LED light bulbs much cheaper than solar systems.

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by gtfpv

well ive never really thought of that . very good point about no storage of the solar power . so at night i guess is when your using the power from the grid and not the sun . cheers .
my electrician workmate also sprukes about LED LIGHTS he has changed all of his lights to LED and is saving heaps on power bills , something i think i will be doing also . good thread . thanks
my friend does not have solar and his bills are rediculously low , around $150 per quarter i have 83 light globes in my place . i have paid in excess of 1000 / per quarter in summer with air on and 550 in spring without aircon

Ye some are saying I wouldn't save that much but now you say your mate does with LED's.... $24 is a lot for a single light bulb....luckily I don't have 83 like you do!

[gtfpv]

Originally Posted by EF_6

Ye some are saying I wouldn't save that much but now you say your mate does with LED's.... $24 is a lot for a single light bulb....luckily I don't have 83 like you do!

they're not all on at the same time , when i built the house every light fitting i fitted has atleast 3 bulbs the stairway light has 9 bulbs .
i will change the most used to led . for example i have 17 bulbs in the kitchen , 8 downlights in the hallway and nine bulbs in the stairway my friend says i'll save a bit changing them out to L E D 's

[GASWAGON]

Ye I just think $24 each is a bit rich.... Luckily I only needed two......You may get a discount if you buy in bulk though?

Check out this site and give them a call too.

http://www.ledified.com.au/

[rog xc]

Originally Posted by EF_6

O.k well at least I only bought two globes then......Thanks for all the info guys because I wasn't sure about what to do with my power bills as they have gone up 50% in the last three years....I will DEFINATELY be looking at a 5-6kw solar system in a few months time when I get some money together.

Depending on where you live, you could also do wind power.. run in tandem with a solar setup.

[sgt_doofey]

The best way to save money in regards to electricity is to change your usage habits.
Having a solar system installed will save you money no matter what. It's just a matter of how much it will save you over time to pay back the initial installation costs before you come out in front.
With solar, things to do is to use your power hungry appliances during the day. Things like microwaves, dishwashers, washing machines, dryers, etc, etc. That way, you're running them off of free solar power rather than paying for power off the grid. Limit your night time usage basically and do as much as possible during the day.

We had a 1.5kW system installed a little over a year ago and I did some calculations a while back. With the small system that we have installed, we would save roughly somewhere in the vicinity of $600 for the year on electricity costs. This was taking in to account the credits we earned by exporting power back to the grid and subsequently, money off our power bills, and the use of power from the solar system that we didn't have to pay for.
So, for a system that cost us $2,200 and saving around $600 a year, that's a pretty reasonable payback period of about 4 years for us.

There is plenty of information in the solar thread. I suggest you have a read of that.

Oh, and we also have LED downlights installed. 27 of them. We did a big reno and replaced the existing light globes with downlights instead. Yes, they are much cheaper to run than halogen ones at 12W each compared to 50W.

[GASWAGON]

Nice, thanks for the heads up!

[FGII-XR6]

wind power is the worst kind of alternative energy, apart from being noisy and annoying neighbours it only works when there is wind . the greenies rave about how good wind farms are but they can never be used to replace base load power stations.
In Sydney to show how "green " it was they put in wind power for the desalination plant, but where the demand for power is huge and constant the power supplied by the "offsetting wind power" is intermittent and unreliable meaning the desal plant still needs to rely on base load power. bearing in mind that base load generators are normally coal fired and can't be quickly turned on and off the wind power is hardly a good example of green energy. another con by the loony left

Originally Posted by rog xc

Depending on where you live, you could also do wind power.. run in tandem with a solar setup.

[Lotte]

Originally Posted by au3xr6

wind power is the worst kind of alternative energy, apart from being noisy and annoying neighbours it only works when there is wind . the greenies rave about how good wind farms are but they can never be used to replace base load power stations.
In Sydney to show how "green " it was they put in wind power for the desalination plant, but where the demand for power is huge and constant the power supplied by the "offsetting wind power" is intermittent and unreliable meaning the desal plant still needs to rely on base load power. bearing in mind that base load generators are normally coal fired and can't be quickly turned on and off the wind power is hardly a good example of green energy. another con by the loony left

Wind power is touch and go. The wind maps, altitude and topography of the area needs to be correctly considered, as well as storage considerations for the times when the wind is producing more power than usual.
It's definitely not the most effective and efficient power source, and would most likely have to be supplementary to *whatever alternative* we end up moving to, if we decide to use it at all.

[Outbackjack]

What I have learned since having 20 solar panels on my roof. I live in Alice Springs...

1. They are a heap more efficient in cool sunny weather.
2. They are almost useless in cloudy weather. That includes over cast.
3. During the day when there is almost always no-one home they pump power back to the grid at a rate that I can run two huge mothers of aircons for about $20 per week....

Namely these...



The air con pre solar was about $200 PW.

Is solar worth it to me.. Sure is.

[gtfpv]

yep . i forgot . when no one is home during the day . solor power may not be getting dtored for use . but you are selling it to the grid . in essence is similar to storing it .
so in that sense my earlier posts and ef6's was not quite right . thanks for bringing this up . cheers

[PepeLePew]

If you must do LED bulbs do so, but don't make your thoughts about saving revolve around them. If you have kids and they have bad habits of leaving lights on, go for it and replace the few. That's what we did, we have some lights on 24x7 thanks to the short people who seem to be tall enough to switch them on but can never seem to reach to switch them off! It's part of getting your bills down albeit a small one, but if you want real impact think bigger. (its interesting though that many have made efforts to reduce consumption, yet 'my bill hasnt changed!', well it has, it's just the cost of electricity has gone up)

We've always thought solar, but never executed. Which is poor logic really, even a small system will contribute getting costs down. Think of the appliances running all day junk on standby, fridges, freezers, esp in a large household that needs the extra food storage. And for those with stay at home parent's needing A/C on etc in summer, heating in winter, it's not all about low daytime consumption. Often, its peak.

[stevejg33]

Just putting my 2 cents worth in. I have solar installed. We bought it when there were large feed in tarrifs but the system was also expensive.
Our bills were on average around $900 a quarter, we installed a 6 kw system 2 years ago. The system cost us $22k but our feed in rate is 55 cents/kw hour ( you can currently buy the same system for around $10-12k but you won't get the same feed in tarrif )
We haven't had a bill in 2 years & we punish the air cond. in both summer & winter. Not only that but we are around $1700 in credit.
The 2 years of no bills works out to around $7,200.00 that we have saved & our system will have paid for itself in another 4 years. After that we are in front plus we are in credit so the energy company owes us money that we can cash in if we want. Also we don't need to worry if we have left a light on.
It was a lot of money & we drained all our savings to pay for it, I was hesitant but the missus said "do you want to keep paying for power forever & it will only get dearer"
Seriously, installing solar was the BEST money I ever spent.

[Lotte]

Random piece of info my mum sent me today. She started switching everything bar the fridge and hot water off at the power point (no gas where she is), and her bills have reduced by at least 25% (even with rises in electricity).
I'm about to start this, see if it works for us (cooking/hot water is gas).

PepeLePew: Apparently that doesn't change as the short people get taller, move out of home and start paying their own bills. I'm constantly switching off lights in my house after my 30 year old child..... (who happens to be older than me....)

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by stevejg33

We haven't had a bill in 2 years & we punish the air cond. in both summer & winter. Not only that but we are around $1700 in credit.The 2 years of no bills works out to around $7,200.00 that we have saved & our system will have paid for itself in another 4 years. After that we are in front plus we are in credit so the energy company owes us money that we can cash in if we want. Also we don't need to worry if we have left a light on.
It was a lot of money & we drained all our savings to pay for it, I was hesitant but the missus said "do you want to keep paying for power forever & it will only get dearer"
Seriously, installing solar was the BEST money I ever spent.

Wholly crap now that's impressive....Exactly the sort of response I like to read... 'They pay you'! Well I will DEFINEATELY be buying a 6kw system ASAP!
What make/model system did you buy?

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by Lotte

Random piece of info my mum sent me today. She started switching everything bar the fridge and hot water off at the power point (no gas where she is), and her bills have reduced by at least 25% (even with rises in electricity). I'm about to start this, see if it works for us (cooking/hot water is gas).

PepeLePew: Apparently that doesn't change as the short people get taller, move out of home and start paying their own bills. I'm constantly switching off lights in my house after my 30 year old child..... (who happens to be older than me....)

Wonder if you could get a timer fitted to the hot water service so it ONLY comes on during off peak? The fridge is the only thing that needs to stay on during the day.

[xisled]

Originally Posted by EF_6

Wholly crap now that's impressive....Exactly the sort of response I like to read... 'They pay you'! Well I will DEFINEATELY be buying a 6kw system ASAP!
What make/model system did you buy?

I think you need to do more research on solar. Remember this person has a buyback of 55 cents, currently you would be lucky to get 8 cents. Also the amount of power this person uses may be very different to the amount of power you use.

What the above post gets with putting 1 kWh (55 cents) back into the grid would take around 7 kWh (8 Cents) going back into the Grid.

Originally Posted by EF_6

Wonder if you could get a timer fitted to the hot water service so it ONLY comes on during off peak? The fridge is the only thing that needs to stay on during the day.

If you have an electric hot water system, it should only heat up during the off peak times. It should be on a day/night or time switch. Also be careful messing about with hot water systems. If not set correctly they can bread a lot of nasties.

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by xisled

I think you need to do more research on solar. Remember this person has a buyback of 55 cents, currently you would be lucky to get 8 cents. Also the amount of power this person uses may be very different to the amount of power you use.

What the above post gets with putting 1 kWh (55 cents) back into the grid would take around 7 kWh (8 Cents) going back into the Grid.



If you have an electric hot water system, it should only heat up during the off peak times. It should be on a day/night or time switch. Also be careful messing about with hot water systems. If not set correctly they can bread a lot of nasties.

Bread or Breed lol! Cheers thanks for the info.

[stevejg33]

Originally Posted by EF_6

Wholly crap now that's impressive....Exactly the sort of response I like to read... 'They pay you'! Well I will DEFINEATELY be buying a 6kw system ASAP!
What make/model system did you buy?

We bought 6 kw system with a 6 kw SMA (Sunnyboy) inverter & 56 110w Kaneka panels & put them on the roof of my shed, unfortunately the company that installed it went broke (Solar Shop) about 12 months after it was installed. Still have manufacturer warranties though.
If buying solar buy as good an inverter as you can & good panels, if your inverter is crappy it doesn't matter how good your panels are.
If you're looking to buy solar & don't want any more bills you need to work out your total energy use, & buy a system that will produce around that much power over 12 months, don't forget you make extra power over summer & then eat into your credits over winter when the system isn't producing much power. You also have to work out what feed in tariff you will have.
Just had a look at my inverter reading & in 25 months since install it has produced 18,300 kw of power.

[AndyXR6T]

Originally Posted by EF_6

Wonder if you could get a timer fitted to the hot water service so it ONLY comes on during off peak? The fridge is the only thing that needs to stay on during the day.

90% of houses have off peak hot water timers in them. If your tank is too small for off peak then installing a timer means your water won't last long enough and you will be paying normal rates still

[GASWAGON]

Originally Posted by stevejg33

We bought 6 kw system with a 6 kw SMA (Sunnyboy) inverter & 56 110w Kaneka panels & put them on the roof of my shed, unfortunately the company that installed it went broke (Solar Shop) about 12 months after it was installed. Still have manufacturer warranties though.
If buying solar buy as good an inverter as you can & good panels, if your inverter is crappy it doesn't matter how good your panels are.
If you're looking to buy solar & don't want any more bills you need to work out your total energy use, & buy a system that will produce around that much power over 12 months, don't forget you make extra power over summer & then eat into your credits over winter when the system isn't producing much power. You also have to work out what feed in tariff you will have.
Just had a look at my inverter reading & in 25 months since install it has produced 18,300 kw of power.

Excellent, thanks for the info!

[Lotte]

Originally Posted by EF_6

Wonder if you could get a timer fitted to the hot water service so it ONLY comes on during off peak? The fridge is the only thing that needs to stay on during the day.

Probably could. but she's managing - just - and I remember having a million issues with hot water growing up, that I'm pretty sure she just wants to leave it alone and let it do its job in its own stupid way

[zilo]

Originally Posted by stevejg33

Just putting my 2 cents worth in. I have solar installed. We bought it when there were large feed in tarrifs but the system was also expensive.
Our bills were on average around $900 a quarter, we installed a 6 kw system 2 years ago. The system cost us $22k but our feed in rate is 55 cents/kw hour ( you can currently buy the same system for around $10-12k but you won't get the same feed in tarrif )
We haven't had a bill in 2 years & we punish the air cond. in both summer & winter. Not only that but we are around $1700 in credit.
The 2 years of no bills works out to around $7,200.00 that we have saved & our system will have paid for itself in another 4 years. After that we are in front plus we are in credit so the energy company owes us money that we can cash in if we want. Also we don't need to worry if we have left a light on.
It was a lot of money & we drained all our savings to pay for it, I was hesitant but the missus said "do you want to keep paying for power forever & it will only get dearer"
Seriously, installing solar was the BEST money I ever spent.

We get 33c a kw/h on our farm, so not the 50-60 cents rate.

But we have 16 kw of panels and 3 inverters.

We try to consume as much as possible instead of feeding the grid.

We run a desalinator to make fresh water instead, the water company charges have gone up much more than electricity.

It takes 48kw to make 6000 litres of drinking water from salty water.

It is more advantageous to make water with the power instead...a full water tank looks like a battery to me now...LOL

So...we have no more water bills except supply to property etc.

And no more power bills either.


I asked them if i could feed water back on the grid (cause my water is much cleaner than theirs)

They threatened us witha huge fine if we did....but confirmed the meter would run backwards..