Big storm and no power in SA

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

........ And, I'm not sure how true this is but I heard new houses are having their air conditioning fed from a separate circuit on the smart meter. This is to allow the supply authorities to disconnect your air conditioning on really hot days when the peak power required is more than the generators can supply. Load shedding.

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Wouldn't it be smarter if they hadn't started building houses that require air conditioning to make them habitable?

Anyone see many new houses with wide eaves, or verandahs, fan light windows above the doors, and a hallway through the middle to draw the air through the house?

I live in one - it's called a Queenslander, and where I live, they're quite common, and mostly around a century old. We've added a couple of things, like ceiling insulation, and some "whirlybirds" on the roof. Have a wood fire for a few weeks a year (and wear jeans and a flanny if it's REALLY cold!), and run a fan in the bedroom on really hot nights.

At least the solar installers' call centres have got the message and stopped calling - our power bill is under $300 per quarter, so all their "we'll save you heaps on your power!" claims evaporate pretty quickly when they hear that.

My niece lives in a super modern house on the Sunny Coast, no eaves, wide windows, and "open plan" design. Their power bill is not much short of $2000 per quarter :eek:

Fossil based fuel is renewable....
Depends how long we want to wait [emoji41]

Where area are you located in Donh?

You aren't running many devices/appliances/lights at all for a $300 power bill... [emoji4]

I love the Queenslander houses - Although they really are only suited to those climates.. [emoji106][emoji41]

I'm in Warwick, about 80 kms from Stanthorpe (the usual winner of the brass monkey award in Qld) :p

TV, computers, lights, dishwasher, etc. We do have on-demand gas hot water and a gas cooktop.

Plan for the next 2 years or so is to sell this place, buy a bush block, and live off-grid. Looking for a place with a permanent spring so some mini hydro, solar and wind mix for power is possible. Run everything off 12 volt with an inverter for charging laptops, etc.

Depending on the block, the dwelling will be either earthbag or an earthship type setup, or possibly a mix of the two, keeps the heating/cooling to a minimum.

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Originally Posted by Tombie

Where area are you located in Donh?

You aren't running many devices/appliances/lights at all for a $300 power bill... [emoji4]

I love the Queenslander houses - Although they really are only suited to those climates.. [emoji106][emoji41]

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After a huge 3yr fight with his local council , my mate has built a Queenslander in Marino in SA.

it looks like Qlder but has cavity walls , insulation and air.

oh I forgot , it's solar to the max but still on grid.

SA wont have to worry about electrickery soon for night lighting as we'll soon be glowing in the dark from nuclear waste dumping in the country areas.:censored::censored::censored::censored::cen sored:

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Originally Posted by donh54

Wouldn't it be smarter if they hadn't started building houses that require air conditioning to make them habitable?

Anyone see many new houses with wide eaves, or verandahs, fan light windows above the doors, and a hallway through the middle to draw the air through the house?

I live in one - it's called a Queenslander, and where I live, they're quite common, and mostly around a century old. We've added a couple of things, like ceiling insulation, and some "whirlybirds" on the roof. Have a wood fire for a few weeks a year (and wear jeans and a flanny if it's REALLY cold!), and run a fan in the bedroom on really hot nights.

At least the solar installers' call centres have got the message and stopped calling - our power bill is under $300 per quarter, so all their "we'll save you heaps on your power!" claims evaporate pretty quickly when they hear that.

My niece lives in a super modern house on the Sunny Coast, no eaves, wide windows, and "open plan" design. Their power bill is not much short of $2000 per quarter :eek:

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Solar passive residences, vs cheap, mass produced housing, hahaha...

Its a great theory, BUT, the consumer always pays, even if the majority of residential properties were built in this manner, the fact is the consumer always pays, very difficult to build a shopping centre, or any kind of manufacturing plant in this way

People tend to only think for themselves and their own personal situation, but few think of the greater good....there is those that think they are thinking for the greater good, green energy will fix all....but reality and physics both rule this out

As Mick as mentioned, baseload has almost nothing to do with coal in the true meaning, baseload is just that, but its just the simple laws of physics, that has us utilise coal as the primary form, this COULD be done by green energy, yet its simply not possible at the given time

Supercritical boilers and advances in coal technology is certainly an interim fix, but, as I have tried not to diversify the conversation, this is to blame from a privatisation of the power industry and a capitalist society

Had the SEC continued on its path, Hazelwood would of been shut down in the late 90's, as we would have further advanced brown coal plants in operation, Loy Yang B units 3 and 4, Flynn power station and Driffield, which never advanced, we would of shut Yallourn W in the 2000's and the plants would be supeceding the last, more efficient, more economical....Not the ideal, but certainly moving ALOT further forward

You can build a residence to house yourself in Sub tropical, temperament climate that will maintain a reasonable average of 18* indoor temperature....but most are not willing to spend the money, the fact that reverse cycle air conditioning has become so affordable put a huge strain on the peak loads of the energy grid.....this has been somewhat combatted by PV and the government incentives to which has streamed this along

but this has had its toll not the grid, fluctuations of cloud edge effect, are having huge impacts on the antiquated equipment which provides voltage and frequency stability, this stuff has been setup to operate a few times a day, those poor old Transformers in switchyards and their auto tap changers, the cap banks etc are flogging themselves with a duty cycles many hundreds times what they were originally designed for, lucky the grid effectively was "gold plated" in its construction, way back

I'm aghast to see those with no technical knowledge of the subject continue to chant their beliefs, without reasoning, not the reality.....if you do truly believe, take up subsistence lifestyle, then are are truly doing your bit....dont forget to knock your kids on the head, better yet, yourself, no footprint then :D

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Originally Posted by rovercare

Solar passive residences, vs cheap, mass produced housing, hahaha...

Its a great theory, BUT, the consumer always pays, even if the majority of residential properties were built in this manner, the fact is the consumer always pays, very difficult to build a shopping centre, or any kind of manufacturing plant in this way

People tend to only think for themselves and their own personal situation, but few think of the greater good....there is those that think they are thinking for the greater good, green energy will fix all....but reality and physics both rule this out

As Mick as mentioned, baseload has almost nothing to do with coal in the true meaning, baseload is just that, but its just the simple laws of physics, that has us utilise coal as the primary form, this COULD be done by green energy, yet its simply not possible at the given time

Supercritical boilers and advances in coal technology is certainly an interim fix, but, as I have tried not to diversify the conversation, this is to blame from a privatisation of the power industry and a capitalist society

Had the SEC continued on its path, Hazelwood would of been shut down in the late 90's, as we would have further advanced brown coal plants in operation, Loy Yang B units 3 and 4, Flynn power station and Driffield, which never advanced, we would of shut Yallourn W in the 2000's and the plants would be supeceding the last, more efficient, more economical....Not the ideal, but certainly moving ALOT further forward

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I believe the carbon tax included funding to shut down dirty old plants and move to cleaner sources, but of course that was axed.

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The real lesson from the SA power crisis, the grid needs to adapt to renewable energy, not the other way around. We live in an old Queenslander, no air con, ceiling fans, our average bill is around the $300 mark. We have gas hot water and stove. And just recently installed 6.5 KW of solar panels.

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