We can reasonably assume that electricity retailers are making a lot of money because they are constantly knocking on our doors and annoying us on the phone trying to get us to switch. They are offering big discounts - best I've heard is 19% - but the FIT is pitiful.
We are at home during the day and do most, if not all of our cleaning, washing and cooking during the day as well as some TV. All of that but about 1 or 2kwh is powered by PV. It would take a radical lifestyle change to reduce the approximate 5kwh we import when it's dark. We are either watching TV, often two, or online and how do you
switch that to daylight hours?
I've actually thought it through and one way would be to record our pm TV stuff - we have IQ - and watch it during the day, but I'm not that desperate (and my wife wouldn't agree to it, anyway). Imported kwh will drop automatically as the days get longer and that will help.
What we can't reduce is the retailer's supply charge, and that will most likely be higher than what we pay for actual electricity consumption, judging by the figures so far. In the 38 days we've been connected our power usage has cost about $33 after applying the 25c FIT and supply has cost $28.81. The usage amount will drop as we get more sunshine hours, and when I switch to a retailer with a bigger discount and a FIT.
My bill arrived on Monday but they only billed me until July 11th. I rang Energy Australia and was told that my meter had changed on that day and that I would receive a bill for the balance of the billing quarter later. She didn't tell me what the meter change was - I don't think she knew - and I told her about the PV. I meant to ask her why the bill said that we'd imported 572kwh during the period we were billed for when according the the meter we'd only used 457kwh, but I forgot. If there were any smilies
on here I'd insert 'rolling eyes'.
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