Power $$$ cost and cooking at home

[edz]

Ever noticed that certain topics come up in everyday conversations ..
Well lately the cost of power has been pretty much coming up and people around here are resorting to using " Camping style " methods to cook with, IE : Ye olde gas camping cookers [ Butane jobbies included ] and camp ovens in the back yard ..
Probably not what the usual suburbanites are used too . Though I do like the smell of a campfire / cooking wafting around .
We do use a Butane cooker on the bench top quite regularly as a stand alone or to augment the frying pan / microwave  [ could it be a false economy ? ] ..
Any one else use their camping gear at home for more than the odd special occasion .

[Hoyks]

I think it would be a false economy. Most of the bill is supply charges that you cop whether you flick a switch or not.

[SEADOO]

We use the Webber to cook meat. We have One of those big ones under the rear pergola.

The cook top runs on a pair of those 5ft gas bottles. Been here 4 years and have to replace one yet.

So no, cooking at home doesn't affect the power bill.

Heating is another thread. We are in a bad economy if people can't afford to heat their homes.

We aren't to bad, we only turn it on when it's really cold. My wife had surgery last year and was couched bound for 4 weeks during a really cold winter. The power bill almost doubled.

We looked at one of those fancy fire places. Fire wood isn't cheap and the cost of purchase and installation was over $2k.

[Inland_Sailor]

Most people worry about their power bills but don't worry a toss about their internet and telephony costs. Me being an "old fart" spend about $15.00 per 6 weeks with Aldi mobile even on my iphone, cause I don't use data, just calls and sms. 50 gig at home with a netphone is $55.00 per month and I could probably do better than that. So $70.00 pulls it up. Yet I see folk on triple that and more for their phones. An extra $150 -$200 pm on energy would go a long way to solving the problem.

[speewa158]

l have 4.5K of solar on the roof , 20 panels . Had it for 5 years now , don't have to pay power bills as my rebate covers that & my counsel rates     
Think about it 

[xcvator]

l have 4.5K of solar on the roof , 20 panels . Had it for 5 years now , don't have to pay power bills as my rebate covers that & my counsel rates     
Think about it 

No good thinking about it those rebates have gone forever and you know it , we're talking about now in the now world

[rossm]

I fired up Rob's fire pit the other night, spending an hour or so getting a bed of coals to grill a steak for a few minutes each side. But the wood was free.

And  it was great enjoying a few beers by the fire.

Sometimes the journey is as important as the destination.

[Bird]

No good thinking about it those rebates have gone

agree... after the last solar gig where apprentices were getting killed, then I cant see any party going political suicide on that one sadly.. if they do - I'm on it.. wazbot also has free gas water and electric as he got onto it on day 1 when the first rebates were introduced... lucky ****.

[austastar]

Hi
   7 kW of panels on the roof in 2014 and no power bills since.
And over $2k credit in the account.
Yes it cost $7k to install, but as our bill was about $1k a year, it has nearly paid for itself and has 2 years to run at parity till our buy back drops to about 30%.

I suspect we could go off grid if they don't enforce a network cost for availability like Tas water do if you are on tanks and the street has reticulated water pipes running near your boundary.

Cheers

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[DrewXT]

We're building at the moment, and will be putting on 15kW of panels with a battery array down the track... Don't anticipate paying for power ever

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[vern]

agree... after the last solar gig where apprentices were getting killed, then I cant see any party going political suicide on that one sadly.. if they do - I'm on it.. wazbot also has free gas water and electric as he got onto it on day 1 when the first rebates were introduced... lucky ****.

That was the insulation scheme not the solar scheme.

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[vern]

No good thinking about it those rebates have gone forever and you know it , we're talking about now in the now world

Rebates haven't changed, its the feed in tariffs that have dropped.

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[vern]

We're building at the moment, and will be putting on 15kW of panels with a battery array down the track... Don't anticipate paying for power ever

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Drew, get your installers to put offgrid ready inverters in now instead of forking out for replacement inverters down the track. I would look at Selectronics

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[DrewXT]

Drew, get your installers to put offgrid ready inverters in now instead of forking out for replacement inverters down the track. I would look at Selectronics

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We're looking at an Enphase system at the moment...

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[firefox]

I have 2x SMA sunny islands and 2x banks of LG Chem batteries. Always enough power even to run the swim spa and not connected to anything, totally offgrid. Never a bill

[vern]

I have 2x SMA sunny islands and 2x banks of LG Chem batteries. Always enough power even to run the swim spa and not connected to anything, totally offgrid. Never a bill

You must have around 10kw of panels to have 2 sunny islands, not a bad inverter, have used them in the past, vert robust.


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[firefox]

Vern I have 18kw of panels, split between 2x SMA 5kw sunnyboy and 2x 3kw sunny boys.
Everything's is redundant and I run 2 phases with cut over switches etc. means if a system fails I can switch it over.

Everything is connected also to a backup generator with auto start, even for winter in tassie though the generator is barely ever starting it's programmed only for emergency backup.

[vern]

We're looking at an Enphase system at the moment...

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Yeah i haven't actually installed any enphase gear, although i have been trained in it. Great gear and great back up, but all those micro inverters put me off. Atleast with it you can just get sau a Selectronics sp pro and batteries and hook it straight up.

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[Craig Tomkinson]

Hi Firefox, What is a set up like yours worth as my wife and I would love to go off grid, we pay around $3400 a year for power, Craig

[chester ver2.0]

Hi
   7 kW of panels on the roof in 2014 and no power bills since.
And over $2k credit in the account.
Yes it cost $7k to install, but as our bill was about $1k a year, it has nearly paid for itself and has 2 years to run at parity till our buy back drops to about 30%.

I suspect we could go off grid if they don't enforce a network cost for availability like Tas water do if you are on tanks and the street has reticulated water pipes running near your boundary.

Cheers

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

So how does the 2K in credit actually work cause i simply cannot see an electricity company writing me a cheque

[vern]

Vern I have 18kw of panels, split between 2x SMA 5kw sunnyboy and 2x 3kw sunny boys.
Everything's is redundant and I run 2 phases with cut over switches etc. means if a system fails I can switch it over.

Everything is connected also to a backup generator with auto start, even for winter in tassie though the generator is barely ever starting it's programmed only for emergency backup.

Sounds like a good set up. What size battery bank?

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[firefox]

I have the older LG CHem's unfortunately but with 2x expansions each so (2x 6.4, 4x 3.2)'s.. I would have preffered to have all the units in slave/master mode and just drawing from one core system, but after tests and assistance with SMA this is unsupported due to the Sunny islands only able to read from 1 battery bank. So i ended up with.

Phase 1 - Essentials grid
1x LG Chem 6.4 master unit
2x LG Chem 3.2's (expansions packs) so a total of 12.8kwh
1x Sunny Island 6
1x Sunny Boy 5kw
1x Sunny Boy 3kw
We have 8kw of panels on this section, split over 3 different panel strings (1 on top of shed) and then 2 seperate ground mount banks)

Phase 2 - Non-Essentials grid
1x LG Chem 6.4 master unit
2x LG Chem 3.2's (expansions packs) so a total of 12.8kwh
1x Sunny Island 6
1x Sunny Boy 5kw
1x Sunny Boy 3kw
We have 10kw of panels on this section, split over 3 different panel strings (1 on top of shed) and then 2 seperate ground mount banks)

Then i have a single 8kw Honda auto start generator connected to both units allows for timer controlled running, as well as backup capability, currently programmed if batteries drop below 10% it auto starts and charges to 40%. Runs very rarely.

SMA Cluster controller in the middle of all of it to help with control/monitoring capability.
And some Transfer/Phase switches etc so if i loose phase 1 batteries i can switch the phase to run off the second bank whilst repair first. Was implemented for full redundancy in the system, including loosing a SMA sunny boy (hence why there are 2 solar inverters in each) if one plays up (which it has in the past) the phase will continue to charge. Redundancy was a big thing for me, needed to ensure i had everything all ok to run.

[Craig Tomkinson]

Great info Firefox, that cost how much, Craig

[vern]

Great info Firefox, that cost how much, Craig

I would guess in the vicinity of $60k

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[Bird]

I would guess in the vicinity of $60k

bargain