Between 705 & 1200 SQ/FT New home and 3 car garage in Melbourne, Australia

[Ralf99]

Glad to hear the storm has had some benefit with the mulch. My brother is a suburb or two away from you and he lost 3 sizeable trees in his yard - luckily they didn’t cause any damage to his house or shed or cause any injuries, but they did take out two side fences and dropped a large branch that destroyed a neighbours garden shed and hills hoist.
Since the carnage was so widespread, it was only mid this week that the insurance assessor came by, and it looks as though he/we will be left to do much of the cleanup. I think there will be plenty of mulch available for some time to come.

 

[Geoff289]

Geoff, I remember having a wonderful time touring the Dandenong ranges. We spent some time in the William Ricketts Sanctuary and because we spent plenty of time in New York City it wasn't the least bit disturbing for Liane.

She wasn't too happy sharing her lobster when we stopped for lunch in the forest (I got the prawn).

We were a little disappointed with the haze when we arrived at the Dandenong overlook but I suspect this is the usual haze from the Eucalyptus.

Also, thanks for the reminder. I took a picture of that bridge in Tasmania but couldn't remember its significance.

Dear god, if Liane heard about free mulch I would have to make several hundred trips and turn our whole plot of land into that pile in your photo. "As long as we don't open the doors or windows it will be fine."

I've said it before Bob but your photo archive is a real treasure trove. I haven't been to the William Ricketts Sanctuary for a few years. I'm glad Liane was able to make some friends there.

Your photo from the top of Mount Dandenong might be eucalypt haze obscuring the view but we don't actually get much of that in these parts. The Blue Mountains to the West of Sydney, where fellow GJ'er Hewey hangs out, is called that because of that very phenomenon. I couldn't rule out it just being pollution in your pic but is probably just general haze. I was mightily disappointed at not being able to see anything much of LA from up near the Hollywood sign due to the smog.

I'll save some mulch for you.

Glad to hear the storm has had some benefit with the mulch. My brother is a suburb or two away from you and he lost 3 sizeable trees in his yard - luckily they didn’t cause any damage to his house or shed or cause any injuries, but they did take out two side fences and dropped a large branch that destroyed a neighbours garden shed and hills hoist.
Since the carnage was so widespread, it was only mid this week that the insurance assessor came by, and it looks as though he/we will be left to do much of the cleanup. I think there will be plenty of mulch available for some time to come.

Yeah it was pretty wild. Lots of trees down in the reserve behind us but we were only affected by the power going out. I did have to be a bit flexible about my morning walk routes for a couple of weeks as many of the tracks in the reserves and parks I often go through were blocked by fallen trees and branches.

 

[Ralf99]

The storm skirted my house and we only got a few fairly strong wind gusts and a bit of drizzle. There was a swathe of damage starting 500 metres or so away from me and the power went out at the end of my road - all of which I was unaware of while in air conditioned comfort in my home office.
I have used the potential cleanup at my brothers house to justify the purchase of a battery powered pole saw / hedge trimmer / brushcutter combo - something I’ve coveted for some time but couldn’t convince myself to fork out for…

 

[Coolabah]

The storm skirted my house and we only got a few fairly strong wind gusts and a bit of drizzle. There was a swathe of damage starting 500 metres or so away from me and the power went out at the end of my road - all of which I was unaware of while in air conditioned comfort in my home office.
I have used the potential cleanup at my brothers house to justify the purchase of a battery powered pole saw / hedge trimmer / brushcutter combo - something I’ve coveted for some time but couldn’t convince myself to fork out for…

Lucky ! Sounds like it was literally hit or miss there.
What part of "you can never have too many tools" don't you understand ?
Sounds like a great idea to me, it will surely pay for itself almost instantly .

 

[hewey]

That's a neat approach to conquering the steps with your wheelbarrow Geoff. At our old place I removed some steps and ramped the earth to tackle the same problem, except I needed it to mow lawns so it was a regular occurance, but a rarely used walkway otherwise. And good to see the eyesore still being useful with its new lease on life.

Yeh we get lots of Eucalyptus haze up here. Best time to hit the lookouts is when there's been a storm the night before.

Good luck on getting the dealer to look at the seal!

 

[Geoff289]

That's a neat approach to conquering the steps with your wheelbarrow Geoff. At our old place I removed some steps and ramped the earth to tackle the same problem, except I needed it to mow lawns so it was a regular occurance, but a rarely used walkway otherwise. And good to see the eyesore still being useful with its new lease on life.

Yeh we get lots of Eucalyptus haze up here. Best time to hit the lookouts is when there's been a storm the night before.

Good luck on getting the dealer to look at the seal!

For some years now I've had this vague idea in the back of my mind to put together some sort of mechanism for raising and lowering things off the back of the trailer deck. It's a very unformed idea but maybe using something like this

https://www.gorillarigging.com.au/productPage.php?270

I have a lot of storage in the sub floor space accessible from immediately under the back of the deck. While it's not impossible to bring things up and down through the house using our lift (elevator), not everything I might want to move around is all that clean or dust free.

Anyway, a vague idea that may never happen. If it ever does you'll read about it here.

 

[Geoff289]

Mustang Owners Club had its monthly mid week meet and greet today at this place at Kangaroo Ground on the rural outskirts of Melbourne.

https://darkhorsecafe.com.au/

We had been here back in October but it was belting down rain so nobody took their Mustangs. The proprietor was very disappointed so we promised to return. Today's weather looked threatening early on but improved to be a great day.

Some pics are here

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMOCAVIC

They don't do things by halves at this establishment. My steak sandwich involved about half a cow, and check out the pic of the shoebox size vanilla slice.

 

[Geoff289]

It's been a while since I posted anything on my own thread, There's not any real updates about the house, garage or cars but things have been busy.

Last weekend the Mustang Owners Club was invited by Ford Australia to participate in a celebration of the 6oth anniversary of the Mustang. This whole weekend event took place at Phillip Island Raceway.

https://www.phillipislandcircuit.com.au/

This circuit is arguably the best in Australia, maybe Bathurst rivals it, and is, funnily enough, located on Phillip Island, an easy 75 minute cruise from where I live. I know the island well having had an onsite caravan (trailer) right on the beach there for many years when my kids were growing up and we spent most weekends and a lot of the school holidays down there. The island stands in Westernport Bay. Now if you look at a map you might think its a bit strange that its called that because its actually East of Port Phillip Bay on which Melbourne is situated. When the first governor of New South Wales, Captain Arthur Phillip, sent some guys out from the fledgling colony at what became Sydney to check out what other safe harbours might exist they named this one Westernport because it was West of Sydney. Both the island and Port Phillip Bay are named after Captain Phillip, who commanded the first fleet which brought the first load of convicts here in 1788.

Anyway, the weekend was absolutely fantastic and there are plenty of pics here.

https://vic.mustang.org.au/moca_gallery/60th-anniversary-celebrations-at-philip-island/

2024, as well as being the 60th anniversary of the marque is also the 50th anniversary of our club. What is now a national club started here in Victoria when a guy called Frank, who had himself a '69 Mach 1, put an ad in the newspaper seeking other Mustang owners simply to just get together for the occasional cruise and conversation. This was in 1973, when the oldest Mustang was only 9 years old and they hadn't generally been sold in this country. Initially Frank's ad was answered by only one guy, Warwick, but by the next year the nucleus of the club had formed. 50 years later we have over 1,000 members just in Victoria which is far and away the biggest chapter of the national club. More significantly, Frank and Warwick are still members, Frank being in his early 90's and Warwick mid '80's. Neither drive any longer but Warwick still has a '73 and both are semi regular attendees at the monthly club meeting. Isn't that fantastic?

There's also been a few other events and pics can also be found on the club gallery page. The Flinders car show (this town is named after Matthew Flinders, one of the guy's Artie Phillip sent out to find other harbours) was particularly good.

https://vic.mustang.org.au/moca_gallery/flinders-heritage-car-show/

On a less cheery note, my 91 year old mother has had a couple of falls at home recently and has come to the conclusion by herself that she can no longer stay in her own home and that its time to enter some sort of aged care facility. It's great that she has come to this position herself as I had been anticipating that the time would come where I and my brothers would have to tap her on the shoulder about this. So I'm now knee deep in paperwork and process figuring out how to make this happen and what the best way of structuring the financial aspects of it all are.

I can't help noting to myself that had my Dad, who passed in 2017 at the age of 87, had to go into care (which he would have had Mum not been there and in better shape herself than now) it would have been a monumental drama getting him to accept the reality of his situation. While he ended his days in a wheelchair, as Mum is now pretty much confined to, he was real stubborn at every step along the path to dependence. He wouldn't use a walking stick until he really needed a zimmer, wouldn't use a zimmer until he needed a wheelchair etc. As a result he was always having falls at home, in shopping centres, out in the street etc.

Anyway, onward and upward. We'll get Mum sorted and then have to face the extremely daunting task of sorting out her house and getting it sold, this being pretty much essential the way the financial aspects of the residential aged care system works here.

 

[hewey]

Hey Geoff. I could have sworn I responded to your previous post?! Because I noted how massive that slab of vanilla slice was!

Mustang adventures look fun (as always!). Amazing that the club has been going that long, and that the two founding members are still active, that's something special for sure.

So sorry to hear about your mum. Likewise we're going through a similar process with my dad. It's a bit of a nightmare wading through the systems and processes. At least she's open to the change, so that's one less hurdle.

 

[Geoff289]

I forgot to also put a link to the club FB page where there are some additional photos from Phillip Island.

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMOCAVIC

 

[Geoff289]

Back at post 839 I reported on an oil leak from my beloved's Golf, on which the warranty expires this August. Almost certainly a rear main in my not completely inexpert opinion.

So we went to the dealer about it with the photos. It's just a weep, says the service guy, not a warranty matter. Surprise, surprise! I won't bore you all with the rest of the discussion but on that occasion it ended up that they'd put it up on the hoist (lift) and clean it up, then we should come back in 500 k's to see if it had returned. The day before we took it back I had another look at it had certainly returned. Took some new photos.

This time I wasn't able to go. After elevating it (out of her sight of course) the apprentice came back and said it was clean as a whistle, didn't need even cleaning and the problem had gone away. At this stage she hadn't revealed that we had new photos from the day before that made clear this story from the apprentice was complete BS. She asked to talk to the service manager but strangely he was absent and not available. Later that day I had another look and it had been cleaned up but was already showing very minor signs of a leak just from the rest of her running around that day.

The next day she emailed the service manager a chronology to that point, attached the photos taken immediately before and after her visit to the dealer and said something like how it was very difficult to understand how it could be as clean as a whistle when it wasn't the day before, i.e. she knows she was being flat out lied to. She also said something about preferring not to have to take the matter up with VW Australia.

Service manager rings an hour or so later. Without commenting on his employee telling her complete porkies, he says bring it in, we'll fix the leak which will mean we need it for a couple of days, and we'll provide a loan car. This gives hope that they realise we aren't going to be fobbed off and are going to do the job properly.

So it went in today for that. Yesterday I had another look and its probably the worst its been so far. Since we like pictures here...











When she dropped it off she told them we'd be taking more photos in another 500 k's or so and expected it would be as clean as a whistle this time.

Stay tuned.

 

[hewey]

Love your approach Geoff. Makes you wonder how many others this happens to, that aren't as vigilant and prepared as you? Hopefully it's properly sorted when you get it back.

 

[Geoff289]

Love your approach Geoff. Makes you wonder how many others this happens to, that aren't as vigilant and prepared as you? Hopefully it's properly sorted when you get it back.

One day I might bore you to death with my story from back in the '90's where I pursued a dodgy plumber, ultimately very successfully, who thought I would get tired of it and give up.

 

[Geoff289]

Not much going on here. A lot of time has been spent on checking out aged care places for my Mum and getting my head around the financial aspects of it which seem like someone in the government has gone out of their way to make it as complex and complicated as possible, particularly the interaction between aged care fees and her ongoing aged pension entitlement. While Mum has plenty of resources, picking the wrong mix of options about how to pay for it can have very negative effects. Anyway, that's a work in progress.

Equally tedious is the discovery of a pretty noticeable chip in the paint of the black car. I went out for a short spin in her this morning to fuel it up for tomorrow's Mustang Owners Club mid-week meet and greet trip down to the Mornington Peninsula south of here. I also had a pretty vital mission at Dan Murphy's. International readers are at this point asking themselves who the hell Dan is. This link should explain why this mission was important.

https://www.danmurphys.com.au/dm/ho...715daf886baf1092dd9bc9b379e20fc0&gclsrc=3p.ds

When I came out to the car something caught my eye, which turned out to be a paint chip on the driver's side rear guard (fender) about the size of my thumbnail. It was hard to get a good photo as the paint was just reflecting everything but for what they're worth...what you can mostly see is a bit of cardboard I put against the garage wall because of this reflection. Anyway, you can see the chipped area even though it looks like its a mark on the cardboard rather than the panel.





I don't know where or how this happened. While I'm only marginally obsessive about it, on the relatively rare occasions when I take it to some kind of carpark like at a supermarket or indeed a booze shop I always park in the furthest corner with the longest walk to the store where nobody else has parked. Of course when I come out there's often some other clown decided to park right next to me when there are plenty of more convenient bays available. So I don't know if this was carelessness with a car door or a supermarket trolley, a kid on a bike, or what, but I am not impressed. Fortunately there doesn't seem to be any actual depression in the metal so I'll just touch it up myself and move on.

As you know, a fair bit of gardening takes place here. The current project involves redoing the strip of garden along the driveway next to the new house going up next door to us (three years in July, ludicrous). The long and the short of it is that when they constructed a long masonry planter box along what will be their driveway the planting we had along there was compromised, both by being undermined when they poured the footings and by flinging concrete and cement around with a bit too much abandon, the latter screwing up the PH of the soil. To be fair, the earlier stuff wasn't doing too well there before the work next door and was also playing havoc with the sensors on her car when reversing out of the garage as it was difficult to keep it in check.

So the head gardener decided that it would all be redone. This involves digging out the existing **** soil down about 200 mm/8 inches below the driveway level and replacing it with high quality good stuff. We made a start yesterday, firstly with a trip to get half a metre of this superior soil mix.



Then some intensive digging and wheelbarrowing, a bit of mulch from the stockpile of free stuff from the council, and the first 3 or so metres are done. If I say it quickly like that it doesn't sound like as much hard work as it was. I'm advised that they are some sort of Pittosporum and will form a hedge that can be kept in check to avoid the symphony of sensor beeps when exiting the garage.

 

[hewey]

Garden work looks good as always mate. Mustang scrapes and dealing with aged care facilities and Centrelink is so tedious and far less satisfying. But I'm confident you've got the right approach and attention to detail to sort both out.

 

[Geoff289]

Garden work looks good as always mate. Mustang scrapes and dealing with aged care facilities and Centrelink is so tedious and far less satisfying. But I'm confident you've got the right approach and attention to detail to sort both out.

Cheers Hewey.

 

[Geoff289]

As foreshadowed we went for a cruise and lunch last week with the Mustang Owners Club. There are a few pics here but not really that interesting.

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMOCAVIC

A few of us from the general area round me convened at a servo (gas station) on the freeway that leads down to the Mornington Peninsula so we could go in a bit of a convoy. When we arrived at the lunch venue my mate who was behind us advised I had a brake light and indicator out on the passenger side.

A couple of days later I started looking into this issue. The wiring circuit is pretty strange by modern and local standards. Firstly, like all American cars there is just one light unit with an all red lens, no orange indicator. I believe even current Mustangs are like this in the US, the ones delivered here having a more normal (for us) set up to comply with the Australian Design Rules.

Originally, inside the light housing was a single anaemic incandescent globe. This had two filaments in it, one lights up with just the tail lights on and the other brighter one lights up for the brake lights and indicators. This explains it.

https://thecareandfeedingofponies.blogspot.com/2008/04/brake-lights.html

This original set up is really not very bright so In my car I've replaced the incandescent globes with LED panels that just plug into the globe socket, which are way brighter. I determined that both sides were lighting up for the tail lights, as this pic with he lenses removed shows.



but there was nothing doing on the passenger side for the brake or indicator.



A bit of poking around with the multi meter found no power coming out of one of the pins in the plug that comes off the indicator switch - see the diagram in the link above. This plug is under the dash at the end of a loom that runs down from the top of the steering column and exits near the bottom so this involved some contortions my aging joints and muscles didn't really appreciate. This indicated the indicator switch had a fault and needed replacement, a tedious job I've done before.

The next day I was all set to go down to the nearest Mustang parts supplier for a new indicator switch but I decided to just verify a second time that I had no power at the plug in question. This was an inspired move because a closer look showed that one of the pins had actually pulled out the plug and sticking the multi meter probe in the hole in the plug where it should emerge was just contacting the plastic plug itself. Connecting the probe to the floating wire and pin produced power, so I fitted the pin back into the plug and all lights were working. An easy and cost free fix, what's not to like about that?



Until I went to reinstall the lenses and covers.

And dropped one of the lenses.

Which broke.



So I had to go down to the parts supplier for some new lenses anyway. Probably a good idea anyway as the new ones are decidedly clearer and brighter than the 58 year old originals.



Installed the new lenses.



and tested again

 

[Geoff289]

Further to post 851 above, the VW dealer advised when we sent to pick it up that the leak had been determined to be coming from the interface between what the service manager describes as the two sumps these cars have, but really a two-piece sump. They re-torqued the bolts and pronounced it sorted.

I expressed my scepticism and reiterated that I'd be checking it again before the warranty ran out. To his credit the guy said he realised that their earlier responses to the problem hadn't met our expectations, a bit of understatement given that one of his guys had flat out lied to us at one stage.

So yesterday it had done about 500 k's since this so I had another look. I was pleased to find that this time it was indeed clean as a whistle. I'll have another look a couple of weeks before the warranty expires in August.

 

[Ralf99]

At least there appears to be witness marks from sockets having been on the bolt heads - something has been done.

 

[Geoff289]

At least there appears to be witness marks from sockets having been on the bolt heads - something has been done.

Yep. Definitely something more than wiping it up was done.

 

[Geoff289]

Not much going on here.

We've had a daughter and the just turned one youngest grandson here for about a week due to his father coming down with what turned out to be Covid again. I assumed one or both of our guests probably already had it by the time he started feeling crook - he didn't test positive for another couple of days - and we'd all get it again too but it seems they hightailed it out quick enough to avoid it and we've dodged the bullet again.

The son in law has now been negative for three days, and while still feeling a bit sub-par, is coming good so they've just packed up and gone home. Father and son will be pretty stoked to see each other again. As a result of this visit chaos has reigned in our household. The young bloke is walking and into everything but its been a fun week.

There's a bit of Covid around again. I had a lunch engagement with a group of about 10 former colleagues a couple of weeks ago and we had 3 late drop outs due to the lurgy.

Anyway, that's all by the way. For me its time for my semi annual energy consumption, production and cost report. Hewey and I may be the only ones interested, the rest of you know where the delete key is.

By way of background for those who can't find the delete key, we have an all electric house, a reasonably high level of energy efficiency, and about 10 Kw of solar on the roof. About every 12 months I've shopped around for the best electricity deal available and, so far, each year I've jumped ship to another retailer. I'm in the process of checking out what's available right now. The trend of prices going up and feed in tariffs going down continues.

So, to get to some numbers, in the last twelve months we've continued to be energy positive in that we've produced more electricity than we've consumed, so that's good. The numbers are 11.46 Mwh of production and 7.06 Mwh of consumption. Of course, some of the consumption, particularly in the Winter, takes places when there's no production, and they charge heaps more for what you import than they pay for your exported surplus production. As a result, the net actual energy cost to my pocket has been $380 for the last twelve months. That's $380 more than I would have preferred to pay, but overall not bad I don't think. The total savings from having the solar vs not having it are now nearly $8K after just over four years. As I think I said the last time I did this, that net annual cost could be eradicated with a battery but on those numbers it wouldn't be paid for before a ten year warranty expired. Once an EV turns up in the garage I think that equation will change though.

A couple of further footnotes to the above. Firstly, the $380 net annual cost does not factor in a government rebate of $250 seniors like us received, or a $90 credit from the electricity wholesaler due to a handful of outages during the last twelve months (only one of which was really of any significance lasting about 10 hours) called a Network Guaranteed Service Level credit. So the actual out of pocket is only $40 but I think these credits distort the picture a bit.

Secondly, the best deal I could find a year ago involved accepting a monthly direct debit, even when the account is in credit. I don't like deals like this on principle but the same company charges 5% more for a post paid account. They do pay 3% interest on amounts in credit, so I'm probably not really losing anything material. I just don't like the principle. The $380 above includes this interest. So I have actually paid them more than this and with the two credits mentioned included the account is currently about $500 in credit. If I walk to another provider I'll get this back.

So that's where we are.

 

[Bob Heine]

Geoff, even if there were a delete key, I wouldn't touch it. I find your description of energy consumption and solar production fascinating.

For several reasons I have chosen not to have solar panels installed on our roof.

1. I had a solar hot water heater installed on our previous home back in 1980. That program had so many misleading promises I vowed to never trust a solar salesman again. They said it would cost very little because of government incentives. I filed my taxes believing their system qualified for the rebate but three years later the IRS notified me it didn't because it had an electric heating element in the tank. Not only had to pay back the $800 but another $200 in penalties and interest. Two years later a company notified me they bought the contract I signed and I would have to pay them a monthly fee to keep the system operational. When the system froze up and dumped about $100 worth of water, I had to pay to have a thermal sensor that would keep the water circulating when it got below freezing -- negating the savings because the heating element in the tank had to heat the freezing cold water at night.
2. The cement tile roof on our house is both a blessing and a curse. Each of the 4,000+ tiles weigh 8 pounds and if left alone will never leak. It was $22,000 to install 24 years ago and would be more than double that today. Drilling holes in those tiles is almost guaranteed to cause some of those tiles to crack, leading to either small or large leaks. The insurance companies in Florida are looking for any excuse to cancel policies, including the government-backed one that covers our house for wind (aka hurricane) damage. That insurance was $1,000 a year ten years ago and $3,000 last year. It is going up 40% this year and it's quite possible they will drop me because the roof is as old as it is. Private insurers charge three times as much and would require me to install a new roof to qualify.
3. To eliminate my electric bill ($315 per month for 2,000 kwh) it looks like I need 60 400-watt solar panels, which would cost around $40,000. If I forked over the money up front to avoid interest, I would reach break-even in 10.5 years. So, if I live to 90 I'll be golden -- unless the roof leaks.
4. The solar sales people (including one of my grandsons) can't give me a straight answer to any of my questions. Simple ones, like how many solar systems has your company installed? How long has your company been in business? Does your company pay for damages to our home from the installation? How many lawsuits has your company settled. The answers have always been "I don't know exactly...." I would also want to know if the company guarantees the government rebates so if the government doesn't, will the company pay them? I already know the answer to that one.

 

[hewey]

Hey Geoff, great to hear your home is still operating as expected in terms of being nice and efficient. I'm fascinated by Passive House (and Passive House plus) - but honestly I think your approach of using good passive solar, good insulation, all electric and some renewables is a really practical way to approach it.

Bob I can understand your reluctance to trust any salespeople after that - what a s***show!

 

[Geoff289]

Geoff, even if there were a delete key, I wouldn't touch it. I find your description of energy consumption and solar production fascinating.

For several reasons I have chosen not to have solar panels installed on our roof.

1. I had a solar hot water heater installed on our previous home back in 1980. That program had so many misleading promises I vowed to never trust a solar salesman again. They said it would cost very little because of government incentives. I filed my taxes believing their system qualified for the rebate but three years later the IRS notified me it didn't because it had an electric heating element in the tank. Not only had to pay back the $800 but another $200 in penalties and interest. Two years later a company notified me they bought the contract I signed and I would have to pay them a monthly fee to keep the system operational. When the system froze up and dumped about $100 worth of water, I had to pay to have a thermal sensor that would keep the water circulating when it got below freezing -- negating the savings because the heating element in the tank had to heat the freezing cold water at night.
2. The cement tile roof on our house is both a blessing and a curse. Each of the 4,000+ tiles weigh 8 pounds and if left alone will never leak. It was $22,000 to install 24 years ago and would be more than double that today. Drilling holes in those tiles is almost guaranteed to cause some of those tiles to crack, leading to either small or large leaks. The insurance companies in Florida are looking for any excuse to cancel policies, including the government-backed one that covers our house for wind (aka hurricane) damage. That insurance was $1,000 a year ten years ago and $3,000 last year. It is going up 40% this year and it's quite possible they will drop me because the roof is as old as it is. Private insurers charge three times as much and would require me to install a new roof to qualify.
3. To eliminate my electric bill ($315 per month for 2,000 kwh) it looks like I need 60 400-watt solar panels, which would cost around $40,000. If I forked over the money up front to avoid interest, I would reach break-even in 10.5 years. So, if I live to 90 I'll be golden -- unless the roof leaks.
4. The solar sales people (including one of my grandsons) can't give me a straight answer to any of my questions. Simple ones, like how many solar systems has your company installed? How long has your company been in business? Does your company pay for damages to our home from the installation? How many lawsuits has your company settled. The answers have always been "I don't know exactly...." I would also want to know if the company guarantees the government rebates so if the government doesn't, will the company pay them? I already know the answer to that one.

Hi Bob. As always, I'm flattered when I know you've read my posts, either on my own thread or on others.

I rejected the idea of an actual solar hot water set up in favour of a heat pump for the hot water, one of these

https://www.sanden-hot-water.com.au/how-it-works/

It's brilliant. I figured it was better to just generate electricity on the roof and apply it to this rather than an actual solar hot water system which, as you say, has to have a backup heating source, usually a resistive element. I did get some government rebate for it but would have got it without that anyway.

This is the second solar power system I've had. I got the first one on the previous house in 2010. At that time household grid connected solar systems were a relatively new thing in this country but some modest government rebates introduced around a couple of years before (as part of the response to the GFC to stimulate the economy, while also responding the climate change challenge) had the inevitable effect of a whole lot of cowboys entering the industry with all sorts of wild claims and superficially attractive prices.

There is a difference between price and value for money, and the latter is where the focus should be. I think I had about five companies come and quote and try to convince me they were the best option. Four of them were represented by young blokes who were clearly employed as salesmen rather than solar power experts and from my research I knew three of them flat out lied to me.

The fifth was an older guy who was actually an electrical engineer. He was one of two partners who owned the company and had been in the game for something like thirty years. Most of that time had been doing off grid and RV installations as residential grid connected systems were pretty new here at the time.

The first thing he said to me on the phone when I rang to get someone to come was that if I was looking for the lowest price he'd be wasting his and my time by coming out to see me, a good start as far as I was concerned. I was impressed by the detail and candour of his proposal. I went with them at a price about a third higher than the average of the other four but with vastly superior detail and warranty coverage - not just that the equipment would keep working for 25 years but also the actual performance of the panels over that period. With the new house I didn't stuff around. I just went back to the same company, with which I'd maintained a relationship.

I'm interested in your tile roof, Bob. Terra cotta or cement tiles are probably the most common roofing material here but from the "house" tv channel we have here which plays wall to wall US house shows, it seems that what seem to be pretty flimsy and lacking in durability rubber or something shingles are the most common in the US and that replacing the roof every few years is considered normal. I don't think I've ever seen that sort of roofing here.

My last house had a tile roof but they don't - well the outfit I used didn't - drill holes in them to mount the panels, That just seems like a leaky crack waiting to happen. They use brackets that are screwed to the timber rafters and curve up from under the lower edge of the tile, e.g.

https://www.solarpartscomponents.com/solar-tile-roof-mounting-hooks-for-side-mounted-spc-ik-05

Hey Geoff, great to hear your home is still operating as expected in terms of being nice and efficient. I'm fascinated by Passive House (and Passive House plus) - but honestly I think your approach of using good passive solar, good insulation, all electric and some renewables is a really practical way to approach it.

Bob I can understand your reluctance to trust any salespeople after that - what a s***show!

Hi Hewey. Yeah the whole passive house thing is fascinating. I think we've discussed it on this thread before. Doing a PH was too much of a stretch for us but as the figures I've quoted indicate, we certainly have a low energy spend here and i quite like the fact that we produce more energy than we consume over a year.

 

[Bob Heine]

I rejected the idea of an actual solar hot water set up in favour of a heat pump for the hot water,

This is the second solar power system I've had. I got the first one on the previous house in 2010.

Geoff, I did a similar thing in 2010. General Electric made a water heater with the heat pump on top. I installed the unit in the garage so the chilled air it produced would help cool the garage. I thought it would be a Win-Win. I very carefully installed it myself, re-arranging cabinets and sweating new copper pipes to match the taller configuration. I also got rid of the CRT TV and replaced it with a wall-mounted flat screen TV.

The Ge Geospring water heater appeared to be saving me money. Unfortunately it didn't work for long. I was mad enough to send a letter to the executive responsible for the POS. It's been 10 years and I still haven't heard a word from them. In 2016, even the heating element in the Geospring failed so I replaced it with a standard electric water heater. More sweating of copper but I installed a Rheem rather than a GE. When it died in 2022 I replaced it with the same Rheem model and it took less than an hour to swap them.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3/29/2014

Robert Heine
````````````````````
`````````````````````
``````````````````````
Ms. Charlene T. Begley
GE Home & Business Solutions

Dear Ms Begley,

One of the reasons solar isn't common in South Florida is our relatively low electric rates. The base rate is about $0.03 per kwh but with fuel adjustments, taxes and the color of the third marble that falls out of the bill-posting machine it totals about $0.11 per kwh. I arrived at that number by dividing

As an example, my wife and I used 1,479 kwh last month and the bill was $165.34. A year ago the usage for the same month was 1,346 kwh and the bill was $139.67. The $25.67 increase is partly due to a lower rate ($0.10 per kwh) and partly due to our GE Hybrid water heater no longer running in hybrid mode.

Running in hybrid mode saved us about $20 each month but the water heater, with government credits, cost us $1,200. Since a standard water heater would have cost $400, payback would have been between three and four years ($800 / $20 = 40 months).

We bought the GE GeoSpring hybrid water heater in December 2010. It worked fine for 11 months after I installed it. When the heat pump stopped working, GE repaired it for free. It worked for another 13 months when it stopped working again. It had lost freon but none of the GE service people could find the leak so they just re-charged the system. It worked for 6 more months and needed another re-charge. When it failed 6 months later it was no longer a low freon problem. The compressor has failed and the water heater switched to given up the ghost. GE will provide a new compressor for free but I have to pay the labor charge. Seriously? I should pay another $500-$1,000 to put a part in that may or may not fix the problem?

Bob Heine

 

[Geoff289]

Geoff, I did a similar thing in 2010. General Electric made a water heater with the heat pump on top. I installed the unit in the garage so the chilled air it produced would help cool the garage. I thought it would be a Win-Win. I very carefully installed it myself, re-arranging cabinets and sweating new copper pipes to match the taller configuration. I also got rid of the CRT TV and replaced it with a wall-mounted flat screen TV.

The Ge Geospring water heater appeared to be saving me money. Unfortunately it didn't work for long. I was mad enough to send a letter to the executive responsible for the POS. It's been 10 years and I still haven't heard a word from them. In 2016, even the heating element in the Geospring failed so I replaced it with a standard electric water heater. More sweating of copper but I installed a Rheem rather than a GE. When it died in 2022 I replaced it with the same Rheem model and it took less than an hour to swap them.
````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
3/29/2014

Robert Heine
````````````````````
`````````````````````
``````````````````````
Ms. Charlene T. Begley
GE Home & Business Solutions

Dear Ms Begley,

One of the reasons solar isn't common in South Florida is our relatively low electric rates. The base rate is about $0.03 per kwh but with fuel adjustments, taxes and the color of the third marble that falls out of the bill-posting machine it totals about $0.11 per kwh. I arrived at that number by dividing

As an example, my wife and I used 1,479 kwh last month and the bill was $165.34. A year ago the usage for the same month was 1,346 kwh and the bill was $139.67. The $25.67 increase is partly due to a lower rate ($0.10 per kwh) and partly due to our GE Hybrid water heater no longer running in hybrid mode.

Running in hybrid mode saved us about $20 each month but the water heater, with government credits, cost us $1,200. Since a standard water heater would have cost $400, payback would have been between three and four years ($800 / $20 = 40 months).

We bought the GE GeoSpring hybrid water heater in December 2010. It worked fine for 11 months after I installed it. When the heat pump stopped working, GE repaired it for free. It worked for another 13 months when it stopped working again. It had lost freon but none of the GE service people could find the leak so they just re-charged the system. It worked for 6 more months and needed another re-charge. When it failed 6 months later it was no longer a low freon problem. The compressor has failed and the water heater switched to given up the ghost. GE will provide a new compressor for free but I have to pay the labor charge. Seriously? I should pay another $500-$1,000 to put a part in that may or may not fix the problem?

Bob Heine

Ha ha! They're probably a bit busy Bob. I'm sure they'll respond to your letter one day.

 

[Geoff289]

A brief postscript to my last post. After a bit of research I've jumped ship to another electricity provider again.

The best deal I could find involved, relative to the deal I've just left, an increase in the per Kw usage charge, a small decrease in the daily supply charge, and a reduction (of course) in the feed in tariff for exported surplus production. I would say that FIT's are now so low as to be more or less irrelevant. The projected net cost for the next twelve months is an overall increase of about $80. This is based on applying the new rates to the last year's production and consumption data, since I don't have any future data. Of course, usage and the weather won't be the same.

Locals might find it interesting that I have again found the various comparison websites to be of little use in tracking down the best deal. I'm amused that we now seem to have websites that compare comparison websites across a range of products and services. This phenomenon seems like it has limitless potential to keep "pyramiding" of endless layers of comparison sites.

I do quite enjoy the "Simples" ads though, locals will know what I mean.

 

[wendle]

A brief postscript to my last post. After a bit of research I've jumped ship to another electricity provider again.

The best deal I could find involved, relative to the deal I've just left, an increase in the per Kw usage charge, a small decrease in the daily supply charge, and a reduction (of course) in the feed in tariff for exported surplus production. I would say that FIT's are now so low as to be more or less irrelevant. The projected net cost for the next twelve months is an overall increase of about $80. This is based on applying the new rates to the last year's production and consumption data, since I don't have any future data. Of course, usage and the weather won't be the same.

Locals might find it interesting that I have again found the various comparison websites to be of little use in tracking down the best deal. I'm amused that we now seem to have websites that compare comparison websites across a range of products and services. This phenomenon seems like it has limitless potential to keep "pyramiding" of endless layers of comparison sites.

I do quite enjoy the "Simples" ads though, locals will know what I mean.

Quick table in an excel sheet seems to be the best.

Put in the usage values from your last bill, then fill in peak, off-peak, shoulder and feed-in from each of the providers and you'll know exactly how it's going to work out without having to sit on hold and then listen to their lies...

 

[Geoff289]

Quick table in an excel sheet seems to be the best.

Put in the usage values from your last bill, then fill in peak, off-peak, shoulder and feed-in from each of the providers and you'll know exactly how it's going to work out without having to sit on hold and then listen to their lies...

Pretty much exactly what I do. Certainly don't do anything by phone with any big company or organisation if I can help it.

 

[Coolabah]

Pretty much exactly what I do. Certainly don't do anything by phone with any big company or organisation if I can help it.

Well, living in Victoria, you might be better off than us poor sods in NSW if this comes to fruition :

Needless penalties for 900,000 households who adopted solar power

Consumer faith in solar power has been shaken by the revelation that Ausgrid is imposing a penalty on electricity exported to the grid when the sun shines brightest.

www.smh.com.au

Yikes !

 

[Geoff289]

Well, living in Victoria, you might be better off than us poor sods in NSW if this comes to fruition :

Needless penalties for 900,000 households who adopted solar power

Consumer faith in solar power has been shaken by the revelation that Ausgrid is imposing a penalty on electricity exported to the grid when the sun shines brightest.

www.smh.com.au

Yikes !

It's been a while. Where you been?

The first thing that comes to mind is that you really don't need to say "Well, living in Victoria, you might be better off than us poor sods in NSW...". This just goes without saying, although I will concede a certain fondness for your little patch down on the south coast there.

I'm going to digress here, just because it amuses me. About 20 years ago i went to see Buddy Guy in concert. He was sensational. The support act was Keb Mo, who I didn't know a lot about. Ol' Keb was also great and had a particularly engaging way of connecting to the audience. Amongst other things, he said between songs something along these lines:

"I love Melbourne, I really love Melbourne, I'm having a great time. You know why I love Melbourne so much?

It ain't Sydney!"

This got a big reaction from the audience. Clearly he or his people had done a bit of research and learned something about the traditional rivalry between Melbourne and Sydney.

Anyway, that article from the SMH you attached is behind a paywall so I can't access it (despite having a subscription to The Age, its local counterpart and from the same media company) but I get the general idea of what it would be about. This just reinforces what I said in an earlier post - that feed in tariffs are now so low as to be pretty much irrelevant.

As it happens, I have been contemplating moving my Merc on and getting a new daily driver and I've been looking at plug in hybrids (PHEV) in particular. I think we are a long way in this country from pure EV's being a practical choice for our lifestyle. Fine is you want to just tootle around on short trips all the time but not really a goer for extended road trips for quite a while yet. A PHEV that can burn up amp hours instead of petrol for trips of 40 or 50 k's would cover a lot of the use my car gets, while providing a good old fossil fuel option for longer trips.

This has lead me to look into home charging options, given that we have three phase power and the garage is pre wired for this. The go would seem to be a smart charger that can be programmed to only use surplus solar production that would otherwise be exported for a miserly FIT.

I am going to miss the astonishing fuel economy of my diesel Merc but its 10 years old now so this sort of scenario provides a different sort of good vibe.

Anyway, good to hear from you.

 

[hewey]

Hey Geoff, the Electric Vehicles Australia page might be worth an explore, there's some interesting posts from people who have done various long distance roadtrips if you do some searching. https://www.facebook.com/groups/721631102099859

 

[Geoff289]

Hey Geoff, the Electric Vehicles Australia page might be worth an explore, there's some interesting posts from people who have done various long distance roadtrips if you do some searching. https://www.facebook.com/groups/721631102099859

Thanks Hewey, I'll check it out.

That said, when I said above "I think we are a long way in this country from pure EV's being a practical choice for our lifestyle. Fine is you want to just tootle around on short trips all the time but not really a goer for extended road trips for quite a while yet" I probably really meant I'm not ready for a full EV. I know there are plenty of examples of long road trips by EV in this country, including a story in the paper a year or so ago about someone who managed Sydney to Perth in one, albeit with compromises about how much time was spent searching for and hanging around charging facilities and accompanying anxiety about it all.

However, it also doesn't make sense to me to turn a completely blind eye to the whole EV thing if I'm going to spend a lot of money on a new car (I won't be getting a Nissan Leaf) that I am likely to keep for another ten years and which could conceivably, but I hope not, be my last car as I'll be knocking on the door of octogenarian status at that point.

So a PHEV feels right to me. As I said, the electric drivetrain will cover a substantial proportion of the car's use but I'll still have the flexibility to go anywhere I want, when I want, for as long as I want with the ICE drivetrain. If I wasn't retired and had to drive to or for work and holiday times were constrained the equation would be different.

Almost certainly this new PHEV on my side of the garage will be joined by a full EV on the other side as a replacement for my partner's Golf in a few years and we'll have all the bases covered.

And, of course, on the far side of the garage there are five litres of fuel guzzling automotive dinosaur that guarantees access to fun is still available regardless of how boring the other cars are.

Stay tuned

 

[Geoff289]

I mentioned previously that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Mustang Owners Club of Australia, specifically the Victorian chapter which is where the national organisation began.

To this end the club had a birthday party last weekend which was great. It was held here

https://www.inglewoodestate.com.au/

There are photos of the event here for anyone interested

https://www.facebook.com/OfficialMOCAVIC

Of particular note is the photo of a couple of gents of advanced age cutting the birthday cake about 15 pics in. These are the two guys who kicked it all off who I mentioned back in post 848, Frank on the left and Warwick on the right. Frank is in an aged care facility now but, as he said at the event, was paroled for the day. I reckon its just fantastic that these guys are not just still with us, but still as active in the club as their advancing age allows.

Speaking of aged care, I also mentioned a while back that the time had come to move my now 92 year old Mum into such a facility. Initially we though this would be a relaxed process and we set about checking places out and generally taking our time with it. Things suddenly escalated though as she had a few falls, two ambo trips to hospital and it suddenly became pretty urgent as she couldn't really return home. Anyway, after a very stressful period we got her into what so far seems like a good place only ten minutes from us and maybe twenty from my brothers. She is finding the adjustment a bit challenging but making the best of it.

Now we have the very daunting task of emptying, tarting up, and selling her house. I have for a long time considered her a borderline hoarder, but I now drop the borderline qualification. There is so much stuff there! There has also been an ongoing challenge getting Centrelink (the federal agency that, inter alia, looks after aged pensions and aged care fee determinations), to do what they're supposed to in a timely manner and correctly, but I won't dwell on that.

I've also had the joy of trying to cancel Mum's home phone service with the nation's largest telco. Talk about the run around. Some years ago, probably after my Dad passed away, I had to take Mum into one of their retail places to get her to tell them to put me down in their system as being able to deal with them on her behalf. I don't remember the details but I do recall it being much more difficult than it should be. I figured it would be straightforward to go in and get them to cancel her service now she's moved out and no longer needs it. Silly me. It turns out the earlier authorisation to deal with them on her behalf had expired. Not only did they not mention that it had to be renewed periodically when it was first put in place, but they didn't bother to notify us that it had or was about to expire whenever that was. Also, you can't just rock up and conduct business with these people, you have to make appointments (even though the first time I went in there were no other customers in sight).

Anyway, long story short, it took three visits/appointments, the Enduring Power of Attorney I have, and then a long phone call to some other part of the company by the lady at the shop as none of the staff on site actually knew how to do what needed to be done. At the end of this they were hedging their bets and saying they think it will now be cancelled and we should just get a final pro rata account. If, however, we keep getting regular bills or the service still seems to be working after 48 hours, come back in. No thanks, says I, I'm just going to ignore anything other than a final bill and maybe when the unpaid bills start piling up in their system they'll cancel the service then. At her stage of life any threat to her credit rating is of no consequence.

I think I'm officially a grumpy old man now.

At the time of writing we both have the mother of all common colds and are house bound and miserable. Tests have ruled out covid, RSV and the flu, so must be just a cold but I don't recall having one this bad before. I guess it'll pass. Had you dropped in Hewey you'd be taking your life in your hands.

Over and out.

 

[Bob Heine]

I've also had the joy of trying to cancel Mum's home phone service with the nation's largest telco.

Geoff, I was singularly unimpressed with the telco when we moved to Manly in 1989. Our unit was brand new and we were the first tenants. The unit came with phones already installed and the two lower units had working phones so I assumed it would be a quick and simple process. Quite the opposite. Apparently I needed to call the telco but with no cell phone that was quite difficult. I called from my office but they told me I was already connected. Trying to explain how phones work to a person who works at a phone company was beyond frustrating. I finally got through to someone who said the phone would be hooked up in three weeks. Mentioned my frustration to the IBM liaison, which resulted in the phones working the next day. BTW, the number was [61] (2) 977-7618.

 

[Coolabah]

It's been a while. Where you been?

<snip>

Anyway, good to hear from you.

Ahhhh... I have been dealing with both my ageing parent and parent-in-law, which seems pretty much to be your lot in life too at the moment.
I have spent more time recently lurking than posting as a result !
Hope you are all recovering from your colds, seems to be hitting everyone all over the place at the moment.

 

[hardtop5000]

I called from my office but they told me I was already connected. Trying to explain how phones work to a person who works at a phone company was beyond frustrating. I finally got through to someone who said the phone would be hooked up in three weeks.

Bob, it looks like you discovered the 1980s-90s Telecom doublespeak doubleshuffle, whereby ‘connection’ meant both getting physically wired to the network and (separately) getting established in the Telecom computer as a customer with a working service, number and account. The company never explained the distinction to its customer or its staff, meaning endless confusion on both ends of the service request.

 

[Geoff289]

Well the phone seems to have been disconnected, however at this stage the associated broadband service which was part of the service "bundle" is still operational.

We booked the first of at least two hard rubbish collections for this week and my brother and I spent a couple of hours getting stuff out of the house and out on to the nature strip.




The council where Mum's place is provides two of these collections per financial year at no cost, i.e. covered by the rates. We're hopeful we can get rid of everything with two collections and avoid having to get a costly skip in. There will also be several Eyesore loads of furniture and other household stuff to the Op Shop (Charity Shop in the US I think - I should tell you my story of my experience in a charity shop in Long Beach one day).

Then there's a few repairs needed - Mum had a very annoying habit of sticking hooks and other things on walls and doors with great big ugly blobs of Tarzans Grip or similar, the removal of which has damaged the surfaces - and then get a painter in, probably replace the carpet in some rooms, all in all a project I could have done without but it is what it is.

 

[hewey]

Hey Geoff, glad to hear you're feeling better. Though it sounds like you have more than enough on your plate.

Likewise we had similar challenges with that blue coloured telco on our dad's behalf. They refused to accept a NSW Government directed Financial Management Order which gives us full financial control over his finances (despite it being good enough that the banks approved our access to his accounts).

I did the right thing, went in person with all the original hardcopy documents so they could sight them, they ummed and uhhed because their form only allowed for Power of Attorney. 'Can't he just come in, in person?' No, he's bed bound and lives over 6 hours away. Submitted the application, didnt hear anything for over a month. Call up, after spending an hour on hold, I get told I have to go in person to follow it up, to their shop which is over 30 minutes away - so at least 1.5 hour round trip realistically. Make the trip down there, sorry we can't answer that for you, you need to call our call centre... FFS!!! I spat the dummy. It's now sorted, but what an ordeal it was for something so simple.

 

[Geoff289]

Hey Geoff, glad to hear you're feeling better. Though it sounds like you have more than enough on your plate.

Likewise we had similar challenges with that blue coloured telco on our dad's behalf. They refused to accept a NSW Government directed Financial Management Order which gives us full financial control over his finances (despite it being good enough that the banks approved our access to his accounts).

I did the right thing, went in person with all the original hardcopy documents so they could sight them, they ummed and uhhed because their form only allowed for Power of Attorney. 'Can't he just come in, in person?' No, he's bed bound and lives over 6 hours away. Submitted the application, didnt hear anything for over a month. Call up, after spending an hour on hold, I get told I have to go in person to follow it up, to their shop which is over 30 minutes away - so at least 1.5 hour round trip realistically. Make the trip down there, sorry we can't answer that for you, you need to call our call centre... FFS!!! I spat the dummy. It's now sorted, but what an ordeal it was for something so simple.

Yeah that all sounds familiar. At the risk of confirming my increasing grumpy old man tendencies, the whole world of business seems to be like that these days. They seem to go out of their way to make it as difficult as possible for customers.