Insullation, 5th electricity refund and general update

Well well well, here's a little update on what has been going on recently.

First up - we got another 2 rooms painted.  The entry and the front TV room.  We bought some different looking curtains for the front room (see pic below).  We think it will give the room a little colour.  Still need to borrow the sewing machine off mum and hem them so they aren't hung yet.

We are still painting the back rooms that got new walls - the bathroom, toilet and laundry.  Mind you we were away on holidays for 2 weeks this month so we are just back and ready to tackle things.

Got our 5th electricity bill and the refund from the solar is a little disappointing this time.  Only got $195.36 back compared to over $350 refund for all the previous bills.  I'm still trying to work out what is going on there.  We also just got a notice that the rates are going up GREAT!

We are going to have a little edition to the family......we are getting a puppy.  He will be with us in 4 weeks.  Time to puppy proof the house and fences in our yard.

Oh yeah, and we also got insullation put in our roof yesterday.  It does actually make a difference.  It cost us about $1300 but I think it is worth every cent so far.  We didn't need to put the oil heater on last night so maybe that will help us saving on our electricity bills.

Will update next when I have completed photos of something.  Busy busy!!

No work day - & 4th electricity bill refund

Well now, today there is no work happening on our place.  The tiler wrote us down in his diary on the wrong day (Thursday instead of Wednesday).  According to him, he will still have the job complete on Friday anyway so no big deal really.  Our builder is actually not feeling well today so he wasn't able to make it up to Brisbane - I've told him that the tiler will be there tomorrow so it's probably not that great if he comes tomorrow either.  Hope he feels better soon.

The plasterer was there this morning to finish off sanding for the tiler.  I guess we need to go home and start the painting tonight - fun fun fun!!  We need to have the cupboards installed in the bathroom and the laundry this weekend so our plumber can come back Monday to finish everything off for us.  It's so exciting!

On an upside, we got our 4th electricity refund.  $369.17 this quarter compared to $388.07.  It's $18.90 less than last time but at least it is still over $350 & that is a good thing.  It sucks having to call AGL each time to get the refund and then I also need to check that the refund makes it into our account because the last few times it hadn't and I forgot about it and then another month had gone on and we finally got our money.

It's weird - our usage is actually lower this month (683kWh) compared to last month (726kWh) but we got less of a refund this month.  I wonder if our solar panels didn't produce as much electricity as last month?  Yep - 1025kWh this month compared to 1074kWh last month.  So, that is where our difference is because our rate with AGL is $0.52 per kWh we give them.  So the difference is 49kWh or $25.48.  With GST and all the other charges etc etc it probably works out to $18.90 difference.  Not worth calling them and arguing about that's for sure.

Link to March 2013 AGL bill

Bye for now & till next time something is done on our house.

3rd electricity bill - the best refund yet!

A little late in sharing this news as December was a hectic month!

Refund for this quarter is $388.07 which is the best so far.  So so happy with this.

Our usage decreased a lot which is probably due to the change of season from winter 925 kWh to summer 726kWh (billing period 5 Sept to 5 Dec 2012) plus we were away for about 2 weeks and not using any electricity.

The panels also produced a lot more power this quarter - 1074 kWh compared to 718 kWh.

So far our solar panels have made us $934.47 ($388.07 Dec + $188.64 Sept + $357.76 Jun).  Our solar panels got connected to the grid on 19 March 2012 so it hasn't even been a full year yet.  It looks like we are on track to making roughly $1,000 per year so will have them paid off in 5-6 years.  Hope they don't change the $0.52 per kWh rate.

Link to Dec 2012 AGL bill

2nd electricity bill!!!!

It's still exciting to get money back from the electricity company.  This quarter it is slightly lower than the last, however $188.64 is nothing to laugh at.  Electricity rates have change during the current period so it is hard to tell if we used more or less because we got charged more ($357.76 last quarter compared to $384.26 this quarter).

However, if you look at consumption then last quarter was lower at 810kw compared to 925kw this quarter.  Being winter months would have something to do with it as we were using the oil heater a lot and I probably used the dryer a bit more than I would normally.

By the looks of it our solar panels produced more power this quarter (718kw) compare to last (688kw)

Link to our bill - click here

1st electricity bill !!!

So, we got our first electricity bill....you can view it at this link:  AGL June 2012 bill

Since the solar panels were connected to the grid on 19 March our electricity panels made us $357.76
Extremely happy with that!

I guess we now need to wait for a whole quarter of billing to work out how long it will take for them to pay for themselves.

It does mean that we will never receive another electricity bill that we need to pay for.

I wonder how long it takes for the cheque to arrive from AGL?

We're connected to the grid!

as of Monday 19 March our solar electricity is connected to the grid!!!
good-bye electricity bills (we hope!)

Solar panels getting installed today!!!

After what seems like a month of researching being undertaken by Glen, we are finally getting our solar panels installed!!

We ended up going with SAE Group.  It's a 3.04W PV system (16 x 190 watt NESL solar panels) and a Growatt 4.2W inverter.  After the Government incentive it will cost us $5,925.

I can't wait to see the first power bill....... will of course blog about it when I do!