Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Bill,
I HAD a wind gennie, but the vertical shaft, on which it pans sheared off, leaving the generator sitting on the ground and the prop smashed. I have an old single cylinder water cooled diesel which I am planning to belt drive the alternator to use as a sun replacement system for charging my battery bank.

All it takes is time and money. I have the latter, but not the former. When I get the time, I hope I still have enough money.

Our WA Gov has announced a 60c Gross Feed-In Tariff from solar energy produced until the capital cost of installation is recouped.

One has to be on the Natural Power Tariff for this 60c/unit. This means you will have to purchase power at a slightly higher rate, I guess it is a bit like putting your money where your mouth is. Mind you, you are only paying the extra rate for the extra bit of power you need to buy.

Our domestic tariff in WA is 13.94cents/unit and will rise to 16.09 buy July next year. The current Natural Power Tariff is 19.4 cents.

To be paid 60 cents/unit until capital cost is recouped sounds pretty good. It sounds like I should purchase a BIG system.

Things that sound good normally have a catch. Things that sound good coming from a Gov', generally means avoid.

Get a mate in the game to install some large old panels ,, hook it all up and get him to give you a $20,000 bill. Suck the off-peak power at 5.6 cents and store in batteries ,, feed it back at 60 cents ,, when you get your $20,00 cheque , moove system to new house:)
Sounds like a good retirement plan.

You are a conniving devil aren't you!!

I am by nature fairly honest ,, but BUT I really need / desire to retire ,I want more time with my kids and time to escape my wife to have more time with my girl-friend.

I would have thought the kids would cramp your style when you are with your girlfriend.

Nope only the wife do's that
At least my Comm bank shares are on the way back , there is still hope.
The Kids need their Mum and their Dad , their needs outweigh mine ,, except for a week or two each 6 months:)

They are only 30 months and 15 months old ,, easily trained into Capitalist aquaponicists:)

I now have both of my kids living in Perth, and when they come home they well and truly cramp my style. And its not just the things that a married (or unmarried too for that mater) couple get up to, but your biro goes missing, the nail clippers move, someone is on the phone when you want it, they come home late and wake you up.

Mind you I would never go back to thestage no matter how good she was!!

My other son is 21 ,, I need to convince him to help take care of his little brother and sister

A friend of mine in Sydney has advised me that he has 175W panels (24Vnom) available for $900 each, delivered to WA. This is cheaper than I paid for panels 18 months ago. I got 6 panels for $5500 back then, plus freight to WA. All prices include GST.

Please PM me if you are in WA and interested in participating in a group purchase of these panels.

Regards,
Tony

I'm looking at a 8.4 watt system for $31,753.00
With the Obama federal tax credit (30%) it is down to $22,227.10
With the Louisiana solar rebate $1.49 per watt ($12,516)
System down to ($9711.10) Or for $10K and I never pay for power again.
TCLinx. Florida's rebate is $4.00 per watt. You would be getting paid to purchase one of these! Just have to wait on your money.
I am considering a 5year loan against my retirement. If I purchase towards the end of the year, by April 2010 I would get most of it back. (tax refund)and would only be paying the note on it for a few months. There are also Energy Star tax credits of up to 30% of the cost of the remodel in Louisiana if you remodel an older home and upgrade to energy Star status which is where the remodel is responsible for a 30% reduction in energy usage. The home would have to be evaluated before and after. It's not just based on energy consumption before and after. I'm fairly certain most States are doing this now.

I really like the Idea of Tariffs especially after paying them for years for the Nuke plants and also paying the fuel cost adders the power company charges us. It will be about 2 KW larger than I need I think and would love to make them PAY ME BACK

How quickly things change. The 60c feed in tariff for excess power generated here in West Aust was rescinded.It avoided itself.

Needless to say I didn't fork out the $8000 ($16000 before $8000 rebate) at the time, but I did apply for the $8000 Gov rebate for installing a system, as this wasn't going to be available after end on June. The rebate was approved but the system has to be installed by March 2010. Now the cost of the panels have come down, the same system will cost me $3400!! ($12400 before rebate).

Now there is a new catch. If I was on a domestic tariff I would receive payback for excess power I produce. However I am on a small business tariff, being on a small farm, and the excess power I produce the power company happily accepts but pays me nothing for it. Bloody bureaucratic red tape.

I have decided to go ahead with the system, as I do get a rebate of $8000 and it is an asset and ridicules laws or regulations like that cannot last for too long.

Rick, don't stress, with fridges, freezers, standbye appliances and AP pumping you will never feed in from a 1kw system anyway. To make sure just tell Mrs Rick that she needs to run the washing machine and other big appliances between 11 and 2 each day. This is why the gov was probably pretty comfortable with the 60 cent feed in rate. Most people would have hardly ever fed in but constantly would have paid the extra 5 cents per unit to run their heaters and air conditioners.

I was at a mates house Sunday and was surprised that at 4pm in 37 odd degrees it was producing only 455w when I still felt like I was being fried in the sun.

That was probably the problem, the heat tends to reduce the efficiency of solar panels. They like plenty of bright light but excess heat isn't any help.