Energy bill shock is on everyone’s mind at the moment.
With generous energy tariff rebates coming to an end there are many homes who will be worse off in 2017. In fact, many experts believe that for many this will be in the region of $1500 per year. In NSW alone there are 146,000 families who will be affected and add those in South Australia and Victoria and this number increases to 275,000. So why is this happening? – If you’ve missed all the talk over the last few months, then this is the basic reason. The government wanted to kick-start the uptake of renewable energy for homes, especially solar and offered generous rewards for those who participated. Now, after this initial period, these benefits are ending, and those on the generous tariff schemes will lose them at the end of this year, and in some states that process has already happened.
So, what can be done? Well, quite a lot and you’ll be surprised how easy some of the solutions are.
Load Shifting –
We all know that solar works during the daylight hours and as a generalisation for most states its maximum efficiency is somewhere between 9 am – 3 pm. Load shifting utilises this maximum capacity to ensure that you use as much as you can generate. So, at peak, generating times use the washing machine, dishwasher, or heat water. The household tasks that use the most power are switched on when your system is working at its maximum capacity. Use this simple chart to see what energy common household appliances use.
Change Energy Providers –
If you’re in an area where you can shop around for energy, then you should see what else is on offer. See what Feed-in Tariff (FiT) they are offering and what their unit cost is for buying energy. A quick and easy calculation will help you decide whether a change in provider is the best option. Use our handy calculator here.
Add an energy storage battery –
Over the past few years, battery storage has become a very viable option. Battery storage offers the ability to store all the unused energy from your solar system and use it when you need it most, like in the evening and at night. Now with the advent of Powerwall 2, by Tesla, battery storage has become even more cost efficient. You can add a battery to an existing solar system or as part of a new solar system, find out more about batteries here.
