Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Now that sun cube/ sub ball get me all sweaty Go pay him a visit Stu.

See, he's tkaen a good idea and made it better auto tracking open up much wider placement areas.

Yeah, we nearly signed up for panels earlier this year, filledout the forms for the rebate etc, then did the sums and although we look deeper than the maths, it just didn't compute. Just way too expensive. We would have needed to spend $23,000 to cover about 65 - 75 % of our power usage. However, with this sun ball, $12,000 gets you 16 kwhrs per day averaged over a year, you don't need a perfectly north facing roof to get optimal efficiency, and it would produce 4 kwhrs per day more than we use! That guy is gonna be one busy dude when word gets around... Better pay him a visit. Just gotta get the time during work hours,.....

16KWH per day is not a small thing!

Better butter him up with some perch and silverbeet Stu

Can you beleive he didn't win for the new inventor of the year? He was beaten by some thing that tracks racehorses, I not sure what it was, but surely they got it wrong. Where are the prorities lying of people like these judges? Beats the hell out of me

Stu - does the $12,000 for the sunball system include battery banks etc. What does it include? How often do consumables like batteries have to be replaced in these systems and how much retrofiting of existing wiring, lighting etc needs to be done to run on such a system?

Is he up and commercial yet? When I last checked things out he was interested in orders and was looking at getting into production soon....

Vb & EB, I haven't actually spoken to the guy yet, but assume that it doesn't include batteries etc, however it is grid connected, and as things average out ie electricity meter spins backwards when the sun's out nd forwards at night, you end up with the surplus/negative on your bill, as opposed to storing the energy in battery banks for overnight or power outtimes. It must be a fairly simple process to install. My inlaws have just had 26 panels put on their roof, took a day to install as far as I am aware, no changes to internal wiring, but if you have a old style meter with the dial, you need a new digital meter, as required by your supplier (they have to get you somehow) which for them, was an extra $300 or so.
Becasue the system has an inverter, no need for changes as the power created is changed to ordinary 240 volts. His inverters are also bigger (3kw) than I have ever been quoted. we were only gonna get 1 kw for that $23k. I strongly believe the prices he are advertising are the best value grid connect solar around, and if he answers some questions I have, and has a production time set, I will be hard pressed not to sign up. From my limited knowledge, these grid connect systems have to auto switch off when there is a failure anyway, so if you don't have battery backup, it is lights out, but the battery back up systems to run any more than your lights for a couple of hours, cost thousands. for example, at the solar shop, $2500 for batteriesthat will power your lights, tv, vcr for 2.2 hours
Let me go and speak to this guy before the end of the week, and report back. It's always easier face to face. I will ask him what the deal is with installation in other states too.

Thanks Stu - I had a look at the site while waiting for a response and gatherred from that that it is all about connecting to the grid and giving and then using power. I was a bit lost in his tax and super suggestions .

Its a bummer about the system shutting off if the grid goes down. Would give you the shits to be producing that power and not have the fridge running if power went off - even in full sunlight. All the same I am interested in what you find out. I will try and do his calculator some time to see what sort of system I need for out power consumption etc. Our consumption is not too bad as although we have a pool pump running for 8 hrs per day, we have solar hot water and rarely use heating or cooling.

Yeah VB, I'mnot big on hissums. They have toomany assumptions, the big onebeing that you get 12.5% return on your super, that you borrow money to put into. I get where he is coming at. It's a bit like borrowing money to buy a work ute because it's tax deductible, and using extra cash to pay off your home loan, but really all I want to know is life span of the balls, cost per ball if one fails, warranties and conditions etc. Some ofthe panels I was looking at before had a 25 year guarantee, so his 5 years is a bit skinny. Anyway, more to follow...

In my mind if i was on solar / battery power i'd not try and run my house as many people do. Out of the lights tv and vcr the lights are the big killer.

Right now i'm typing on the pc in my "office" lit only by the 40W (or is it 20W) Fluro over my strawberries and its bright in here once your eyes get used to it , the kitchen lights are out too. SOme places are lit up like a christmass tree! all with the sexy but very greedy halogen downlights

I don't conder myself a "greenie" but i do think that many of us have become lazy with the luxuries.

I'd love to have a shack on some land a few hours north of melbourne run by solar / batteries. Now that would be some serious fun.........the trick would be to scavange enough power to run aquaponics pumps!

"Quick honey, kill the radio, the pumps are slowing down" LOL

HEY, BTW, i've thought of this a few times and forgotten to post it!
Does anyone remember watching "Blast from the past" ? Its the movie with brendon fraser and christopher walken, where he thinks there is a nue attack and seals his family in the bunker for 30 years?
I'm Sure there was a scene in there where he has aquaponics going! Fish in tanks and growing veggies. Funny how alterno things make their way into the movies as thow-away scenes that the population forgets they saw

Saw that movie- he goes up and out of the bunker through a shop front or something right? It was a cracker.
I wonder if that was aqua you saw, can't quite picture it myself, but it rings a distant bell and he definately had some sort of food production going on down there!

Yeah, downlights are bad umkay. Flouros forever. Some don't like the colour of the light, but I reckon get over it, it's only what you get used to!

Just looked at my electricity bill. We are big users compared to you Stu. Over the last 12 months we used approx 6,000kwh on tariff 11 and 3600kwh on tariff 33. Tariff 33 is restricted use - just cuts out if overload on grid (happens now and again on really cold mornings) - we have the solar hot water system element and the pool pump connected to that.

The $12,000 system would not come close to producing the power we use. I feel really bad now about our level of power use, but I know compared to many other people I know that we a very low. I hate to think what the next bill will be like as I have been running 3 different fish heaters at times to keep my aquarium and outdoor pond to a reasonable temperature for my aqua .

So who is going to dowload blast from the past and check out the scene?

Steve? I don't have sound on my computer and I wouldn't know where to start to find it. I'm pretty tempted to head 6 houses up the road to the Blockbuster and hire it though!

VB, you tempt me to steal from yet another copyright holder? OK.