Thread: energy sources

Originally Posted by mic-d

Had a solar company out today and was told the site wouldn't be suitable due to neighbouring tree blocking the afternoon sun, so it looks like my short foray into alternative energy has died an early death.

Mic-d

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Did you get as far as finding out the capital cost cost, size of unit, payment for feeding back into the grid and length of contract or was it all cut off at the knees by the tree?

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Mic-d

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Did you get as far as finding out the capital cost cost, size of unit, payment for feeding back into the grid and length of contract or was it all cut off at the knees by the tree?

Regards
Paul

I should say, he was the first of three companies chosen by a 'broker' I contacted who filters out all the shonky dealers and so the prices are above others. I contacted Origin and could get a 1.5KW system until the end of June for $3990, however, they were keen to take my money and not check the suitability of the site

He did give me a spreadsheet of cost, payback time etc. For a 1.52KW system it was $5795 and a payback period of just under 7 years (based on current tariffs) and a 3KW system $11295.
(caveat as I said, n=1, I'm sure there are cheaper companies)

There is an interesting set of cells in the spreadsheet which I will have to follow up on. They show the split of power to the house and to the grid.

For example the 1.5KW unit splits 400W to the house during the day and 1120W to the grid, the 3KW unit splits 400W and 2600W respectively.

I do not know if this is tuned by the inverter/meter etc and is adjustable or not, but it could be important for future offset if/when the feed in tariff matches the buy cost. I'll try and clarify today.

Ok had some clarification. The split in power is purely an estimate of the daytime use /hour for their calculations. And they also base their calculations on a fairly conservative 4.3hrs sunshine/day.

Hi Mic-d
I had 3kw system with 16 panels installed on 19th March.
The cost to me was $11750. I am due to get a quarterly bill for my use any day now.
I'm interested to see the result. The days are short now and we have had some cloudy weather. The best day in mid March they were generating around 2.5kw.
Origin is my supplier and they have installed a new smart meter.
It gives about 4 different readings so I can't make sense of it.
The new bill when it arrives may help.
Regards Keith.

The meters are probably usage tar 11 tar 33 (or whatever tarrifs your on) and those again on what your generating, ie full price power, discount (for hot water etc) and the feed in totals.

Some friends had the smart meters and being an electrician he spotted the problem right away. They had mis programmed so instead of subtracting the generated power they added it. Took months to sort.

There is a mob on TV right now advertising a bigger system for what looks like a good price, tru value solar or something. Check the inverter brand, doesn't matter if the panels suck but you need to get a decent inverter.

Paul, I'd get some more quotes....yes a tree is a problem, a big problem, but it still might be doable.

If your on a gas main you can always start saving for a bluegen.

Of course the gas might be coming from a coal seam operation in a few years, and I wouldn't give those $%^& my money...

Disturbingly Paul I agree with you 100%

wot he said

Also I see that a lot of solar units are quite small 1.5kw which is the same size as my hot water kettle, seems a tad small to be effective.

For me we are all at work during the day and home at night so benefits are not so great and given that the NSW govt has a sunset clause on the payments etc. The returns have a limited life.

My thinking is I would need to go in for some sort of storage system to gain any real benefit, and these systems are perhaps the dearest of all and would be a burden on my current finances.

Yes but your kettle doesn't run all day non stop.

Originally Posted by damian

Yes but your kettle doesn't run all day non stop.

You haven't been here.

When i thought about the installation of PV panels on the roo fI approached my neighbour about lopping the large Lilly Pilly trees on his southern boundary.

He was only too happy to oblige as they were also a bother to him as they filled his gutters ith leaves.

W e shared the cost and are both Happy!!

Originally Posted by hughie

wot he said

Also I see that a lot of solar units are quite small 1.5kw which is the same size as my hot water kettle, seems a tad small to be effective.

For me we are all at work during the day and home at night so benefits are not so great and given that the NSW govt has a sunset clause on the payments etc. The returns have a limited life.

My thinking is I would need to go in for some sort of storage system to gain any real benefit, and these systems are perhaps the dearest of all and would be a burden on my current finances.

It appears you don't understand how this works - consider it as an investment
A 1.52kw system costs $5750
Output per day is likely to be 1.52x 5.5 x 85% = 7.106 units
Where 1.52 is the system size, 5.5 is the peak sunshine hours per day (this is about average for southern Australia) and 85% is the efficiency of the system.

7 unit per day output is an annual output of 2555 units
If we assume your feed in tarriff is the same as you pay for power say 21cents per unit
(this varies from place to place) the system will make $536.00 per year whether you use it or feed it into the grid.
That is 9.3% return on your investment, Try and get that at the bank

Assuming your 1.5 kw kettle takes 5 minutes to boil, you could boil it about 55 times a day on the system output

If you are connected to the grid, use the grid as your storage system, it is the cheapest and most efficient

Well said Bradford.
If fact i was reading an online article where a financial adviser was saying that solar panels were a better investment than shares & a hell of a lot better than banks! Add to that the added value to the home & you've got a true winning investment.

The problem I see with regarding a solar instalation as an investment is that this stance does not take into account depreciation of the equipment and resale value at the end of it's life, which would presumeably be zilch.

An investment in the bank would still be worth it's nominal value at the end of the same period, although I accept that in real terms the same sum of money would now buy less.

Please believe me when I say I would dearly love to go along with this line of thinking as for me solar will be the ultimate answer, but not just yet. The technology is still not far enough advanced and price wise probably four to five times the cost of thermal.

I, as those of you who have read previous posts of mine, am a big advocate of solar power and my idea was indeed to turn every household into a mini power station. It seemed the way to go, but just recently the concept received a king hit.

When maintenance is required on power lines, isolation is povided at a particular point, which is normally at a local switchyard. The circuit breaker and associated isolator are opened and the line is earthed so work can proceed safely.

However, if electricity is being fed into the grid from domestic installations there is now a back feed and that too needs to be isolated. I am not sure how this is achieved at the moment, but in principle each and every household has to be disconnected from the system. I am sure you can see the potentially enormous problem. I don't suppose that for one moment it is insurmountable, but it is another hurdle to be overcome.

Finally there is another question. How long will subsidies be available for these solar instalations? Currently I have seen price up to 44c per kwh being offered. Compare this to the 18c to 22c we pay for electricty and the 3.5c the power generators receive. How long will these very elevated prices continue? Most contracts are for a limited period.

Regards
Paul

Bushmiller,
As I understood it from my solar installer if there is no power in the grid system the solar system automatically closes down as a safety measure.
This may or may not be correct.
Regards,
Keith.

Looking at wind, apparently a much cheaper install than solar and prettyt good here on the coast