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With 3 hours of free power, a 15kW inverter and a 42kWh battery, I could almost do away with my solar panels and just survive of free grid power. I do have a 15

With 3 hours of free power, a 15kW inverter and a 42kWh battery, I could almost do away with my solar panels and just survive of free grid power. I do have a 15kW solar panel set up, but I get very little from selling anything back to the grid.

hsb3 3mo ago
Grid power is already cheap. Making things free actually makes people use more power. Its called the rebound effect.
discordance 3mo ago
I have a 12 kW inverter (single phase) and 48 kWh battery. In Australia, 9 months of the year my 16 kW of solar fills the battery and covers all needs including cooking, heating and charging the EV. In winter, I’ve been using Ovo’s 3 hours free for about a year now and that ensures the battery is filled up daily. My electricity bill returns a credit every month since I got the battery a year ago.
- robbiep 3mo ago
  I was trying to understand how to do this, and I formed the opinion that most of the battery providers don’t really allow the degree of ‘on/off’ or ‘charge/discharge’ customisation as might be necessary to make this work? Or was I fooled by the packaged products that are aiming to turn me and my battery and panels into a residential power plant at the whim of the energy company?
  - stubish 3mo ago
    The most popular batteries provide all the customization you need and more. Soo many features... it is exhausting. Even 'AI' modes trying to predict usage and solar generation using weather forecasts and top up from the grid at cheap rates if it thinks the power will probably be needed. A battery like Sigenergy's you can setup on a time based charging schedule (most popular for the free power plans), or have it pull Amber's live wholesale rates and put it into AI mode to avoid using their SmartShift VPP, or just hand over the keys to a VPP provider and let them drive.
  - discordance 3mo ago
    You can set your own timing schedule and choose self-consumption or to sell back to the grid. Joining a VPP is optional.
  - abrookewood 3mo ago
    Ours is a FoxES or something and the included app is pretty straight forward. You can easily set it to ALWAYS pull from the grid during specific times and it will (along with the solar), charge the battery to capacity during that time.
- abrookewood 3mo ago
  Pretty much what I am doing exactly, bar the credit. We don't have gas in my area, throw in a pool, kids who love air con, way too many computers and we burn through a lot of power.
tihsllub 3mo ago
There is a 24KWh/day fair use
stubish 3mo ago
Yes. With the 'free' power plans, you are better off not installing solar and investing the savings in a larger battery.
polski-g 3mo ago
For people without that, they can treat their house as a battery by lowering the AC down to 65deg between 11am-2pm, and hopefully not need to run AC the rest of the day.

hsb3 3mo ago

Grid power is already cheap. Making things free actually makes people use more power. Its called the rebound effect.

discordance 3mo ago

I have a 12 kW inverter (single phase) and 48 kWh battery. In Australia, 9 months of the year my 16 kW of solar fills the battery and covers all needs including cooking, heating and charging the EV. In winter, I’ve been using Ovo’s 3 hours free for about a year now and that ensures the battery is filled up daily. My electricity bill returns a credit every month since I got the battery a year ago.

robbiep 3mo ago
I was trying to understand how to do this, and I formed the opinion that most of the battery providers don’t really allow the degree of ‘on/off’ or ‘charge/discharge’ customisation as might be necessary to make this work? Or was I fooled by the packaged products that are aiming to turn me and my battery and panels into a residential power plant at the whim of the energy company?
- stubish 3mo ago
  The most popular batteries provide all the customization you need and more. Soo many features... it is exhausting. Even 'AI' modes trying to predict usage and solar generation using weather forecasts and top up from the grid at cheap rates if it thinks the power will probably be needed. A battery like Sigenergy's you can setup on a time based charging schedule (most popular for the free power plans), or have it pull Amber's live wholesale rates and put it into AI mode to avoid using their SmartShift VPP, or just hand over the keys to a VPP provider and let them drive.
- discordance 3mo ago
  You can set your own timing schedule and choose self-consumption or to sell back to the grid. Joining a VPP is optional.
- abrookewood 3mo ago
  Ours is a FoxES or something and the included app is pretty straight forward. You can easily set it to ALWAYS pull from the grid during specific times and it will (along with the solar), charge the battery to capacity during that time.
abrookewood 3mo ago
Pretty much what I am doing exactly, bar the credit. We don't have gas in my area, throw in a pool, kids who love air con, way too many computers and we burn through a lot of power.

tihsllub 3mo ago

There is a 24KWh/day fair use

stubish 3mo ago

Yes. With the 'free' power plans, you are better off not installing solar and investing the savings in a larger battery.

polski-g 3mo ago

For people without that, they can treat their house as a battery by lowering the AC down to 65deg between 11am-2pm, and hopefully not need to run AC the rest of the day.