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rgormley Senior Member Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 245
Posted: 12:13am 29 Mar 2009
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anyone in melbourne got grid tied 1 or 2kw system installed? and had some bills (or lack of )
we use on average 19.3 kwh per 24h (1day)
i measure from 8pm till 8 pm
so just wondering if anyone has had a system up for a few months and what the billing money benifits were/are
any body with stats on how much they feed back (net) surplus back to the grid over a day/week/month??
Cheers..
GWatPE Senior Member Joined: 01/09/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2127
Posted: 12:37am 29 Mar 2009
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Hi Richard,
the 19kWhr/day is pretty high to really make a dent to make money. I have records from my system in a similar solar exposure to Melbourne, since 2006. We make money now, but our consumption for domestic light and power is approx 3-4kWhr/day per person. my system is now 2.4kW. Buyback rates make a huge difference to payback time, but reducing consumption once a system is installed gives a double return.
Gordon.
become more energy aware
rgormley Senior Member Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 245
Posted: 12:45am 29 Mar 2009
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yes my 19kwh is way to high. (2 adults and a toddler)
i will have to do experiments and find out what is using so much power....
i have things like a pc on 24/7 (AMD CPU only uses 84watts) so thats ony 2kwh per day...cofee machine is on a timer tv/vid/dvd/sat box are on timers..
hhmmm yep, will have to go around with my digital AC clamp meter and measure things...
how do yo go with 2.4KW and FIT`s? or due to losses it`s still under the premium FIT cap of 2 kw??
or do you get 1=1 tariff?
Edited by rgormley 2009-03-30
GWatPE Senior Member Joined: 01/09/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2127
Posted: 11:28am 29 Mar 2009
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Hi Richard,
here in SA, the limit to get the 44c/kWhr buyback rate is 10kW per phase.
Gordon.become more energy aware
rgormley Senior Member Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 245
Posted: 11:37am 29 Mar 2009
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ah ha! South Australia, yes that now makes sense (cents)
Thanks...
GWatPE Senior Member Joined: 01/09/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2127
Posted: 12:13pm 29 Mar 2009
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My provider pays an additional 20c/kWhr on top of the 44c as well.
Gordon.become more energy aware
petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212
Posted: 12:56pm 02 Apr 2009
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The two full days my system has been running 1/4/2009 & 2/4/2009 we got just over 6 Kw/h produced and just over 3Kw/h fed back into the grid each day.
Both these days were clear and sunny.
I am located in Adelaide.
I have the amorphous panels that it is suggested that the first few months the output is higher that what the long term average will be.
rgormley Senior Member Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 245
Posted: 01:48pm 02 Apr 2009
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what size system is that?
is that 9kwh per day total produced?
petanque don Senior Member Joined: 02/08/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 212
Posted: 06:04pm 02 Apr 2009
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It is for a 1 Kw system
10 x MA 100 by Mitsubishi they are 1.4m x1.1m (bigger than the other panels I have seen).
Just over a total of 6 Kw/h per day made by a sunny boy inverter
Of this just over 3 Kw/h was fed back to the grid according to the two way meter.
The system stars making a very small amount of power at dawn.
It males about 0.01 Kw/h in the first hour.
Roof pitch is about 23 degrees.
This was on a sunny day I would imagine you would get substantially less power on a cloudy day
rgormley Senior Member Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 245
Posted: 10:15pm 02 Apr 2009
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thanks for the feed back
cant wait for my 2kw to go up!!
have been logging my usage every night at 8pm
have 50 days of logs so far
will be interesting to see what the offset will be!
(if only the bloody wind would blow i might get some watts from my mill, i put the thing up 2 weeks back and it`s been calm most of the time....)
Jarbar Senior Member Joined: 03/02/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 224
Posted: 10:58pm 02 Apr 2009
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Victorian feed-in tariff to cancel out thousands owed to solar homes
The Victorian Government’s proposed feed-in tariff will cancel out thousands of dollars owed to solar homes for the clean electricity they generate and feed into the power grid, says the Alternative Technology Association (ATA).
Under the scheme, solar homes selling electricity back to the grid will see none of the 60cents per kilowatt hour owed to them, and instead the payment will be in the form of a credit on their electricity bill that will be cancelled out every 12 months.
The government's decision to cancel any remaining credit at the end of each year, will make solar homes either forgo their credits or deliberately increase their energy use, says Damien Moyse, ATA’s Energy Policy Manager.
“For a modestly energy efficient household with a 3kW solar system, this scheme could result in $1000 or more loss."
“A use it or lose it scheme encourages homes to consume more energy, and is in complete contradiction to the need for Australia to decrease energy consumption and reduce emissions.”
Mr Moyse says the government also plans to exclude solar systems larger than 3.2kW from receiving the tariff.
“Community buildings, churches, farms and schools that need to install larger systems to cover their energy needs will not receive a fair payment for the clean energy they contribute to Victoria’s power supply.”
ATA is calling for the state government to bring Victoria’s scheme in line with other states and include all PV systems up to 10kW.
Mr Moyse says the government has completely missed the point of a feed-in tariff.
“The key reason for having a feed-in tariff is to drive rapid, large scale uptake of solar systems and bring down the costs of installing solar, as electricity from dirty sources gets more expensive.”
“Under the state government’s proposal there will be little to no change in the current uptake of solar installations, and once again consumers and the solar industry will lose out.”
"Creativity is detirmined by the way you hold your tounge".My Father
"Your generation will have to correct the problems made by mine".My Grandfather.
rgormley Senior Member Joined: 22/02/2006 Location: AustraliaPosts: 245
Posted: 11:37pm 02 Apr 2009
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"that will be cancelled out every 12 months."
ahh $hit!!!
i wonder if origin will still come to the party, if as the guy told me when a account is more that $50 in credit we can request a cheque ??
I am in Sydney and we have a 2kw system. It generated about 3200kwh last year and we used about 4300kwh.
Under the new gross feed in system we will get charged about $1100 for the power we use (incl supply and GST) and then get paid $1,920 for the power we put into the grid.
Your usage sounds really high. Our average daily usage for the last quarter was 10.6kwh and we are a family of 5 with two desktop PCs, two lattops, 3 TVs etc etc etc. Having said that we do have a relatively well designed/ventilated house and we use gas for hot water.
I would suggest you contact dept of env (http://www.environment.gov.au/greenloans/assessments/index. html) and get a home sustainability assessor out. Its a free service and you can also get a $10,000 interest free loan to implement any of their recommendations.
Cheers
Chris
neil0mac Senior Member Joined: 26/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210
Posted: 04:04am 03 Feb 2010
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How does a quote of $2.94 a watt sound for Approved monocrystalline 180W panels landed at the port of Sydney? (For a Qty. of 60 panels - quoted as being worth $2.10 AUD 'at cost'. Currently available at around $900 retail, so about a 35% discount.)
A dozen of these should match up nicely with a 2500W Labtronics inverter and leave a small safety margin to produce 2100W/Hr? The catch is that I have to pay "government fee's and clearance costs". (Yet to find out what these amount to dollar wise but know an importer that I can quizz on this score.)
Now, all I have to do is convince my 5 or 6 mates that I have provisionally lined up to cough up the dosh ALL at the same time! Might prove to be too difficult to do.
Details will not be revealed till the transaction is finalised sometime in the next 6(?) months. Sorry, but I can not be shipping stuff all over Oz.
This post is just to give you all a 'base line' for seeking quotes.
And, of course, I could be caught out for 'speaking out of turn', too! So, while it is the cheapest Aust. price I have obtained, it isn't 'gospel', yet.
Neil.
Now, I'm encouraged to push ahead with some enhancements to see if I can squeeze out 20-25KW avg. per day 365 days a year. Should give less than 2 years payback even with added associated costs.Edited by neil0mac 2010-02-04
KarlJ Guru Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178
Posted: 08:06am 03 Feb 2010
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on ya Neil!
go for it.
BTW check out my mill progress
KarlLuck favours the well prepared
neil0mac Senior Member Joined: 26/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210
Posted: 04:02am 12 Feb 2010
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Price now down to under $2.40 per watt delivered 'to the door'.
Not a dozen - sixteen won't overload the inverter (only 2880 watts) according to Latronics - at 'less than $2600' each - bulk buy.
Import duty on PV panels is 0% according to the customs department.
And have found a way to avoid GST on the purchase as well.
Five mates are liking the idea. (But I have yet to tell them that we'll each end up with a 3KW system for 'around $12K'.)
Looking more like one year with the RECS (176 at $29.00 = $5100) and energy sold at 'up to', exceeding(?) $5000.
I'm now certain that I can't squeeze any more profit out of it.
BTW. Applied for Green Loan assessment' for last Monday - but the assessor hasn't turned up, or even rung to say when!
I 'hear' that a ('the'?) Gov't 'contractor' advertised for ~2000 assessors, appointed ~4,000 - such that each one might end up with 20 interviews. One applicant got lumped in a room with 200 others, each paying $160. They were shown Al Gore's 'Inconvenient truth' and signed a bunch of papers - some 'training', eh!!
Edited by neil0mac 2010-02-13
KarlJ Guru Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178
Posted: 08:32am 12 Feb 2010
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thats cheap in Melb they want $1000's to be green loan assessor course.
I'd pay $160 in a flash.Luck favours the well prepared
neil0mac Senior Member Joined: 26/12/2009 Location: AustraliaPosts: 210
Posted: 10:35am 03 Mar 2010
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OK. The deal has come unstuck.
The installer has decided to not proceed. End of story.
Pity. Actually had the price down $1.89USD a watt for a pallet of 52, landed in Sydney. ($1.82USD by the container load - 312 panels.)
Go find an electrical engineer mate they can install it for you with your help, in fact they can design it too, just need the installer to sign off, Technicality only as they have the BSCE certification, I should have asked the AGO if I could sign my own system off.
Very interested in panels if this goes ahead.
MattWind wannabe
KarlJ Guru Joined: 19/05/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1178
Posted: 12:23pm 03 Mar 2010
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yep, back to the gov website and back on the internet / phone etc to find another installer.
here's the thing, industry is getting tighter and lots of systems getting audited.
hence as I suggested in the first place get em on the roof- simple and the installer wouldn't have got scared of the potential saga with pole design, concrete size, wind loadings etc etc liability for the install etc.
KNock down for roof mounted system is only 20% and something is far better than nothing
Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.
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