moondoong You've shifted your pool pump to come on outside of daylight hours and you use your dishwasher and washing machine at night as much as possible. Then you state that everyone can do small changes to reduce their energy consumption and save money. The whole premise of PVP was to reduce fossil fuel energy emissions and save the environment etc. Would it be better if you ran ALL the appliances that you could DURING DAYLIGHT so the demand for fossil fueled energy is decreased? Hey, I would do just like you, get payed to feed power into the grid, pay off the system, reduce the power bills and blow the environment! That's all the scheme has acheived, let's all be honest about that. A story in The West Australian states that the average usage in Australia is 6kw for a cost of $1500. The only way to stand a chance to be revenue neutral(zero $ bills) is with a 5kw system. A 3kw system would probably contribute about a third, which is better than nothing and would pay the system off quicker which entices people to get one. In WA about 35,000 have got one with a rebate and 2,500/month are signing up. Tariff feed in is 47c/unit. I respect the rebate helps affordability, I think a 5kw is $15,000 after rebates but I am 100% sure that without the tariff there would be no takers. There is a bonus, it's a great stimulus package. PS: You said your power bills were $500 per billing period - 60/62days. Do you run a business? I go gun ho and the best damage I can do in Perth suburbs is $350 in winter and that's only when I was shift working because some appliances double up in use! (wife/kids turned them off for bed and I got home and turned it all back on! ) Appreciate everyone's knowledge with the systems. Hope I haven't offended but I just don't buy the environmental angle :))
