melissapardoe

The problem with our EV is….

We’re spending too much time in it! Just as well we love it. It’s quiet, fast, sticks to the road and free to drive…. It used to cost us over $50 to go to Melbourne and back, $5 to $10 to visit our local town to buy milk, visit the beach, see family and friends,Continue reading “The problem with our EV is….”

We bought an EV – our Zappi does a great job

We said as soon as our local town got an EV charger we would buy an electric car. In September, a charger was installed, so we carried through and bought a car. Our car has two and a half times the battery capacity as our house, so we needed a smart charger – one thatContinue reading “We bought an EV – our Zappi does a great job”

Why your inverter should be lower capacity than your solar panel

A bright sunny day in August, fully charged by 10:30 in the morning, and the closest we’ve come to hitting our inverter limit of 12 kW. If the batteries had more capacity, or we were using more, I think we would have seen it max out. A sunny day in June (when the hot waterContinue reading “Why your inverter should be lower capacity than your solar panel”

Solar Performance Update

We’re using a lot less power than we thought we would, but there are some swings and roundabouts.

Let the animal wars begin!

We’ve seen so many animals. The house and dogs haven’t scared them off.

We’re In!

It’s so lovely being here! Quiet, peaceful, a beautiful view from every window, and so warm and spacious. After 4 years, we finally made it! It was definitely worth persevering. We feel like we can breathe again. We finally have all our stuff back and unpacked – and everything is just fabulous. And then weContinue reading “We’re In!”

We’re almost there…

It was clear two weeks ago that the house was not going to be finished by the 9th of June. Close, but no cigar. Fortunately, I was able to extend the rental by a week and rebook the removalists for the 21st. So where are we now? Just about to do a walk through withContinue reading “We’re almost there…”

A solar update

So with the installation of the Daikin ducted RCAC, water & sand filter pumps and the Reclaim 315l heat pump hot water we are finally able to draw some reasonable power from the solar system and start testing things. SMA – Sunny Boy/Sunny Island Inverters SMA have been very unimpressive to deal with. In Australia,Continue reading “A solar update”

9th June?

So work has continued at a reasonable pace, and four weeks ago we were given the handover date of 9th June. We waited as long as we could to give notice at our rental and book removalists to make sure that we wouldn’t end up homeless, but finally went ahead, despite misgivings. We need toContinue reading “9th June?”

We spit the dummy….

At last some progress again – but not meeting latest promised completion date, again…