Power bill and solar power.....

[The Devil]

There have been a couple of threads about the increases in power bill and maybe changing to solar power.

I am in Brisbane and 10 months ago under a State Gov plan had a 1KW solar power system installed.
Just looking at the meter today and after 10 months it has produced 1300KW or an average of 130KW per month.
That works out at a saving of about 82 cents per day on the current pricing.

I see in today's paper advert for 1.5KW from $1900..installed, fortunately mine only cost $185. under the Gov scheme.

Looking for more savings I changed the air conditioners in all the bedrooms and snake room to off peak controlled supply. This rate in Qld is about 40% cheaper than the normal domestic rate.
The only small drawback is that by using the off peak supply it give the electricity suppliers the ability to turn that power off during peak demand times.
At the moment I loose power to my a/c from 5pm to 9pm each night.

 

[smeejason]

Heard the sparky that did your place was good lookin too!!!
lol lol

 

[Col J]

Hi Devil,

I ordered a 4kw system back in early January & waited 11 weeks for Country Energy to approve my application. They are allowed to take 12 weeks & seem to enjoy stretching it out as much as possible.

Once I got my approval, I was then advised that there have been numerous hold ups with installations, mostly due to supply shortage of inverters. Then, customers who ordered systems on the old rebate scheme have first option, due to having to complete their installation by end of June. Fair enough. Anyway, I should have mine up & running by mid or late-Winter.

NSW has very lucrative payments for green energy. 60 cents / kw for gross input. That's pretty good when you are only paying around 22 cents / kw for usage. Sort of explains why Country Energy hates doing approvals!!

Anyway, I'm getting itchy to get mine up & running & see the effect on energy bills.

Col J.

 

[The Devil]

Heard the sparky that did your place was good lookin too!!!
lol lol

Well, seeing as I'm NOT into blokes I can't really comment. I do know that since you changed the air condt. to off peak my power bill has reduces a fair bit.

 

[The Devil]

Col J.
In Qld the amount paid for any power exported is 44 cents a kw. I think that in the past 10 months I've only exported something like 160KW but I guess it all helps.....

 

[Pike01]

"I see in today's paper advert for 1.5KW from $1900..installed, fortunately mine only cost $185. under the Gov scheme. "
Does it make much difference to the bill,my last bill was $1900.

 

[wokka]

Col J.
In Qld the amount paid for any power exported is 44 cents a kw. I think that in the past 10 months I've only exported something like 160KW but I guess it all helps.....

I believe in NSW you now get paid $0.60 on your gross feed in power, not only or net power as it was originally, so you are getting $0.60 for the kilowatts you produce whilst paying an average of about $0.15 for what you use.

 

[Southside Morelia]

Nev,
After all this time of bagging me about me being busy at work...this is part of what I do buddy...Solar POV (what you are talking about) and Solar HWS installs. amongst other stuff.
I too after building my place, intend on going solar...interesting though, I would love to hear the benefits IF ANY, from the people that have Solar POV already installed and have compared the bills from the past to present.
I did plan to have the new herp room fully solar powered through wiring it that way awesome way to save money..OR is it a gimmick?

 

[Col J]

Nev,

is the Qld feed-in tariff a gross tariff, or net?

A little added bonus with mine is that it will cover half of my shed roof, which will protect it from the direct sun & keep the rodents a bit cooler.

 

[pythonmum]

We've been considering adding solar in NSW. Anyone done it here? We've got great roof space with no overhanging trees and live on a hill, so great location.

 

[Col J]

Yep. Read my post above. You need to get in while the RECS price is good & get onto the waiting list.

PM me if you want some details.

Col J.

 

[zulu]

My bill was around 400 for quite a while,then 650,got stuck into the company,then 550,then the latest 459,very dodgey now the way the metres are getting read and estimated in NSW,control the rorting first then worry about solar power.
Ide compare the electricity companies to cane toads,but that doesnt give anyone permission to belt them around with nine irons,just treat them with suspiscion.

 

[The Devil]

"I see in today's paper advert for 1.5KW from $1900..installed, fortunately mine only cost $185. under the Gov scheme. "
Does it make much difference to the bill,my last bill was $1900.

With a power bill of $1900. I'm thinking that you would need a system much bigger than 1.5KW. All I can say is that it appears that for each 1KW of a system the savings are about 80 cents per day, so that's about $80 per quarter.

 

[The Devil]

Nev,

is the Qld feed-in tariff a gross tariff, or net?

A little added bonus with mine is that it will cover half of my shed roof, which will protect it from the direct sun & keep the rodents a bit cooler.

Col... the feed-in tariff is on the gross KW exported. Bit of a surprise to me as I thought it had been changed to a net amount only...

 

[The Devil]

Nev,
After all this time of bagging me about me being busy at work...this is part of what I do buddy...Solar POV (what you are talking about) and Solar HWS installs. amongst other stuff.
I too after building my place, intend on going solar...interesting though, I would love to hear the benefits IF ANY, from the people that have Solar POV already installed and have compared the bills from the past to present.
I did plan to have the new herp room fully solar powered through wiring it that way awesome way to save money..OR is it a gimmick?

Mate I suggest that you give the pub a miss for the next few weeks and learn about your work.
You work in the industry and you're asking me about any benefits......the beer must be good......................

If the Federal Gov was even half serious about global warming, and after canceling the E.T.S.it's plain that they are not, the cost involved with solar systems are exorbitant. A 1KW system is hardly work doing and for something reasonable say around 5KW that cost is about $13,000.....

 

[smeejason]

I may be wrong but i do not believe you get extra money until you produce more than you use. So if you use 100KW today and only produced 50 KW you pay for 50kw. but if you use 50 KW and produce 100KW you get credit for 50KW... is a very odd system because in qld to produce power you must be registered as a generator. So by that i gather they(goverment) know no one is ever going to be able to produce more than they use as i do not think it is worked out on a day by day basis rather a statement to statement. You may be able to correct me Nev but do you get paid extra on your bill or is it just adjusted accordingly.

 

[cement]

As a builder, building a solar powered house at the moment out at the Watagans, I can say that with the switch over to solar, to really save money you have to switch over your mindset on power. You have to constantly ask yourself do I really need that light left on while i am watching tv and cooking toast.
I beleive that you can make big savings if you build firstly with correct aspect and then thermally efficient materials and a bank of good batteries.
Solar hot water is easy too. With good aspect you can get away with free hot water for most of the year.

 

[Fuscus]

Col J.
In Qld the amount paid for any power exported is 44 cents a kw. I think that in the past 10 months I've only exported something like 160KW but I guess it all helps.....

Origin pays 52 cents in QLD and Ergon pays 50

 

[wokka]

To me its a feel good investment decision. A 10 kw system installed in NSW is about 50K (less if you do some yourself). Dependng upon efficency you should generate about 8 kw gross at $0.0 or about $4800 garanteed by the governement for the next few years. After that it is likely power prices will continue to increase as should the value of electricity generated. 9% return seems reasonable to me particularly if the investment is made by say your super fund.
The electricity you use only complicates the decision as you would use it with or without the investment.

 

[The Devil]

I may be wrong but i do not believe you get extra money until you produce more than you use. So if you use 100KW today and only produced 50 KW you pay for 50kw. but if you use 50 KW and produce 100KW you get credit for 50KW... is a very odd system because in qld to produce power you must be registered as a generator. So by that i gather they(goverment) know no one is ever going to be able to produce more than they use as i do not think it is worked out on a day by day basis rather a statement to statement. You may be able to correct me Nev but do you get paid extra on your bill or is it just adjusted accordingly.

Jason
On my last power bill there was a credit for 42KW that I exported. That 42KW was the power produced that was over and above my usage at that time.