President Elect, The Mechanic wrote on Aug 2
nd, 2015 at 3:19pm:
Sophia wrote on Aug 1
st, 2015 at 9:24pm:
It has been coldest I remember, and then I find out we had some very cold July days in Melbourne since 1990!
The folk around here are saying, that this is a 'real winter', something we had forgotten what it was like from decades ago.
I think a fireplace has warmth that is unmatched by any other form of heating. Cosy and nice, yes, but, I am actually sick of it, constantly having to lug in the wood, and feed the fireplace to keep it from going out, and then the smokiness and dust in the house.....it's not the cleanest form of heating, not when one relies solely on it.
It's great once the weather warms up and I don't have to tend to it and can turn off the fan.
As for electricity bills, some may remember, we had solar panels put in last year, 20 of them, and it irked me, the electricity bill wasn't a whole lot cheaper, finally had them come to check it at the risk it could cost $200 if nothing was found to be wrong, but lo and behold, they discovered 7 panels were not connected!
Idiots. One whole year not uitilizing 35% solar savings, when the sun shone. I can't keep up with it all....do I have to tell everyone how to do their job as well as pay them?
hi Lols...
that is absolutely deplorable.... I would be seeking some sort of compensation from the company you dealt with..
when Labor was throwing tax payers money everywhere to get Australians to install Solar Systems they sent out inspectors to every installation to make sure it was done right..
this was due to them stuffing all their other programs up like Pink Batts etc...
our inspector found a few "small" things that they had to come back and readjust.. like junctions boxes with the screws facing up.. they'd fill full of water on the screw head and rust... etc...
your inverter should have a readout on it and it pays to know what you should be getting on a nice sunny day...
for our 3kw system here in Victoria - during summer - we'll pull around 20KWs a day give or take... we've had as high as 24kw in one day
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a mate of mine has a 5kw and during summer he'll pull over 30kw a day...
so it pays to keep an eye on that...
with all of these non stop cloudy days for months on end now we may end up with a small winter bill for the first time in around 5 years... but we'll see
we have over 7kw for the day so far.. had some nice sun this morning but now... its back to all doom and gloom again.. cold, wet...
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so have the wood heater on again... I was able to get blue gum @ $65 a square meter this year... this is what I use on the weekends to keep warm during winter
Yes, thinking of letting them know I want some compensation for the job not being correctly done or checked upon completion. I found out, that these solar systems require a 2 year service/tune at the cost of $200....did anyone know about that?
Well, they can do that service/tune up for free IMO.
I haven't finished with them yet
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The only compensating feeling I have, is that I bargained with this mob (advertises on tv a lot, and phoned us all the time) and got it for $500 less.
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but that goes out the window when we don't utilize 35% of power on sunny days eh! sigh....
As we had the solar installed just before last winter, it was difficult to work out what the reading should be on a weak sunny winter day, but when summer came around, it was evident, and with a 5-6 day check of the 'e total' found out something was amiss.
As for wood, $65 a metre is good value, normally you can pay approx $90- 100 and redgum is more. As we have an abundance of trees, wattle, gum, and another (I forgot).....the trees die, or keel over such as last week, we had a huge double gum tree come down in the high winds we had, so there is some more wood for next year (need a year before the wood is good for firewood). Never had to buy wood, some trees die standing, so we leave it upright as it stays dry and ages, until the right time to cut it all down, and store it for the following winter.
We like to replace trees that die or keel over, I like trees, and just wish they wouldn't keel over the way they do of late. It worries me.
I will try and see if I can locate the photobucket to upload a pic.