Do you have solar panels?

[drsmith]

Neighbours get it cut back once it starts rubbing against my roof.

It is a very difficult expensive process as there's no access to the tree from the road so a craze is used to hold the workers and tree in place while the work is done. Getting the large chunks of wood out is also a difficult job.

I don't know what a craze is, but it sounds more complex than a cherry picker.

How lopsided would the tree be if you did have it cut to the boundary up to full height ?

Is there then danger of it falling on their house or other infrastructure on their property during a storm ?

If that's the case, you then have a point of negotiation for removal of the whole tree although it's a negotiation that would need to be handled very delicately.

 

[sydboy007]

I don't know what a craze is, but it sounds more complex than a cherry picker.

How lopsided would the tree be if you did have it cut to the boundary up to full height ?

Is there then danger of it falling on their house or other infrastructure on their property during a storm ?

If that's the case, you then have a point of negotiation for removal of the whole tree although it's a negotiation that would need to be handled very delicately.

Craze should be crane

I asked the aborealist if cutting back 1 side of the tree so heavily would cause issues and he said the trees roots will just grow in a way so as to keep the whole thing stable. Am just glad I have a root guard to protect my house from that. At least it's not a gum tree so probably not quite as structurally damaging.

My neighbours were amenable to removing the tree, not happy to, but could see they were going to be up for $1500-2000 each time it would need to be cut back.

Issue is the council is against removal of the tree as it enhances the general amenity of the area. Every time I hear the word amenity, I get the grating tones of Pauline Hanson's voice in my head.

I said to the council inspector would you plant a tree this height this close to your house? He waffled on a bit and did his best question time performance of answering a different question.

 

[DB008]

Grasslan it comes in pellets and u throw it round the base of the tree

Thank you.

 

[drsmith]

I'd argue 1 fully grown tree is probably close to neutral benefits in terms of breaking down CO2 with the amount of leaf and bark litter they shed.

I'd also argue in my case that at least 4 house holds are blocked from installing solar PV / hot water due to the tree. I have to use lights down stairs much earlier in the evening than if that tree wasn't there blocking most of the light.

I've had to install root barriers and leaf guards to try and protect against it. It clogged up the middle gutter of my house which caused flooding in the top room of my house and the other side of the duplex during heavy rain a couple of years back. Had to rip out the carpet int he bedroom because of it.

Not much gets me riled about about my house, but the 15M+ trees that surround me sure do. Once things dry out in sydney enough I can look forward to a couple of hours clean up out the back and side of my house with what's fallen down in the foul weather.

The solar panel aspect is clearly very minor in comparison to the other issues you face with this tree.

I said to the council inspector would you plant a tree this height this close to your house? He waffled on a bit and did his best question time performance of answering a different question.

Was it your neighbour who involved the council ?

50/50 would be pretty good for them in terms of cost split for total removal in my view. With councils, it's sometimes a case of what they don't know won't hurt them.

 

[Julia]

50/50 would be pretty good for them in terms of cost split for total removal in my view. With councils, it's sometimes a case of what they don't know won't hurt them.

Definitely if they function on allowing householders self assessment re trees which I think most councils do these days. If you and the neighbour can come to an agreement, the council probably doesn't need to be involved at all.

 

[sydboy007]

Definitely if they function on allowing householders self assessment re trees which I think most councils do these days. If you and the neighbour can come to an agreement, the council probably doesn't need to be involved at all.

Trust me, I've checked the council regulations many times and this tree fits within the requirements of needing council approval to prune or remove.

They even say you can't just prune back to the fence line. You have to hire an aborealist who will decide on the appropriate pruning method.

 

[empyrealenergy]

Does using solar panels bring in more benefits or no benefits at all to household or business?

 

[pixel]

Does using solar panels bring in more benefits or no benefits at all to household or business?

If you consider it a benefit when our bi-monthly power bill is always in credit instead of us having to pay $150 to $300, then there is definitely some benefit

We recently exceeded 10MWh of energy production, about half of which was exported into the grid. Here in WA, being an early adopter (which also means we paid about 3-times current prices), we receive a 40c additional FIT on top of wholesale production costs, which currently stand at about 8.5c per KWh.
Maintenance/ Service costs us about $100 p.a. The rest of the savings/ revenue is paying roughly 20% p.a. interest or, put differently, we'll recoup the original expense within less than 6 years. After that, the FIT contract will be continuing for 4 more years.

I would, however, urge anybody considering an SPV installation to check out the providers carefully. From personal experience, as well as reports from friends and on National discussion groups, I would give Solargain top marks. On the flip side, I have heard of plenty of fly-by-night cowboys that not only provided sub-standard advice and shoddy installation, but also cut corners on second-grade equipment.

 

[Country Lad]

Does using solar panels bring in more benefits or no benefits at all to household or business?

Why ask when you are supposed to be the expert according to your avatar? Empyreal Energy Consultants?

Sounds like the start of a bit of spamming.

Cheers
Country Lad

 

[pixel]

Why ask when you are supposed to be the expert according to your avatar? Empyreal Energy Consultants?

Sounds like the start of a bit of spamming.

Cheers
Country Lad

After close of trades, I went for a little Google. Came up with
http://www.scambook.com/company/view/75621/Empyreal-Energy-Pty-Ltd-Australia

Also found an interesting thread on whirlpool:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1962207

Of course those are simply other people's opinions and reports, and I can't verify them. So DYOR.

 

[stewiejp]

We installed solar panels late last year and if I remember correctly I said I'd post our results here when we got a bill... well finally we did.
We put in a 3 kw system in October and it was switched on/connected to the grid at the end of that month. Like a lot of people, we have been getting our power bills quite late (Energy Australia aka TRU - actually from Singapore but what's in a name right?). Got an email yesterday with the bill, and the bill started a couple of days after the panels were switched on.
It should be said that our average bill was around $400, this one was $180 in credit. Got to be happy with that, especially considering the following 3 months were summer as well, and we were away for a month of that. Our feed in tarriff is 31c all up (25c transitional, 6c "normal").

So considering our annual bill was usually $1600, and we paid around $6000 - assuming we don't pay another bill, the thing should have paid for itself comfortably within 4 years. Got to be happy with that "return".

 

[sydboy007]

So considering our annual bill was usually $1600, and we paid around $6000 - assuming we don't pay another bill, the thing should have paid for itself comfortably within 4 years. Got to be happy with that "return".

Lucky buggar

Seems quite a high FIT that you're receiving. My dad is getting < 9c kWh generated

 

[pixel]

Lucky buggar

Seems quite a high FIT that you're receiving. My dad is getting < 9c kWh generated

FITs differ by State; most schemes have also been reduced or stopped altogether, once they had achieved their purpose, which is help initial adopters lift the technology over the threshold to critical mass.
At about $1/Watt, the business case is meanwhile sound enough even without FIT.

wrt "not paying anything else": Budget for about $100 p.a. for bi-annual service, checkup. Well worth it.

 

[Smurf1976]

Last financial year my solar panels generated a total $1006 worth of electricity at 1:1 FIT of 27.785 cents.

How much they'll generate this year depends on what happens with the FIT rates which are under review (they won't go up.....) but production will be higher given that I added more panels 5 months ago. If the rate remained the same, production would be worth about $1300.

Total investment in the system thus far is $8,087. I could add more, but won't be doing so until future FIT rates are clarified. If it remains attractive then I could more than double the current production levels quite easily - there's plenty of roof space left (well, I've used all the north-facing but there's plenty left that faces East or West).

If it works out financially then I'll add about 24% to production with the next stage.

 

[Macquack]

How many Kw system do you have Smurf. In NSW, single phase households are limited to a 5 Kw system.

 

[stewiejp]

Lucky buggar

Seems quite a high FIT that you're receiving. My dad is getting < 9c kWh generated

All up our FIT is 31c (6c from retailer 25c from subsidy) - we got ours just before it was cut to 6c (VIC) last October roughly. The price we are charged in that time has gone from 25c to 31c so it's a 1:1 ratio for now. Mate at work is still getting 60c from the initial deal some years ago.

 

[Smurf1976]

How many Kw system do you have Smurf. In NSW, single phase households are limited to a 5 Kw system.

I currently have a system comprising:

8 x 170W (1.36 kW) panels facing 20 degrees West of true North and connected to a 1.1 kW inverter.

8 x 190W panels facing 20 degrees North of true East and connected to a separate 1.1 kW inverter.

9 x 250W panels facing 20 degrees South of true West and connected to the same 1.1 kW inverter as the East facing panels.

So all up 5.13 kW of panels feeding two inverters with a peak output of 2.2 kW all up.

There are some losses from the E and W facing panels in this arrangement (losing roughly 20% of potential energy output from the E and W facing panels) but it is (1) safe and properly done and (2) financially the rational thing to do at this point.

Depending on what happens with feed-in Tariffs, I'll add a new inverter, another 16 x 190W panels facing E and another 7 x 250W panels facing W and take the system up to a total of 9.92 kW (panels) with a peak AC output (inverters) somewhere around 6 - 6.5 kW.

The technical math behind all this isn't rocket science - not a lot different to any other electrical engineering as long as you understand the current and voltage profile of solar panels. The economic math is essentially the same as for a hydro scheme, so pretty well established principles there.

I've worked around electrical things my entire working life (and some time prior to that), both on the tools and office-based, and for what it's worth my avatar is a real power station control panel. You get the idea......

 

[drsmith]

8 x 190W panels facing 20 degrees North of true East and connected to a separate 1.1 kW inverter.

9 x 250W panels facing 20 degrees South of true West and connected to the same 1.1 kW inverter as the East facing panels.

There are some losses from the E and W facing panels in this arrangement (losing roughly 20% of potential energy output from the E and W facing panels) but it is (1) safe and properly done and (2) financially the rational thing to do at this point.

The question that comes to my mind is how much did you gain by adding the second set of 9 x 250W panels to that 1.1kW inverter ?

 

[qldfrog]

similar here: you basically added two set to the same inverter shifting boths array so that they did work both jointly each in a less than optimal solution:
would you not have been better off putting both in optimal north orientation (what i did here in qld when I added 3kw to my existing 1k system), or is this because of the tasmanian greater seasonal variation ?
Interested....

 

[drsmith]

similar here: you basically added two set to the same inverter shifting boths array so that they did work both jointly each in a less than optimal solution:

Another question is whether the east and west facing arrays are connected to the inverter via a single or multiple strings. 1.1kW seems to be a low capacity inverter for multiple strings.