Severe Storms for South Australia

Hi Allan

Just another follow up since my first reply.

Within minutes of posting my reply, we lost all power and it was out for over 22 hours. We have had over 60 mm of rain here in Clare in less than 20 hours and the mid north is expecting up to another 100 mm today.

Blyth, a small town only 8 miles from Clare had a tornado go through the town and has done lots of damage.

Let's hope we have seen the last of all the damage.




Cheers




Stephen

.
Not good Stephen. Not good at all.

Would you like me to send you the current Sunshine Coast real estate catalogue? lol

Hi again Allan

It's now over 70mm of rain and just received a phone call from the SES to say get prepared for the next lot of rain that has just started to bucket down.

Will keep you posted.



Cheers


Stephen

In all honesty, it all seems over here down southern suburbs of ADL.
The suns been out quite a bit even.
Radars not showing an awful lot of really bad rain about, and it's still as out there, no wind to speak of.

Hi Les

I only wish it was the same up here in Clare. It has been wet all day and the SES have been door knocking today as well as the CFS and advises to sand bag. There are now 2 dams south of Care that look like breaking their banks, and if that happens, the main street will be under lots of water.

The SES and CFS from as far as Adelaide are now sandbagging every shop in the main street.


Cheers



Stephen

Hi Stephen

I was just watching the afternoon news in Perth and some of the footage is quite extraordinary. Unbelievable that an entire state could be without power, until you see the high voltage towers bent over like the were made out of straws.

I would hate to be working out the cost of the losses that have occurred. A lot of fresh produce was just being thrown in the bin. There wasn't much information on flooding and building damage though.

One saving grace is that everyone is accounted for - hopefully it will stay that way.

Thoughts and best wishes to all those affected.

Cheers

Anthony

Steven, thanks for the pics, lots of water about up there for sure.
The rian is just steady, wind is picking up again.
Just checked the wind doppler radar, oh yeah it's still coming . . .
128 km Adelaide (Buckland Park) Doppler wind
Up around 90k winds, and that is moving very slowly.
Some western subs are reporting strong winds, I'm on southern hillsface, and still 30 maybe 40 km winds so far.

Hi Anthony and Les

Let's hope that the winds and rain arenot as bad as expected.




Cheers




Stephen

So much for relying on solar at night, wind farms in storms and power from Victoria. Some people up here think our power is unreliable.

Sorry, couldn't resist commenting on the State I escaped from.

Spend $10,000 on batteries is the only answer...unfortunately. I just wished the panels worked on moon shine also!!

When I have a little moonshine I dont think feel the cold. :)

Don't start me about solar panels.

Wouldn't matter if it was a cool cloudless day with sun right over head.

A "feature" called anti islanding means if the power has been cut, a solar panel's output is disabled.

Great huh?

You blokes are kidding me ? If there's no mains power, your solar is useless ?

Regards

Its always been like that Gramps. You have to have a battery storage . You cant just have the solar power unning straight into your house wiring. Exactly the same as if you removed your car battery and had the alternator feeding straight into your vehicles wiring!!! I have a 6kilowatt system that feeds into the mains supply. I havent paid an electricity bill in 6 years and also get a $5-800 cheque each year. I do not have a battery system to store my power as I prefer to have my excess power paid for by the relevant power company...

It gets worse than that Gramps.

Ok so no power outages, and we have a nice sunny cool day great. Perfect conditions for generating solar energy. Should be pumping out the full 5KW right?

Wrong.

All output from solar systems must also be able to be controlled by the energy company.

If you live in an area where there are other solar panels, it's likely that the grid will go into 'over voltage' because of the way it was designed and the energy companies will turn your output down to manage the network. In many suburbs it is estimated that solar systems are turned down to as low as 10% of their rated output under optimal conditions when high local demand from air conditioners isn't present.

Oh another one.... Probably the biggest issue with solar.

The list price for electricity is generally around 25c per kw. With some homework and haggling you can get it as low as 17c. I pay 17.5c per kw.
BUT when you haggle for discount, what is the first question they ask you?

"Do you have solar?" If your answer is yes, then they don't discount off the list price. So you pay 25c per kw. ( or whatever your local company charges)
Now in Victoria the 'feed in tariff' is 5c per kw. So even if you generated 1 Kw for every kw you use, you are still up to 3c per kw WORSE OFF than simple haggling and discounting. Most people in southern states use about 4 - 5 times as much as they generate so the savings of not having solar are even greater.

So the answer to the question "How long before my system pays for it's self" is ...NEVER. The longer you have it, the more money you lose.

When you look at your solar rebate, you also need to consider the extra you pay for the incoming electricity. It's like going to the races, gambling $150 and at the end of the day saying you won $50 today. LOL That is how they work...

If you have an old feed in tariff of 60c per kw then the economics are different. Stick to it and never move.

Here is another one of my favorites.

Remember when you got a $4000 rebate from the government? Every company was advertising 3- 4kw of solar for $8000. Then the government dropped the rebate scheme. Guess what? The price of the same solar from all companies went down to $4000 overnight.

To true Boobook,
Those with solar are discriminated against by the providers.
It was a no brainer to jump on in 2010. Everyone and anyone that saw this give away, begged, borrowed & stole to get solar.
Purchased our 2.6kw German system for $7.5K plus $400 for the new metre.
It had paid for itself in 2 years and we now enjoy free electricity and our quarterly payment we receive from our provider pays for our annual gas bill till 2028!!!!!
Got to love our Dilly Whacker governments!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our neighbour decide to wait for solar to drop in price............which it did as you mentioned. He got a bargain 5kw system for $5K............the poor buggers get a 0.05c feed in tariff, they work during the day, use most of their power during the night and still have a $300 quarterly bill.
Now the providers enjoy pretty much free power generation them and sell it back to them for 0.37c per kw.

Well here in the Sunshine state its different. We still get 50c a unit as are on the original rate for solar rebate. We do get paid for all we return to the grid and can look on the inverter and meter to check. This is supposed to be until 2028.

I paid my first 1.5kw unit off in 3 years and almost paid the second 1.5kw one off as well. We also have a 7kw unit which cost $15000 when it was installed and it has paid for itself and more in 5 years. We havent paid for power since 2011. and average $800 a year in refunds. I have just negotiated a 14% discount on my supply as well.

Late arrivals on the scene only get 8c a unit now.

BOOBOOK.."So the answer to the question "How long before my system pays for it's self" is ...NEVER. The longer you have it, the more money you lose."

I paid $10,000 for a 6kw system 6 years ago. My annual electricity bill is about $2000. I have never had to pay a bill and the average annual cheque I receive from the power company is $800. So I have received about $4000 in cash and never paid a bill. My tariff is the same as most here in Cairns. I have compared with many others. Electricity is very pricey. I reckon your statement is just plain stupid. Thousands of happy solar customers will back me up..

If you got solar 6 years ago then your feed in tariff for Qld would be 44c per kw. I'm not referring to then. As Cruiser and I mentioned, different economics in the old days. Good luck to you. Keep it.

I'm referring to the pricing if someone gets solar now. If you got solar since 2012, the feed in tariff is 6.348c kw outside Brisbane. Just never move, add capacity to your solar, sell or rent your home, or let your account get into arrears, then you go to the new rate.

Hopefully that isn't too stupid.