The thing that gets me is people seem to fob off the fact that electricity, petrol etc are gradually increasing every 6months due to inflation (and totally legal price gouging!) and still think 'she'll be right mate'..... Last year power went up 28% in Vic and we just got bad news after good when the interest rate cut was done just before xmas and now only 4 days ago we read that everything else is going up....again....So it's one step foward, and two back.. I think news like the article above maybe enough for the truth to really hit home..... It could also be the very last straw for the ongoing great aussie house bubble debate that's been going for five years???
The problem with the electricity grid TheEnd is that a big chunk of it was built in the expansion after WWII and is now worn out. To replace it will cost a fortune and coal is not as cheap as it once was either. Another aspect is that the grid over all can only handle so much power flowing through it. It needs an expansion, more dollars. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/...ught-in-gridlock/story-e6freoof-1226144903889 We see the same problem in the water system and that is no doubt the reason for water meters and ever increasing rates. Why this is not made clear to the public at large is not a mystery either. Most are too dumb to discuss it rationally and vote for wise solutions that would still see large taxes flowing to government, hence must be excluded from the decision making processes. Grid connected solar is a good example of this, the concept is completely retarded. Create electricity in your own home and then transmit the bulk of it away? Who benefits the most from this, the government obviously since they control the tariffs and collect taxes at every stage of the game. From installation to the gst you get slugged on the power you buy back at night. For an extra 3 or 4 grand the homeowner could install a battery bank and be mostly free of the government system. Switching back to the grid after a few days of rain if the bank ran low. But at current low electricity tariffs this type of solar arrangement is not economically viable. When coal generated power gets that expensive to warrant the investment the government will have secured most of the solar market with their grid connected tax connected system. Sheep will not walk willingly into the shearers shed or the slaughter house, they must always be herded by superior intelligence.
Jonesy.. you got it right^^except for one word. Delete Labor and put in Governments. You don't win election unless, when the voters hold out their hand, here comes the leaders handing goodies around. They are all the same I tell you. Regards Errol 43
Having actually looked into battery banks as part of an on-site power generation system, their viability depends on what sort of time frame you're looking at. For example, $4000 / 60 months (5 years) = $67/month. Over 10 years it would be $33/month. Over 20 years it would be $16.50/month. Multiply that by 3 and, over 20 years, your batteries cost $50/quarter. Paying $50/quarter for your own batteries is better than paying $400/quarter for juice from the grid. Of course you can also add the cost of the plant and equipment to the value of your house as well. If you wanted to be really tricky and play the system you could have your solar array feed directly into the grid (so 100% of the energy it produces is "surplus"), pick up the government mandated feed-in tariff, then draw down all the power you actually use to run your home from the grid in the middle of the night at off-peak rates, feed it into a battery bank and draw power from the battery bank during the day. That's your classic buy low, sell high process in action. Most people wouldn't think of doing that that because, as the title says, a large number of people can't do sums and are bad enough at managing their money that they're sinking in debt.
If you could do that on a large enough scale you could make a difference. lol. I can see why the consumer happily opts for grid connected though. After 12 years of schooling most can't even maintain the water and oil in their cars. maintaining a sensitive battery bank would be well out of their league.
