Our Solar was installed in the early days, so still paid $900 for the 3 phase meter but it was not a smart electricity supply meter.
Our electricity bills are not high ( have Gas Heating/cooking) but the July charges will hurt. The Smart meter will greatly reduce electricity cost/use between 10am an 3pm, so will look at running the dish washer, washing machine etc etc around this time, so what if Simply Energy knows what we are doing, its1/3 or less than the peak electricity cost that we are paying at the moment.
The cheaper rates are part of a Solar Sponge initiative see below.
Not only big brother. Little brother as well. When smart meters were first introduced it wasn't long before third parties got into systems to gather data when people were not at home, then break in.
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Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
Re Break in,
Hopefully our Movement Detection Burglar Alarm System with Loud Internal Sirens and Camera with auto warning Phone calls to neighbours will move them on, otherwise its an Insurance Claim.
In our case, given that we still get 52c/kWh for feed in it is to our advantage to use as little as possible during sunlight hours & use appliances like dishwasher, clothes washer & drier at night.
Wish that I had put 5kWh system on the roof when we first went solar, but with the price of panels at the time it was just too dear for us and now we can't change anything solar (with minor exceptions such as like for like 'mtce' items) without loosing the 44c/kWh from the Qld Govt.
In any case, with our current feed in tariff & the range of Govt. subsidies that keep coming our power bill is insignificant, rarely reaching $100 per quarter. Not even half a tank of juice for the thirsty Patrol.
What's to stop someone putting a couple of solar panels in their backyard, connected to a couple of 100AH Gel batteries and putting in a 12 volt light in the room they use most?
What's to stop someone putting a couple of solar panels in their backyard, connected to a couple of 100AH Gel batteries and putting in a 12 volt light in the room they use most?
Hot water is a big one, get a compressor HWS (my parents had one in the 1980s) and run it off your own 12v system.
Expand the 12v / inverter as one gets their head around things.
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Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!
50L custom fuel rack 6x20W 100/20mppt 4x26Ah gel 28L super insulated fridge TPMS 3 ARB compressors heatsink fan cooled 4L tank aftercooler Air/water OCD cleaning 4 stage car acoustic insulation.
What's to stop someone putting a couple of solar panels in their backyard, connected to a couple of 100AH Gel batteries and putting in a 12 volt light in the room they use most?
Hot water is a big one, get a compressor HWS (my parents had one in the 1980s) and run it off your own 12v system.
Expand the 12v / inverter as one gets their head around things.
You could consider an Evacuated Tubing Solar Hot Water system which will boil water even when ambient temps are waaay below zero. Way back I sold many of these around Geelong, Ballarat and Charlton etc with NEVER a complaint from customers. Apricus is a good brand. Cheers
P.S No association with Apricus.
-- Edited by yobarr on Tuesday 5th of July 2022 02:20:21 PM
