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<p>You'd assume most of Australia & a lot of NZ the eventual home setup will be really good solar units, a powerwall & effectively zero input from the grid. Even more so once you tie it all into well designed houses with great insulation, underfloor heating etc.</p>
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<p>Whats the insulation like on your house Nick? Double glazed etc?</p>
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<p>Thats weirdly the bit that always makes me go "maybe next year" when I look at building a self suffecient home. The powerwall tech is more or less there, Solar has come way down, but I'd want to incorporate REALLY good insulation & yet I have a thing for full length glass. And fuck me, double or triple glazed glass will do very bad things to your budget. </p> -
Unfortunately no double glazing - don't get it a lot in Australia except for noise related reasons, or architect designed bespoke jobbies.<br><br>
However, I have ensured the insulation in the ceiling (batts) are of suitable size and coverage. The original owner didn't put batts over the garage, so that was a massive suck hole for the thermal status of the house, which I corrected. I also insulated the inside of the garage door, which faces west, to limit heat transferred into the house from the metal surface late in the day.<br><br>
The house was built with wide eaves - very important in Australian heat - and the roof (corrugated steel) had a pretty big pitch on it. I installed a solar powered extractor fan that keeps it pretty nice up there and on the hottest days, the fan works hardest, so it balances things nicely and stops more reflective heat against the ceiling.<br><br>
The air con is a ducted system in the whole house, which isn't the most efficient, but is zoned to do either the east or west (roughly), so that minimised wasted energy to as large a degree as can be expected as the sun moves.<br><br>
I can take it a step further and get exterior blind or shutters, but I think I've spent enough money for now -
Have just seen consumer group CHOICE Australia say the payoff time for the PowerWall, with 4kw solar panels, of 23 years.<br><br>
LOT of assumptions made. Look forward to proving them wrong. <br><br>
Today was a new record for my solar panels: 32.68kWh generated. Wish my fucking meter was changed over so I could at least get some cash for that -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="NTA" data-cid="555892" data-time="1454405836">
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<p>Have just seen consumer group CHOICE Australia say the payoff time for the PowerWall, with 4kw solar panels, of 23 years.<br><br>
LOT of assumptions made. Look forward to proving them wrong.<br><br>
Today was a new record for my solar panels: 32.68kWh generated. Wish my fucking meter was changed over so I could at least get some cash for that</p>
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<p>Setup a website detailing stuff you are doing. Have links to retailers. You can get that down to 15 years with click thrus. This stuff is going to get more & more mainstream & folks will always want to have a read about what people are doing with their houses, I've book marked half your stuff & I'm probably not building for 5 years </p> -
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<p><strong>Setup a website detailing stuff you are doing. Have links to retailers.</strong> You can get that down to 15 years with click thrus. This stuff is going to get more & more mainstream & folks will always want to have a read about what people are doing with their houses, I've book marked half your stuff & I'm probably not building for 5 years </p>
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<p>Great idea - you should be all over this Nick. Add a few sneaky links to the fern for shits and giggles too!</p> -
<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Paekakboyz" data-cid="555962" data-time="1454451499">
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<p>Great idea - you should be all over this Nick. Add a few sneaky links to the fern for shits and giggles too!</p>
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<p>If I reference "interested fluffybunnies in FNQ" you'll know I'm speaking about Mariner ;)</p> -
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<p>If I reference "interesting fluffybunnys in FNQ" you'll know I'm speaking about Mariner ;)</p>
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<p>fixed</p> -
<p>Not sure if its geo-blocked for some, but last night on ABC their resident science show, Catalyst, were looking at home storage. Besides a lot of stuff I've covered here, they had a more in-depth look at Reposit, and also the future of batteries: zinc-bromine.</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/catalyst/SC1502H001S00'>http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/catalyst/SC1502H001S00</a></p>
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<p>If you can't see it - the Zinc-bromine stuff is great, because its quick to charge and about as efficient as lithium, BUT being liquid in the current configuration, not very small or practical for some application.</p>
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<p>Except some smart cookie at Sydney University has thought about making the liquid into a gel - WHICH IS ALSO FIRE RETARDANT - which means they can make the scale much smaller. And cheaper than lithium.</p>
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<p>Advantages? Well, what about 5 minutes to charge your smartphone, on a battery that lasts days instead of hours? Could be integrated into buildings and make superstructure a storage medium in itself. Fucking rad.</p> -
<p>Overcast nearly all day today, still drew off just over 14kWh - enough to fill the battery almost twice, considering efficiency ratio.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Have signed up with Reposit, and will change energy providers to one that has GridCredits as part of their scheme. In essence, this is the "selling" bit where I get more than the 5-8c / kWh off my current energy provider. When an "event" happens, I can sell for up to $1 per kWh.</p>
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<p>It'll be interesting to see what we use out of the battery. It is quoted as "5 hours of the average house" but what if they mean the average house in the USA?</p>
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<p>Dunno. Sitting tight, waiting for the last technical bit to be fitted. Then the stats will flow for all devices.</p> -
<p>Will do.</p>
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<p>BTW if you're looking at Solar and maybe want to see what someone in your area is doing, check this out:</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://pvoutput.org/listmap.jsp?sid=17459'>http://pvoutput.org/listmap.jsp?sid=17459</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>PV output uses the API interface for some of the more modern inverters, allowing people to see what everyone else is doing. I found a random Kiwi generator, and clicked on the "map" option to see he's in Whanganui (nice town).</p>
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<p>You can look through all these people who have put up stats, maybe find someone in your region, and see how they're operating. Depending on aspect, shade, landscape etc you might get similar results.</p>
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<p>This is a link for NZ:</p>
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<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://pvoutput.org/map.jsp?country=167'>http://pvoutput.org/map.jsp?country=167</a></p>
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<p>I'll be putting my system up on PV Output at some point, once I figure out the API doco (Postman not helping me - keeps returning errors).</p> -
<p><a data-ipb='nomediaparse' href='http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/05/welsh-home-installs-uks-first-tesla-powerwall-storage-battery'>http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/05/welsh-home-installs-uks-first-tesla-powerwall-storage-battery</a></p>
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<p>Definition of optimism - someone put in a powerwall & solar.</p>
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<p>In Wales.</p> -
<p>Just had a completely random call from some old fluffybunny in Melbourne. He had our number, and I wondered why - after we moved house, we kept the same ISP, who does our landline, and I asked for silent number years ago.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>So this prick had left a message, and the only reason I called him back was to find out how the got the number.</p>
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<p> </p>
<p>Then I remembered that we had to get a new number (moved exchanges) and therefore all the settings were blown away as it was technically a new account. FFS. I also discovered the guys who can help with that are only Mon-Fri business hours. Gah!</p>
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<p> </p>
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<p>Anyway, he had a good old rant and rave about the Powerwall and why did I choose it, how did I know it would do what they said, what about Depth of Discharge factors and all that shit. Then he finished off by calling the government fucking fluffybunnys and how he'd tried to set up his own 100kW solar farm but got blocked at every stage by bureaucrats.</p>
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<p>Fucking stalkers!</p>
Solar Power and Storage - a nerd's view