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The Bar For non Automotive Related Chat |
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#31 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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#32 | |||
GT
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: SYDNEY
Posts: 9,205
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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 |
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#33 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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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/ |
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#34 | |||
Regular Member
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: ballarat, vic
Posts: 227
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#35 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Barossa Valley, South Australia
Posts: 3,381
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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. ![]()
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Cheers, Sam. |
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#36 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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Nice, thanks for the heads up!
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#37 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Salamander Bay
Posts: 5,427
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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
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[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Everyone starts off with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the experience bag before the luck bag is empty. "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Start a new career as a bus driver Rides: FG2 XR6 stock at this stage but a very nice ride xc 4 DOOR X CHASER 5.8 UNDER RESTO |
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#38 | |||
YE-US! Wait. I don't know
Join Date: May 2010
Location: in the turkey...
Posts: 940
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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.
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"Well. Apparently you're looking for a lion-snake named Harriet." Daily: '06 BF XL Ute,Shockwave Blue, Column Shift, eGas BEAST.
Gone: 77 HZ panel van, 253, column. The Weekender: '06 BF Pursuit, Toxic, lumpy af |
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#39 | ||
Central to all beach's
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Alice Springs
Posts: 1,653
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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.
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Real Aussie muscle cars have a clutch!! http://www.roadsense.com.au/about.html |
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#40 | ||
GT
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: SYDNEY
Posts: 9,205
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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 |
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#41 | ||
Workshop & Performance
![]() Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Hewett SA
Posts: 4,121
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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.
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Alpine 7909 30th/Alpine 5959/Audison Bitone.1/DLS Ultimate A6+A7/ Focal KRX2/Morel Ultimo 12/AudioEngine B1 A stereo that happens to have a XR5 wrapped around it |
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#42 | ||
Classic not Plastic
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 155
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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. |
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#43 | ||
YE-US! Wait. I don't know
Join Date: May 2010
Location: in the turkey...
Posts: 940
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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....)
__________________
"Well. Apparently you're looking for a lion-snake named Harriet." Daily: '06 BF XL Ute,Shockwave Blue, Column Shift, eGas BEAST.
Gone: 77 HZ panel van, 253, column. The Weekender: '06 BF Pursuit, Toxic, lumpy af |
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#44 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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What make/model system did you buy? Last edited by GASWAGON; 22-07-2013 at 02:24 PM. |
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#45 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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#46 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 3,336
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Quote:
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. Last edited by xisled; 22-07-2013 at 03:27 PM. |
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#47 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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#48 | |||
Classic not Plastic
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Adelaide
Posts: 155
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Quote:
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. |
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#49 | ||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Sydney, NSW
Posts: 2,970
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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
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#50 | |||
FF.Com.Au Hardcore
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,250
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#51 | |||
YE-US! Wait. I don't know
Join Date: May 2010
Location: in the turkey...
Posts: 940
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Quote:
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__________________
"Well. Apparently you're looking for a lion-snake named Harriet." Daily: '06 BF XL Ute,Shockwave Blue, Column Shift, eGas BEAST.
Gone: 77 HZ panel van, 253, column. The Weekender: '06 BF Pursuit, Toxic, lumpy af |
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#52 | |||
BANNED
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 2,886
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Quote:
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.. ![]() |
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