Thats really good reason to wait it out.

Stuff the rebates give me self suffiency with as few panels as possible.

I'm waiting till 2014 now..... Lets see what happens when we are well into phase 3 uptake... 1st faze being pre this last push for the pure Greenies and those that had no other choice being so far away from electricty lines... This current uptake being government driven and for the masses... Faze 3 Should be the best of the previous outcomes.

Any energy related money I spend between now and 2014 will be pure insulation and appliances and fittings.

....meanwhile you've paid how much in electricity costs?

Already brought it down from 700 a quarter to less than 500 bucks per Quarter and thats including switching from gas to Electric heating and cooling. I reckon I'm on a roll.... I want to go through the winter check my energy usage and where the cold spots in the house are spend some money there and hopefully reduce the size of the system I need.

I've been educated on one major component of this... That double glazing works far better against cold than heat. Hence I need to redirect my emphasis from sealing windows to shading... lets get through a winter first. 100 pct draught proofing is the next focus... which is tricky when you definitely need air circulation.

I'm analysing those roof heat and filtering circulation systems at present... see if that could be a goer.

I also firmly beleive that any thing I spend on one of these systems will reduce by at least the price of the electricity I spend between now and when I actually get the system.... those 290 watt systems are very expensive at present and bound to come down.



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I have a quick question, we've just installed a 3 kw system, a cheap one I hasten to add as we're unsure if we're staying put. The installer is an electrician mate I work with onsite who did it for cost plus a few bucks in exchange for tiling work. [<4k]
We finished it today but its had 11 out of the 16 panels hooked up & working since last Sunday. The sparkie said to turn it on & use it, the meter will run backwards, it's all legal & approved with the 44cent per kwh granted prior to August 9th etc.
I rang the power company last Monday to inform them it is all installed & was told not to turn it on until they can change my meter. The meter has indeed run backwards & is showing 30kwh less than last Sunday. Am I doing anything illegal? They can't get here for three weeks by which time I calculate it will read less than the last time it was officially read.

if the meter is running backwards you only get a one for one rate. You need the smart meter to get the 44c rate. We ran out meter backwards for a week till the meter was changed. Its great to watch out go backwards

I'm loving it, washing machine, two fridges, a small chest freezer & two laptops running on just the 11 panels & it was still going backwards. Now we're up to 16 I can't wait to check. The inverter says we've produced 90kwh in the last week the meter shows a loss of 30kwh.

last month our 4.3kw made 576kwh... peek of summer its about 650kwh

is it the old dial type meter you have or a more modern digital one?

Old type dial atm we have to wait three weeks for them to come & change it.

My electricity usage has gone down from around 34 Kwh per day, to around 26 Kwh (winter usage) per day. Which I'm fairly happy with especially as I've replaced my Gas heating with reverse cycle invertor air cons x 2 (3.5kw and 5.7 kw) and all electric cooking. I've got 100 pct new appliances as well... including TV's and white goods. I did hang onto my Gas line owing to cost factors and installed a continuous flowHWS rinnai 26 litre job, as the heat pump HWS were circa 4K to install.

Based on the above winter consumption of 26 Kwh per day... does that mean I need a 7kw solar system here in Victoria to have absolutely no bills and be future proof from the government shifting the goal posts re rebates... which is bound to happen.


I think I can squeeze another 2-3 kwh off per day... (window film/shutters, curtains on the non double glazed part of the house, combined with more intense draught proofing) beyond that, I would be getting too frugal for my own comfort


The 500 quarterly in my last post was summer usage at a lower tariff..... my last bill for the winter quarter was circa 620 dollars.... which I think is pretty good for an electric heated house.



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Crikey we average 9kwh per day

It's certainly not illegal. You should be able to connect no problem then. Sometimes, if you already have a digital one-way meter then Ergon and Energex say not to connect the PV system until it is changed over as the digital meter cannot go backwards and so you end up adding to your meter when feeding in. The old dial types thought will just go backwards. I would imagine Ergon are just covering their arses.

We are a 5 person household, with my wife at home 5 days a week. We use on average 17kWh/day even during summer. I would imagine there is still room to try and reduce that consumption

Cheers matey, they asked how old the house was & it's only 7yrs so they maybe assumed it was a digital meter.
I'm happy so far, it's spinning backwards nicely. Cheap system 4 k all up Xantrex inverter & 16 195w panels 10 yr guarantee on the inverter & 25yr on the panels. Like I say a move is on the cards so just wanted to lock in the 44cent deal, makes the house more saleable
The sparkie wrote the meter reading on the meter so I'm sure they can deduce that its ran backwards for a few weeks

Could be something to do with 4 TV's...... plus I've got 3 computers on 24/7... I probably should invest in a NAS server for our torrent type activities. I do have low wattage lights in every fitting now, Considering switching to LED's. Got a very big Fridge/Freezer combo... two times 450 litres each. I'm not cutting back on heating and cooling costs... that will come right off in the summer when we switch to our overhead fans. I'll be very happy if I can get by with 21 kwh per day average over the course of a year. That 36 Kwh figure was based on the previous 3 years and was before my Victorian weatherboard house was insulated properly

BTW my Gas bill (hot water) is only 80 bucks per two months.