Do solar rebates result in the poor subsidising the rich?
If you spend a significant amount of time on the internet, which I can’t recommend as it is a silly place, then you may have come across people who claim rooftop solar is an enormous scam that depends on government subsidies unfairly taken from those who can’t install it, or choose not to. [Read more…]
Homeowners in the Northern Territory looking to take advantage of HIS vouchers to help finance the installation of solar power systems only have until tomorrow to get their applications submitted.
Do rising electricity prices always improve the economics of batteries? No. Read on to discover why. (And don’t stand on your roof without wearing an approved safety harness – especially if you are balancing giant golden scales on your head.)
I’ve already written on how electricity prices are set to rise substantially.
Because Australians will soon have to shell out like an evicted hermit crab when it comes to grid power, both the good and bad mainstream media are declaring that rising power costs make buying batteries more attractive.
Unfortunately for fans of shock boxes this is unlikely to be the case. Counter-intuitive I know. But bear with me. [Read more…]
Is the rising electricity price really all down to gas prices?
Last week I wrote about how electricity prices in Australia are about to shoot so high the International Space Station will have to take evasive action. It appears it’s not enough for the electricity sector to make Australians pay ridiculous prices, they are going to force us to go right to ludicrous. [Read more…]
If you own a good-sized solar power system, rising electricity prices are not a worry, in fact some solar owners will see their bills decrease thanks to rising feed-in-tariffs.
Australians don’t pay the highest electricity prices in the world, but we’re working on it. [Read more…]
Not true Malcolm! A typical house in SA pays less per kWh for electricity than any other state except NSW.
Grid electricity is not cheap in South Australia. Here in Adelaide it’s never a happy time when I get an electricity bill. My last quarterly bill was $203 for 389 kilowatt-hours of use. All up, that means I paid over 52 cents for each kilowatt-hour of grid electricity. [Read more…]
Is it reasonable to expect a “8-15% return on investment” on a Powerwall 2?
Last month, Lyndon Rive, Tesla’s Vice President for Energy Products, stood up in front of a large group of people, including me, and promised the Powerwall 2 will deliver a return between 8% and 15%. [Read more…]
If your house is getting too hot should you invest in heat reflective paint or solar panels?
It can get bloody hot in summer thanks to the sun blazing down on our roofs and making them hot enough to not only fry an egg, but some bacon as well.
This post is about stopping the summer sun heating your roof, turning your home into a metaphorical oven. [Read more…]
As soon as a battery manufacturer says this, your battery magically gets a 20 year warranty in Australia. No matter what the warranty document says.
The other day a salesperson give me the rundown on a home battery system he had on display. While it wasn’t cheap, it certainly appeared to be a very impressive piece of technology. The salesperson clearly had a lot of confidence in it because, even though its written warranty was only for 10 years, he very generously doubled that to a 20 year warranty without batting an eyelid.
Ben Affleck would bat his eyelids for two hours a day in preparation for this role.
We weren’t related, so nepotism wasn’t the reason for his generosity. And it wasn’t because I saved his life in Nam…bour. (That sugar cane train could be really dangerous.) We weren’t old schoolmates, and as hard as it may be to believe, he wasn’t taken in by my charm and good looks.
No, the reason why he gave me a 20 year warranty was simply because he didn’t realize he was giving one. Or possibly, he did realize he was giving one and really hates his company.
He gave me a 20 year warranty when he told me the battery system had a design life of 20 years. According to Australian Consumer Law, if a salesperson makes a statement that a reasonable person would conclude to mean that a product can be expected to last for 20 years, then that counts as a 20 year warranty. It doesn’t matter that this warranty was given verbally or that it is twice as long as its written warranty, legally it still counts. [Read more…]
Is it OK to put East and West facing panels on a single input inverter?
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