If you’re a Homeowner with roof top solar panels, you’ll want to make the most of the electricity they produce. The best way to reduce electricity costs and to increase […]
Solar Hot Water System: Everything You Need to Know
Category: Living with solar & batteries
Articles about living with a solar panel system on your home & how to maximise your energy bill savings.
Time of use vs flat rate electricity tariffs with solar & batteries
If you’re connected to the grid and own your home, you pay for electricity. In most places, in Australia, there are basically two types of tariffs: Flat rate tariffs (aka ‘peak […]
How solar is working for my home this summer (Solartopia #15)
Even after a year and a half of living in a solar-powered home, I get a warm fuzzy feeling every time I think about the panels on my roof. It’s […]
Wintertime solar power: What to expect (Solartopia #14)
The winter solstice (21 June) has come and gone. With the shortest day of the year now behind us, it’s all up from here, but we’ve still got a while […]
Reposit First energy monitoring system reviewed
Since February of this year I’ve had Reposit Power’s Reposit First monitoring system installed at my Newcastle home. The goal has always been to write a review of how the […]
How to get the most of your solar this winter (Printable table)
Getting the most of your solar system – and generally keeping your electricity bill manageable – means knowing how to time your energy use appropriately throughout the day. For most […]
Powershop, Diamond & Energy Locals top 2018 Green Electricity Guide
Who is the greenest electricity retailer of them all – and how do you know? Fortunately, every year the Total Environment Centre commissions a report on the topic, the results […]
5 alternatives to the ‘Big 3’ electricity providers for your solar panelled home
If you want to reduce your electricity bills, the first place you should look is your choice of electricity retailer, which is the company that sells you electricity. Although some […]
Solar-powered lawn care (Solartopia #13)
And here’s a quick blog article to talk about a cool thing you can do with a solar system on your roof: Mow your grass (and trim your edges) with […]
My house is net energy positive – for now (Solartopia #12)
I’ve now had two energy monitoring systems fully functioning for a few weeks, and it’s fascinating to see what my 4.4kWh solar system is capable of. It’s also interesting to […]
Solar Analytics is in! (Solartopia #11)
Solar Analytics Santa (AKA Nigel Morris) arrived on his sleigh (AKA his all-electric Zero motorcycle) on Tuesday to install the Solar Analytics unit that’s been sitting on my desk for […]
‘Reposit First’ monitoring system is here! (Solartopia #10)
I am very happy to announce that I’ve finally got the first of three energy management/monitoring systems for my home up and fully functioning. Reposit Power have sent one of […]
Happiness is an electricity bill? A coda to 2017 (Solartopia #9)
I never thought I’d find myself chasing up with my electricity company to ask for an electricity bill, but two weeks ago that’s exactly what I was doing. I’d been […]
Air conditioning terror in the heat (Solartopia #8)
Welcome to the hottest day of the year so far, with temperatures in Newcastle soaring to 34 degrees around the middle of the day. Because my life is full of […]
Reduce vs. produce: When to invest in solar and when to invest in energy efficiency projects
If you’re interested in saving money on your electric bill, there are two popular ways to do it. One way is to invest in a solar energy system. The other […]
Electricity meter board complications & partial monitoring success (Solartopia #7)
It’s been more than a few weeks since I last posted an update about the progress of my own personal solar project. In addition to just being generally busy, I […]
Getting the upper hand on your electricity bills with energy monitoring & management
Do you have a clear picture of what’s actually using electricity in your home and how much that costs? If you’re like most Australians, you almost certainly don’t. Historically, this […]
Do I really need that? Also: Solar power takes many forms (Solartopia #6)
As I write this, I am running the dryer for the first time since moving into the house; it’s only the second time we’re had rain (and even, it’s just […]
What if you sent all of your solar into the grid? Is it worth it?
If you’ve got solar, the way to maximise your electricity bill savings these days is to use your solar energy directly within your home (or business). From an investment point […]
Shiftable energy loads: What can you move into the ‘solar window’? (Solartopia #5)
We here at Solar Choice harp on a lot about solar self-consumption – the idea that you need to put your solar energy to direct use within your home to […]
Thoughts about solar feed-in tariffs (Solartopia #4)
Spring is here, and it finally feels like it with two consecutive warm days yesterday (high of 28C) and today (high of 32C). The main implication of this is that […]
Energy blindness: The anxiety of not knowing (Solartopia #3)
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about the ‘Energy Awareness Factor‘ in household energy savings. This was prompted in part by having just moved into a house […]
First week in a solar house: Why do we keep running out of hot water? And other fun questions. [Solartopia #2]
It’s been just over a week since I moved into my solar-powered house in suburbs of the beautiful Newcastle, the largest coal port in the world. (You can almost taste […]
The ‘energy awareness factor’ and how it helps households save money
For most of us, for most of our lives, electricity bills and our consumption have both been something of a black box. We know that we get a bill every […]
I’m (finally) going to live in a solar-powered home
After nearly a decade working in Australia’s solar industry, I’m finally getting in on the action on a personal level. From next week I’m moving to Newcastle and will be […]
