Urban Farming Oz

Yallambee, home of Urban Farming Oz is now Grid Connected as of 5pm, the 19th of March 2010. The system we have installed is a 1.5 Kilo Watt  system, consisting of 9 solar panels and a 2 Kilowatt Grid Connect inverter. We can add an additional 3 panels in the future to this system, boosting it to a full 2.0 KW. The manufactures claim an average of 7.5 Kilo Watt Hours per day, which seems realistic as we produced over 8KWH on our first full day. (Update, over the first 4 days we averaged 7.75KWHs a day)  The cost of the system installed after Carbon Credits and Government rebates was $2995. Yes this price is correct. There are some absolutely great deals currently available. The retail price of the panels is greater than the total system price installed, pre discounts. If you live in New South Wales act quickly before the scheme is fully subscribed.

The date for the install of our grid connect 1.5KW solar system has been set for the 19th of March. That's just 4 weeks from tomorrow! We have also been accepted into the NSW Small Scale Generation Scheme which will pay us 60 cents per KWH generated plus Country Energy  will pay us an additional 0.812 cents per KWH for transmission costs avoided. We will be paid 60.812 cents for every KWH we generate and buy it back at 19.62 cents.  So the result for us will be if my calculations are correct a positive cash flow from the system from day 1. See this calculator link to work out your potential savings. Their calculations confirm what I had previously calculated using my own spreadsheet.

Once the system is installed and we receive our first invoice we will report on the actual savings and projected payback time.

Now is the time to go solar or wind powered grid connect before the scheme is fully subscribed.

Country Energy has provide a useful FAQ about the NSW scheme.

How much power will I save by turning things off?

There are many estimates of what percentage of power the average household uses running appliances on standby mode. These estimates vary from 3% to 10% of your annual power bill. On average appliances such as TVs, DVD players and microwaves use about 5 Watts of power waiting for you to turn them on.

Now 5 watts doesn't sound much, but it all adds up. The average Australian Household has 2.4 TVs. Assuming they are watched for 4 hours each day, then on average they consume 2.4 x 5 x 20 Watt Hours a day, which is 240 Watt Hours or a quarter of a Kilowatt Hour. And that is just the TVs! So take a walk around your house and record what items are sitting there on standby. Our house, which is also our business office has 2 TVs, 2 DVDs 1 digital set top box, 1 video amplifier, 1 stereo amplifier, 1 digital clock, 3 hands free phones, 4 computer monitors, 2 sets of powered computer speakers, 1 scanner, 1 printer and finally 1 fan with remote control. I have not included the computers and somputer network or the answering machines and fax machine,  I have just focused on items that are left in standby a large amount of the time, sometimes weeks like the fan. So in all if you use the same figure of 20 hours per item standby per day and assume 5 Watts per item then we could potentially be using 2 Kilowatt Hours a day doing nothing. Historically our power consumption was on average 19KWH per day summer and 17KWH winter. We are not your average suburban house, as we are a running a business from our house which is located on a small farm. Power for pumping water for stock as well as domestic use is included in this figure.

Good news is we have started turning thing off at the power point, saving power, the environment and finally money. If you would like to know how much you are actually using on standby mode, turn off all other appliances such as fridges and freezers at the power point and take a walk to your power meter. Our meter is labelled as 400 revolutions per  KWH. Some are labelled in a figure like 2.5Kh which is the number of watts per revolution. Mostly these are US style meters.  To Calculate the Kh value  divide the revolutions per minute by 1000 for us that is 400 / 1000  which is 2.5.

Now an hour is 60 lots of 60 seconds or 3600 seconds. Now multiply the Kh value you just worked out by 3600
In our case 2.5 x 3600 is 9000. Write this number down.

Now using a stop watch time how long one revolution of the disk takes.

If the meter took 10 seconds for the disk to turn once then 9000 / 10 would be 900 Watt an Hour or .9 KWH

If the meter took 90 seconds for the disk to turn once then 9000 / 90 would be 100 Watt an Hour or .1 KWH

So if it took 90 seconds then you will be using .1KWH x 20(hours) a day running these appliances for doing nothing. At 19.62 cents per KWH  our current price that would be $0.39 a day. Bad news is in a couple of years our power bill will rise by 67%. That 39 cents will soon be a dollar and then more.

Now what about that other "standby power". The movie is finished, the kids (some kids are pretty old)  get up and move on. The huge plasma screen is still on, displaying the DVD menu, the music at often theatre volume drones on, do do do do do do do do... , thanks Mr Dolby...   Yet no one is watching, upstairs the kids TV is still on from this morning, or even last night as well as the stereo, you get the idea, now go watch that disk spin and do the maths.

So how much is doing nothing costing you and the environment?

One of the great joys of Urban Farming is cooking and eating the results of your efforts. So, rather than this being a facts and figures only comparison between gas and electric,  let's enjoy our home produce and locally produced fare by being creative with our cooking power sources and techniques.

We'll start by looking at the traditional Australian summer meal. Yes the barbie. All the blokes are outside, stubbie in hand surrounding the chef who, traditionally, had the stick fed, brick built home made BBQ. Things have progressed over the years and most BBQ's are now gas powered for air quality reasons in the burbs. They vary from simple to complex with roasting hoods woks and even toasting grilling elements!

The humble charcoal burner is there as well punching out delicious roast chickens. So let's look what options we have with a spirit of adventure as well as making sure we make it as efficient as possible. The two concepts are not far apart, you can have fun, eat well and save!