New Purchase/Build - Home Renovations - Gardens - Garages & Sheds.

[Puffwagon]

That tesla battery doesn't have enough capacity for someone in my position. 

 

I'd need 3 of them to go off grid. 

Edited 19/12/18 07:01 AM by Puffwagon
3 not 4 Powerwalls.

[masda74]

each tesla battery can hold 10KW if I am not wrong.

How can you use 30kw at night?

 

Only way to work out if a battery is worth while is see how much you pay for power in a year if you get bills.

If you pay $250 every 2 months, then definitely not worth it.

However for those that pay $400 every 2 months, that will pay itself off before the warranty expires.

 

I see it this way. if you get the battery added onto your system, technically you should not get another bill from the power company.

It should also allow you to run your house off the power stored in the battery without having to use any power from the grid.

If you still use power off the grid and you have a battery bank, then you got it all wrong.

 

First thing I did once I signed up for solar, was change my light bulbs to LED. that alone helped our power bills without even having solar panels.

another thing you can do is automate your house with sensors to see when if you are in the room or not.

It can turn off your lights when you not there, especially when you have kids.

 

Also with the home automation systems you can also control your blinds to open and close them at specific times to help reduce or increase temps in the house.

This comes in handy especially in winter when it is cold. open the blinds in the morning to allow the sun to get in and heat the place up.

Even better in summer, you can close the blinds in the late arvo on the west side of the house to keep the heat out and keep the house cool.

[.Stripes.]

But you'd have to run proper calculations on how much you're spending on the home automation gear (blinds motors aren't cheap! I know, I bought 3 of them for my living room) to work out the savings you'd get on your power bills.

 

Also, 10kWh battery wouldn't last me all night - in summer my ducted AC will chew through 3-4kW and hour...so that running alone when I get home from work would wipe out the battery within 3 hours. Add to that lights, tv, hifi etc...a single 10kWh battery isn't enough.

[Puffwagon]

48 minutes ago, masda74 said:

How can you use 30kw at night?

 

I watch all the porn...all of it...

 

I pay between $300 and $420 per month. Last December the daily average was 39kWh and July was 35kWh. The lower months are 25kWh, and obviously they gradually change from month to month. This will only increase as the kids get older.

 

With the new roof I'm getting installed, I'm also getting 50mm of insulation under the iron so that should help out a bit.

Edited 19/12/18 08:25 AM by Puffwagon
Min elec $

[bossmang]

my power bill is around 600 a quarter, with decent discount. 

 

tiny 2 bedroom unit, hardly home during the day. and ditched the storage electric mid year. 

 

nfi where the power goes, everything is led. bs

[masda74]

I <3 Bananas me, if you bill is that high a quarter, then something is wrong.

Swimming pool pumps chew up heaps of power. don't run it at night. run it at lunch time(midday) when the solar system is pumping out at max.

Puff, I don't see how you guys could use 35kw in a day especially with kids. Are they sucking the power out directly from the plug with a straw or something?

 

Do they each have a TV, PLaystation, Xbox, Radio and clock in their rooms?

Man I would be broke if I had power bills like that? My wallet would be broke and so would my mind.

I was bitching and complaing and chucking a riot when my bill hit $250 for 2 months.

 

If you really want to monitor what power you are using in the house, one of these bad boys does help.

https://www.jaycar.com.au/mains-power-meter-with-extendable-lcd-display/p/MS6108

https://www.jaycar.com.au/mains-power-meter/p/MS6115

[Puffwagon]

Lol it really is that high. I can grab a screenshot of my yearly power usage if you like  We pay nearly 38c per kWh for general use with the supply charge and hot water coming to $70 per month.

 

We have a 6.5kw wall unit, a 2.5 kw wall unit and 2 portables rated at 890W input each. We have 3 ceiling fans, 2 tv's, 2 fetch boxes, 2 surround systems, my pc, cctv system, 6 peoples worth of washing to do and a dryer for winter, dishwasher, 480L fridge freezer, 700L chest freezer, 900w microwave, crappy stove/oven, toaster, kettle, bread maker, vege steamer, coffee maker, 2 phones to charge, 4 tablets to charge, 2 laptops to charge, kid monitoring crap (for the just turned 2yo), a few night lights, a little pond pump for the pool heater, the pool filter (it's only a small removable filter type), and the hot water service which gets a decent workout. All the lights have been swapped to energy efficient ones. Haha the boys do have a clock in their room too.

 

That's the daily stuff, there is other stuff that doesn't get used as often such as my power tools, welders, pressure washer etc.

 

For comparison though, when the missus went to see her family interstate for a couple of weeks in October the average daily was 21kWh.

 

I reckon I will pick up some of those power measurers though.

[Mrs Jeturbo]

So guys... I’ve been a bit awol lately.

My dad passing has really taught me that life’s short and I really needed to think long and hard about what I wanted to do with my life. 

Well ive always had the same love of designing houses etc so I decided to give it a shot. 

 

Ive now started a business basically designing custom homes, renovations and interior design for people. It’s an inbetween for people who want the creativity of an architect without the associated price and I have the required skill and contacts to design a home and get it engineered. I feel the skill required from an architect often doesn’t necessarily reflect the clients vision all the time and my business is really about what the client wants. Is it really impossible?

or do people just not want to think outside the square? 

Also I offer consulting services to those building through a main stream builder who want assistance with design both interior or exterior and can help or even do selections with you prior to your builders selections, to ensure you know what you’re getting and provide you with a 3D render of the interior of your home with the selections you chose to ensure you’re doing the right thing before selecting colours, fittings, fixtures etc. 

 

The goal is to be able to leave my job before the end of 2019 and hopefully have a whole premises soon after. 

This hopefully will extend into a development side aswell where our own projects can be another side job for me. 

 So yeah fairly exciting.... basically living back with mum in our 1920s family bungalow, which was meant to be demolished by now, but circumstances have delayed it by some months and sentimental value is making it harder and harder to let go. The memories of good times and Dad remain so strong here and I’m honestly enjoying our final months here while all paperwork and legalities are redone to enable our original project to finally take place... but I had no where to keep my office, ironically the place I need to design other new houses and renovations. So I decided to clear out the old bathroom which has been out of commission forever and used as storage. Clean the mouldy and dust covered ceilings and walls and paint it to make it more of a healthy comfortable place to work... and it came up pretty good for a days work... I did have some help  and uncovered the antique light shade.. now to fit it out. Ps. I love exposed brick 

 

Here are some before and after shots  

 

 

Edited 20/12/18 08:05 AM by Frederick
I suck

[bloodycrashboy]

awesome stuff @Frederick

Life really is short, a lot shorter than we like to think

realizing a dream and then actually making it happen is something you can be proud of

[bloodycrashboy]

sun's out 

smashing the aircon today