Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Thought I would start my own thread (no more hijacking) as this topic has begun to get interesting, I had given up on the solar Idea, Everything everyone has said so far has made me realise that there has to be an issue with my install. I sound like I'm the only one who hasn't enjoyed the benefits of my system, I will have to call the installers up and make them come back out and please explain( without making bollocks excuses ) why my bills are so ridiculous, If there is a power hog out there that can genuinely say they have benefited from a system I want stats, With my system I can live in the stone age with candles and still get a huge Bill, It is good to here there is light at the end of the tunnel if there are folk out there that are seeing the savings

Out of curiosity, who are your installers? If you don't want to name and shame them, just PM me the name.

It is the norm now for all installers to be registered with the Clean Energy Council. http://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/cec/home.html

Maybe you could approach them for assistance. Or even find another clean energy council registered installer under "Find an installer" to come out and check your system installation and even your inverter programming. You might need to pay them some money to do this but at least you know you are getting an opinion from an unbiaised source. Furthermore, you really want to get this sorted before you sell your house. Otherwise you will have nightmares from your buyer about this.

As I said in the other thread what are your usage amounts on your bills. RE units and A1 units? Preferably for a couple of them.

Your meter reading might help.
Time xx.xx
Date xxxxxx
000617 total imported amount (units = kwh)
A000000 Peak tariff imported amount (units = kwh)
C000002 Off peak imported amount (units = kwh)
B000005 High shoulder imported amount (units = kwh)
D000000 Weekend Low shoulder imported amount (units = kwh)

-000409 – total exported amount (units = kwh)

A-00008 Peak tariff exports amount (units = kwh)
C-00000 Off peak exported (units = kwh)
B-00001 High shoulder tariff exported amount (units = kwh)
D-00000 Weekend Low shoulder exported amount (units = kwh)

U-2441 (approx) current grid voltage (244.1v)
A-2.6 Current draw in amps of what you have switched on.
PF-0.7 Power factor
ABCD 8888.8.8 Display test

It all depends if your usage is really 15 units, or 25 units. At 15units you should see some power being exported during summer. At 25 your system is so small it will never export as you will always be using it yourself.

The other thing you can look at as during a sunny day walk out in the afternoon and get a reading from the inverter of the solar system. Just to make sure it is generating power.

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-re ... ?t=1382890

According to that thread, this is the best deal going round atm;
3.420 Kw System
18 x Suntech 190W Solar Panels
Sunny Boy SB3000TL-20
Sunny Beam Wireless Monitor
$9000 fully installed

Here is a link to PVOutput of one of these configs;
http://www.pvoutput.org/list.jsp?id=16&sid=11

Even a system of this size is going to peak at 25-26kWh/day, you can see on a cloudy day it drops to 5kWh/day.

As I said in your other thread, check your panels for shading between 10am & 3pm, but your 1kW system won't really put much of a dent in your already large usage. You need a bigger system

As mentioned in the hijacked thread I have a 1kw system installed.

Before installation my household averaged approximately 12 units per day - I guess you could say we are not heavy power users so this may not be a fair comparrison.

We turn everything off at the powerpoint with the encouragement of my daughter. The only powerpoints which are turned on 24 x 7 have 2 x fridges (one less than 12 months old, the other approximately 5 years old), 1 x marine fish tank, 1 x microwave oven (we need a clock somewhere - lol), 1 x cordless phone, 1 x ADSL router as well as the reverse cycle split aircon and garage door.

Our computers (1 x desktop and 1 x laptop) are turned off at the powerpoint when not in use, so is the TV/DVD/Set top box, kettle, toaster, washing machine etc.

I have a fan forced oven, gas hot water system and gas cook top.

My last bill was $38.65. According to the bill the average daily consumption was 6 units per day. Exported power equalled 134 units - this is listed twice on the bill - once @ $0.07 per unit (total $9.38), the second time @ $0.40 per unit (total $53.60).

According to the bill, we have used less power this time compared to the same period last year - the only explanation I have is we replaced our old second fridge with a new one as the old one was power hungry.

I must admit there was a time early after the installation I was questioning why we did it as we were not saving much at all, but that has changed with the last couple of bills - I wonder if Synergy were not accounting for things correctly? If a 1Kw system can generate a little over 5kWh on a good day and my usage is 12 units you would expect my bill to be the equivalent to using 7 units per day, however it was only reduced to 10.

As also mentioned in the hijacked thread, we do our washing at night time allowing us to export maximum power to the grid.

+1. IMO, having a system installed and the rebates, etc is about the incentives that are available to reduce your energy bill. I don't think you will really benefit from a solar pv system installed, if you fail to change the way you use energy but instead have the mindset such as "that's alright, we have a solar pv system to supplement our usage, turn it on..."...