House construction: What smart features do have and wish to have?
House Construction: What Smart Features Do You Have or Wish to Have?
bluespider on 01/04/2023 - 17:36
Last edited 04/04/2023 - 23:20 by 1 other user
Last edited 04/04/2023 - 23:20 by 1 other user
Comments
You probably need to build it yourself then.
Too soon brah
I came here to say this
Ditto
came to write this, nice work!
Find a builder with full insurance
You should read the article about it. To summarize Porter Davis does have building insurance, however there's a delay between when you put in the money to when the company applies for the insurance. So typically they will apply for it as soon as the construction commences. This will be anywhere between 2 weeks to 6 months after you have paid. So there's that.
If the builder have insurance, then your chance of getting your money back is greater.
But it will take months to years and you have to get a lawyer ?
You called cuz?
Did someone page me lol
Between the cost increases in labour and material, supply issues, there is zero chance I'd enter into a building contract anymore.
All the light switches are on z-wave or ZigBee or something similar.
Air con with wifi access.
Ring / or Google doorbell
Ethernet access to every roomEthernet to a patch panel somewhere central, and some empty conduit to potential upgrade spots in the future (e.g. behind TV/entertainment area, office). Easier to spend $50 on some extra conduit now than trying to run it in the future to add X cabling that you wish you had.
Humidity sensor fans in bathrooms and laundry - auto run so everything stays mould free.
Nice to have but more complex: Occupancy sensors in rooms linked to an automation system like Home Assistant so that the aircon doesn't run as hard/turns off, and lights turn off when nobody is in the room. Video front gate with remote release (e.g. a delivery driver you can buzz in if you're at work and they can leave a parcel at the door).
Ethernet to a patch panel somewhere central
Yes, the wall cavity enclosure, somewhere next to the NBN modem going to be with access to the power switchboard.
I've just put over 1000m of Cat6 in our new build - every light switch, multiple points in each room, etc - all back to a central patch panel.
Provides a lot of flexibiliy.
We did the same, but future proofed with multi core fibre as well.
@Wasabi Ninja: What's the reasoning behind so much Cat6? My understanding is that most smart devices lean toward wireless
I can understand for TV, gaming consoles, PCs and Cameras though.
@RatBargain: if you going to lay cable for the house you may as well do it to all the room because the extra cabling cost bugger all, once done you future proof for life
@RatBargain: Full duplex vs wifi which is half duplex.
Greater throughput with no latency.
You need a place to run wifi to and have them all on the same SSID (it’s often using an ethernet cable) unless you want to further increase latency with devices such as mesh kits etc.
Rebooting POE devices via a Poe switch can just be unplug and plug back in at the patch panel (or shutdown and un-shutdown a port from a POE switch)
@RatBargain: It’s not the devices as much as the hard wired stuff. All the switches, power point and light control etc run off cat 6. From an app I can turn the whole house off. Or turn certain outlets off.
I still have a bunch of waps across the property. I just like having the options.@Wasabi Ninja: Interesting. I’ve never considered that. Is there a well fleshed out Cat6 home connectivity (lights/GPOs/Apps) system you can recommend?
I’m guessing the 220-240v circuit has to run the same with additional ethernet to each component. Meaning you need a a huge no. of ports on your switch, plus more expensive fitoff components.
@RatBargain: Look up Power Over Ethernet. This is lower voltage DC stuff, not 220V AC.
You need a big fat PoE switch. These are not necessarily expensive unless you also want it to be a managed switch.
@RatBargain: Yes the low voltage controls the 240v. For my outlets I’ve got it controlling contactors that switch the 240v. So set up similar to controlling lights. I don’t need cat 6 to the outlets though. You just need the outlets wired via a contractor that is controlled by the low voltage system. The cat 6 and fibre just run to my switches and one wall plate per room.
I’ve used c-bus. There’s probably better options, it’s what was cost effective for me at the time. As long as the wiring is there you could swap out the system easily enough though.@Wasabi Ninja: Thanks Ninja, cbus is definitely on the higher end/commercial offerings.
I would go that route if money was no object. Looks like there’s alot of capability in programming automation
In my own case, it would be overkill cost wise. I would still run Cat6 to Cameras, Wifi Access points, AV points & maybe HVAC. Then hybrid it with wireless HomeKit relays and switches at specific GPO’s or light switches if I really need that automation.
Gates, blinds, entrance doors and garage openers can all be done with biometrics or wireless (HomeKit, Zigbee or zWave) controllers with the advantage of being modular, retrofittable and removable.
Disadvantage being not as instantaneous or arguably less reliable.
Ethernet to a patch panel somewhere central, and some empty conduit to potential upgrade spots in the future (e.g. behind TV/entertainment area, office). Easier to spend $50 on some extra conduit now than trying to run it in the future to add X cabling that you wish you had.
^^^ This.
Getting cabling sorted out during construction is so, so much more important than worrying about the evolving availability of 'smart' gadgets. Even if it's to ensure that you can place wireless access points in good locations (preferably ceiling mounted, and powered by a PoE switch).
Wifi is what you compromise with when you can't run cable. Anything that constantly sprays high bandwidth wifi should be hardwired (e.g. cameras).
I wouldn't even worry about 'central'.
Pick somewhere that's out of the way and otherwise unused space in the house (eg garage, wall mounted comms cabinet)Don't waste useful/valuable internal storage areas like linen cupboards or wardrobes for communications gear if you have free reign over placement at the design stage
Dont do garage. That is where i put patch panel for current house, learnt my lesson for next time. In summer it is to hot and always dustier than anywhere inside. New house i am currently building it will be in cabinet below stairs
I put my router and patch panel in the cupboard above the fridge. Central and hidden. :-)
+1 Ethernet smart writing to a patch panel for sure.
I've just moved into a new place that looked like it had smart writing, but it was one VDSL NBN port and the rest were disconnected and didn't go anywhere. Hugely disappointing and an expensive pain to solve with WiFi / Ethernet Powerline Adapters which are all huge compromises.
The last two places I've lived in have had "smart" ethernet wiring and it's made a huge difference to network reliability. I am a power user (I do remote work which sends ~60-80mbit/sec traffic) but my partner appreciates she can use the TV / gaming consoles / her work laptop over ethernet with extremely reliable uptimem and that was without complicated networking, just smart ethernet home writing.
I cringe slightly at that being called 'smart'… it's the standard way to wire, it should all go back to one switch.
Anything else with weird point to point wiring is probably best called 'half arsed' or 'retrofitted… badly'
I find ethernet in all rooms these days a little pointless unless you have huge data requirements, like a server or something on your local lan. Even then I'd still only run ethernet to a Study unless you've got computers in all the rooms with these requirements.
Instead I'd be dropping ethernet cables from the roof in appropriate locations for some nice roof mounted access points.
Agree, ran ethernet everywhere in previous house. Wifi got decent, and since then is very good so in new house have just 3x access points to do the lot. Office and livingroom AP has ethernet ports too (wall mount AP) so I can still use ethernet there.
NBN is more likely to be out than the Wifi anyway ;)Agree, someone else makes a valid point about PoE but really I think wifi is perfectly fine these days. I looked into running ethernet in our house but I thought I would give a mesh wifi system a go first and its been pretty flawless for nearly 3 years, glad I didn't waste the time and effort in running cabling that I wouldn't use. The average user probably has little need for ethernet these days as pretty much everything has some wifi capability.
Ethernet is pretty much only needed if you're video editing off a server or gaming. In the latter WiFi is pretty reliable these days anyway, I've not noticed any difference going from WiFi to an ethernet connection.
Any particular reason for ethernet? I find wifi 6e is pretty stable and great.
Reliability, speed, and consistency are high up there in terms of reasons for Ethernet
Ethernet everywhere is great if you want to run POE devices. Security cameras being the big one. Ethernet out to the edges of the eves, to the front door & possibly out to the fence/mailbox makes installing a security system easy .
Hey Alexa, domestic building insurance please
In Victoria, I believe this is mandatory for all builds through the State Government. See VMIA
lots of ethernet ports
Why?
To connect all the smart things
Most smart things are wireless.
@MrFunSocks: Try telling that to Kevin Rudd and Steven Conroy 15 years ago.
In the future, we'll plug our computers into walls.
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
@MrFunSocks: Yes but the more things that are connected to your wifi means the slower your wifi becomes. At least, you should aim to ensure that any fixed devices that use high bandwidth (TV's, streaming devices, computer towers) are cabled in so that the wifi is maximised for the portable devices (phones, tablets, laptops).
Why not? Im already running out of room in the family room because I only installed 4 ports in there.
idk about you but just about all my gear is wifi now days and doesn't even have an ethernet port most of the time.
@knk: Yeah most things have wifi but a lot dont. I have the TV, my Raspberry Pi Kodi, PS3, Steam Link all hard wired. Luckily my FireTV and other peripherals are Wifi otherwise would need a small switch to cater for anymore ports.
@Piranha2004: ah okay, well yeah makes sense then. In my case (and I work in IT, so it's probably overly complicated for most) if I need an ethernet port handy I have a little router handy that is configured to bridge the main network to some ethernet ports.
Don't think I've turned it on in about a year though….probably should update the firmware on it lol
@Boioioioi: I run a small managed service provider, basically consists of alot of microsoft 365 admin these days, some server admin (mostly internal systems), and messing around with end user problems unfortunately lol.
@knk: Neat! How did you get into doing that? Where do you find customers? Something I have considered myself
@Boioioioi: Got lucky if we're being honest.
Started working for a shithouse IT company, my previous job I was internal IT and they wanted me to take them on as a client. Boss was OK with me having them as a small client on the side if it didn't impact my work with him and knew it put me in a position where I was pulling an extra 20k or so on top of my wage so it'd be less likely I'd leave.
Got another one by being put in touch with someone by a family member and that gave me ~40k of contractual income which was juuuuuuust enough to pay my mortgage and not starve at the time. I drove for uber too for the first couple months. Grew gradually from there, 99% word of mouth, some from networking groups (not BNI, (profanity) BNI).
I've actually got a lot of work, both actual clients and subcontracting through an IT Professionals facebook group. Either from people who have moved into in house roles or people who need more complex work done.
PM me if you'd like a link to the group or want to chat about it at all.
lots of ethernet ports
100% this. Don't listen to people that say everything is wifi these days.
Firstly if its a big house, and you find you have to run 2 or more wifi access point for coverage, you have the option of wifi mesh via ethernet backhaul. This will always be better than mesh via wireless backhaul. And 10x better than using wifi repeaters.
Also even though most smart devices are wifi or zigbee, there will be some where its more flexible to have ethernet available. eg. with security cameras, video doorbells, nvr's etc
Also if you run a NAS server or something say for media transfers (eg. plex server) you want the nas connected via ethernet to your router if you can. Granted, most people these days use netflix, disney+ etc
It'll cost you about 100-150 per cable run. fyi
Only if you're getting scammed.
Power transformer down to doorbell
Speaker wire in ceiling and rear wall points
Ethernet port in every room
2 x quad power points in wall where tv will go
And the kitchen. Love our quads
I’d actually say it’s more important to have them in the kitchen. You can typically hide a powerboard with the tv equipment. Kitchen, not so much
Insinkerator.
Sparkling water on tap.
3 phase power.
A ridiculous 15kw solar system.
Solar diverter for hot water.
Inverter and consumption monitor on wifi.
Ethernet ports in all rooms
Wifi mounted at appropriate points on ceiling
Ethernet for cameras.
Speakers for living rooms
Video door bell.
Smart door lock.
Aircon on wifi for control.
Meross wifi control for garage door.
PIRs linked to downlights to automatically light without use of switches.
Home alarm on Konnected with Home Assistant integration
Rack for network & NBN terminations with a UPS and 4G backupBatteries
Cameras and lights around the eves.
Impulse radio based presence/motion detection
Local AI connected cameras internal to the house to track behaviour.
3 phase power.
A ridiculous 15kw solar system.
Rack for network & NBN terminations with a UPS and 4G backupThey're asking for "smart features", these definitely passes as "dumb features". No one wants to know what someone would spend their money on if they were to add "self taught IT guru" to their linkedIn after turning on their crytpo mining rig/datacenter that they copied from a wikiHow.
Really hit that how to waste your money category hard. By the way, you can't feed anymore than 5kw into the grid, so you'll need to have multiple inverters or have a smart feature enabled.
you have missed the fact that they said 3 phase power, which can (at a minimum) accept 3 time normal feed in so 3 x 5 is 15kW….and in actual fact they are generally able to accept closer to 25 kW in reality.
3 phase is the ultimate "smart" upgrade as it will allow you to be capable of a lot more in the ac/hvac space, solar feed in, domestic water heating, EV charging etc etc…3 phase is actually one of the smartest dumb upgrades you can do (but only when you are first building the house)
Admittedly I did miss that and there might be a case for three phase for EV charging or a HVAC system for your 3 story, 10 bedroom house.
@Juice-Wa: 3 phase will become standard when we people realise that gas is dead and their 2+ cars are running on electricity and can't charge fast enough overnight. And hat means anyone building a house now and not getting it is setting themselves up for future pain unless they are a 1 car family
It's also stupidly cheap to get 3p on a new build, I think for us it was < $200 upgrade. To get it done later is significantly more expensive. If you've got a pool, run everything on full electrics with no gas and going to run double EVs in the next 10 years it seems like a safe choice.
@[Deactivated]: I didn't really know about domestic pool heating till now (being from QLD it would have sounded like a silly idea if I ever came across one outside of the local pool), hmm. Even so I'm still a miss for why a normal person (unless you live in a mansion) would consume so much power that it would tip the capacity of single phase. I found this pool heater for a 30 000L pool and it's max current draw is 5A, that's only 5% of the maximum available current for single phase. EVs are another use case, if you're using it as your daily, you're probably only charging once a week, maybe twice. But still the average 1ph charger is supposedly 30A which is 30% of capacity. I guess it would maybe be the convenience of never ever having to worry about absolutely everything in your house running at the same time, or having faster EV charging. But I'm still not convinced 3ph to be a necessity for majority of people any time soon.
@Juice-Wa: The idea is to to install a 3P EV charger. If you're going to be keeping more than one EV charge (and let's face it, within 10 years that's probably going to be the case) I imagine the convenience of being able to charge a car faster or multiple EVs at once. Not to mention when the kids are still at home with a car and you're juggling 2-4 cars.
For a Tesla Model 3 example the speed difference between 1p and 3p charging is huge.
Power (kW) | Phase + Amps | Model 3 Range or kilometres added per hour (km/h)
16.5 | 3 phase 24A | 75
11 | 3 phase 16A | 75
7.4 | Single phase | 32
3.7 | Single phase | 16
2.3 | Single phase | 10Worse case scenario is I don't need 3p in 10 years, but it's not an expensive risk - for a couple of hundred bucks during a new build to upgrade why wouldn't you add it?
@[Deactivated]: in a new build at present… mid last year for pre start, to upgrade to 3 phase power along with upgrading the gas cooker to induction as induction requires 3 phase - via the builder was around 3K
@PappaLuigi: That seems like a lot. We're currently in a new build too (WA) and when we asked for the upgrade and when they looked into and came back to us they said there wasn't much difference from an installation perspective, the slightly higher cost would just be for the upgraded power box/board - I don't know what else to say.
Without UPS and 4G, when the power dies or some tradie digs in the wrong spot, the house is dumber than your comment
It almost seems like you believe that self consumption of solar isn’t a real thing
actually it almost seems like the average household won't consume close to 15kwh, except for maybe the one day of the week you charge your EV. The main profitability case for solar panels is self consumption, not feed in tariffs.
Without UPS and 4G, when the power dies or some tradie digs in the wrong spot, the house is dumber than your comment
Great, so if you didn't buy a standard UPS which uses lead acid batteries that die every 3 years, you've now spent $15k to run your house for a couple hours in maybe a once every 2 year scenario. Just come out and say you have more money then sense.
seems like the average household won't consume close to 15kwh
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/763754
Not only, like, half the comments in the thread - but it's better to be oversized in case you every wish to charge a battery with power in excess you use in the day (to use in the night time)
@DiscountForThee: My bad, accidently added the h. I actually meant 15kw, my 5kw system generates an average of 30kwh on an inefficient setup. I could get up to another 10kwh if I moved them out of the shade of trees in the afternoon. Since the tariffs are so low, increased capacity substantially diminishes in value proposition. So if for most of the time you're feeding 80% of your generation into the grid (without batteries), you've increased your payback to something like 10 years. If you decide to go down the route of batteries, you're going to have to spend twice the amount as what you did for your panels and inverters. So maybe for your forever home it's feasible, but you're net out of pocket for 10 years and for a 15kw system. And you're not adding more than or equal to the cost price to the value of your property. No normal family will consume enough energy to need a 15kw system, hence:
turning on their crytpo mining rig/datacenter that they copied from a wikiHow
FYI we're actually in net positive by like $200 in electricity for the year and half we've owned our 4 bedroom house, running at least one 2.6kw air-conditioner constantly during the summer days (we do have gas stoves thought).
@Juice-Wa: Genius it doesn’t output 15kw 24x7
15kw is it’s peak, day it’s installed, perfect sun and temperature.
If you’re lucky you’d get close to that for a few hours here and there.
And during winter. When production is 1/4 what it could be. Would you rather 1/4 of 15kw to live off, or 1/4 of 5kw?@2025: Exactly. I'm finding single phase to be quite limiting. Particularly with pool / ducted aircon / EV / induction cooktops / electric oven / electric HWS, and only 8kw inverter.
@kipps: While 3-phase would definitely solve your issue, it's highly unlikely that increasing your solar output would solve your issue. You've added at least 7200W of demand with your EV charger. Likely, you just paid an electrician to cut it into your main circuit breaker rather than paying a professional to redesign your electrical system to handle all the additional loads you've added to your system. You're going to have a main circuit breaker rated to protect your single phase grid supply, so you're still going to have problems whether you've got a 50kw solar system or a 8kw system.
@Juice-Wa: You comment as though you’re authoritative on these matters but your ignorance is apparent. My EV charger is not a constant 7200w. First because that’s almost never needed. Second, If it drew 7200w on a demand tariff 4-9pm in Qld my demand charges would be through the roof.
EV charger is linked to inverter to soak unused PV production. It’ll draw maybe 22amps if PV is maxed. Otherwise overnight it’ll be limited to approx 10-15amp after 9pm.
Demand management is a lot more complicated than what you think it is. No idea where you get your knowledge from - but it seems to be out of date.
I’m well aware of the limits of my system - but what you’re stating is nonsense.
@kipps: I don't own an EV, I'm not aware of the electrical load so I just googled the average EV charging load. But it was the only thing that helped made sense of how the maximum single phase capacity of 24kw was limiting to you. But if you're telling me that your EV almost never pulls 7.2kw and it pulls from your PV, it gives more questions than answers. I guess you are an outlier, a massive electrical consumer and I'm really curious what draws so much current if your EV charger is irrelevant. If it's your air conditioning then you have a really large
housemansion, or it wasn't specified correctly before installation. So I guess it really it's something for a "smart feature", but rather a "rich feature".
@2025: Actually if you talk about a 15kw system it should be the peak of your inverter, not your panels. Otherwise you've accepted that you'll never get 15kw with panel degradation. If you think that you have a 15kw system because your panels are rated for that, you're an idiot.
it doesn’t output 15kw 24x7
If the aim is to run off grid with constant power availability 24/7 then buy batteries… because if you plan for an excess of power availability to handle your peak when on average you consume a quarter of this you've wasted your money. You've increased the payback on your system since most of the power coming from your panels are being dumped into the grid. It's not about being able to supply your house's power demand, that's what the grid is for, it's about about monetary return on investment.
Not to mention is that if every fool believed your bs and setup a large array because some ozbargain self proclaimed genius said so, say goodbye to tariffs and hello to increased power costs since you've just destabilized the grid. Even in SA they had to trip solar feeds into the grid, a state so notorious for it's unstable grid it had to buy millions of dollars of batteries to provide some sort of stability. SA's grid for most of the time is made stable by the turbine baseloads available to be imported by other states. You roll out the same scale of solar in QLD and we're all screwed, it's expensive to bring on and take off turbines for baseloads. But I wouldn't expect you to be quite big picture enough to understand this.
Not to mention is that if every fool believed your bs and setup a large array because some ozbargain self proclaimed genius said so
No idea what you’re on about here what have I recommended exactly?
Are all your decisions based on “return on investment”? I’d hate to be someone going on a date with you, and I do wonder how you pick what groceries to buy.
@2025: Soooo… you spend money on solar panels just for the environment??? This is ozbargain, not a greenpeace forum
Did you know modern inverters can cap their output to the grid? I’m guessing you don’t.
I very much do, but I'm not sure how that is relevant since you're worse off in having potential energy from your system not even earning you a few cents to feed into the grid? How is that any better?
Did you know SA infamously lost power because some powerlines blew over, and then over loaded and tripped the interconnect from VIC? How does solar or wind based energy cause powerlines to fall over? I guess they’d rather spend millions on batteries then bend over for some fat greedy coal miner and watch him rape their own environment… but I’m confused - you said the battery is to provide stability, but then you said they actually rely on generation from the eastern states to provide stability. So what is the battery for?
Yeah I really didn't think you were capable of understanding. Educate yourself and look up what a baseload is and why it's important, it should answer your questions. I'm not arguing against solar or wind, but if Australia moved from 1/3 of households running solar to 1/2 within the year, Australia's electrical grid is in trouble. Australia's grid has minimal reliable baseload generation apart from turbines, you can't run Australia on a source that has a power output that can look like the price chart of a cryptocurrency between the hours of 7am and 5pm. The grid needs more work to run off unreliable renewables, of which SA has been a testament for.
You're really not showing much aptitude on the subject. So here's some reading:
"Also, you can pretty well turn it on or off as it's needed because the coal or the gas is just sitting there. We don't have that same capacity with renewables. That doesn't mean it's good or bad — it's just got different characteristics that have to be managed."
The rise of solar power is jeopardising the WA energy grid, and it's a lesson for all of Australia@Juice-Wa: Baseload? Do you mean synchronous generation and systems to maintain the frequency and voltage? Baseload is really just what everything consumes, duh.
Pretty sure grid scale batteries do this, and switch on and off quicker than gas and coal ;)
Syncrons may be old, but them and other bits and pieces prove that there are plenty of solutions to your problem of being stuck with this “not doable” attitude.
This was actually a thread about smart homes, not saving money?
Saving money and caring for the environment can co exist, why do you imply it can’t?
Wanting to reduce the amount of cash that gets sent to overseas companies for generation of electricity - at ever increasing prices, you know that’s a thing, right? You seem to fail to recognise it’s not one size fits all.
You keep forgetting about winter too. Winter generation is far less, and I’d rather bleed free energy in summer than pay for electricity in winter.
On the 9/6/22 I generated 9.2kwh and consumed 40kwh, with 9.9kw panels on 8.2kw inverter. My peak generation that day, at 3.564kw, lasted for about 5 minutes at 11:25am. Consumption during daylight hours was 20kwh. Tell me again that there’s no point having a bigger system. Tell me again its all based on inverter max capacity, not panels, when the inverter wasn’t even at 50% of its rated input for 5 minutes that day…
And about the UPS - ever had to wait for a raid scrub on 60TB?
synchronous generation and systems to maintain the frequency and voltage? Baseload is really just what everything consumes
NO. My goodness, spend 10 minutes to read the news articles that simplify the explanation for simpletons.
your problem of being stuck with this “not doable” attitude
Wrong again, it's people like me, engineers, to be realistic about our current position to identify potential issues and work to solve them. Your poor technical understanding and hope from willful ignorance doesn't get it done. Engineering and thorough planning gets things done.
Pretty sure grid scale batteries do this, and switch on and off quicker than gas and coal ;)
And yet we don't have batteries on our grid to provide baseload for Australia's grid, so till then you're expressing hope from willful ignorance. Whether you like it or not, the grid isn't going to suddenly be compatible for a 100% renewable supply within a year.
Saving money and caring for the environment can co exist, why do you imply it can’t?
I'm not making any implications about the environment, so keep on topic.
This was actually a thread about smart homes, not saving money?
It was but you got us here, and the more technical this discussion gets the more apparent it becomes that you are well out of your dept of understanding. For you it's easier to claim the facts and references I have provided are all wrong then it is to acknowledge that your dream setup is likely to put you at a financial loss.
NO. My goodness, spend 10 minutes to read the news articles that simplify the explanation for simpletons.
*clicks articles
*CTRL + F, baseload
* 0 resultsahahah wtf are you on I want some.
What are you engineering? FUD?I really do understand what the baseload is, and what solutions are required to deliver it.
Look at what state I’m in. Then type that state into your beloved ABC news, look at recent articles about renewables here.
How come we are setting records while you’re all scared you’ll upset some people with their dick so far in mother natures coal hole its embarrassing.
Did we not go buy batteries? Did they not get delivered in under 100 days or they’d be free? You even mentioned it a few comments ago? AND you’re still complaining that there aren’t enough on the grid. Waaa. Buy some then.
You
Soooo… you spend money on solar panels just for the environment??? This is ozbargain, not a greenpeace forum
Me
Saving money and caring for the environment can co exist, why do you imply it can’t?
You
I'm not making any implications about the environment, so keep on topic.
K champ
Let me guess - a bit of scada here, a bit of scada there, and now you think you’re an expert on anything and everything that involves flowing electrons?
My most pressing question to you is:
my 9.9kw array and 8.2kw inverter only met 1/4 my energy needs on that random day last year, and peaked at 3.5kw generation for less than 5 minutes. How will a bigger system not improve this? Aaaand I’ve just had hvac installed, that peaks at 29A input. (Haven’t gathered enough data points for average, hopefully you know how to figure out KW)Let me guess - a bit of scada here, a bit of scada there, and now you think you’re an expert on anything and everything that involves flowing electrons?
That and my degree in electrical engineering :) I don't profess to being a subject matter expert but I am better educated to understand electrical generation and transmission. Since you know about scada but not the fact most control system engineers come from electrical backgrounds I'm guessing maybe an operator, tradie something else in the industry? You seem to know just enough to trick yourself into thinking you know what you talk about but not enough to convince anyone who actually know what you're talking about.
Both referred statements actually imply the separation of environmental factors to the thread. So quit flogging that dead horse
I provided links to ABC because it's usually seen as not supporting the same parties the Murdoch media does, which supports the coal industry. So if you can find many problems reported by non coal supporting journalism on the SA power grid then maybe that's because there are lots… Again showing your willful ignorance.
@2025: I like how you added that edit changing it from "my 9.9kw system" to "my 9.9kw array and 8.2kw inverter". So let me get this straight, on your random day you only get a max of 35% efficiency??? So for every watt you increase your array, you only get 0.35w in return? You're really not doing your return on investment justification any good. You can keep your 8.2kw inverter and put 23kw of panels on your system to make sure you're always maxing your inverter then :)
@Juice-Wa: Ahaha dude you guessed wrong again I’m not a tradie or operator.
For all I knew you were a hydraulic engineer or sandwich engineer at Subway.
Glad to see you’ve finally realised efficiency can take a nose dive, depending on the orbit of this rock.
@2025: Then what is your background? I'd be very surprised if it had anything to do with numbers
Glad to see you’ve finally realised efficiency can take a nose dive, depending on the orbit of this rock.
I never said it couldn't, I'm making a case of return on investment. But you don't seem to be able to understand the dynamics of both instantaneous and averaging production/consumption. Very small minded, only looking at a single points of data rather than being able to see it holistically.
@2025: "This is an important question and probably the one we need to address firstly as it is commonly misunderstood. The best way to explain this is: when you feed solar back to the grid, it is not tallied up at the end of a day, week or billing period like some people think. Everything is measured in real time as energy is produced." given what you are arguing I'm not sure you understand this concept and how it impacts your ROI. I think you've been sold the fudged averaging calculations the marketing guy from the solar panel shop gave you. "This alternate scenario assumes your home will only use 70% of the maximum 20kWh of energy your solar system produces each day, with the excess 30% returned to the grid.".
For all I knew you were a hydraulic engineer or sandwich engineer at Subway.
and yeah, you really made a smug comment about SCADA because you thought I was a sandwich engineer… or I guess you're just summed up by this perfectly:
You seem to know just enough to trick yourself into thinking you know what you talk about but not enough to convince anyone who actually knows what you're talking about.
@Juice-Wa: I’ve got this thing logging it’s 2x mppt’s current and voltage, outside temperature, household consumption, export and import, grid voltage, at 5 second intervals, the day it was installed, for the past 3 years.
I can tell you if my bedside light (or any light) was on at any given time any day of the year for the past 7 years.
I can tell you the temperature of any given room, lux, humidity, or motion for the same.
I can tell when external door was opened, and even if it’s lock was locked while it was opened (that would mean broken door frame??)
I no what I no about my house cause dem numburs tell me tings
I know how to sum=(fu:ee) in excel
I know my roi and what time the heat pump water heater kicked in this morning. All g I got this yo.
@2025: Unless you're an outlier (average of 25kwh/day for a family in summer), for an average home it's not a case of a larger system is more profitable. You have to look at the saturation point where instead of saving 25c/kwh on your electricity that you would use during off peak period, you're only earning 5c/kwh. But you also have to think about it instantaneously, not averaged through the day. If you work a regular job and don't have some odd high electrical load running 24/7 you're not going to be consuming much during the period your panels are producing electricity (and you're limited to 5kw feed at any point in time). So you really have to figure out whether those extra years for a ROI are worth it in the long run. It's not a simple as you make it out to be: "bigger panels mean more money". If you're consistently a massive off-peak consumer then great you made a good choice, but your philosophy doesn't apply to most people. I guess one advantage you personally would have, is the strange sunlight hours in Adelaide.
Insinkerator
Illegal and not that usefull?
Yes. In new builds you can’t get them.
God almighty I miss having one. The Mrs loves her half eaten noodle soups :(
This seems to be a local law thing? I'm not aware of any ban in Brisbane on them?
Aircon on wifi for control.
Home Assistant + Broadlink (IR remote controller) has been working exceptionally well for me, and has (for local control only) $0 ongoing costs, apart from electricity usage: which depending on your hardware for Home Assistant, could be 0 (zero additional electricity usage: using hardware you were already running) or very low (Raspberry Pi).
Outlets at shoulder height on the walls.
In the garage?
.Everywhere.
Please elaborate.
Financially solvent builder/construction company sounds like a smart feature I'd be considering