Home Solar Panels/batteries.

[Culprit]

16 x 415W LONG Hi-MO LR5-54HPB-415M panels and x GoodweGW6000-DNS-30 (AS4777-22020) Inverter. I have used more power this month. Bill is showing $5.76 less my feed in approx $130 credit.

Looked at changing to the Heat Pump I can't see the value in change as the gas bill for the gas heater is minimal. The Gas bill that kills us is the central heating.

[What'sinaname]

^ yeah, I wouldn't change a working HWS. But once it needs to be replaced, a Solar connected heat pump could be a better option - depends on the price differential between a gas storage, gas instantaneous and heat pump storage at the time of the decision.

But the heat pump should have near minimal running costs - using day time solar to heat the water.

[stui magpie]

^

Yeah, I went and bought a split system for the front living area yesterday, getting it installed Tuesday. The Gas Log Fire in the room looks brilliant but shit it chews through gas. Once the split system is installed I'll turn off the pilot light and leave it there for looks.

[think positive]

We put a split system in the lounge, the ducted works to hard and burns through gas as our house is very open plan. He put it near my seat and the air con pissed me off on those stinkers! Turned it on heat as the footy started, oh my stars, im in Love!

[think positive]

We put a split system in the lounge, the ducted works to hard and burns through gas as our house is very open plan. He put it near my seat and the air con pissed me off on those stinkers! Turned it on heat as the footy started, oh my stars, im in Love!

[stui magpie]

Guys have finished the install. It's a Panasonic, 4.5kw heating and 3.2 cooling. Got it going at the moment, works brilliant. I connected it to the home WIFI and can control it from my phone so when I'm coming home from Toc I can make sure it's either cool or toasty when I get home.

And the best part is, on a limited sample size, it's costing me nothing to run during the day time. The panels are more than covering it.

[think positive]

oooh i like the remote idea! enjoy!

[stui magpie]

^

Cheers

Took Mum today to Greensie Plaza to get a haircut, do a bit of shopping (new handbag and dressing gown) and had lunch. Turned the system off before I left to go out, so tried the phone app after lunch to turn it back on to warm up before we got home. Works like a bought one.

Interesting the remote doesn't sync with the phone app. The remote thought it was still off, but it's going, so I just needed to get the remote on the same page.

[stui magpie]

Not "Home" solar panels, but Solar Farms.

I've seen a couple recently, one near Katamatite in Nth Vic and one at Latrobe Uni at the corner of Kingsbury Drive and Plenty Road. When I look at the Latrobe one, the first thing that comes to mind is, "what a fkn waste of valuable real estate"

They've cleared several acres of land and installed all these panels on the ground. That land would be worth 10's of millions of dollars.

I don't have a problem with the panels as such, but FFS build something underneath them so the space is actually used for something, even if it's just a carpark. Latrobe has a number of large concrete carparks for staff and students, roofing those spaces and putting the panels on top of the roof still makes a "solar farm", means the land can still be used for parking and, as a bonus, the panels and roof provide shade for the cars.

I can live with the one on the way to Katamatite, it's in the middle of nowhere and whacking a solar farm on 20 Acres that would otherwise be used to grow wheat or pasture for sheep isn't a problem, but the one at latrobe just irks me as a waste of space, particularly when the neither the huge new indoor soccer stadium they built or any of the many campus buildings have visible solar panels on the roofs.

The Cobram Woolworths has an open air carpark about 1/2 acre in size, part of which is covered with shade sails. If they had covered the whole area with a flat fixed roof and put a mini solar farm on that, it would not only provide shade for cars in summer and protection from weather in winter, but power the supermarket and a bunch of nearby shops.