Who do you get your electricity from?

[nomadpete]

Aaaah, Spacey, the best water is Sky Water.

[onetrack]

Yep, rainwater - no additives added by corporations or Govt authorities - just modest levels of bird and rodent shXX, any number of toxins that blew in on the wind - pesticides, fertilisers, salt (salt air goes a long way inland!), and even a few carcasses of animals that desperately sought water and fell into your water tank!

 

You do all remember my story about the "rat soup" we all drank, from a rainwater tank, for months, when we lived in a rented farmhouse, don't you? 

 

A lot of rainwater-drinking people have never looked carefully into their tanks, to see what's floating in there, or laying on the bottom!

 

I rely on mains water here in the city, but I still have a double filter (spun yarn and activated carbon), that filters to 1 micron.

 

It's interesting to see the crap that has built up just in the primary yarn filter at every annual replacement time. Our street main was 100mm asbestos piping from 1954 up until about 3 years ago, when they ripped up all the asbestos piping and replaced it with 100mm rubber-jointed PVC.

 

The only reason it was replaced was because it was at the end of its working life, and we had burst mains in the street every couple of months with the asbestos piping.

It was also interesting to see the inside of the asbestos piping when they ripped it up - it was pretty grotty!

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by onetrack

[Jerry_Atrick]

Today, Ofgem announced an increase to the energy price cap of 80% starting October... That is crazy.  The elec companies are putting up their standing charges, too...  With a rudderless government thanks to the Tories taking 3 months to select a replacement leader, there is effectively no check in place, Thankfully, at least for heat, we had new wood burning stoves installed and I have about 3 tons of dried wood from cutting and pruning over the last three years, so that is most of our heating taken care of. 

 

Here is an interesting interview from, who I think is the founder of moneysupermarket.com

 

 

[nomadpete]

8 hours ago, onetrack said:

just modest levels of bird and rodent shXX, any number of toxins that blew in on the wind - pesticides, fertilisers, salt (salt air goes a long way inland!), and even a few carcasses of animals that desperately sought water and fell into your water tank!

Are you suggesting that 'city water' is somehow especially free of all the above, plus feral pig and bovine shyte?

The fact that it has been put through a big seive and been dosed with chlorine to kill most bacterium (as long as you trust the lowest tendering contractor to maintain the equipment), does not make it any better than my tank water.

I argue that my tank gets a lot less of your listed nasties than the city dams do. I collect from 700' above and 2k from the nearest road, the prevailing weather comes across hundreds of kilometres of forest, there is no aerial spraying, there is no runoff entering from animal polluted land. I run it through a .5 micron filter that I KNOW has been regularly replaced. Oh, and I regularly clean my guttering and inspect my tanks. So I am satisfied that I have eliminated most of the risks of which you speak.

Edited August 26, 2022 by nomadpete
More blather!

[Old Koreelah]

We have three 20-tonne tanks connected to our house. One is for drinking only and over the decades I have have manually diverted supply until rain has washed the roof and gutters clean. After twenty-odd years I climbed in and cleaned out a layer of soot from the tank bottom. It’s now as clean as I can get, short of replacing my old screen filter with a super-fine one.

 

Was raised on water from a single tin tank, no doubt full of crap. We ended up healthy, except for lots of dental decay; I believe people raised on ground water have less cavities due to the minerals like flourine.

[onetrack]

Pete - No, I'm not suggesting city water is pure at all, I've seen the fox carcasses and other animal carcasses floating in city dams, and I hate to think what runs out of the catchment areas into the dams.

But what I was taking a shot at, is the people with rainwater tanks who adopt the attitude that their rainwater is so much purer and better for you, than the city water supply!

 

Rainwater does have the benefit of no mineralisation, which is common with city water supplies, where the water from dams is also often supplemented with ground water from bores.

Many country towns in W.A. are totally reliant on local ground water for drinking water, and a lot of it is borderline brackish, despite treatment.

Even here in Perth, we now get a very sizeable percentage of our water from desalination, and we constantly get a ring of calcium deposits around the top of the electric kettle.

 

The worst water I've ever tasted and washed in, was in Nhill, in Victoria. We stayed in a motel there one night, and we were struggling to get a lather with the soap in the shower!

[red750]

Adelaide water is (was) known as being virtually undrinkable. I lived in Adelaide in a new flat for 3 months, and you would get a brown ring around the sink, shower base etc. My wifes cousin lived there, and it was so bad she brushed her teeth with lemonade.

[spacesailor]

The Government's insistence of " fluoride dosing ", at any cost , KNOWING the POISON will forever stay in your body,  makes drinking alcohol a better choice.

For those that like a choice, RAIN WATER with all it,s imperfections, I like to think is MY better choice.

spacesailor

[pmccarthy]

Apologies if this link has been posted before.  https://opennem.org.au/energy/nem

 

NEM refers to the National Energy Market but if you hit the tab in the top left you will get energy consumption by state. It is an extremely informative site and shows how reliant we still are on fossil fuels and that the transition is not going to happen overnight. IMHO we really need a rolling 10 year national energy plan proposed and administered by an independent body free of political interference, but of course that isn’t going to happen.

[octave]

1 hour ago, pmccarthy said:

the transition is not going to happen overnight.

I totally agree. nothing good usually happens without forward thinking and planning.      The grid traditionally has been similar to the water network.  A huge source of water/electricity pumped or transmitted one way to the user.  With electricity we need, and are developing an electrical distribution system with multiple sources of generation including contributions from the consumer with rooftop solar etc.  

 

I recall Morrison sneeringly commenting about the Tesla battery at Hornsdale in South Australia.   Scott Morrison mocks SA's big battery as like the 'big banana'  It was clear that he had no understanding of it's purpose.   The Tesla battery was initiated by the Labor government and as I remember it, and opposed the liberal opposition.  When the Liberals won the state election they did not scrap the Tesla battery but extended it.  

 

We definitely need progressive forward looking politicians and  private enterprise.

 

Getting back to the original question for the past few years we have sourced our power from Powershop which was a greener alternative.  We recently changed after Powershop was acquired by Shell.   We now are with "Energy Locals"

 

We are billed monthly, however because we came onboard part way through the cycle our first bill was for 3 week which came to  $44 including daily connection fees etc. In the month of August (winter) there were only six days where we did not generate more than we used.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by octave

[facthunter]

It's reasonable to expect  to pay more for Power when YOU want IT than the Power you export when you or many others DON'T WANT it..Eventually with more organisation ALL of it will be used but it's SO cheap it does not matter a lot if a bit is wasted. Transmitting power over long distances does cost a lot of Capital and some loss  also. It's also worth a fair amount to be  connected to the grid . Currently it's less than renting  Oxy and acetylene bottles. Nev

[octave]

Yes people often complain about the feed in tariff thinking it should the same or similar. The fact is that there are lots of costs involved in getting the power to the premises. I am pretty happy with what I get per Kwh. Most of my savings come from shifting as much of our usage to the daytime. For a lit of the year the bills are credits.

[facthunter]

Solar will counteract the wars that will start over fossil fuels. Evidence of that happening already is in Putins methodology.. Will HE be remembered better than Gorbachev? I'd be surprised if that's the case when a lot of the truth is known. Nev

[red750]

A few months ago, I posted that I make regular payments to my service providers electricity, gas, water, etc. The first thing I do each pension day is sit down and make a Bpay to a predetermined amount to each of these, plus my credit cards, which are progressively reducing. I allow a certain amount for living expenses for the next fortnight, including toll road fees, insurance premiums, etc., and transfer the remainder of the pension to a savings account. Some may not agree with this form of budgeting, but it helps when you get a bill like this:

 

[facthunter]

What counts is how much you are paying for a certain amount of electricity, not when you paid it. Prepaying gives them use of your money.   Nev

[facthunter]

Also If there's a dispute, they already have your money.  Nev

[octave]

16 minutes ago, red750 said:

Some may not agree with this form of budgeting, but it helps when you get a bill like this:

 

The important thing is whether it works for you.😃 

[onetrack]

We have a "fall-back" account with a reasonably substantial sum of money in it, at all times, for "emergency use".

 

We make regular fortnightly contributions to it, to ensure it keeps up to a certain level of funds.

 

If a major appliance blows (both fridge and washing machine blew last year), we simply draw the funding from this account, and then let it replenish steadily.

[spacesailor]

Yes , saving for That rainy day.

My 3D T V died , so I found a repairer to replace the ' main board ' , 

AND everyone say's I' m wasting money . ????

No more 3D T V's are being produced at the moment.  Even thro the big electronic show in the US A,has an ,

8 K 3 D T V !!!

But at what price ? .

$850 ISH AND 4 weeks wait. For mine to get returned. 

I'VE GOT WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS ALREADY .

spacesailor

Edited January 17, 2023 by spacesailor

[Old Koreelah]

We built our place in the 80s, inspired by the passive-solar designs common in coffee table books at the time. 

We try to run hungry stuff like pumps and washing during the day, when our solar panels provide the power, but most nights we cook with electricity.

 

Our typical bill:

 

[red750]

5 hours ago, onetrack said:

We have a "fall-back" account with a reasonably substantial sum of money in it, at all times, for "emergency use".

I guess you could say that's what the savings account is. I checked back on the account online. In April 2021 the balance was $0.09. Today, with this budgeting, it stands at $1900.00. Not a kings ransome, but I'm happy with it.

[facthunter]

We used to have a redraw facility to use in case a bad event occurred but I wasn't that happy with the bank and paid out the loan so I could easily quit them.  I still haven't but I will... Nev

[red750]

Further to my Jan 17 post, yesterday I got my water rates bill, due 13 Feb. After deducting the bill total, my balance stands at a credit of $23.00. No bill shock there. Mortgage paid off more than 20 years ago, all personal loans paid off, only debt is credit card, under $5,000 and reducing.

[spacesailor]

red750

You are Not leaving much for your dependents to pay off  .

As bad as my wife . Can't leave this world in dept. People will talk about it ? .

( I'm ' DEAD ' so not listening .)

spacesailor

[onetrack]

Peter, did you ever acquire a new set of wheels?