Wasteful Guests and Greedy Suppliers!

[Robin4]

On a number of threads the topic of energy use...or should I say, lack of energy conservation on the part of guests has come up.

I have said on a number of posts how I try to make my listing as energy efficient as possible but, there is only so much I can do! I am totally at the mercy of the government and the energy suppliers.

Here is a screenshot of our last power bill! Now remember my wife and I are retired and being over the age of 70 and with my wifes long term health issue we receive a government concession on our utilities!

With that said, have a look at this.....

That folks is a quarterly power bill!

There are two of us living on this property, we don't have a swimming pool and we have maybe five guests per month staying in the cottage.

You say, how is this possible, there is some sort of mistake!!! No, this is what happens when governments sell off public infrastucture to private entrepeneurs. Financiers is China, Hong Kong, India, and for all I know......Outer Mongolia own our power supply....not the residents of this state!

I am now embarking on a serious energy drive! We have installed solar power which goes some of the way! I am in the process of installing 1.5Kw Italian PRAVAC wind turbine, 2 inverters and an 850amp/hr battery storage array. I have installed 2 inverters, one for the solar and one for the wind because I envisage that most of my solar power which I receive a 50c per Kw 'feed-in' tarrif on will be exported back to the grid so I can actually get money for it instead of paying exhorbitant money for it.

Now the number crunchers amongst you will say...'that must be $10,000 or more, how can you ever get your money back', and to a certain extent you are right....I might get run over by a heavy transport tomorrow!! It has in fact cost fairly close to $12,400 but at the rate we are being slugged for electricity we will hit the break even point in less than 4 years! From then on it's all profit and it does put an enormous amount of value on the property because everyone wants to escape our utility costs and they are prepared to pay a premium to do it!

Everything will around the property is (or will be) state of the art efficient and I will never be faced with a situation like this again.

To all you US citizens, watch very closely what your incoming president does and his policy towards your public utilities. Remember he is a dollars and cents man, not a servant of the public! Our Electricty trust was sold for less than one years revenue for goodness sake...and now we have lost the assett for ever and will continue to get screwed by a multitude of 'middlemen' with the government now powerless to intervene.

So when you think that energy bill of yours is a bit steep, spare a thought for what we are going through here!

Cheers.....Rob

[David126]

I do not have any public utilities, not saying there are not any in Colorado but none of the big players are.

PV works up here reasonably well and I have friends off grid, grid tied has advantages, your feed in rate is nearly 3 times what I pay per Kwh. Is that guaranteed, seems very high. 

Never so sure about wind systems, well small scale ones, we have high winds but they are intermitent, not a good source, you need steady constant winds and no blockages.

[Robin4]

@David126....Our state government were faced with an aging power generation system, more than half of which was coal fired and were going to be hit with a sustantial cost in replacing so, they gave incentives for householders to utilize alternative power sources. As well as susidizing the initial outlay by two thirds they guaranteed a feed-in tarrif of 44c pr Kw until December 31st 2026.

As you can imagine there was a massive acceptance of this scheme to the extent where almost 40% of households in this state generate their power through solar means. 

The energy suppliers 'topped up' this government guarantee with an additional 16c pr Kw initially which meant we were getting 60c perKw for our solar feed-in! That has now dropped to 50c but is government capped at 44c.

You can see where this is leading can't you David!!! Almost one quarter of the states power supply the government were paying 44c per Kw for! To add insult to injury they embarked on major wind farm projects which although being ecologically great are a financial disaster. 

This state is now in the situation where for much of the year all our power generation requirements are being met by 'green power'....in fact we lead the world in the scale of our alternative power generation and we not only supply this state power requirements but export green power to other states.

It cost around three times as much to produce 1Kw of green energy electricity than it does to produce 1 Kw of coal fired electricity.

Coupled with the fact that the 'poles and wires' are no longer owned by us and a plethora of invoicing companies have become involved means......I get a $2,000 power bill!

But I will win this argument, I have spent the last couple of years researching the best options! Half is now in place and the rest will be operational by the end of February.

Of course, the next thing is the government will smack us with a massive supply charge, even though they are not supplying anything! They will have to charge for those poles and wires that run past the house in the street!!! 

Cheers.....Rob

[David126]

Something similar happened in Spain, everybody and his dog installed PV panels on the back of massive buy in rates. 

Inevitable happened, simply could not affford to continue and those stuck with such investments with reduced income really hurt.

Most of the systems I am familiar with have battery back up, a grid needs something to cover the base load if the sun does not shine, wind does not blow.

I think I pay 11c a Kwh so the pressure is less and that is high for Colorado.

[Robin4]

@David126....At 11c per Kw who would bother following alternatives! But David it is not always going to be like that! 10 years ago we were paying 14c per Kw, now it's nearer 50c!

This government initiated a cut off point and after that point only paid 5c prKw as a feed-in but that did not affect those of us who got in before that point! We are guaranteed until 2026!

Wind is a more reliable method of production David because solar only has a 5 hour window in each 24 to produce electricity. Unless you have some sort of tracking mechanism you only really produce between 10am and 3pm! Wind on the other hand has a 24 hour window out of each 24 to produce and this Pravac unit only requires a wind speed of 8Kph to produce it's quota of 'juice'!

There are no local government restrictions on vertical axis generators (which look a bit like a large industrial spinning roof ventilator, except that it only has three blades)!

Now that the old principal of nickel metal batteries are coming back into style battery storage is a decent option. These batteries are guaranteed for 30 years and are not corrosive like lead acid. They are not as efficient but are much more reliable! Forget about the Tesla 'powerwall' thats commercial nonsense and is only guaranteed to produce its rated storage for 5 years! After 8 years it's down to 20% of its rated capacity. Definitely not worth considering!

My 850 amp/hrs will give me 7 days of supply even if there is no wind and the sun don't shine....and it's guaranteed for 30 years!!

And if worst comes to worst and there isn't any sun or wind for that amount of time...we simply pull a bit back out of the mains.

Cheers......Rob

[David126]

We simply do not have the constant steady winds, somebody I know locally has one and the amount it produces is not much different to their annual maintenance contract. Fortunately most of the capital cost was paid by a grant. We do have a lot of sun, even in the winter and for those with a good southerly aspect it can be a good call.

PV also has the advantage of no tall towers, most around here are ground mounted so you just need to brush the snow off as needed.

Do you get tax credits, that is the main incentive here.

[Dee33]

Holy Toledo, that is one nasty power bill!

I have learned that the electric companies are installing "smart meters" to replace the old rotating ones. Has this happened to you recently by chance? These new meters are able to capture small fluctuations in power draw that the older ones couldn't. For example, when my air-conditioning system is first switched on, it draws immense power for less than a second. That momentary surge happened too quickly for the old meter to capture, but the smart meter can identify it. So even though I had my whole house weatherized (with duct sealing and blown-in attic insulation) my bills are now higher than ever before.

The only advice I have received is to always leave the system at a constant temperature & never turn it on-and-off, so as to avoid the start-up energy spikes. I was trying to do that anyway, but admit I was hitting the thermostat manually more often than I needed to. I have now programmed the thermostat for every minute of every day and force myself not to touch it.

[Robin4]

@Dee33....Yeah Dee, smart meters have been around for about 8 years now. When an older property with an 'inside the house' meter board is sold in this state the title of the property cannot change hands until a new external distribution board with full RCD protection and smart meter is installed. All solar installations must have a smart meter because the meter not only keeps track of what the consumer draws from the grid. It also keeps track of what is fed back into the grid. So when the bill comes it will show what has been consumed and under a seperate heading will show the amount of solar feed-in. The old revolving meters did not do this, they just turned backwards when in house supply exceeded the 'in house' demand.

As to your air con unit Dee.....yes what you describe is common from airconditioning units of 15 years of age and greater where the compressor start up current could be up to ten times the units rated current draw! But since the advent of 'inverter' units the compressor start up is gradually so there is no start up spike. The start-up amps is exactly the same as the running amps. There are now very few non inverter units still in use in this country. They have been removed from sale and phased out principally because the R22 refrigerant gas they used is classified as a dangerous greenhouse gas, whereas the newer inverter units utilise the R410A refrigerant gas which has far less impact on the earths Ozone layer!

Also, Inverter units are considerably more efficient to use because the compressor runs at a variable speed and the circuitry matches the compressor speed to the heatload. In the cottage I have a 6Kw output (2hp) ceiling cassette unit and the rated maximum current draw on that unit is 1.6 Kws of input. But being an inverter unit once it has the temperature near the thermostat set point it slows down to the point where, I have had what is called a 'tong tester' meter (having been an electrician I have these tools) on the supply cable and the unit shows a consistent current draw of around 125-140 watts which is about equal to two filament light bulbs!!!

Dee, I can't make any more efficiencies without compromising the way we live! We have to be warm in winter and cool in summer, shower each day, cook when we want to. But Dee I am faced with electricity that is more than 5 times the cost of yours, and I can't see things improving on the supply front so, the only way I can offset these horrendous costs is to generate my own power.

@David126 there are tax concessions for businesses but not for private households. The government even double dips where tax is concerned! During summer months with the solar in full production the following scenario can happen.

You can use $470 worth of power for the quarter! That amount is minimal because the solar you produce is first utilised by the property power requirement, and what is left over goes back to the grid. So although you may have actually used $1,000 worth of power on the property, you only drew $470 worth of it from the grid!

Your solar feed-in for that quarter can be $516 so you have a nett credit for the quarter of $46.00.....ok.

The government levels a goods and services (GST) tax on the $470 you have consumed, but give you no tax credit on the $516 you have fed back to them, so although you are technically $46.00 in credit, that credit is wiped out because you actually have to pay $58.75 in GST. As a figures man I bet you will just love that one David!!!!

Cheers.....Rob

[Amy38]

@Robin4. Get your heating and air guy to fix the thermostat so it wont go above or below 69 . This can be don.  It is not just the cost in fuel, but the wear and tear on the system.

[Robin4]

@Amy38 In my working life I was a mechanical services contractor (Air conditioning company). I had 27 employees before I handed the reins over to someone else. There is three quarters of nine tenths of sod all that I am not aware of where air conditioning is concerned Amy.

My statements were not about the air con as such, it was in response to @Dee33's statement about air conditioning! My statements were about OUR high cost of electricity, and how I plan to get around it. I can assure you I have every energy saving regime in place here....and then some!

But quite apart from that, we get a certain satisfaction out of welcoming guests into our 63f cottage on a 106f day. Yes it's overkill, but it's just another of those nice little details that do not go un-noticed.

But thanks Amy, you do raise a good point and one that others would do well to remember! For every degree cooler (or wamer) you want to be it will cost you to do it, and to put that into terms that fit your heating situation at the moment...When the ambient temperature is 5c outside (in a 3 star rated insulated space)  it will cost you 6 times as much energy to run your aircoditioning on 25c than it would to run it at 22c!!!

So there you go, you raise a really good point Amy.

Cheers....Rob