They might look nice, but French doors are a leaky liability. Draft-proofing has been a winner for me (note the lack of a dark blue line around the doorframe in the right-hand ‘after’ pic).

The winter solstice is upon us, bringing dismal weather to Adelaide and much of Australia. And in other shocking news, water is wet. [Read more…]

Electricity prices in Queensland, NSW and South Australia will rise by as much as 23.9% in July, with the Australian Energy Regulator publishing its final Default Market Offer (DMO) determination for 2023-2024. [Read more…]

Electricity Price Hikes Incoming…

If you live in an eastern state —  or that middle state called South Australia strapped to them by a couple of transmission lines — then in July, you’ll be hit with hefty electricity price increases. [Read more…]

Recently I wrote about South Australia going from zero to 70% renewable energy generation in 16 years, resulting in:

• reduced greenhouse gas emissions
• improved air quality
• lower electricity prices than we’d have without those renewables

But – although our electricity prices would be much higher without renewable energy, electricity prices – overall – have still trended up over those 16 years. And that’s because many things affect electricity pricing. [Read more…]

It’s October and Australia’s wholesale electricity price crisis has entered its sixth month.  Massive retail electricity price hikes in the eastern states are becoming more likely (from July 2023).  These could exceed 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. 

This post is a quick update on the current situation, followed by a short whinge. [Read more…]

Choosing the most suitable electricity tariff after installing solar panels or batteries can make a huge difference to your future power bills.

Unfortunately, electricity tariffs are getting more complex. [Read more…]

If you live in Perth, or within a four-hour drive, I have some good news.  Synergy has changed its residential time-of-use tariff to 8 cents per kilowatt-hour for grid electricity from 9am to 3pm.  They’ve also changed its name to “Midday Saver”. [Read more…]

Australia’s wholesale electricity price crisis is in its fifth month.  This ongoing disaster began in April and really took off in May, June, and July.  It continued through August, but the crisis wasn’t as crisisy as the previous three months. [Read more…]

For four months now, electricity prices in the eastern states have been crazy high. But they’ve cooled down in the last three days to the point where they’re now just high. [Read more…]

Most Australians were hit with an electricity price increase in July. The exceptions were the ACT, which had a slight decrease, and Victoria whose electricity prices change now in August.  [Read more…]