Thread: Solar Electricity - Brisbane

I have been told that "springers" are a good place for advice...

Interesting you should bring this up. Just over the past few days I've been researching it more although I've been considering it for a couple of years. I have to admit I have not looked into the rebate side of things and will probably leave that close to last but I figure if I were to run a gas fridge, stove and hot water heater I don't have much more to worry about as things like the laptop already charge off solar and lights are easy.

A friend in Kambalda had a solar system to heat their pool and spa. Cost nothing to keep the pool at a nice temp. Good weather most of the year up there. The spa just used power to heat up to desired temp, saving a lot on heat up and standby costs.

What about Origin Energy's Systems? 132463

I do work there though So I am biased

Lived in a house for about 10yrs that ran on solar.

Had a fuel stove to heat the water, gas fridge & 2 gas hot plates.
We had a generator for washing clothes & vacuming.

It was a good little setup in summer & we could get about 3hrs TV with 2 lights running.
Winter was a different matter, I have lost count of the amount of times I did my homework with a candle or gas lantern, quite an experience growing up in a house like that, we weren't exactly rich & when some bastard stole the generator & solar invertor we went without power for nearly 2 months.

Water was also a bit of an issue, bathed & washed a fair few times in the creek when the water tank sprung a leak.

I stayed in a house at Fraser that had a **really** good solar system. There were two families living there (it was essentially two houses) but it the installation was huge and it cost a bomb. There was a whole room of batteries. And you still had to be very careful what you did. Ie only the lights that were needed, only 1 TV, only using the washing machine in the morning (even then they normally had to run the genny when washing was done).

Everyone should live in a solar house for a bit.

I worked in the domestic gas industry for a while, long ago. Unless the relative price of gas has fallen and the efficiency of gas refrigerators and hot water systems have drastically improved, then you would be crazy to have them. They were bloody expensive to run. As to gas fires (room heaters) don't go there.

So you actually already have the power connected? If so all you will need is the solar panels and the invertor that will feed back into the grid. And maybe a small set of batteries if you want power in blackouts. This is a big cost saver as you don't need a battery bank. The down side is it will take quite a while to pay off the solar panels from the power they generate.
There is plenty of places that can do quotes for a system.
My parents have a stand alone solar system, its battery bank is good for about a week in rainy weather if you are conservative on your power use. Otherwise in the sunny times he can run most things off it. The big power user is the fridge. Everything else is comparitively short duration. If you want hot water don't run it of the electricity.
One place i can think of in brissy is choice electric.
The biggest trap is people trying to sell you a system that doesn't suit your needs, go to several places.