The large increases in network charges from Ergon Energy will certainly hurt thousands of Queenslanders. Unfortunately, Ergon has admitted that the daily service charge on Tariff 11 is increasing to $1.16 a day in 2015. This means every single house will be paying $424 a year just to be connected to the grid.
The average family using 30kWH a day of electricity will now be paying approximately $3, 500 per year for their power. However using a 5kW solar system can reduce this power bill by $2, 000 per year.
“A 5kW Solar system costs you about $8, 500 and saves you $2, 000, which is a return of 23.5% with a 25 year expected life.
“Where else can you find a better investment than that,” said Director John Horan.
Solar still works great on businesses as well, for example, a business on tariff 22 can invest in a 10kWh solar system for approximately $14, 000. This can save them up to $4, 000 a year in electricity costs returning them a massive 28.5 % on their investment.
Furthermore, the new changes from Ergon Energy will enable an open network. Now you can start adding energy storage and integrating your electric car.
“People seriously need to start planning for electric cars as their second vehicle,” said John Horan.
“This time next year Electric cars will be under $30,000 and they will save you $5, 000 a year in fuel and up to $2, 000 a year in electricity.”
Some electric cars can run your house for 4 days on a single charge. This is huge for cyclone regions.
In fact, you may even wish to get off the grid altogether. Solar plus storage will cost you approximately $20,000, and then you can use your electric car as a back-up power supply.
Horan and Bird see the cycle of the house in three stages
- Stage one: Install solar to offset your daytime energy usage (You can also charge your electric car).
- Stage two: Install storage to offset your peak demand usage between 6pm and 9pm. This will also provide backup power for cyclones and major power outages.
- Stage three: Integrate your electric car to run your house at night and provide back-up power for rainy days.
Stage two of this cycle is now, and stage three is happening throughout Europe, Asia and America. Australians will being heading in droves to this solution.
Founder of Horan & Bird. Director of Master Electricians Australia and Board Member of Solar Accreditation Australia. John has played a key entrepreneurial role in the transformation of the Energy Landscape in Queensland.
