** Maybe a moderator can move this from the mobile forum to a energy related forum (managing your energy or general energy ?).
We have LED lights throughout, all connected through Google home, we could run the whole home lighting for about same as one old halogen / incandescent globe.
Plenty of insulation in the roof from new, walls were all done externally too.
When we had a new iron roof put on late 2023, we had extra sisalation under the colourbond, and a whirlybird fitted.
We only need air conds when it's been 35c for at least 3-4 days, as the home stays quite cool and takes time for heat to work through the insulation etc.
Air conds use 1kwh when initially cooling (we usually run them to cool on the solar all day), then they only draw 500w-600w or so when topping off periodically as they do.
They are simple split RC air conds, 4 of them spread through home, and we use them where we need them only, usually one running is enough to use a few small low consumption bladeless fans to shift air through the home.
Other appliances are mostly the washing machine and dishwasher, which are very economical and we only use those during solar soak for zero cost from grid.
The 15 month old 11.23kw solar is working pretty good, most days our bill for summer is anything from 20c to $3, when leaving air cond on 24/7, but mostly it's around $1 avg.
Winter bills are not much different, as we have a beaut slow combustion wood heater that filters through the home, again those bladeless fans are good for this.
We probably need a battery to go nil bills and built credit monthly, but at this moment we are thinking it's not quite yet viable, so monitoring more through our 2nd season coming up to see if that changes.
We had an issue with trees winter shading, those two are gone, plus the system was not working optimally for 10 months, so this year should be a lot better.
The other option to a regular home battery we are considering is an EV that can work V2G/H, 2nd hand, not worried about range too much, just use it for < 100km trips around the suburbs, and V2H for the peak tarif mid afternoon 3 to midnight / morning 6-10, only about 4kwh usage through that time (if we leave the HWS on EV rate 8c and out of battery usage), that would wipe out our bill and should easily cover usage from low FIT we get now (heading to zero FIT within a year or two).
Thankfully we only have gas for a 4 burner top on the 5 year old stove, and that's hooked up to LPG 9kg gas which lasts us a year for around $25 cost.
It's a shame this energy rich nation is forcing people to have to think about this so much now, or suffer financial hardship.
Many simply can't afford a decent solar system, let alone one with a battery, or are not able to fit one when renting or in some aged care self-owned dwellings.
We should have the cheapest power in the world, not among the highest cost for energy (electricity and gas).
