eveln 1,049 Posted March 28 No power for us since about 9.30 pm last night. At home that is. All good here at work. Made my morning caffeine fix on a portable gas element, and a luke warm shower was had. A thunder and lightning show is the cause. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisg 643 Posted March 29 Hmm, My mother is paranoid about power cuts stopping her oxygen concentrator. No matter how much I tell here she has at least 2 hours on her battery unit and five backup oxygen bottles here plus call on her mobile and a station wagon ambo car will be here in minutes with oxy on board she is not reassured. Had enough trouble explaining she would have to call on her mobile because she is on NBN and the line would drop. Much muttering about phones never going out and what good is the NBN... Leaving aside my own disgust over the roll-out she is actually on HFC and the connection is pretty good, allows her to stream Stan which is very iffy on a niece's so called FTN connection. She really is as technical as doorknob and if there is nothing to worry about she worries about that. Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eveln 1,049 Posted March 29 Last night's thunder and lightening apparently produced 6500 ground strikes in our area ... no wonder a few hit pay dirt and blitzed our power supply till around midday today 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fliptopia 265 Posted March 29 2 hours ago, eveln said: Last night's thunder and lightening apparently produced 6500 ground strikes in our area ... no wonder a few hit pay dirt and blitzed our power supply till around midday today That sounds like a whole lot of storm! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
eveln 1,049 Posted March 29 26 minutes ago, fliptopia said: That sounds like a whole lot of storm! A lot of lightning. thunder and rain, which was good cos that dropped the heat and allowed sleep without fans. No wind. It was a calm storm ... also very lucky our fridge was at a low re fresh food supplies. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
twinair 197 Posted March 30 On 3/28/2019 at 11:32 PM, scruffy1 said: i am incredulous that people can use $1300 electricity a quarter - although we don't have a pool (we have the pacific ocean walking distance away) how the fuck can people chew that much power, unless their house is woefully inefficient ? When I bought the place it had 76 halogen downlights which I recently replaced with LED downlights. I'm no expert but that's like 50W to 5W per globe. Less heat. They last longer.I was lucky enough with the way the wiring was done that I could simply replace the globes and the existing drivers would handle things as they were. It's a house built in the 80's...at that time efficiency wasn't on everyone's radar. I did a whole bunch of shit to reduce my bills. But the solar power is 90% of it On 3/28/2019 at 11:32 PM, scruffy1 said: we don't have a pool (we have the pacific ocean walking distance away) I have both. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rybags 1,130 Posted March 30 Fairly sure halogen only became a thing around the late 90s. And not exactly earth shaking efficiency given that you tend to see 2-4 times as many of them vs stock fittings. And how many fires have they been responsible for? The big irony of lighting is that the old fashioned strip fluros which are probably ~ 1950s technology aren't too much worse off than the LEDs and CFLs of today - though of course the harshness and flicker can be a real annoyance. At one point I thought it'd be an interesting experiment to rig up a little solar panel charging a 12V battery and maybe a bit of wind as well and see how long it could run some lights for - but generally I'm running 2 lights most of the time which these days is about 25 watts or less. Chances are that my top 2 or 3 electrical appliances on standby are using more than that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
g__day 73 Posted March 31 For all those that asked can you / is it easy to go off grid if you are in urban settings - my partially informed answer would be - probably not (power companies and councils don't want to make it easy to opt out) plus it may not be too economically desirable - but, soon one may be able to side step this by choosing a grid agnostic system (with or without batteries). All solar systems must shut down on detection of grid out of permitted frequency ranges or grid out. However islanding solutions where permitted allow a house to keep running off batteries and solar - I presume this is what a Solar plus Tesla Powerwall 2.0 solution does when the grid dies. This year Enphase will go one better releasing it's grid agnostic IQ8 mirco-inverter based solution - specifically designed for areas with poor to no grid. With or without batteries the IQ8 checks for grid presence and quality and if it's not there it simply islands the house (no idea if this has been checked and certified by Australia yet). If the grid isn't there the system simply powers up or down your solar to meet you current demand and or battery storage / output capabilities and needs. If you demand more power than can be supplied - it shuts everything down until you turn off your most power hungry box. So this may make economic sense when it is priced. Availability is due this quarter... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeruselem 756 Posted April 1 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-31/federal-budget-to-include-one-off-energy-assistance-payments/10956786 Our fave treasurer is throwing a token amount at poor people to pay a token amount of power bills ... (election bribery cough) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fliptopia 265 Posted April 1 2 hours ago, Jeruselem said: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-31/federal-budget-to-include-one-off-energy-assistance-payments/10956786 Our fave treasurer is throwing a token amount at poor people to pay a token amount of power bills ... (election bribery cough) Surely you aren't insinuating that frydenberg is anything other than genuinely feeling for these people who's budgets are struggling with bills? The insulting part is how little impact it will really have to most people's bills. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisg 643 Posted April 1 Yeah flip, It's pissing in the wind to get a few geriatric votes. Power bills need to come down, here in S.A. they are utterly ridiculous, I thought W.A. was bad enough. In real terms for my mother unless she gets some assistance paying for her oxy concentrator consumption power is going to cost here a significant chunk of her food budget after rent etc - food purchases are about the only flexible thing left in her pittance per fortnight. Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeruselem 756 Posted April 1 4 minutes ago, chrisg said: Yeah flip, It's pissing in the wind to get a few geriatric votes. Power bills need to come down, here in S.A. they are utterly ridiculous, I thought W.A. was bad enough. In real terms for my mother unless she gets some assistance paying for her oxy concentrator consumption power is going to cost here a significant chunk of her food budget after rent etc - food purchases are about the only flexible thing left in her pittance per fortnight. Cheers Pensioners get a discount on power here in the NT, 10% but it's better than nothing Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
scruffy1 841 Posted April 1 by putting up your hand, agl in nsw will give you a big discount for direct debit of bills (paid on time) AGL My Current Plan Plan details Discounts off energy usage charges 25% Direct Debit If you pay your bill by Direct Debit, you will get an additional discount off your usage charges for that bill, which will appear as a GST exclusive credit on your next bill. Your usage charges are calculated using our market rates, which we may vary. if you don't ask, they offer you an amazing 8% or so learnt that a few years ago, and mark the cycle on my diary to demand current "best" rate whenever i get a chance Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jeruselem 756 Posted April 1 I know someone at AGL ... he just happens to work in the department for pricing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cybes 1,292 Posted April 1 3 hours ago, Jeruselem said: Pensioners get a discount on power here in the NT, 10% but it's better than nothing We do here in SA as well. I'm guessing that Chris's mum is not the one paying the bills, so they don't get it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisg 643 Posted April 1 Hmm, In reality the family kick in for her power but it is in her name so she does get a discount but whatever percentage it is 38 cents per kw/h is a bloody high rate to be starting from. As I mentioned based on that rate her oxy costs a shade under $300 per quarter in electricity. I've been looking at the thing and trying to figure out just how it has an average of 350 watts consumption, seems kind of inefficient. When I get time, between job hunting, house hunting and mother I don't get too much free time just now I'll do some comparison research Well, apparently she will get $75 from the oh so generous budget... Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cybes 1,292 Posted April 1 8 minutes ago, chrisg said: she will get $75 Over what period? Per week would be amazing; per annum would be next to unnoticeable. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrisg 643 Posted April 1 Supposed to be in the budget mate, one-off payment - you should get it as well, and me - think I'll see if it fills the car... Cheers Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Cybes 1,292 Posted April 1 5 hours ago, chrisg said: Supposed to be in the budget mate, one-off payment Ah. Shows how much attention I've been paying to the domestic shit show. The US one is mesmerising in its hysterical badness. $75 one-off. Why bother? Anyone that cares about it will feel more insulted than grateful. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
