applies to most cars due to the long waits for new cars.