$700-a-year increase running an airconditioner & snap price rises of as much as 15,000 %

[Maka]

Anyone see this story in the Sydney Daily Telegraph yesterday, so if you use more than average power in peak demand, you will be paying a massive premium for the privledge? (i'm frantically checking over our previous bills now!) This applies to all states i gather?

"The Australian Energy Markets Commission (AEMC) says the way to curb future increases in peak demand is to give households “signals” to change power use"

"To beat the new electricity changes some households may have to surrender control of their aircon to their power provider"

"Those who can’t afford that investment — or spiralling running costs — may have to flee to more community “cooling centres” such as libraries"

(with thanks to the Daily Telegraph)

http://www.news.com.au/finance/money...-1227195669476

cheer's, Maka

[buggerlugs]

I heard about it and had to check the date to make sure it wasn't April the 1st..........

[AUwindsor]

Originally Posted by buggerlugs

I heard about it and had to check the date to make sure it wasn't April the 1st..........

No but it is 1984

[Road_Warrior]

I seem to recall this rearing it's head a couple of years ago. Community outrage made it go quiet, looks like the powers that be have decided to have a go again...

[2011G6E]

*Sigh*...I remember back in the seventies we looked forward to a bright future of cheap limitless power, with electrical devices to do all sorts of things around the house.
Of course governments refuse to grow a pair and invest in nuclear, and coal...while being staggeringly cheap and stupidly plentiful for centuries to come...is artificially inflated in price. So yes...we have all the wonderous electrical goods that would have amazed us back then, but no one can afford to run them...

This is just a ploy to keep people snowed under with bills...a populace who can save money and get ahead isn't what the powers that be want. People who are scared to death of losing their jobs make compliant little drones.

Not to mention shift workers...what sort of concession up here in baking hot Queensland will shift workers who have to try and sleep during the "hottest part of the day" (when the parasites are going to try and boost the power price to ludicrous levels) going to afford to run their air conditioners, as suggested by the governments own information on how to get quality sleep when working shifts?

To be blunt...it's the 21st century. Things that were once seen as "expensive luxuries for the rich" are now normal household appliances and fitments. Why shouldn't people be able to live in modern times with all modern conveniences they can bloody well feel like having in their house without being made to feel guilty for doing it or punished into poverty by greedy governments and companies?

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

I seem to recall this rearing it's head a couple of years ago. Community outrage made it go quiet, looks like the powers that be have decided to have a go again...

Not the first time the government has done this, and won't be the last. It's usually done by a "leak" of a "discussion paper". Then they sit back and see what the public response is. If people don't speak up, they'll look at bringing it in...if people complain loud and clear, the government will scoff and say it was "just a discussion paper" and "never seriously considered for policy".
I remember vividly back in the Bob Hawke days there was a "leak" of a paper from a government think tank on how to reduce the numbers of homeless people. The brilliant idea was that pensioners usually have a few spare rooms in their houses, so a government stooge would come into the old peoples homes, assess how many extra people could live there, and move homeless families in, in return for some sort of concession to the homeowners.
This caused huge outrage...my retired parents as well...and it was quickly dropped and everyone was assured it was "never going to be seriously considered as policy" and was "only a discussion paper from a meeting".

...Sure it was...

[CoupeKing]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

I remember vividly back in the Bob Hawke days there was a "leak" of a paper from a government think tank on how to reduce the numbers of homeless people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx0IeQQ7WjI

[CoupeKing]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Not the first time the government has done this, and won't be the last. It's usually done by a "leak" of a "discussion paper". Then they sit back and see what the public response is. If people don't speak up, they'll look at bringing it in...if people complain loud and clear, the government will scoff and say it was "just a discussion paper" and "never seriously considered for policy".
I remember vividly back in the Bob Hawke days there was a "leak" of a paper from a government think tank on how to reduce the numbers of homeless people. The brilliant idea was that pensioners usually have a few spare rooms in their houses, so a government stooge would come into the old peoples homes, assess how many extra people could live there, and move homeless families in, in return for some sort of concession to the homeowners.
This caused huge outrage...my retired parents as well...and it was quickly dropped and everyone was assured it was "never going to be seriously considered as policy" and was "only a discussion paper from a meeting".

Sorry, had to read that again. LOL, are you serious? No wonder his only legacy is skulling a beer. Forgive me, in the 80`s I was running around the lounge room playing with He-Man figurines so don't remember a great deal about Politics. Although I do remember seeing footage of Bob Hawke copping a bouncer to the head in district cricket. I found that quite amusing, especially when his glasses exploded in his face. My apologies for being a sadist and derailing the thread at the same time.

[poppa smurf]

same old, same old.....you'd remember the "rolling blackouts" of old........they were due to under supply of power.

I wonder what they use as an excuse in this day and age of over supply.........the little chinese feller who owns most of the south aussie power stated he will put up power when he likes simply to keep the profits.

the almighty dollar must prevail, profits at any cost.

with thinking like that common throughout all business I see a very glum future for the "little man".

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

the almighty dollar must prevail, profits at any cost.

with thinking like that common throughout all business I see a very glum future for the "little man".

Unfortunately when you have things like services owned by private companies rather than government owned its no longer about providing a service, its all about returning $$$ to the share holder.

They're within their rights to charge what they want I guess.

[nstg8a]

Just another reason to go solar.

[olfella]

Originally Posted by nstg8a

Just another reason to go solar.

As long as they are pointing to the West. Sorry but could not resist..

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Unfortunately when you have things like services owned by private companies rather than government owned its no longer about providing a service, its all about returning $$$ to the share holder.

They're within their rights to charge what they want I guess.

trouble is that privatisation is a multi edged sword.

sell the "essential's" then the income previously generated is gone, charges inevitably rise to beyond reach by many, then taxes have to increase to compensate for the loss of income of said infrastructure.

these people, whom we, supposedly, elect from a privileged "chosen few" make decisions that blind freddy can see is bad for the country and its people time and again.

no bloody wonder they took our guns away.

[mik]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

trouble is that privatisation is a multi edged sword.

sell the "essential's" then the income previously generated is gone, charges inevitably rise to beyond reach by many, then taxes have to increase to compensate for the loss of income of said infrastructure.

these people, whom we, supposedly, elect from a privileged "chosen few" make decisions that blind freddy can see is bad for the country and its people time and again.

no bloody wonder they took our guns away.

i agree, and to my way of thinking these where(are ) actually needed public services, and if they made a profit or ran in the red.............. who really gives a toss.
Remember when we fully owned our utilities,
the SEC (state electricity commission ) for example, if something needed to to get done ..... it got done, these days if something needs to get done they take the cheapest alternative possible, or have a meeting and discuss how they can cut costs or services elsewhere or ..... put prices up to keep the profit margins up.

i mentioned in another post about light poles around Melbourne being crooked ....... not just talking one or two here or there, bloody everywhere , and it stands out like the nose on your face.
i can only assume linesmen are not trained well enough to know you have to have a certain amount of slack in the cables so when the cold weather comes and the cables contract they don't pull the poles over, this sort of crap was very rare in the old days.

Getting back to the power price rise, its too bad if you are not in a suitable area to have solar.

[olfella]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

Unfortunately when you have things like services owned by private companies rather than government owned its no longer about providing a service, its all about returning $$$ to the share holder.

They're within their rights to charge what they want I guess.

I think that is where a lot of governments of all persuasions have lost the plot. They are there to provide basic services to the masses - but when it becomes to hard they take the easy way out and sell off or outsource.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by olfella

I think that is where a lot of governments of all persuasions have lost the plot. They are there to provide basic services to the masses - but when it becomes to hard they take the easy way out and sell off or outsource.

This what happens when governments policies encourage population growth with immigration etc but cannot keep up with infrastructure needed to support it.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by trublu

This what happens when governments policies encourage population growth with immigration etc but cannot keep up with infrastructure needed to support it.

You sir are spot on,

you've identified the source of all Australia's infrastructure problems.

In fact all the world's problems.

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by trublu

This what happens when governments policies encourage population growth with immigration etc but cannot keep up with infrastructure needed to support it.

And this is also what happens when governments are distracted and too busy with internal party infighting, spending money on pink batts and a huge bureaucracy to run it, knighthoods for Princes and meanwhile the important things like education, health care, defence and Australia's infrastructure gets left out in the cold. When the government of the day is finally forced into a position of having to spend money on the said infrastructure, it is discovered that the costs of upgrading that infrastructure are astronomical and it is shelved until after the next election put into the too hard basket.

Our last quarterly power bill was $30. I'm glad for solar power. In fact, I'm stoked.

[lisaishername]

If you're getting solar then I strongly suggest that you buy the panels NOW.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articl...higher-tariffs

[davenl5l]

group buy to convert to off the grid sounds like the go . the government would probably find a way to tax us though !!!

[olfella]

If it comes out of a wire or a bowser of course it will be taxed. That is why I think all other forms of alternate energy have been 'shelved'. But then again, I am a cynical old B

[CoupeKing]

Well until you go solar, most of us can cut our electricity by at least a third.

Is your Plasma on in another room burning $$$ while you're sitting in front of the computer?

Do you take 30 minute showers?

Do you walk around in shorts and a t-shirt and say '%$#^, it's cold, better turn the heater on?

Do you leave the incandescent porch light on over-night?

Do you leave the fridge door open for 2 minutes while you decide what drink you will have.

Do you opt to use the clothes dryer when you could use the clothes-line 10 metres away.

Well if you do, you`re paying twice as much for your car rego than me.

All our important companies were sold overseas from under out feet, add to that the lack of competition here, and the head honcho's can do pretty much what they want. Support the little man when you can. Just an example and nothing to with your air-con......

How about every now and then you decide 'not' to go to the giant BP service station on the side of the highway, that's got KFC, Macca's, Subway, but rather take a 20 minute detour and go through the old country town and inject your cash in their servo,bakery or pub. But be careful though, you mite see an old building or two.

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by CoupeKing

How about every now and then you decide 'not' to go to the giant BP service station on the side of the highway, that's got KFC, Macca's, Subway, but rather take a 20 minute detour and go through the old country town and inject your cash in their servo,bakery or pub. But be careful though, you mite see an old building or two.

We had a huge shiny new Caltex servo open up next to our old run down Shell servo, then we had fires in the area around this time last year, and they wouldn't sell the CFA fuel for their fire trucks on an account but the old Shell one had no problems doing this.

So from that moment on a big group of the community refused to use their servo, after about 6 months the owner of the Caltex bought out the Shell servo.

So now I use the small servo in the next town along, gotta drive 7km out of my way to use it but I don't really care.

I had a good laugh when someone set fire to the new Servo trying to knock off their ATM, and they cried to the CFA to come put it out, irony.

[lisaishername]

Just think of all of the housing comission blokes who will now use those cheap and nasty butane stoves instead of the bribed-to-be-installed electric hot water heater systems and electric stoves and ovens. With these changes in place I don't think anyone on welfare will have enough money to live there anymore. That means crime rates will go up and you might even start seeing tents propping up on your property or lawns. Sorry to say it but who is a more desperate person the one being paid peanuts to go work while his car has wear and tear on it or the one who owns a home and some land where they can farm?.

I don't know what the hell we will do without air conditioning, are they trying to send us all mad? I'm sure there will be a huge rise in the number of violent events around suburban areas.

For lack of better words I am in the same bathtub as the cranky old bastard, I'm pretty cynical too.

I'm stockpiling Gold & Food and preparing for the worst, I mainly fear hyperinflation. I'm anti-guns too so I'm not a target for the cops. If you can't defend yourself with everyday items laying around then don't bother being a survivalist.

The main reason why I got a Ford XF is because I'm going for fuel economy and reliability, according to the youtube ad for the XE I can get 8.0L/100k highway on a Six, I'm sure that will be better with the computerised dizzy that I've got installed at the moment but I'm also going to keep a set of points dizzy out of an XC handy incase some dumbass in China or Russia decides to drop the atom on us.

I don't like having to go through heaps of trouble getting to stuff in more modern cars, on my XF I can swap out the starter with one hand and a socket and wrench, I don't like the idea of being stranded in the middle of nowhere with a new car and needing a hall effect sensor too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw-m4oF-8C0

As for saving electricity I recommend going down to Bunnings and having a look at those Arlec 6-outlet power strips with a RED switch on the end of them, that's what we are using here and they are only $13, you can get an extension cord too to make it a bit longer for $4. I highly recommmend that you put your computers and tv on one of these and turn it off at the switch on the power strip when you're done of a day. I found out that my LCD tv was drawing 10w when not even turned on (in standby) and my computer was drawing 10 watts too. When you add it up over the month its equivalent to running a 100 watt light bulb for an hour each day.

Also have a google search for "eco mods" for mods to do with your car, don't need to make an account there or anything I'm not a salesman, just trying to point you in the right direction. Weather stripping around the headlights might be something I'll do later but for now I'm working on fitting a 16" electric thermo fan to my XF.

You can also get a bunch of BC to GU10 adapters on eBay and then go down to bunnings and buy a bunch of those Clipsal 4w LED lights which have the GU10 base on them. These will be hell of a lot more reliable and cheaper than buying LED lights on eBay with BC fittings on the end. Our whole house has them now.

There is also DC Fridges made by Beier which stand upright but you can run from a 12v or 24v offgrid solar source. All it needs is a 200AH battery and about 140-200w of solar panels, I've got my offgrid solar system already all setup and its powering the laptop that I'm talking to you on right now. The fridges aren't cheap you can get them on eBay for $700 and its only 142 litres but it sure is worth it when you consider that I don't have to pay to run the thing anymore. I figured its better this way so later on I can get a Caravan and it will look heaps better than having one of those in-car chest-freezer types which carry a huge premium for their size anyway.

Oh yeah. Don't forget to raise your car and reinforce your sump.

[lisaishername]

Originally Posted by lisaishername

Also have a google search for "eco mods" for mods to do with your car, don't need to make an account there or anything I'm not a salesman, just trying to point you in the right direction. Weather stripping around the headlights might be something I'll do later but for now I'm working on fitting a 16" electric thermo fan to my XF.

Oh yeah. Don't forget to raise your car and reinforce your sump.

And if you do this don't forget to put in an Air Dam to regain the fuel economy that you lose by raising a vehicle. Might not be worth it but a general smoothening of all surfaces on the front of a vehicle including an under-belly pan the full length of the car is great for fuel economy. (And performance, reducing inefficiencies and reducing drag is always better for performance)

I'll also be adding a waterproof solar battery charge controller using a 555 timer (reason = easier to stockpile a few 555 timers incase something goes wrong with it) to my ride so I can use an on-the-dash 10 watt solar panel to keep my starter battery fully charged at all times. This helps keep the secondary battery topped up too for use with radios. Not having to hunt down a replacement starter battery is great from a survivalists point of view as you may never need to find a spare starter battery. I'm going to keep my charge voltage set to 13.4v (Its dangerous to charge Sealed batteries at 14.4 or 14.8v, basically don't give them an equalize charge. Only during the dump phase should a voltage ever get that high.) Basically only ever float-charge a SLA battery on a solar power system, float voltages are usually written on the side of the battery and its usually always 13.4v. (Float is also called "Standby")

Also if you are running radios or other important gear that is prone to EMI then I suggest that you steer clear of cheap and nasty MPPT solar charge controllers, they emit RFI. I use PWM or Relay-based solar charge controllers.

I've also found that sealed starter batteries last a lot longer, mine is about 5 years old now and still going strong and has been discharged fully so many times its not funny. (Which is really bad for it, if you want to run appliances use a secondary battery and only ever discharge lead acid batteries (even deep cycle ones) to at most 12v, NO LESS, it reduces their life expectancy, google "sla depth of discharge" for more info.) Whereas an older flooded cell battery that I owned lasted about 2 years, I think honestly that the build quality of the flooded batteries has gone to hell so am going to avoid them.

[Bill M]

Hmmm... something is not right, with the carbon tax gone what gives?

2014 Australian Energy Update
Electricity generation

Total electricity generation in Australia continued to decline in 2012–13, by 0.3 per cent
to 249 terawatt hours (897 petajoules). This reflects the fall in electricity demand in the
industrial and residential sectors in recent years in the National Electricity Market, although
has been partially offset by continued growth in off-grid generation

See the rest here...

http://www.bree.gov.au/files/files//...statistics.pdf

[ford man xf]

Originally Posted by CoupeKing

Well until you go solar, most of us can cut our electricity by at least a third.

Is your Plasma on in another room burning $$$ while you're sitting in front of the computer?

Do you take 30 minute showers?

Do you walk around in shorts and a t-shirt and say '%$#^, it's cold, better turn the heater on?

Do you leave the incandescent porch light on over-night?

Do you leave the fridge door open for 2 minutes while you decide what drink you will have.

Do you opt to use the clothes dryer when you could use the clothes-line 10 metres away.

Well if you do, you`re paying twice as much for your car rego than me.

It's just so true what you said. It really is just common sense.

[zabatron]

One more incentive to disconnect from power grid altogether,go solar with an adequate battery bank ,and with the current drop in oil prices,and the way the price of electricity keeps going up,might even become cheaper to just buy a generator and go off grid altogether.

[commodorenutt]

So we have all these household solar installs, pumping out quite a lot of kW/h during the hottest part of the day and the owners being paid for the additional power they are generating and feeding into the system (hence that tells me they're generating an excess of power)

These household solar installs have sprung up everywhere - there's lots of them.

And now they claim there's a shortage of power in peak times..... Times when these solar installs would be feeding back into the grid (with the exception of peak times in the evenings when the sun is setting).


Smacks of just another excuse to gouge the little man again.

No fore-thought about infrastructure, just keep on banging up buildings & new housing estates everywhere, then worry about the shortages later - then make us all pay for it. They squander the bulk money they make from land development, instead of investing it in the proper infrastructure to support it.

Because we have 30,000 more houses, we now need new roads - government sells the contract to private enterprise - and they make us pay tolls to pay for the govt's inept management of funds. They sell off power - a system that we're told is barely adequate to support out current population, and then tax the crap out of us (by condoning have massive price hikes) to pay for "upgrades"

[danzvtil]

Heres a brain wave, how about, the consumer wants to use the power when it gets hot, then these genii GENERATE it, without peak power excuses and putting prices up.
And mark my words with the elderly, they WILL DIE in heat waves as they are too scared to switch on airconditioning, because they have a knack of taking news they read to heart.

[cram_it_frog]

that will be interesting for people who live in the outback who often get 45 pluss


I know in the UK in the 50s and 60s many elderly died from the cold in those days people had a coin box next to the meter no money no power

that is what will happen here many family's will suffer

I can tell you what it is like to get a $3500 bill for power in your home we got one last march after a investigation it was found out to be a mistake but they insisted we pay up front and sort it out later

we had to get the Ombudsman on the case to tell them to back off