<
https://onestepoffthegrid.com.au/one-household-at-a-time-50000-homes-with-batteries-could-displace-a-gas-peaker-plant/>
"Four years ago Mark Purcell sat in a Canberra café and watched as his diesel
BMW was trashed by golf ball sized hailstones in a massive storm.
Faced with having to buy a new car, Purcell decided on a Tesla.
But he didn’t buy it for sustainability reasons, or for the electric drive.
“I got it for the technology, for the software updates, and the performance,”
Purcell told the
SwitchedOn Australia podcast.
Purcell’s purchase of a Tesla however kick-started his journey to fully
electrify and decarbonise his home.
Every afternoon Purcell would drive home from work and plug in his new electric
car.
“I charged it full bore, because I had a flat rate electricity plan,” Purcell
says.
“I’ve now subsequently learned that’s the worst possible time because of the
carbon intensity of the grid at five o’clock.”
“When the sun goes down, the carbon intensity shoots up.”
Purcell quickly found that his electricity bill had skyrocketed, and that was
his motivation to install some solar panels.
“I had no idea how good solar panels were and what they did to your household
energy profile.”
His Canberra household then copped “an absolutely shocking $4,000 gas bill.”
That prompted Purcell to upgrade their hot water system and space heating with
heat pumps.
His next move was to find a better energy plan.
“In my first year of doing all this – with the electric car, solar panels, heat
pump for heating and heat pump for water – I saved $8,000 on my utility bills
and that just blew me away.”
Purcell estimates that he covered the costs of his energy upgrade with the
savings he made in three years."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
