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 […]
Category: James’ Solartopia Project
James got a house with a slightly quirky solar system. Here are blog articles about his experience.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
