Sunday, January 3, 2016

THE BATTLE AGAINST THE HIGH COST OF ELECTRICITY

Here in sunny Queensland these days we have air conditioning to combat the heat. 

As well as high temperatures we have high humidity and that's a killer !
How we survived in days gone by without air- con I don't know. 
In my teaching days the heat inside the classroom (35 degrees plus ) with thirty hot sweating bodies after play break was unbelievable ( so was the smell ! ) and not an air conditioner in sight !

But keeping cool with air conditioning comes at a price...... A very high price !
The cost of electricity is climbing rapidly so we have finally taken the plunge and installed solar panels.
Twenty- one of them !


In a country with so much sunshine it is sensible to harness the sun


and even when the aircon is going all day we use the electricity we produce ourselves to power it. 

It's a simple idea really and very successful for us.
I just make sure I wash, bake, turn the dishwasher on, as much as possible during the daytime.


Our neighbours also have them.


Looking round the neighbourhood most houses have them.


Different numbers of panels......and different placements depending on roof shape


And the direction that the house faces.



We are looking forward to the day when we can store the electricity we make in the day so we can power our lights at night.
It would be wonderful to be self- sufficient

And great to be rid of those power plants churning out their horrible emissions into the atmosphere.

Cheers.

4 comments:

  1. Well done you! I wish we could do the same - I'd love to be self sufficient and off-grid but our home has only one roof facing south and that has the bedroom dormer windows on it so not really enough space for panels. Also of course we don't have as much sunshine as you do! Wind turbines now might work!

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  2. people do have solar panels here and swear by them.How they work with so little sunshine I do not know!

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  3. That's fantastic! We have a solar panel on our boat that runs a little fridge and the power we need for lights. I don't know if we get enough sunshine here to run them for the house. Not many people have them.

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  4. You might be qualified for a new government solar rebate program.
    Click here and find out if you qualify now!

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