Most likely other states have a similar program. This is how it works in Qld. It is an initiative of the Qld. Govt.

You ring up on their number and make an appointment. A contracted electrician is sent to your place who after having a look at your last power bill and your general house hold arrangement, completes a questionnaire on his laptop and then gives you some advices on conserving electricity.

You pay him $50 and he gives you 10 energy saver lights (bayonet or Edison screw flouro types) which is at least $50s worth. He also gives you a restricted flow shower head (same as you can buy in shops for $20).

Then he gives you the real $50s worth which is a power usage monitor which consists of a sensor/sender unit he installs in your meter box and the receiver/reader unit which you keep on top of the fridge or other conspicuous location.

The beauty of it of course is that it puts your power consumption in your face and you soon learn what chews the most juice.

Would you believe that a vacuum cleaner costs 11c/hour to run!!

Far and away the highest consumer of electricity is the 250 litre electric storage hot water system. It is estimated that 50% of the cost of running it is in just keeping the water hot and the rest is actual usage of hot water.

We have taken to having the system switched on for 4 hours to heat the full tank and then having it switched off for 48 to 60 hours or till when a hot shower needs no cold water to make the heat comfortable. We are not able to afford the meter work to convert to "off peak" yet so we have created our own system. Also considering a timer set in the feed cable to the HWS.

It seems to be working according to the usage reader and I am determined to halve our next power bill from the last one's figure of $434. Also looking at installing a gas instant HWS, being a Bosch Turbo Heat of the lowest flow rate (6l/min I think). The Bosch instants do not rely on a pilot flame or power feed for ignition. The ignition is activated by the pressure drop when the tap is opened.

The ultimate is to have my urban home completely off the power grid with solar water heating panels supplemented by gas heating as required and photovoltaic panels for lighting and entertainment. Gas cooking is a given.

The "Help save the planet and feed into the power grid deal" in my opinion is a con job that subsidises industry power consumption.

Does anybody know a better way to manage my HWS power usage apart from having cold showers??

Gas HWS will cost more to run than a heat pump HWS or solar HWS but will use basiclly no electricity, ( it will probably require electric ignition, i.e. plug into power point to ignite when water starts going thru it)
Heat pumps use bugger all power and solar even less, personnaly I can go for 3 rainy days before turning on the booster to my solar HWS.
My latest power bill had an average 4.5 kw a day.
My basis on HWS come from completing my solar hot water endorsment to add to my plumbing liscence.
Solar endorsment is required for all QLD plumbers from the start of this year, ask your plumber to show you, this endorsment also includes installation of heat pump and all solar installations and must be completed to be able to install these systems.

Saving tip for gas users.

Tell Alinta gas to disconnect you from the grid and get a plumber to install a 2x 80 L gas bottle unit at the back of the house. I have that at my place cost $90.00 every 6 month, (2 people household cooking BBQ and hot water) to replace 1 cylinder, you do not need to touch anything the Gas Guy comes to you and do it the following day after you call and charge you credit card.

ginger pom said...

I thought you'd be all angry when I read the title but I was pleasantly surprised...

Interesting how putting the meter in people's houses makes more of a difference than anything else.

We're getting a smart meter next week and I'm not entirely sure how smart it will be - apart from making 40C+ days more expensive to run the air conditioning on.

Think the now defunct NSW State Govt. made "Smart Meters" part of the deal when setting up Solar Power Panels for mains usage. Heard that these "Smart Meters" hit you hard when using power in the peak periods (up around 40c/kwh, and reduce fairly dramatically for non-peak periods.

So if you want to wash-up, vacuum or use a dishwasher, watch TV etc. after midnight it will be much cheaper, and we all want to do that don't we?

IMO another great idea by the ousted Labor Party (NOT)! The poor normal users are paying vastly inflated costs for electricity to support the new Solar Panel users.

Not happy Jan. The Qld. initiative is sound and cr**s on the NSW one.

felixdcat said...

Saving tip for gas users.

Tell Alinta gas to disconnect you from the grid and get a plumber to install a 2x 80 L gas bottle unit at the back of the house. I have that at my place cost $90.00 every 6 month, (2 people household cooking BBQ and hot water) to replace 1 cylinder, you do not need to touch anything the Gas Guy comes to you and do it the following day after you call and charge you credit card.

We are going to have that when we move bottles that is, looking forward to it..

Quick quick, without a Carbon Tax there won't be any electricians.

cisco said...

Modern urban housing "off the power grid" is not a myth.

The CSIRO proved the viability of it over 30 years ago in Canberra.

What happened to the DATA??????

Not hard at all, in fact many rural properties survive quite well off the grid. Solar panels and large banks of batteries work well - especially if backed up by a generator.

The question is whether the cost of the alternative equipment required to be self sufficient ($ and carbon) is lower than an energy efficient house on the grid.

I do agree the solar and sell back to the grid is not sustainable and essentially a ponzi scheme. Governments are just starting to realise that those that can afford to own a house to put the panels on are being subsidised by the lower income demographic that cannot. I suspect rates will eventually be slashed like in NSW.

I own a rural property (weekender) where I could set up a huge solar system and pump 100% back into the grid day in day out for a very nice return. Seeing as my return would be paid for by others through passed on higher eletricity rates (someone has to pay for huge relative cost of my electricity) I chose not to do it. Others are not so like minded.

Hot water is the biggest user of power in your home , pool pumps next , aircons and refrigeration about 15% depending on how many you have.You can put your electric hw on offpeak , although offpeak is also going up rapidly.

You can go gas but LPG is more expensive than power when it comes to heating water.Or you can go heatpump or solar.Heat pumps will have an average life of 10 years if your lucky , and are noisy and efficiency varies greatly depending on installlation.Evacuated tubes are not new technology and for most places in Australia will cause problems with overheating , they are also no more efficient than flat plate collectors in the 50c to 65C temp range.

dinsdale said...

Paradox said...
Seeing as my return would be paid for by others through passed on higher eletricity rates (someone has to pay for huge relative cost of my electricity) I chose not to do it. Others are not so like minded.

When I enquired about the 40c pay-back vs the 21c cost from the grid I was told that the 40c was the actual cost of production. So they're paying us the same as it costs them to produce. The 21c/unit was a subsidised price, and that was the explanation as to why the electricity costs were rising so rapidly - user pays.

I think what you find that they are saying is that the additional 19c you recieve over the retail price is what is subsidised by the government. ie it's a government handout to make the panels more attractive cost wise. The cost of electricity is the 21c you mentioned. Less actually as if you take tariff 33 etc into account and the special deals large commercial users get it is a lot less on the whole.

My beef is not necessarily with normal households who take this up. It is with a poorly thought out subsidy that can be rorted by those that are not interested in anything else but lining thier own pocket and I know a number of cases of people with plenty of cash setting up huge systems at properties that are otherwise not generally users of electricity. ie they are merely taking the cash off the government by selling electricity at twice retail. Guess who pays for this?