Losing power
A few years ago if someone suggested I'd be happy and willing to lose power I'd have looked at them as if they were crazy...These days I'm overjoyed to lose power; The more the better!
I recently did some calculations and found out I had lost 17.67% of my power...Usage, compared to the same month a year ago. That's right, I mean power usage loss!
I refer, of course, to my household power usage which I am able to track through an app connected to my mains power meter and solar array on my roof. You can see a couple of snaps from that app below and whist it gets more in depth I simply wanted to show the difference for the same month, January, over two years.
Firstly, you can see I have consumed less power for January 2020 over January 2019 which is good; That means more effective power management, better power-saving habits. You can see we improved by 118kWh which is pretty good. (That's the 17.67 percent I refer to above.)
This means we have imported less from the grid and therefore have saved money on our power bills. Keep in mind this is a month only. This is pretty good considering in Jan 2020 we produced (collected) a little less power than we did in Jan 2019 which must have had more sunlight. Again, it comes back to better power-usage habits though.
The real benefit shows in the amount which we have imported from, and exported to, the grid though; It is the power we collect and export to the grid that earns us the monetary rebate. We actually get paid for the power we send back. Nice huh? It's clear that 2020 was a better January.
Over the lifetime of our system, (October 2016 installation) we have collected, or produced, 20.35MWh of power from the sun, imported 12.52MWh and exported 10.76MWh...We have consumed a total of 22.12MWh. This means we have only actually imported 1.76MWh of power from the grid and so our power bills have been significantly reduced. Our quarterly bills are much lower, almost 80% we worked out, and that's got to be a good thing right?
For the first few years I never used to check the app, mainly because we didn't have enough history of data...Now it's been a few years I find it interesting to see what the solar array does and how it affects us. I check it every month for the previous full month and always smile...Als when we get our greatly reduced boll too!
I have contemplated adding batteries but have decided against it for a few very valid reasons, however it will happen down the track on our next house. For now we're happy to have a much-reduced bill.
If you happen to have a solar array I'd be keen to know how it's been working for you and what impact it's had upon your power costs. Feel free to comment below.
Tomorrow isn't promised - Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default
An original post written by a human
Discord: galenkp#9209 🇦🇺
Shhhh don’t tell anyone... I have a basement full of hamsters running on their hamster wheels, wired to a generator. When I need to do laundry, I give them a little cocaine to boost their performance.
On a serious note, I bet you guys fair pretty good with solar. Here, we do Okay but in my opinion it’s not really worth it. Wind on the other hand.... I would consider something like that.
Batteries are making leaps and bounds with their the amount of energy they can store. What happens to them when they go bad??? Where and how do they get the materials to make them?? Are those processes above considered... “Green”
I actually saw a sticker on an old car that said. “Nuclear Power - Clean, Safe, and reliable”. It was on an old 70’s station wagon. When I find the photo I will post it here.
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Yes, solar is fine...Provided there is sun, of which we have plenty! We do pretty well. The app can show me hour by hour what each panel collects and at the end of the day I can literally see if the clouds came over just by the bars on the graph. So yes, we go ok and it has been a very worthwhile acquisition from a financial perspective. We had our system paid off in savings in a little over three years.
Wind is cool too...We have a load of wind farms around here, in the outlying areas and I'd love one of those big old propellers in my back yard for sure! Free power and imagine the views out to the coast! Lol.
One of the reasons I have not gone down the battery route is the cost and my concerns over the longevity of them. The tech gets better and better and so it's something I will do down the track. Unfortunately wind power on an individual basis, for me, is probably not something I could do at this stage.
You should do a post about that sticker when you find the image. Could be funny.
I have that dang photo somewhere.... I grew up near the Hanford Nuclear site in Washington State, My Grandpa worked their for years, my uncle, a couple brothers and even a cousin. Lol. That place has an interesting history. 😉
You gotta find that photo mate! Gotta! Lol.
Hey, I'd be interested in hearing more about that nuke plant if you get a chance. Of course, don't incriminate anyone for "whatever", unless you want to. Lol.
I got the last word wrong!!! DANG IT!!
“Economical”
In all honesty, they aren’t lying.... 😜😜
Haha, there it is! Almost looks like that car Clark Griswald had in National Lampoons Vacation. Lol.
It was up on blocks with no rims or tires. Must have been after the Vegas Vacation. LOL
Ah yes, of course...Lol.
I don't know man, probably showing my age here...But Christy Brinkley in that Ferrari...You know? Kinda gets me every time. It's the smile I think. :)
well, I would be for nuclear but the new kinds, the kind that the bill gates foundation invented, slow wave reactors. Those use the waste from the old nuclear reactors. You have got to take in to mind that that tech dates from the 50s so is about 70 years old
Now that is an idea. I have never heard of that, then again I don’t spend a lot of time looking into that stuff. The the waste from that would be... nuclear waste’s... waste?? Or double waste?? Or is there even any waste?
Technology has come a long way in just the past 10 years, let alone 60-70. Nuclear has just gotten such a bad name and is now treated like the red headed step child. Lol.
Glad it's getting better and my solar setup was off grid and they pay back time was about 8 years.
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I think it's better as it's cheaper to get the array up and running...Competition does that. We also made massive changes to how we use power which made a great difference. My wife works from home using power all day so considering that's mostly sun power now...It's smashed our power bills down. We get loads of sun here in SA though, which helps.
I don't think I get as much sun as you but it might be fun to see if I can get any power from it.
Yeah, solar systems don't work best in areas of less sunlight - Maybe a mix of solar and wind would be a more efficient collection method?
The solar rebate system here in Tasmania is an interesting beast. When we first had our panels installed around 6 or 7 years ago, we were on a 1 for 1 buyback tariff where any excess power we produced was sold back into the grid with a 1 for 1 credit against any power we drew from the grid. A nice deal, but not really sustainable in the long term. In the last 12 months, it dropped to a paltry 8c, but was propped up for a year by the Tasmanian government to help soften the blow.
I believe there is a discussion happening at a Federal Government level with a view to having a national standard buyback price that's both fair to the power companies as well as not ripping off the consumer too much.
0.08c? Not cool. We get 0.16c which is better, but nowhere near the 0.60c that people used to get back in ye olden days. Still, I get some satisfaction out of using sun power and it certainly reduces our bills so I can't complain too much.
I wonder what sort of collection you get on average over a year? I imagine you to have less full-sun days as I would here in S.A.
That's awesome sir galenkp! We're seriously considering solar too since the sun shines almost all the time. I've been dragging my feet because the technology is advancing all the time and don't want to spend a fortune just to have it become obsolete as soon as we install it. lol. But it's a great thing as yours proves.
It's always going to be obsolete as soon as you get it...Happens with everything these days. Might as well pull the trigger on it and make some savings.
I run on bats out here a bunch. 9 full size comm. Big truck bats in this truck. 4 external, 5 under bunk.
I used to mess with shore power, too much of a hassle. APU is best out here.
Uh oh.... Time to fire the APU. Charge em up time.!!!