Struggling with electricity bills?

[chrisp9au (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Graham Sanders

FYI, I live in south-east Tassie, our original winter daily use when we first arrived here was up in the 40kw zone, scary! the following improvements to our home have reduced our winter consumption level to below 22kw per day (we need another year to be accurate, could be down to 18kw or lower!!):

• 1.7kw solar system
• solar hot water
• replaced 90% of lighting with new fluro lamps (these take a while to warm up, we kept a halogen bulb here and there so we had instant light)
• curtains that go to the floor Need it install the pelmets as yet
• turn off all unnecessary appliances
• use the solar clothes dryer!! we do use the electric sometimes
• replaced old electric heater with inverter system

We do have good insulation, that is important, you can make a difference by just turning your hot water down and putting a timer on it so the monster does not come on any time. I hope this offers some insight into your thread, cheers Graham

Thanks Graham,

We've been in the 34kw/day area, which for a small 13sq mud brick home, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, is shocking, pun intended!

Hopefully the steps we've taken will start to show up in the next bill, but I think the March bill will give us a more accurate comparison.
We have the electrician coming in to make some wiring changes, and to remove the Climate Saver unit in the meter box which has saved us absolutely nothing! We've set ourselves a target of averaging less than 400w/hour which would get our quarterly bill down by 60%

Cheers
Chris

[Graham Sanders (Graham Sanders)]

Originally Posted by wasyoungonce

We have Gas cooktop instant Gas HW and Gas central heating....so this leaves ipods, TVs, dryer, computers..and hair straighteners!

Our Peak was close to 60KWh per day in winter. I expect the SHMBO was using the dryer almost all day every day.

It's dropped to 47.5KWh as of last bill.

I was looking at what other people were getting from their solar systems to see if I could reduce this feed in. Apparently I'd need around 4.2Kw system, from my guess, just to reduce our bill by around 20Kwh...given what other people are saying they get from their systems.

I just purchased one of those Aldi power meters...It's on the dryer as we speak. I feel like I'm on a quest!

Hair straighteners..............hmmm.... ...I've never considered it before but perhaps the shaving of ones head could save electricity!
We are north facing and do get good sunshine, our 1.7kw system has in the last few weeks been delivering almost 12kw on a good day, I think you would be in the zone for sure with a 4.2kw system.

[Benno85 (Ben)]

Good thread, I'll look at what I can change around home to make some sort of impact.

Not that this will save any power, but my wife and I have been paying a small amount each week to the power provider to soften the blow of receiving the bill, we've found that it's easier to manage by setting up a direct debit for $20 - $30 each week, don't even know it's gone and it does make paying the bill easier

[GrampianStars (Rob)]

Look at your fridge 410 lt(650KwH/Yr ave)+ frezer 200 lt (275KwH/Yr ave)
So a constant load = 2.53 KwH per day
a small 80w panel 200ah batery and a 600w inverter will run this load easily
and make a real difference to the $$$$$$$$$ as well as no downtime during grid power failures

[GrampianStars (Rob)]

Originally Posted by wasyoungonce

.......
Our Peak was close to 60KWh per day in winter. I expect the SHMBO was using the dryer almost all day every day.
It's dropped to 47.5KWh as of last bill.
.....I feel like I'm on a quest!

melbourne average is 18-20 Kwh per day
Maybe turn off the growing lights
check that a neighbor hasn't plugged into your power line stealing some juice
Note
2820 (2.82 kW)
12 x 235W REC solar panels
+ Xantrex GT 2.8 inverter
only $8,499fully installed!
would be a better initial option
http://www.energymatters.com.au/spec...er-special.php

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Thanks Gents...I used my new Aldi power meter on the dryer...found it used 8KWh yesterday..and that was a non-typical day...it's usually on more!

I expect SHMBO has been running up big power usage...bless her little cotton socks.

I'm finding it difficult to find sites showing avg solar returns by system size and location. It's difficult to gauge what size solar system we would need to reduce our feed in to an acceptable level....lets say 25KWh.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Just checked my power bill, we use 10.3 kWh per day...... What on earth do you all use it on?????

[Barrykgerdes]

I use 12.5 Kwh/day average
I make no effort to conserve electricity, House is 33sqs, 2 baths 4 beds,
I have incandescent lamps (when I can find them). I hate those flouros. 55" TV never off (use standby). 4 computers run 24/7 + 2 lap tops. Air conditioner runs when needed. Fridge and Freezer.

I have gas hot water, Gas cooktop, Microwave, Don't use the dryer unless the weather is wet for weeks

Barry

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Originally Posted by Alchemy

Just checked my power bill, we use 10.3 kWh per day...... What on earth do you all use it on?????

Dew heaters and 3 daughters....or maybe...?

Realistically...Melbourne is around 25KWh per family per day....well I thought it was.

I remember our bills being 28KWh per day...then we moved to payment per fortnight...so I haven't seen one awhile so it's as big as shock to me as to you.

[Mrkex (Mark)]

Hey all,

I got a 1.5kw system installed las tweek but they havent connected it to the grid yet. This is a link that has the supposed average returns for each system in each capital city. Just click on products and scroll down to the bottom. http://www.quantumsolarpower.com.au/

[stanlite (Grady)]

my family manages to export about 20kw/h a day at the moment and that is without clear sunny days ... it helps that dad is an electrian and installed a 6 kw/h system on our place. Dad said it was an investment in his retirement since he no gets an income from the power grid rather then a bill.

[GrampianStars (Rob)]

Originally Posted by wasyoungonce

,,,,,,,,,,,
I'm finding it difficult to find sites showing avg solar returns by system size and location. It's difficult to gauge what size solar system we would need to reduce our feed in to an acceptable level....lets say 25KWh.

Here you go
http://www.gotsolar.com.au/admin/inc...Production.jpg

[pmrid (Peter)]

This is a really useful thread and I am noting all the various suggestions being made. Some will be harder than others to implement but with the prospect of power costs sky-rocketing in the future, it's becoming mission-critical.
This led us to the installation of some solar panels a year back now and a fair whack of dollars to get it done. But it's proven to be worthwhile.
But of course, like all good things, it seems likely to come unravelled as other states follow the NSW lead in cutting the buy-back price of solar power going into the grid.
Our last 2 power bills have been one each side of zero as a result of the buyback. The last one actually saw a small credit in our favour. The difference, I think, is in the size of the installation. We put in 3000 watts of panels and these produce, on average something like 12-13 KwH a day. But whatever we consume during daylight hours comes straight off that and it's usually about 7-8 KwH leaving an average surplus of about 4 KwH a day - roughly $2-2.50 worth. People putting in solar systems less than 3Kw can't really expect to do much more than cover some of their normal daylight consumption and not much more.
But in order to get where we are, we had to fork out $10 grand nett. It's still a bloody long cost-recovery process and if you only made your decisions on that basis, you would probably not do it at all.

Peter

[koputai (Jason)]

Originally Posted by GrampianStars

So a constant load = 2.53 KwH per day
a small 80w panel 200ah batery and a 600w inverter will run this load easily

2530 / 80 = 31 hours of good sunlight per day? Better do those sums again!

Cheers,
Jason.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Thanks for the links....a 4KW solar systems returns on avg (In Melbourne) 14.4KWh. I was guessing around a return. From what I have read a 4KW system will cost around $15K-$20K.

If I manage to reduce my pwr consumption to 40KWh then a 14.4KWh solar production is not enough. The outlay is enormous for not enough returns, for us in Melbourne.

I need to either: reduce our power consumption; look at a larger solar system (read big $...yeah right I need a bigger roof!); or suck it up.

[GrampianStars (Rob)]

Originally Posted by koputai

2530 / 80 = 31 hours of good sunlight per day? Better do those sums again!

Cheers,
Jason.

mmmm! my panel pumps out 24v x 5.2A = 173watts Hr x 8hours = 1.38KwH
works plenty 4 me as the fridge night cycle use = aprox 960watts
currently at 12 hours daylight average = 2.07KwH per day
I must beef up the battery and panels though to make it self serving and chop the grid

[Jeeps (Sam)]

Holy moly i just got my water bill. I've used LESS water than previous bills however it's almost $100 more! GRRR

[chrisp9au (Chris)]

Originally Posted by Jeeps

Holy moly i just got my water bill. I've used LESS water than previous bills however it's almost $100 more! GRRR

Tank water, 78,000 litres, overflowing!, cost =zero, if you don't count all the lost observing time!

Sorry Sam!

Chris

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by Jeeps

Holy moly i just got my water bill. I've used LESS water than previous bills however it's almost $100 more! GRRR

Gee
If my water bill was $100 more that would be an increase of 117%. My last water/sewage was $85 for the quarter and we have no water restrictions in the summer. Two supplies clear and recycled. The recycled is used for toilets and the garden. Great system!

Incidently the recycled water would be safer to drink than normal water in the rest of the world.

Barry

[koputai (Jason)]

Digging up an old thread here.

When this thread was active I bought a 'Watts Clever' meter which is similar to the 'Cent-a-Meter'.

Doing some checking on it, I've found that it doesn't read correctly, when monitoring a 12W light globe, it measures between 16 and 18 watts. It also had a failure after a couple of months in that the switching has failed (within the potted cct) and it can no longer show totals, just instantaneous. Pretty crap performance really!

So, I'm looking for something better. Can anyone give feedback on the 'Cent-a-Meter'? Is there anything out there that can log readings and download them to a PC? Jaycar has a couple like this in their cattledog, but they are not actually available.

Cheers,
Jason.