Let the Sunshine In ...

[Joe Blake]

I've taken the plunge. The Oz Federal Government has had a scheme in place for a couple of years to assist/convince people to fit photovoltaic arrays to rooftops with the power generated thereby being fed into the electrical grid. In essence, as long as the home owner (not renter) agrees to fit a minimum of 1 KW of PV they can expect to receive a rebate of up to $8000 AUD provided certain conditions were met.

So about 2 weeks ago I settled the purchase of the house I'd been renting for the last 10 years or so, and thus fulfilled the last condition. I've made all the appropriate pieces of paperwork flow into the correct pigeon holes in the appropriate government departments and today step 1 (results wise) happened. A guy knocked on my door fit a new power meter from the local supplier, Synergy/Western Power etc. So I've got a brand new electronically programmable meter which tells me (or will when it's appropriately set up) all sorts of things, and measures how much power I've fed into the local grid, how much I've consumed, off-peak and all that.

The State Government has gotten on the band wagon as well, by stepwise increasing tariffs, from the long-standing (and totally inadequate) 12.7 cents per KWh to around about 25 something in a couple of years. However, according to admittedly out of date info from the same Government Department I can expect to receive UP TO 60 cents per unit. This is subject to revisionistic practices which all governments are prone to.

Following the handing down of our Federal Govt budget last week, the rebate scheme is scheduled to continue but in a modified form. However, I got my application in before it was amended, so I should be getting the full amount.

So hopefully, for about $4000-4500 (after the rebate) I should be producing power by the end of the year. This of course is over and above my existing homebrew efforts which have stood me in good stead the last couple of years.

My new electricity meter caused me some concern initially because I thought it was broken, as it had been installed for about 3 hours and was still showing I'd consumed nil power. (There's no spinning disc or other indicator to show the rate that power is being consumed at.) Considering I'm averaging 10 units (KWh) per day, in 3 hours I should at least have had SOMETHING. Eventually it decided to stir itself and show some action.

Will keep you informed of progress.

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Joe, congratulations with the house purchase! Something to be said for buying a house you've lived in for many years, since they can't sell you any hidden defects.

If I'm reading you right, you'll be receiving up to AUD$0.60/kWh, or US$0.46 per kWh? Over here in Ontario it's currently CAD$0.42/kWh or US$0.36/kWh, with hopefully CAD$0.80/kWh or US$0.69/kWh to come when the Green Energy Act passes (currently stalled, though word is that it's still expected to pass later this summer).

Keep us posted!

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Here's a clip from our local rag of earlier this week my neighour (also considering going down the PV track) gave to me. I can't find anything more definite as yet, but it looks good.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general/solarsub.jpg

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Joe, what's the federal rebate mentioned in the article? I'm curious how they get to a 2-year payback time, that would be phenomenal! With the feed-in-tariff that would make PV solar a great investment.

P.S. I sympathize with the "red tape" comment in there. That was a big problem here with many different local electrical utilities having each their own procedures (and general lack of knowledge about the net-metering and FIT rules). Hopefully that is a thing of the past, the new Green Energy Act sets out much stricter rules for the utilities to abide by.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Joe, what's the federal rebate mentioned in the article? I'm curious how they get to a 2-year payback time, that would be phenomenal! With the feed-in-tariff that would make PV solar a great investment.

P.S. I sympathize with the "red tape" comment in there. That was a big problem here with many different local electrical utilities having each their own procedures (and general lack of knowledge about the net-metering and FIT rules). Hopefully that is a thing of the past, the new Green Energy Act sets out much stricter rules for the utilities to abide by.


Rob,

I'm still in the process with this, obviously, but my understanding is this. Electricity is produced (and charged for) by State government. The Feds rebate is a once-only grant (with conditions attached, that I've met) of up to $8000 to each home owner who fits PV panels that feed excess power back into the "local" power grid. (In the Eastern States state grids cross borders, even to the Southern Island of Tasmania apparently.) The total cost for my system (1 KW but upgradeable (at my expense) to about 2 KW) is about $12,000. I select a recognised installer, make my various applications, via the installer who is going to do all the paperwork, including the planning approval stuff (I hope), installer submits an account to the Govt, who gives them $8000, I get an account for the remaining $4000 or whatever, plus I assign to the installer my RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates?) which are a saleable commodity with a varying value that can be traded similarly to stocks apparently, but I'm not interested in those.

That's part A, the Feds.

Part B, the State. This bit I'm not quite so sure about (what you've seen in the newspaper is what I know) but it seems that initially I will be paid the 60 cents per unit of power until some magic figure ("the cost of installing the system") is reached, thereafter I will get paid the cost I would normally be charged for power by the power distributor, but without paying GST (Goods and Services Tax.) What the cost of installing the system is beats me. Is it the cost to the commission? The total $12,000? The $4000? The new meter hit me right between the eyes because, due to various happenings in the past, my house was fitted for 3 phase electricity, fairly uncommon in non-industrial buildings, and so my meter costs me $600+ (but still remains the property of the authority ...) Instead of about $75 which a house on single phase would cost. So I've got a fair bit to make back by the sound of it.

Here's a link to the relevant Fed Govt dept.

http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/renewable/pv/index.html

There are also some other rebates available as well.

http://www.environment.gov.au/energyefficiency/

And a link to one the installers

http://www.solarshop.com.au/main/category30_1.htm

which probably is the best thing.


Joe

[Joe Blake]

Well, nothing good lasts forever.

Feds have cut back the grant, ceasing it on 9 June 2009 rather than the promised 30 June 2009.

And the state government is also now ducking for cover complaining that the uptake on their buy-back scheme was too successful.

A letter from our state Minister for Energy tells me inter alia "The decision to move from a gross feed-in tariff was not a decision the Government took lightly. The unanticipated uptake rate of systems meant that the $13.5 million committed to the original scheme had already been allocated in full."

The State Premier, during a radio interview, which I managed to record and transcribe (unfortunately on my computer which is currently in for repairs) he talks about how he consulted with the industry prior to the last election. But didn't say anything about consulting with the actual people themselves.

So it looks like it's just another election promise, not exactly broken, but certainly a con job.

On the bright side, however, I've been informed by my installer that my application, which beat the 9 June deadline by weeks, has been approved (at the Federal level), and I should have my PV array installed within a few weeks, and still get the grant.

So a half smile perhaps.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Well, as at 11:30 hrs Wed 1 July 2009 my system became operational. Although it wasn't actually raining yesterday, I'd give it an "E" for effort, but today, despite the fact it was the coldest day of the year so far (2.5 degrees Centigrade), it's clear skies and up, up and away.

The system consists of 5X210 Watt SunPower SPR 210 WHT I panels driving a Kaco Powador 1501xi inverter feeding into the local 240 volt grid. The local utility has yet to come and reprogram my meter to export my power.

It's on my western roof slope, but even at 9.30 this morning it was producing a small amount of power.

Got my $8000 grant, so all up the system cost me just under $4000 AUD.

:D

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Congrats Joe!
You know how it works: Without pictures it didn't happen. :weird:

I'm waiting for the new 80 cents/kWh feed-in tariff here to put some PV on my roof...

-RoB-

[Ralph Day]

Congragulations Joe!

Could we googlearth and look down on your massive 1mg array?

Hopefully your meter isn't one of those that increments as power flows either way. I've read about some that add up the bill as power is fed back into the grid (California, maybe here with the smart meters).

Hope all goes well, and at 2.5C your system will be running quite efficiently.

Ralph

[Joe Blake]

Congrats Joe!
You know how it works: Without pictures it didn't happen. :weird:


-RoB-

Just to prove I wasn't dreaming ...

;)

My original PV panels, including my trike in the shed (looking to the west). Just to the left of the red plastic box are my batteries. Behind the batteries you can see the remains of the small aluminium shed I had constructed to house them, and which had been demolished by the wind the day before the panels were installed. (These are NOT connected to the main array, and have their own inverter(s).)

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/P6220001.jpg

The inverter on the left of the back door, behind the shade cloth sun screen on the western wall. As at lunch time today (almost 48 hours after installation) have generated about 5 KWh, but none fed back into the grid yet, as the utility hasn't re-programmed my new meter.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/P6220004.jpg


The PV panels on the roof. Can't get much closer.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/P6220003.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/meter.jpg
The meter box, looking a lot busier than it was when I first moved into the house.

Includes (from the right) the new digital power meter, the solar hot water system timer, the safety RCD switch for the solar array, and the RCD safety switch for the main supply.

This series was taken at about 8.30-9.00 this morning.

Joe

PS Probably be a while before my array appears on Google Earth.

[Joe Blake]

I've posted these in another thread about feed-in tariffs for comparison purposes. (I'm on the Smartpower tariff.)

Synergy, my local utility, sent me (hopefully) the final paperwork to start feeding back into the grid.

Here are the rates that have been agreed.
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/synrenew01.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/synrenew02.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/Synrenew03.jpg

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Joe,

If I read it right they're paying you between 22 and 25 cents/kWh during peak hours on weekdays for solar. That's not bad at all (considering that PV will output most during those hours). How is this wired up? If I remember right you have a single meter that records both ways. That would mean your production (during those peak hours) would first go to offset your local use, and not be recorded as "production".

-RoB-

P.S. Please don't double-post. If you want to post in two threads, just refer to the other post (a link is easy to do).

[Joe Blake]

I don't have my meter reprogrammed as yet, but from what I saw when it was being installed, and this link

http://www.westernpower.com.au/mainContent/yourPowerSupply/yourMeter/How_to_Read_Your_Meter_.html

it has quite a few information functions. (The electronic meter reading is towards the bottom of the page.)

I presume that if I produce 1 KWh during peak period I will be credited with X amount at the peak rate, and if I then use 1 KWh during off peak I will be debited with Y amount at the off-peak rate (plus GST), thus I get a net profit.

So the trick now is to re-arrange my lifestyle to use big consuming items in the off-peak hours, where possible.

My biggest consumer is my water condenser. It draws 5-700 W and runs continuously until it has filled the storage tank. For this I've got a "plug-in" timer switch which turns on the condenser at about 9.15 p.m., and then turns it off at 7 a.m. If the tank is filled before this time, then the condenser turns itself off. (In summer I consume over twice the amount of drinking water I do in winter.)

Next is the solar hot water system booster. During summer this is turned off so uses nothing. But in winter, with cloud cover and cold wind, this is necessary to have a hot shower (in the evening). I time that from about 5.30 a.m. to 7 a.m. This way I can use the little bit of sunshine to maintain the temperature, or even increase if I'm lucky. If the water is still not warm enough by about 4 p.m., I run the booster for an hour, which is on "high shoulder".

My bread-maker only consumes lots of power during the baking phase, so I set that to commence baking after 9 p.m. This means the bread is finished an hour later.

My big refrigerator uses remarkably little power as I have two 12 volt freezers which run off the sun, and I freeze 2 litre bottles of water and put one in the fridge daily to help with cooling.

I've stopped using my electric kettle to boil water and now use a gas burner (barbecue style), and I seldom use my electric toaster oven, instead using either a mesh toaster on the gas flame, or a camping oven for baking.

For laundry, I only use the washing machine about once a fortnight, and do my washing on the weekend, so I can use the solar HWS booster to get the hottest water. I don't have a clothes dryer, but just use a "clothes horse" in the laundry. (In summer time this has the added advantage of increasing humidity to the air indoors so that my water condenser will have something to condense.)

For other items I've sufficient existing PV capacity to run my computer (my business) and the smaller 12 volt freezer for several hours per day. So I'm really only using about 20-25 W of my rooftop array, which gives me that much power from about 9.00 a.m. on a clear day, even though my array is on the west face of the roof.

I'll probably still be using an average of about 10 KWh per day but I'm hoping that costs will be significantly reduced.

This tariff is where our politicians have done double back flips. Before the last state election the (now) governing party promised that tariffs would be based on "Gross" production, whereas they now are only paying on "Net" production.

Time will tell.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

A few more figures.

Still waiting to have my meter reprogrammed BUT having changed over to "Smart Power", and as at 1 July the "standard" (ie 24 hr a day) tariff has increased to 17.61 cents per unit (including GST), the following table. ("Peak" rate is 25.28 c/KWh, "Off-peak" 7.22, "High Shoulder" 15.42 and "Shoulder" (weekend) 11.32.).

My last power bill was as at 12 June. Since then:
(The board won't let me format in a table)

Peak tariff 66 KWh consumed, $16.68
Off peak 231 KWh " $16.67
Shoulder 47 KWh $7.24
Weekend 41 KWh $4.64
Total Cost $45.25 ("Smart Power")
Standard tariff 385 KWh $67.79 equivalent
Days (@12/07) 34 days 11.32 KWh/day
Cost/day $1.33 (Smart)
Cost/day $1.99 (Std)


So potentially looking at a difference of about $20 per month, just by changing rates and my lifestyle.

The power consumption does not vary much from previous bills (10.5-13.5 KWh/day) which means that most of the power I'm generating is already excess, so I can probably sell all of it.



Joe

[Joe Blake]

The PV system became operational midday 1 July and since then has generated 30 KWh, this is now dead of winter.

Roll on summer-time.

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Joe,

You're pretty "northern" in Australia, right? So winter and summer wouldn't make a huge difference in production. Looking at my map, Brisbane is only 27 degrees south. So, you're doing gorilla PV right now?:amazed: Or has the meter now officially been programmed for power export?

10 - 13 kWh/day is not bad for a regular house. Certainly a whole lot better than mine (and I already cut use by a 1/3 since moving into this place). Waiting for the new feed-in-tariff to take effect here, when it happens I'll stick some PV on my roof.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Hi Joe,

You're pretty "northern" in Australia, right? So winter and summer wouldn't make a huge difference in production. Look at my map, Brisbane is only 27 degrees south. So, you're doing gorilla PV right now?:amazed: Or has the meter now officially been programmed for power export?


-RoB-


According to Google Earth my house is 31 degrees 59 min 56 seconds south.

The difference 'twixt summer and winter is pretty marked. Another 6 weeks and the sun will be clearing the trees to the north-east of the house. They only shade for an hour or so in the morning during winter, so they don't really have much effect.

Still haven't had my meter reprogrammed as at today's date.

Getting impatient.:mad:

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Here's a screen-cap from Google Earth giving a rough idea of where I live.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general/swwa.jpg

Joe

[Joe Blake]

I should also add that as at last night, the State Government is going to be increasing the standard tariff by a further 6% by the end of the year. And there is another hike in tariff proposed for next year.

I can't say I'm upset about it, because we've had our power far too cheaply the last decade or so.

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Got it Joe! For some reason I thought you were on the east coast. A few thousand miles here or there, what's the difference... :nuts:

Electricity rates haven't changed much here in the past few years. That by itself shows the rates are likely artificial, not really driven directly by fuel cost but more by politics. Not sure what the system is in Ontario. I have a feeling that here as well they only have one direction to go, and that is up. Good for people in the renewable energy business, bad for those trying to live on minimum wages.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

21st July (Moon landing day) - meter has been re-programmed.

Right.

Sit back for a fortnight or so and see what eventuates.

Rain predicted for the next 7 days!!! (Still, rather have the water than the sun at the moment. We're still down a ways on our annual average rainfall and we even have a winter sprinkler watering ban.)

Joe

[Joe Blake]

A small bonus. The bloke who installed my PV system sent an email saying that I would be in the running to obtain a series of three annual payments from the State government.

http://www1.sedo.energy.wa.gov.au/pages/re_hres.asp

It could amount to $150 per year x 3.

I submitted the application this afternoon and was told that, although my system was installed AFTER the cut-off date of 2 June 2009, because I had made "an irrevocable financial commitment" to install prior (in May) I should submit my application and it would be "considered".

That will help to defray the cost of installing the 3-phase meter.

Drizzle on and off all day, so still haven't managed generate enough excess to sell.

Ralph, in respect of your query about how the meter works, it appears to be this way. Having been re-programmed, it cycles automatically through the following channels of information.

Channel

07 - Total KWh imported (from the grid)
10 - Total Peak KWh imported
20 - Total Off-peak KWh imported
30 - Total Shoulder KWh imported
40 - Total Weekend Shoulder KWh imported
107 - Total KWh exported (from my system)
110 - Total Peak KWh exported
120 - Total Off-peak HWh exported
130 - Total Shoulder KWh Exported
140 - Total Weekend Shoulder KWh exported

I'll wait for my first bill to arrive and see how they arrive at the amount (if any) I get paid.

Joe

PS In preparing my tax return for the past FY I yesterday queried my accountant as to whether any money I earned from this venture should be declared as income. He said he'd heard nothing about it but it was an interesting thought, but would probably be minimal, given that I'd a fair amount of expenditure to offset against it.

J

[Joe Blake]

Date: 24 October 2009.
Place: Perth, Western Australia
Update on PV Installation.

The below screen caps give an idea of how my system is performing in broad terms.

SC1 contain 3 graphs. Data capture period 88 days: Graph 1 shows in kWh cumulative power import from the grid, with a trace for each period plus total. The second graph shows the cumulative export from my system. It should be noted that although my largest power consuming period is off-peak (9 p.m.-7 a.m.) I export absolutely nothing during this period. The sudden increase in peak export is due to the changeover from winter to summer reading of the meter.

The third graph shows a percentage ratio of my import to my export.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general/graph01.jpg

SC2 contains 5 graphs. Data capture period 88 days. Graph 1 shows daily import (kWh) of grid power. The graph underneath shows daily export to the grid. Graph 3 (top centre) shows daily cost ($AUD) of importing and exporting. Centre low graph compares the amount of power imported (kWh) to the amount of power generated (not EXPORTED) by the system. The last graph gives an overall gross monetary daily cost/benefit ($AUD).

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general/graph02.jpg

If any body would like the actual spreadsheet figures please let me know and I'll send them to you. (I use Quattro Pro, not Excel, but I'm sure I can arrange for a conversion.)

Further Government Subsidies

To date there has been no sign of any $ forthcoming from the state government, but the news yesterday morning said that the "new" scheme was being rolled out. How (if) this will work is still shrouded in a fog of political-speak.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Update: 4 December 2009.


You know the expression "The proof of the pudding is in the eating ..." Well my pudding has just been consumed. I've finally got some concrete evidence in the form of my first "proper" electricity bill from the local utility, Synergy. (Proper in that it covers a complete billing cycle, it has no changes of tariff in the middle, it's not got any extra charges such an installation of programmable meters etc etc.)

2008: (11 Aug 2008 to 10 Oct 2008)

2009: (14 Aug 2009 to 10 Oct 2009)

Total costs: 2008 - $124.75.* 2009 - $73.05*

Ave. Daily cost: 2008 - $2.07.* 2009 - $1.23.*

Ave. Daily power (kWh) 2008 - 13 2009 - 9.

Power "Credit" 2009 - +$16.52.

*Note: These figures are inclusive of "non-power related expenses" such as "supply charge" and GST, which are not affected by the PV generator. Taking power costs only:

2008 - $98.83 2009 - $81.15


This billing period for 2009 covers Winter/Early spring. So the next bill (due to be read in a few days time) should reflect an ever greater divergence.

Interesting Side benefit.

Today has been the first "hot" day in some time (36 degrees C in the shade against my western window). However, at my work station it was only 26 degrees - at about 15:00 hours. This seemed remarkably cool. I've got the ceiling space insulated so only a small amount of heat leaks down from under the clay tile roof. From previous years, there's a temperature differential in the ceiling temperature (using an infra-red non-contact thermometer) of about 2-3 degrees C, from the centre of the ceiling (under the peak of the roof) to the edge where the tiles are about 6" from the ceiling. But today there was nearly 10 degrees difference!! The only thing I can figure that was different was the fact that about a third of the western face of my roof is now effectively shaded all day by the photovoltaic panels.

It's only a preliminary hypothesis, but it seemed to be borne out by the ceiling temp readings at the same distance from the western edge along the ceiling. In the area directly in line with the shaded area the temp was about 29 degrees, but it rose as I moved north in my readings until it reached 34 degrees under tiles that were fully exposed to the sun.

Will keep an eye on this. Might almost be worth buying anothe KW of PV panels just to shade more of the roof.:blink1: Keep the house even cooler.

The pudding has been pretty satisfying.

Joe

PS In my last posting I had a graph showing my percentage of power exported against imported as about 18%. It's now up to 24.5%.

[Rob Beckers]

Congrats Joe!
Must be very satisfying to see things working out. Interesting to see the PV modules used as shading too. Double whammy!

With the new feed-in-tariff here I'm out of excuses ;) and will have to install some PV as well. That will have to wait until spring though, while you're getting into summer, we're closing in on winter. So far it's been very mild, but that isn't going to last much longer. Not the kind of weather for spending time on a roof.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Just for comparison purpose, another set of graphs, just showing import, export, percentage.

The data capture period is roughly 130 days, compared to 88 for the previous graphs.


http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/power02.jpg


And the Previous graph

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general/graph01.jpg

Joe

[Joe Blake]

For those who are interested, here's an aerial view of my house with the new panels in place.

I'm just wondering whether I can mount some more panels on the EAST of the roof to catch a bit of the morning sun as well.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/house01.jpg


Joe

[Julie Haugh]

Joe,

You can mount panels in any orientation that will produce power when you want to produce the power. I had a client who wanted afternoon power to insure they were able to run a small A/C unit in the afternoon. My solution was to add a small west-facing array to support the afternoon power production. The effect of adding that array was to move the daily peak in power production several hours later in the day (good for A/C) with only a small overall loss in power due to the orientation.

[Joe Blake]

I'm just concerned about having to cut the trees to east back too much. I've already taken out one largeish one, right back to about a metre of stump, but as of about 6 weeks ago it started to grow with renewed vigour !!!! (As I understand the geology of the area, this tree and the others to the immediate east of the house are situated above an underground water stream, so they're not too badly affected by our current dry climate.)

If I mount the extra kW of panels on the east side of the roof, they'll be shaded a bit in the early morning, but in winter the sun will off to the north, so hopefully they won't be such a problem. Although I don't have airconditioning, in summer time extra power would probably be used to run my "water-from-air" machine, which condenses atmospheric moisture and renders it potable. Obviously in summertime, there is less humidity, and hence less water to condense, so I'll need to run it more hours per day.

Anyway, that's for the future. Several other things on my list of "to do's" ahead of more power. ;)

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Well, as predicted, my next bill has arrived this morning.

The board won't let me tabulate stuff within a post, so I'll try and organise my figures in a readable fashion.

Comparing 4 bills over 2 years (matching cycles)

Aug-Oct '08
Total Cost $124.75
Ave Daily cost $2.07
Ave Daily kWh 13

Aug-Oct '09
Total Cost $73.05
Ave Daily cost $1.23
Ave Daily kWh 9

Oct-Dec '08
Total Cost $89.45
Ave Daily cost $1.58
Ave Daily kWh 10

Oct-Dec '09
Total Cost $23.95
Ave Daily cost $0.33
Ave Daily kWh 7

I hope it makes sense.

I'm pretty pleased.

Joe

[Julie Haugh]

Joe,

You're on a very good track -- at less than 10 KWh per day any improvement is going to be measured in the ones and twos of KWh per day.

The key to energy conservation, once you've done the obvious, is to start looking at the weird and not-so-obvious.

For example, in the morning, there's more humidity -- so, if you're trying to extract moisture from the air, do it in the morning. also, in the summer months when you are running air conditioning, it's more efficient to keep a house cooler because the air conditioner has an easier time getting ready of the heat when the outdoor temperature is lower.

[Joe Blake]

For example, in the morning, there's more humidity -- so, if you're trying to extract moisture from the air, do it in the morning. also, in the summer months when you are running air conditioning, it's more efficient to keep a house cooler because the air conditioner has an easier time getting ready of the heat when the outdoor temperature is lower.


Exactly. I'm presently running my condenser from 9 in the evening until 7 in the morning, as that is the cheape$t time as well as the most efficient time. However, as summer progresses, my water consumption (drinking) goes up quite markedly, somedays by a factor of 3, because I bicycle a lot, and I'm actually consuming more than I'm condensing, so I'll have to consider a 24 hour "water cycle", which will mean running it during the peak period, 11 am- 5 pm, when electricity is nearly 4 times as dear. :(

Your point on running the cooling of the house at night is one which I've been making for several years, especially in light of the fact that there was recently a referendum on
whether we should have daylight saving time here. The referendum was lost, but what saddened me was the number of "anti's" were complaining about the cost of running their a/c during the hottest part of the day!!!! On the upside, once I explained it to them, some of them saw the point, but still didn't want daylight saving anyway.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Spoke to my "panel man". He's recommended that I NOT fit panels on the east side of the roof, for the very good reason (which I'd forgotten) that the current generated by all panels will drop to match the lowest value. So effectively, even though the panels have bypass diodes to prevent one panel "dragging down" the rest when it's shaded, I'd (possibly) be generating less power overall except perhaps circa midday when there'd be equal sunlight on both faces.

So I decided that I would fit 3 more panels to the western face, which would then utilise the full capacity of the present inverter (roughly 1650 watts). If I decide to utilise the eastern face of the roof, I'll fit a second inverter to handle that. But I'm not sure whether the finances will stand that much of a strain.

A big day yesterday. Other than ordering the upgrade of my PV system, my new electric trike arrived. I've taken it for a spin around the block a few times, to adjust the fiddley bits, like brakes, gears, handlebars etc, but I've yet to fit the batteries, and haven't even considered constructing the PV array yet.

Also had the earthworks done to start building the patio on the back of the house. This will be give me an extra 20-30 sq metres of enclosed space that I can use for various things, such as sewing and dancing.

:D:D

Never a dull moment round here.

:blink1:

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Hey Hey,

Christmas came a day early.

Ciao,

Joe

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/synergy091222.jpg

[Joe Blake]

So at last here are the real results. Without worrying about peak hour, shoulder period, how much credit I earned for power sold to the grid etc.

The last two electricity bills for 2008 I actually paid

$214.20.

The last two electricity bills for 2009 I actually paid

$97.00 (45% of the previous year).

Sounds good to me.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Just when I thought things couldn't get much better ...

My house was built in the early-mid 1970s and for some reason it was fitted with a 3-phase electricity supply. (Possibly because it used to have an instant hot water system, which I came to loathe and despise after a very short time.)

Skip forward to 2009, when I wanted to change over to SmartPower, which charges for electricity from the grid at different rates, depending upon time of day. This required installation of a digital power meter. Snag!! If my house had single phase power, the new meter would cost me about $66. However, for 3-phase, I had to pay $615!!! And the utility still kept the meter.

I calculated I could (eventually) make this extra cost back, what with various government grants and "feed-in" tariffs. But it would take a LONG time.

But yesterday, completely out of the blue, I received a letter from the power utility saying in effect we've looked at the cost of this meter and it's too high, so we are going to refund you some money ... to wit, $347.00. Cheque enclosed.

And I've still got more grants to come over the next couple of years, as per the posting I made on 24 December.

Tra-la-la-la.

:D:D

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Wow! I don't usually associate that kind of consideration with large corporations. Congrats Joe!

On a similar note: Just heard back from our EcoEnergy rebate program here for energy efficiency upgrades, that they're paying me $3,380 for my new on-demand water heater and the replacement of nearly all windows in the house (it pays about half the cost of the water heater, $630 in rebates, but is just a drop in the bucket for the windows).

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

First, pictorial evidence (at last)

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/roof-1.jpg

Showing both my own PV array and my next door neighbour's.

Then there's new patio I've had put on the back, with its transparent panel to charge the PVs on my trikes.

Then the bad news. On Wednesday my inverter (Kaco Powador 150) keeled over, quite dead.:eek: However it was replaced (under warranty) the next day. :D (Good Service from my installer.)

And at last, there appears to be some rain on the way. Haven't had any since November!!!


Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Looking good Joe!
You have some room to expand; if I'm seeing it right the rails extend out a bit so you can bolt down a few more modules in the future.

I suppose you're getting into fall over there now. Hopefully it'll cool down a bit. Things must be parched over there. I'd send you some of our water if I could: We're living in a swamp over here! :nuts:

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Actually the rails belong to my neighbour. We live in a duplex situation. Mine are the smaller panels to the north.

Talking about Rain, I think a picture is worth a thousand words. From November 2009 until Monday this week, we'd had 0.2 mm of rain.

Then on Monday ...

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/rainfall02.jpg

To date the damage bill is well over $100 million. :(

Luckily I missed the damage but not the rain. My newly installed water tank went from bone dry to 2/3 capacity (1100 litres) in the space of a couple of hours!!


Joe

[Joe Blake]

Received my first payment under the State Government's incentive scheme -- $195.

Also the new feed-in tariff starts in August.

http://www.clean.energy.wa.gov.au/pdf/FAQs%20for%20Info%20Pack%20-%208%20June%202010%20%282%29.pdf

See paragraph 3. 40 cents/kwh over and above what I get paid by the utility.



Just to give something for the moderator to do, :p would it be useful to have a "sticky" thread where people could post links to info about governments incentives around the world? I don't think there would need to be any discussion in this thread, just for people to compare one country against another.

I'll have a dig around and see if I can find links to some previous FAQs and fact sheets I've referred to.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Here are some other links I found:

http://www.environment.gov.au/settlements/renewable/pv/index.html
http://www.environment.gov.au/energyefficiency/
http://www.solarshop.com.au/main/category30_1.htm


Joe

[Joe Blake]

My spreadsheet tells me it's been 366 days since my system became operational and feeding into the grid.

These graphs (hopefully) tell the story. My "consumption" figure was arrived at by summing the power generated by my PVs plus the amount of power I imported from the grid, less the power I exported to the grid. (The graphs only show 342 days, because I didn't start keeping those particular figures immediately)

Overall, I generated an average of 3.68 units per day, but that period (366 days) covers the time when I had 1000 watts of PVs then boosted (in February) to 1600 watts. My average daily consumption (over 342 days) was 8.08 units.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j245/saxeharp/general2/gengraph.jpg

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Aint' government departments amazing?

I received my latest power bill today, covering 15 Feb-15Apr. This period has really been putting a stress on my system, with day after day of 42+ degrees Centigrade and running the air conditioner 6-8hrs at a time full blast. However, although this bill tells me I've consumed about $6.50 of power from the grid, because of the feed in tariff I've got a credit of $106. I'm hoping that it might be sufficient to carry me through the winter without paying ANY money (mostly due to the electric solar hot water system booster during the cold weather.)

However, back to Govt. A couple of years ago, I became a pensioner, and was thus entitled to a rebate of the "supply charge" (paying for the infrastructure, poles, wires etc owned by the utility) which came to roughly $0.34 per day. Fine. I saw my bill start to drop and assumed it was now being discounted.

My neighbour came in today to compare bills (he has 3 kW of PV on roof) and he asked what I was getting as a discount. The figures on the bill didn't make sense so I checked with the utility. Turns out that ever since 2009, the pensioner discount HADN'T been applied, so it may be that I'm going to get a rebate of a couple of hundred dollars (roughly $10 a month) for that time. Which means it's almost definite I won't be paying for any electricity this winter. :D

Government!!!:weird::mad:

Still, better than having it taken away.

Joe

[Julie Haugh]

You do realize that all the money the "government" is giving to YOU is being TAKEN from other people?

[Dale Sheler]

You do realize that all the money the "government" is giving to YOU is being TAKEN from other people?

"He", is part of the solution. "They" are part of the problem, this is exactly as it should be, if you are part of the problem you should be paying more than the people who are part of the solution, it's very simple really.

[Julie Haugh]

"He", is part of the solution. "They" are part of the problem, this is exactly as it should be, if you are part of the problem you should be paying more than the people who are part of the solution, it's very simple really.

How do you figure that? He gets extra money just because he's on government support. That money comes from people who are currently working, which he isn't.

THAT is the problem. Politicians buy votes from one group and send the bill to the losers.

[Dale Sheler]

How do you figure that? He gets extra money just because he's on government support. That money comes from people who are currently working, which he isn't.

THAT is the problem. Politicians buy votes from one group and send the bill to the losers.

He made the investment to produce power and put into the grid, the government and the power companies pay him for the power he produces, people who do not produce power have to buy it, the "losers" in your post, like I said, it;s really very simple but I can see how some people with an agenda could try spin it a different way.
If you are referring to his being on the government pension and you object to that than you are just to stupid for a rational conversation, so, either way, good luck and have a good life.

[Joe Blake]

You do realize that all the money the "government" is giving to YOU is being TAKEN from other people?

Julie, if it's any comfort to you, I'm receiving the pension because it was a deal I struck with the Government in 1965, that if I joined the Army and served my country I would be cared for in certain ways. One of the ways is that I would receive the age pension (for which I paid my taxes as any good responsible citizen should) 5 years earlier than otherwise. Secondly, the deal was also inclusive of care and compensation if I were to be injured in war.

I served 16 years, inclusive of a 12 month tour of duty in South Viet Nam in 1970 where I received an injury (not life threatening, but certainly life changing) for which I am now receiving treatment and compensation. And one of those compensations is a discount on my power bill, as well as goodies such as cheap public transport, discounts on various goods and services from private enterprise organisations, such as some supermarkets, clothing shops, restaurants etc. Nothing to do with the government, but just a means of saying "thank you" to those people who have volunteered to put the interest of the nation ahead of their own.

Joe

[Dale Sheler]

From this yank for what it's worth, thank you for your service sir.

[Rob Beckers]

In a larger context: If anyone thinks that subsidies are for renewable energy only; keep dreaming! The conventional energy industry is subsidized at incredible levels. From cheap loans, infrastructure grants, free land, government subsidized cleanup, to the armed forces of some countries that are largely in place to ensure that the cheap oil keeps flowing. Not to mention the health bill due to chronic illness caused by emissions.

If anyone really wants to compare apples to apples; stop funding all power sources and see what happens (a revolt probably, since your gasoline and electricity prices will go through the roof, though taxes should go down since that's currently paying for those goodies, then again, taxes never go down).

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Heah heah.

Our state Govt (on BOTH sides of the political fence), going back to about 2001 or there abouts, had consistently refused to raise the cost of power, charging 12.7 cents per unit. Suddenly it dawned on them that this sort of subsidy couldn't last, so our present Govt raised the base price to 20.8 cents per unit, in one fell swoop. (This however is STILL not full cost of power and more price increases are forecast in the next 12 months.)

That's got nothing to do with whether it's renewable generation power.

But as I've mentioned elsewhere, this same govt is paying a feed in tariff of 40 cents per renewable unit, but the very time that this tariff was introduced, the utility decided to re-examine the cost of power, and decided that it cost the utility so much for ME to generate the power that they dropped the price that they'd PURCHASE the power from parity (ie they paid the generator the same price as it would sell the power to the consumer) to 7 cents per unit. In effect at peak generation time the utility buys the power from me at 7 cents, and then immediately on-sells it at 40 cents per unit, even though it's using the same wiring, poles and transformers. (Perhaps it might be just karma, but the 0.24 cents a day or whatever that the utility "forgot" to deduct off my power as a pensioner discount was actually the fixed daily charge for upkeep of the infrastructure, such as wiring, poles and transformers etc. So when looked at from one point, it could be seen that they are simply returning some of what is being ripped off from me when they buy power at 7 cents and sell it at 40 cents.:cheesy:)

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Taking a big gamble. In West Australia there are a lot of political rumblings, with the upcoming budget in August, and the state government is looking for ways to reduce the deficit. There are cuts to public service etc, but the word is there is more to come, and I've always been of the view that the feed-in tariff for renewable power was high on the list of unimportant things that would go, so I've decided that I'm going to bite the bullet and add another system in parallel with my existing one of 1,600 watts. It'll be a complete system with its own inverter, again 1,600 watts, and feeding into the grid.

One of the tricks the government pulled when it was setting up the tariff was to automatically withdraw the tariff if a consumer upgraded their system to exceed their initial INVERTER capacity. Originally I installed 1,000 watts of panels but fitted a 1,600 watt inverter, so when I added an extra 600 watts I didn't lose the FIT. However, this new system means I'll lose my FIT. It won't be a great loss since I'm already about $400 in credit, so my rough guess is that I still won't be paying for power for a couple of years yet, while the credit is gradually chewed up with power price increases.

Interestingly when I initially installed my system, I got all sorts of payments and grants and I calculated my own out of pocket expenses were about $4,500 or there abouts, for 1,000 watts. Now I'm not getting any subsidies (except REC, renewable energy credits, which I can sell to the installer) but I'm paying almost exactly the same price for a complete 1,600 watt system. One of the benefits of having a parallel system is that if one of my systems dies (say an inverter goes on the blink) the other system will keep going.

Since my solar hot water system was mounted on the north face of the roof, I had to mount my initial system on the western roof face. The new system will be on the eastern face so it should start pushing out power pretty early in the day. With the changing climate, temperatures in summer have been rising (up to 44 degrees in my backyard for days on end) so my idea is to be able to run my air conditioner much earlier in the day, and prevent the house getting hot in the first place. (The house is well insulated, but with the temperature maxing-out at 43-44 degrees for 5 or 6 days in a row the heat eventually gets in. However, last summer I was able to keep the internal temperature at under 30 degrees, but at a big cost of power imported from the grid.)

As I say, it is a gamble, but politicians are politicians, and the general public is grumbling about the perception that the solar power users are somehow being subsidised by the taxpayer. Without the FIT, but with the extra panels, I'm hoping I can put that myth to bed without losing money, and show that in fact, due to the unfair purchasing practices of the utility, which buys a peak generated kWh for 8.04 cents, and sells it for 45 cents, some renewable generators are subsidising the taxpayers. Watch this roof space.

An interesting footnote: When the installer came around to do all the measurements and plot the shading footprint, he mentioned that there was a rumour that the power utility was going to introduce a levy on households who generate their own power to compensate the UTILITY for foregone income!!! Wow, if it's true, talk about greedy.
Joe

[Joe Blake]

A saying about homing chickens and roosting comes to mind.

The day after I made my last posting about taking a gamble we have this news item.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-20/call-for-an-inquiry-ino-muja/4769270

After all their pouting and prating about reducing power costs, the alleged cost to the taxpayer of $250 million is going to make that a fairly difficult promise to fulfill.

I think my gamble might be paying off even before I've had the new system installed.

:eek:

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

So, Joe, they will let you do (annual) net-metering? Without some mechanism that banks your overproduction for the times when you consume more than you produce it will be a tough nut.

If you do have net-metering, and a 45 ct/kWh peak rate, it shouldn't be too hard to earn back the investment and then some. As you noted, with debt mounting rates have only one way to go.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

I've seen nothing to indicate that as a possibility, Rob. As long as I produce more than I consume then I'll be ahead. It's just the wild ineptitude and buck-shoving that gets me. Pollies are always ready to take credit for something their department does right, but when the department makes a boob, then the blame is totally in their court.

Joe:mad:

[Joe Blake]

And in today's news.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-26/wholesale-gas-prices-expected-to-increase-massively/4780790?section=wa

Will the fun never end?

Joe:eek:

[Rob Beckers]

Expensive natural gas... That's an odd one.
Both North America and Europe seem to have a glut of natural gas due to the (relatively new) 'fracking' technology. While very controversial, it has in the short term led to very large gas production and prices that have stayed low. Not good for renewable technologies, as it just postpones the day of reckoning.

So, no net-metering over there. You have to produce as much as you use from day to day to stay ahead of the billing curve. That's backward!

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

I do have 450 Ah of 12 volt battery capacity, which runs a 600 W inverter, so I put some of my excess into that and run my freezers and possibly TV/DVD during the dark hours, but it's still not necessarily harnessing ALL of my excess power.

I've been notified that within the next 2 weeks the power utility is going to replace a wooden pole on my front verge so I can expect to be without grid power for about 7-8 hours during daylight hours, so I'll have to make sure the batteries are fully charged overnight, and rely upon that, plus about 300 W of panel from my off-grid panel/battery system. Luckily the freezers can run off 12 volts directly,with reduced power consumption, so shouldn't be more than a minor inconvenience (cross fingers). As mentioned previously I daily put a couple of litres of ice in the 240 v refrigerator and that should keep it cool (If I remember I'll set the temperature for the fridge to its lowest overnight and that should slow any heat gain.)

Maybe I could just get on the trike and go for a ride (if it's sunny).:bigsmile:

Joe

PS The Muja power station debacle just got worse, with the government saying that the cost will be closer to $280 million, and that it is likely that half the generating capacity of the station will be mothballed indefinitely.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-27/muja-power-station-price-tag/4786346?section=wa

And at the end of this clip the news that another power plant will closing down. Wow. Back to candles and woodchip water heaters.

I think I might move to Las Vegas with my luck at gambling. :amuse:

[Joe Blake]

As predicted, power prices have increased as at 1 July 2013.

https://www.synergy.net.au/docs/Standard_Electricity_Prices_Charges_brochure_MSF.p df

This document gives the relevant information. I'm on the "Smart Power Tariff" which varies cost of power during the day.

Peak power has risen from 45.88 cents per kWh to 47.73 c/kWh. Hopefully with the new panels I won't be buying ANY power at that rate.

The off-peak (overnight) goes up from 13.97 c/kWh to 14.55 c/kWh.

I'm booked to have the new panels installed in two days time, on Wednesday.

We'll see what happens from there.

Joe

[Ralph Day]

If I ever hear anybody in Ontario complain about power rates again I will show them what Joe's rates are in Oz. Our off peak is 6.7cents per kwhr, peak is 12.4cents.


I'd better get this tattooed on my forehead, because complaining about power rates is the provincial pastime. It used to be complaining about the postal service, but now everyone texts or uses email.

Ralph

[Paul Bailey]

Wow . Rates are still getting a little crazy , but in Oz-world that nuts. heres some Canadian rates if your using 800 kw a month.

[Ralph Day]

Let's make sure our comparisons are apples to apples.

A litre of milk costs $1 Canadian. A litre of gasoline costs $1.25 Canadian. A peak kwhr of electric in Ontario costs $.124 Canadian (12.4cents).

Now, how do Joe's electric costs compare? Are they as painful as first glance suggests Joe? I prefer this comparison to how many US dollars a Canadian and Aus dollar can buy.

Ralph

ps: If Joe doesn't mind telling us similar prices for his groceries and gas

[Joe Blake]

Sure, a litre of petrol (premium unleaded) is roughly $AU1.45/$CA1.35/$US1.32, and a litre of milk (I buy long life UHT) is $AU1.79/$CA1.72/$US1.63.

Currently the $US is trading at $AU0.91 and $CA1.06.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

The new system is operational, but not much sun today.

Let The Games Begin.

However, the forecast for the next week is for showers and/or storms, including heavy showers tomorrow, which will require the electric booster for the solar hot waters system to switch on.

My water tanks are already filled to overflow, but I'm hoping the rain reaches the agricultural districts. They are in desperate need.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Interestingly, received a letter today from Synergy, one of our electrical utilities, enthusiastically telling me that I will benefit from an increase in the amount I receive for selling excess power back to the grid going up from 8.4 cents per unit to 8.8 cents per unit.

Oh, be still me beating heart. :bigsmile:

And as my PV installer predicted a couple of weeks ago, the state government is now trying to change the billing for power to enable the utility to make up for lost revenue.

From yesterday's news feed from the ABC.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-15/changes-to-power-bills-might-mean-increases/4821556

[Minister] Nahan says about 2,000 households are applying to install photovoltaics (solar panels) every week and the government must change its charging system to reflect the trend.

He says the price paid to households who generate their own energy from solar panels might change.

"We have an 8.9 cents per kilowatt buyback now which is a very low price for us," he said.

"[Households] might get less, they might get more.

"We might say we'll boost it up to 12 cents but have a fixed charge. I don't know. These are the issues the regulators will look at.

I won't hold my breath.:sick:

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

How did we get into this situation where politicians rule the country?... :eek:
Seems that all those qualities that make a politician successful in 'politics' also make this person the worst choice to govern anything. Not just in Australia.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

A very interesting article on our local ABC newsfeed.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-05/new-report-shows-rapid-take-up-of-solar-panels/4864954

I like the bit about how the politicians projected that we would be at our present uptake of photovoltaic energy in 2030.

I guess that's what they get for not asking the people what they want, but telling them what they are going to get.

:suspicious:

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Good to hear Australia is seeing such an uptake in PV! I didn't know.

The "mortgage belt", that's one I had not heard before. Nice way of describing the suburbs, with lots of people buying the biggest house they can('t) afford. :toung:

In fairness to those that did the projections; it would have been hard to foresee the enormous drop in PV cost. This has brought solar PV to the point where even without incentives it is just about competitive (and in some places very competitive) with the regular grid-delivered electricity. Add incentives and rising electricity prices, and it's no wonder there is such an uptake.

Joe, do you hear anything over there about "grid capacity" or constraints of capacity? It's a larger and larger problem over here, where utilities will claim that their grid in many places has reached "capacity" when it comes to sources of electricity. It is set at a very low percentage of what the infrastructure can actually handle (if memory serves me it's 7%, could be less though). It's really odd; in many places they will quite happily hook up a (rate paying) 400A mansion (about 100kW if they were to use it all), while refusing a 10kW PV installation on the same street.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Rob,

Re grid capacity. I've heard vague mutterings about it, but none of them made much sense. The actual methodology for changing the financial regime has not yet been made public, but I suspect there will be some component in the extra charges to account for the "wear and tear" on the infrastructure caused by either the extra power or the fact that the electrons are going in the opposite direction. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, today our State government handed down its budget, and as I predicted (indeed last year or earlier I think) the FIT is being given a severe haircut.

From our ABC news feed this evening.

In a bid to save money, the Government will also target the popular solar feed-in tariff scheme, with Mr Buswell [State Treasurer] describing the current 40 cent per kilowatt customer payment rate as "overly generous".*

From 1 October, the rate will drop to 30 cents and by 1 July next year it will reduce to 20 cents.


So I think my gamble has paid off in that I won't be losing much money by sacrificing my FIT because of my new solar array because it was going to be reduced anyway. As it stands, we're currently in the middle of a much needed few weeks of wintery weather, so even the extra generation capacity has not made much of a difference as yet, but the few sunny days have seen generation exceeding the 100% of consumption mark, so it bodes well for the future.

Joe

*It's interesting how now the politicians describe 40 cents as "overly generous" whilst in the last election they promised a 60 cents gross tariff!!:amazed:

[Rob Beckers]

*It's interesting how now the politicians describe 40 cents as "overly generous" whilst in the last election they promised a 60 cents gross tariff!!

The more I observe politics and politicians in the various countries around the world I lived and live in, the more the conclusion is that rational behavior, science, fact, or accuracy have little to do with it. Politicians manipulate public emotions, the one who does this best wins. In this day and age that manipulation is mostly via the media (expensive!), which means that the for the most part the one with the most money wins. Being ruthless about this helps too, so a certain 'moral flexibility' is a definite asset for any successful politician...

Anyway, that's just an aside, only indirectly related to your FIT program.

From what you're writing I understand that the rate you get paid is not a constant, but changes as time goes by, even if you have an existing PV system (?). Presumably that means it can be done away with at any moment as well?

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

Indeed Rob, a moveable feast.

To put the timeline in a nutshell, so to speak.

When I had my first system installed, I was given "parity" pricing. I can't remember the exact figures, but if I imported a kWh of power from the grid I was charged (say) 30 cents, plus 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST). If I exported a unit during the same peak period, I would receive 30 cents, without the GST component.

In about 2009-2010 the Liberal Party was elected to office on the promise of a feed-in tariff of 60 cents per kWh, gross. ie I (as a renewable generator) would receive 60 cents for each unit I generated, regardless of whether I consumed it domestically or exported it.

The parity pricing was to be dropped, and the utility (Western Power/Synergy) would pay me a nominal amount (7 cents at the time I think) for each unit I exported.

Once in power the Govt then decided that 60 cents was over generous, and changed the basis from gross generation to net export. (Several other states also had gross schemes.) Further, the FIT was dropped to 40 cents per unit. This was "guaranteed" to last a fixed period, roughly 10 years, for existing users.

After a while, it was found that the scheme was so popular it was going to cost too much money, so it was decided that after a date, any new applications for the FIT would be paid at the rate of 20 cents per unit.

Despite this cut, the number of applications continued to increase, and then the government decided that after a certain date the FIT would be scrapped altogether.

However, it was restated that the FIT of 40 cents and 20 cents would be maintained for the existing guarantee period. ie the remainder of the 10 years.

Now we have, only a couple of months after the latest election, when the Liberal party was re-elected, despite the "guarantee", the 40 cents FIT would be reduced to 30 cents in October this year, then in July 2014, down to 20 cents.

However, to ease the pain, the guarantee period was extended by 2 years!

I now receive 8.8 cents per exported unit purchased by the utility, and as foreshadowed in one of my earlier posts, it could be raised to 12 cents per unit - or not!

Having voluntarily sacrificed my FIT, I now have no dog in this particular fight, but the government is being taken to court by aggrieved voters, some of whom find themselves in the situation of having borrowed large sums of money to install PV systems based upon a pay back of 40 cents per unit, are now severely out of pocket, and will be claiming recompense for their expenditure.

My own view is that the suit may fail on that ground, but there is an alternative ground of falsely misrepresenting initially.

Who thought electricity could generate so many sparks? :laugh:

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Well, it gets more and more interesting. There are now even splits within the ranks of government.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-08-11/solar-panel-dissent/4878804?section=wa

Rebellion in the party room no less.

I suspect there will be another backflip in the offing.

It's very good to see how the idea of solar power has become such a "hot" topic though. This is generating the sort of publicity no amount of money could buy.:nuts:

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Well, THAT didn't take long.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/18456332/cabinet-reverses-solar-tariff-decision/

Yayyyyyyy

People Power!! (And the fact that there is a federal election campaign under way at the moment)

Joe:D:D:D

[Rob Beckers]

That's good for Australia, though maybe not so great for you Joe, since you decided to step away from the tariff yourself and go for pure net-metering.

With the FIT program there, why don't they change the rate for new people? I can understand that rates change, since the capital outlay for PV on the roof changes all the time (it gets cheaper). New takers of the FIT rates should not expect to get the same as those that put PV up a few years ago. But from what I read there doesn't seem to be a mechanism for that (?).

For your own system, you are no longer part of the FIT program. So how does net-metering over there work Joe? Is this annual, so you can 'store' an access during, say, December, and use it to cover a shortfall in June? Or are you day-to-day (or worse, if it's an electronic meter, moment-to-moment)?

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

It's a fairly simple affair now that I'm not on the FIT, Rob. There are no "mechanisms" as you were asking about. It just goes from day to day and at the end of a 60 (+/-) day cycle I have a minion from the utility come round to my house and read my meter (don't know why they can't automate that, but that'll probably wind up costing more :laugh: - they'd probably want to send the data on my telephone line and cost me a local call), then in due course a bill will issue showing how much power I imported (at different times of the day) and how much I exported to the grid, and am charged accordingly. If I was not on a pension I would also be hit with a service charge which is fixed (roughly $1 a day) for various things such as maintenance of the infrastructure, wiring, wooden poles etc. As at my last bill I was about $395 in credit, thanks to my FIT.

Under the present wintery conditions, my power bill is roughly $1 per day, because I am still importing some power. Some of the excess goes into my battery bank and runs my freezers overnight (I have a 400 watt battery charger). The batteries are also charged by my off-grid PV system, which in winter is insufficient to keep up the full charge, although I've been able to last several days off-grid. Once the batteries are fully charged, the meter on the charger reads about 100 watts or so. The two freezers are constantly drawing 40-95 watts. However, I don't run my TV, DVD, computer etc off the batteries at night time just in case there's a grid failure, so during dark I'm still importing some power. However, from 9 pm till 7 am is the "Off peak" period when I'm charged a minimal amount (14.5 cents) per unit.

The present state is that I'm paid 8.8 cents per unit from the utility for my excess power. (Exclusive of FIT.) I usually consume about 2-3 units off peak (mostly for my TV/DVD and my new 240 volt refrigerator - had it over 12 months now) so that's a cost I can't avoid. Also during winter I sometimes have my solar hot water booster on for an hour during daylight. However with my new upgraded system, I'm hoping that when the "happy time" (Summer) comes and I'm generating 18 kWh per day, this will earn me enough $ that I'll turn a "profit" and get paid more by the utility for buying my power than I'm paying to import, even without the FIT. I think I've just about recovered my initial cost outlay, so there's really no reason, other than avarice, for me to get the FIT any longer. I made/saved enough to be able to afford to install my new system which will insulate me from any price rises in power. (Oh, yes, should also mention that I have my pedal powered generator which I use every day that I'm not actually cycling. I try and pedal enough that I can supply my 12 volt battery bank with 1.8 - 2.4 amp hours. The meter tells me that is 0.01 kWh is equivalent to about .7 amp hours at 12-15 volts. During this time I'm watching a DVD/VHS tape of the Le Tour de France from 2000 to 2013 :eek::bigsmile::bigsmile:)

My biggest hope is that, especially in light of current events, there will be a Parliamentary commission or something to thoroughly dismantle the present system and look at it intensely with a view to rebuild it more equitably, and perhaps create some of the mechanisms you mentioned.

Up until about 8 years or so ago, politicians used power pricing as a football to gain votes, by the simple expedient of promising that power prices would not rise under "their" stewardship, just by subsidising power costs from the public purse. But it couldn't continue like that, and now we have our present impasse. Of course now complaints are coming out because of the steep increases of power costs, which SHOULD have been gradually increased over a much longer time frame.

Purely the result of politics, politics, politics.

Anyway, summer is ahead of me and I'll be keen to see how my predictions work out. I think the big test will be in Jan-Mar, when the changes in climate will mean many more hot days needing the air conditioner to run.:mad:

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Thanks for explaining that Joe!
It's a twist on net-metering I haven't seen before, where you simply get paid for overproduction. I suppose it depends on how much you pay for each unit of use, if this is equivalent to 'banking' excess during summer for the winter months.

-RoB-

[Joe Blake]

As we say in Oz, stone the flamin' crows. It's not often I get welcome news from the power utility, but you could have knocked me down with a budgerigar's beak today when I downloaded my latest bill from Synergy. Having fitted extra PV panels to the roof and another 1.6 kW inverter, I thought I was going to sacrifice my FIT. It seems NOT to be the case. My bill showed me receiving an extra $105 or so FIT. I rang the utility to confirm this and was told that no, I was still entitled to receive FIT because my inverter capacity was still under 5 kW!!! It seems I'd misunderstood the terms of the contract.

A real bonus. Now I can make a donation to help those people who have suffered in the current horror fires in New South Wales. Wow. Recycle the green.

Joe

[Joe Blake]

The saga continues ... as well as checking the appropriate regulations on line, I contacted the guy who installed my second system, and they both agree with me that I should NOT get the FIT. I've written to the minister for energy but to date have only received an automatic acknowledgement of my letter. I don't want to get too deeply into politics, but the government is in the process of searching for savings to bring the budget back into the black (eventually), sacking staff, reducing education assistance etc, and yet they seem to be wasting money by giving FIT to people who are not entitled to it. Okay, I'm only one person, but I wonder how many others there are.:evil:

Joe

[Joe Blake]

Almost 4 weeks since I wrote to the minister for energy about my receiving the feed-in tariff when I shouldn't be ... so on Wed this week I AGAIN rang the utility's office to query the matter. This time I found somebody who was completely in tune with the legislation and said yes, I shouldn't be receiving the FIT ... So two days later (this morning) I receive a letter from the minister thanking me for my honesty, saying that the staff will be trained appropriately, I will cease to receive the FIT as from 1 December and that I will not be asked to refund any credit I have received.:D Given that it's been pretty sunny of late I reckon my credit will have gone up past $550, which means that it will be a number of years (5?) before I have to start paying for power. (If at all.)

A bit belated but an answer. Yay.

Joe

[Rob Beckers]

Joe, Christmas came early for you this year!

-RoB-