Scott drew – thank you. My apologises (PC issues this morning) for missing your very detailed post. It was very GOOD. Thank you.
From the outset and I know a lot of men have wives etc…. while many of the comments I agree with Not that I am pussy whipped (too old for that), but somethings will not get through because…and somethings are not economic. I may be a dreamer, but my wife is intelligent, and I value her opinion, albeit sometimes I disagree.
To be honest (and I do not want to put anyone off by mentioning private schools, but in the bush, it is necessary unless you want your daughters to grow up to be bogans), we have 3 girls in private schools, petrol, council rates, water, and other essentials are more expensive than in the cities. So major construction is off the table. As much as I want to use glass bricks, water reservoirs, bricking off big windows, practically it cannot happen. But (as suggested by one) I am not moving, unless he wants to pay for the stamp duty and moving costs. We must put some level of practically in the mix rather than pure “this would be good” ….
Yesterday Energy Australia confirmed that from July 2018 there will be NO more time of use. I lose my 20 cents off-peak electricity. While the daily rate goes down to 34.88 cents, the daily access charge increases and hence my total bill will rise. – This is BAD. I have written to the government.
I have made an agreement with the wife that we move initially on window coverings. We will most probably follow the Cornell University suggestion of “Roman shade, 2 layers fabric, plastic retarder and insulating material” leading to an approximate reduction in heat loss of 75-90%
I will also investigate (again) underfloor insulation (about 20% of the floor area). But last year the quote was over $2,500 for installation PLUS materials – again builders are up themselves. As an aside, it was cheaper to get a Victorian company to install the 32 solar panels than use a local company (some $7,000 cheaper).
The house is a mix of concrete slab and pier construction (50:50). We have 4-year-old bamboo flooring in all rooms aside from kitchen and wet rooms. As much as I would like to get some floor level thermal mass…it cannot happen.
We run the thermostat at 18C – that I am told is 3C less than most at 21C. I have bought new programmable thermostats, waiting for my brother-in-law to install – he is electrician. Hence why we re-wired the complete house 4 years ago when we did the renovations.
I am home 24/7. I was under the impression that slowing heating the house was more economic/efficient rather than have it cold until the people arrive and then crank up the heating….
We have 3-phase if I did not mention it. Most houses in the bush are 3-phase. I was as surprises as you and again I must work with what I have.
I did some calculations about hot water as this is easier to quantify than heating. Comparing Stiebel WWK 302 and the Sanden 315 L for Zone 5 (Orange). Assuming a 10% increase in Gas (but I did forget about the rising electricity), it would take 6 years for the costs (cumulative) to meet. Hence, the payback is 6 years.
In conclusion, many forget the capital costs and only focus on the running costs and for heating this is $30,000 (without installation) for my house (using the cheap Tivok equipment) and hot water Stiebel $2,500 and Sanden $3,700 (without installation, I asked 9 plumbers for quotes, 3 turned up and 2 quoted with the lowest $900).
The environment is unknow. The government is going everything in its power to allow BIG power to keep increasing prices, both gas and electric. Swapping one for the other is a matter of faith and an assumption that gas will increase faster. But there is much uncertainty. Like yesterdays revelation about increased electricity costs.
My conclusion, and I welcome healthy debate (and I am a little depressed with the results), unless the capital costs of equipment drops it remains uneconomic to do heating. Hot water remains uneconomic (unless your old gas system fails), but I think hot water is closer to become economic.
The market place (manipulated by government): it is uneconomic to install PV if you work away from the home, your pay back is too long. If you want to do something for the environment – great – but for pure economics, not worth it. If you work from home or are a business PV is good and you need to size the system so there is NO feed in. Batteries are important.
To remind all, I have 32 panels (max production 8.32 kW), a 10 kW Fronius 3-phase inverter and 10 kW of 3-phase Sonnen batteries. Since having the batteries (only since July) I feed in basically nothing. I use all the PV I produce and buy the balance from the grid. I work from home.
If there is a solution…I would love to know. As a person who cares for the planet, I DO want to throw away the gas, but it needs to be economic. I have a family.
Dan
Posted Wednesday 3 Jan 2018 @ 10:52:00 pm from IP
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