eTripping.au

Formerly: Tesla Tripping

Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.

Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.

We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.

At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.

Got questions, or insights of your own? We'd love to hear them — please drop a comment on any post.

Maps: Australia Europe
Dec 2022 Oct 2026
Trips 633 Charging 485 Home 207 Solar 136 Home Battery 24 Off Gas 11 Air Con 8 Heat Pump 7 Food 69 Software Update 52 Expos 46 Camping 33 Car Climate 26 Service 13 Test Drives 13
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    Cheaper than free, to fill the car

    Beautiful spring day. Flowers soaking up the sun. Solar panels soaking up the sun, but I’ve switched the solar off. Why did I turn off free fuel for the car? There’s a cheaper option today than free. Say what? There’s so much electricity in the grid, mainly from renewables, that the wholesale price has gone negative, so retailers are actually being paid to use it. Our retailer is Amber Electric, which passes on the wholesale price to us. Right now, they’re paying us up to 9c per kWh to charge the car or run any appliances. Probably less than 5c per kWh on average, over the afternoon. Our house battery is “unfortunately” full from solar yesterday, so we can’t use it to soak up more of the cheaper than free electricity and get paid more. Realistically, we’re not going to get rich from this. We might make a few dollars today. But getting paid a few dollars to refuel the car is better than paying $100 for petrol.

    10 Oct 2026 post 1622
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    The grid went out and the car kept charging

    I happened to see AusNet's email this morning — a possible outage in our street. Then I noticed an alert from our Tesla Powerwall, to say it was running off grid. Nothing in the house had missed a beat. Every appliance had kept running without a hiccup. I tapped into the app to see how it was going. The solar was still funnelling through our system, charging the car up from its 60% low after yesterday's run into the city. Once the car was full, the leftover topped up our Powerwall batteries. When you install a battery and solar, get it in writing that in a grid outage the battery will still charge from solar. It is one of the things on my list of what to ask for in a battery installation. I suspect the outage was caused by a tree on a power line, given how windy it is today, up in the hills. This one only lasted a bit over an hour, unlike others that have gone on for up to nine days, taking out streets of homes, shops and the local petrol station. And then, just as I posted this, a…

    1 Sep 2026 post 1564
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    Did going all-electric cause our mould?

    We spent 2025 and 2026 getting off gas — heat pump hot water, a multi-head air conditioner replacing the ducted gas heater, and finally an induction cooker. Then we found mould on the bed slats. Was it due to electrification? We first found this same mould, on these same slats, in December 2024 — fourteen months before the air conditioners went in, while the gas ducted heater was still doing all the heating. Whatever causes it was here first, and it was here while the gas was. Gas cooking turns out to actually make it worse. Burning gas makes water: roughly 1.6 kilograms of water vapour for every cubic metre burnt. That is on top of the water coming out of the food or boiling water, which happens whatever you cook on. Going induction removed the extra moisture. Not to mention the benzene, which is a known carcinogen. What did change is the ventilation. The old ducted system leaked, and those leaks quietly brought in outside air. Reverse-cycle doesn't leak. Better heating, staler air.…

    6 Aug 2026 post 1549
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    Our heating doesn't breathe

    Last post we found the mould. This one is about where the water was coming from. I assumed the ensuite — showers, obviously. That is a real part of it, though not quite as I pictured. The door stays shut and the fan runs while we shower. It's afterwards that the moisture gets out: the fan goes off, the door opens, and the wet walls, floor and towels carry on evaporating into the house for hours. But it wasn't the whole story, and working out the rest meant unlearning how I thought our heating worked. Here's the misconception, and I held it for years. You switch on the air conditioner. The big fan in the unit outside starts spinning. Air blows out of the head on the wall inside. Obvious conclusion: that fan is pushing outside air into the house, warming it on the way in. Wrong. No new air comes in at all. The outdoor unit and all that white insulated pipework only move refrigerant gas, and the gas never enters the room. It just makes a hot surface inside, and the head blows the room's…

    3 Aug 2026 post 1538
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    It wasn't the grid. It was me.

    The Tesla app told me the grid was down. The Tesla app was wrong... kind of. It was an overcast morning in a low-solar week, and our Amber Electric app was lit up green: 19¢/kWh, 30% renewables — "really cheap to use energy right now". So, I set the house battery and the Tesla EV to charge together, from grid power, while we waited for the sun. A few minutes in, the phone pinged: "Power lost while charging — Charging stopped, check power source and charging equipment." The Tesla home view confirmed it — "Grid Outage. Powerwall is providing backup power. ~3.3 backup hours remaining." I checked our circuit board. Nothing tripped. Went online to AusNet's outage page — nothing reported anywhere near us. Their fault-finder asked if the meter display was lit and we'd paid the bill: yes, and yes. Verdict: "It looks like there might be a fault on your property. You'll need to contact an electrician." That's when I remembered the other set of breakers — the ones inside the Tesla Backup…

    21 May 2026 Emerald, Victoria post 1507
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    Adding a second battery — Tesla finally makes it possible

    When Lightning Energy installed our Powerwall 2 back in December 2023 it was great. Paired with our 12 kW Enphase/Jinko solar system and 10 kW inverter, it's been handling our fully electrified home in Emerald pretty well — five reverse-cycle ACs, heat pump hot water, EV charging, and grid outages lasting up to nine days. But as we've added more loads, I've been thinking about expanding battery storage. There was a problem, though. The Powerwall 2 is no longer CEC-approved for new installations in Australia. Tesla stopped taking orders for it in late 2024/early 2025, and as of January 2026 it's no longer on the Clean Energy Council approved list. So you can't add a second one. And until very recently, the Powerwall 3 — Tesla's current model — was completely incompatible with the Powerwall 2. They couldn't talk to each other. That meant anyone with a Powerwall 2 who wanted more storage faced a painful choice: rip out the existing battery and start fresh with new hardware. For me, that…

    20 Mar 2026 Emerald, Victoria post 459
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    Heat pump testing — how fast does it heat?

    In my December post about our heat pump installation, I mentioned that one of the reasons I chose Emerald was the integrated app. It shows the tank capacity, water temperature, outdoor temperature, and lets me turn it on and off or activate Boost Mode remotely. I've since used it to answer a question: how long does it actually take to heat the water, and does outdoor temperature make a difference? Over the past couple of months, I've been taking semi-random screenshots of the Emerald app at intervals through the day, tracking the water temperature as it heats from "Low" (around 25–30°C) up to the 60°C target. I did this on 11 different days, with outdoor temperatures ranging from about 14°C to 32°C. I then used AI (Claude, by Anthropic) to read all 87 screenshots, extract the data, and plot it on a chart. The chart shows each day's heating curve overlaid, with the lines colour-coded by outdoor temperature — red for hot days, blue for cool days. We might expect to see the warmer days…

    19 Mar 2026 Emerald, Victoria post 460
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    Why ducted air conditioning is inefficient

    Ducted air conditioning (or heating) is inefficient. Let me explain, and see what you think. I am not a fan (pun intended) of ducted. It seems to be very inefficient. But only one in five air con sales reps seem to agree with my reasoning. At our previous home, in Saratoga NSW, we had a large (10kW) ducted air con system upstairs, which included all the bedrooms. When we just wanted to cool or heat one room, we tried to close the door of that room. But the door would slam shut and whistle, as the air would try to escape. The ducted air con had one or two outlets in each room’s roof. It had one shared return vent in the hall. Turning on the air con in a single room, the air needed to return to the hall to circulate. Closing the door blocked that path and made the pump work extra hard. The thermostat was also in the hall, as part of the control unit. We could set the target temperature of a room to say 22°C, but the room might cool down to 18° before the hall thermostat would register…

    1 Mar 2026 Emerald, Victoria post 463
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    Make way for more air con compressors

    Two weeks after the downstairs install, the upstairs heads finally go in — but the one shared compressor became three.

    19 Feb 2026 Emerald, Victoria post 1510
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    Goodbye gas — disconnecting the ducted heating

    Goodbye gas! I finally organised disconnecting the ducted gas heating at our home. If only we could see the burnt gas pouring into the air, all the time, and not just when the condensation highlights it (as in the photos). Pumping carcinogens and greenhouse gases into the air that we breathe. It’s nuts. It was costing us up to $528 per month to run the heating in winter. Our replacement air conditioning will be closer to free, thanks to our solar and battery. We recently also replaced our gas hot water with a heat pump. Our one remaining gas appliance is our stove top. Once that’s gone, we will save $35 per month just for the connection fee. And no more gas! We’re replacing the gas heating with some split air conditioners. For those who might say “what about in a blackout”? Note the power point connection on the old gas heating. Our old gas hot water heat pump had one too. They both needed electricity to run. In fact, in addition the gas consumed, the heating used about 1kW of…

    4 Feb 2026 Emerald, Victoria post 465
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    Multi-head air conditioning installation, stage 1

    The original plan was to install a multi head system, with five heads (one in each of five rooms), and one shared compressor, outside. Due to a change of plans (see “Problems” below), we end up with three heads on our multi-head system, covering our downstairs living area (lounge, dining, kitchen), master bedroom, and guest room. Configuration: Shared compressor: 18kW (though much lower in actual use) Head 1: Master bedroom: 2.8kW Head 2: Guest room: 2.8kW Head 3: Living area: 8.4kW Cost: The original quote was for a five head system, including two more 2.8kW heads and a slightly larger 20kW compressor. $14,776 Emerald 20kW with 5 x heads -$7,140 VEECS discount -$386 EOY Sale $7,250 Total inc GST Inclusions: Removal of Gas ducted system 1 (no duct removal) Double storey We paid about 20% deposit up front, and the rest on completion. As you can see above, the VEECS rebate/discount paid for about half of the system. As part of the project, we replaced the existing gas ducted heating. We…

    4 Feb 2026 Emerald, Victoria post 462
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    Tech AU picked up our home-battery tips

    Tech AU just published an article based on our recent post listing recommendations for home battery installation.

    7 Dec 2025 post 535
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    What to ask for in a battery installation

    I suggest getting your installer to agree in writing that your battery installation will include: 1. Remote control via an app and/or website to monitor your battery and house power. 2. During a grid outage, the battery should provide backup for everything you need. 3. During a grid outage, solar continues to provide power. 4. The ability to curtail export of power to the grid when pricing is negative. 5. Compatibility with Amber Electric, if you might want to use them as your energy retailer. Let’s look at each in detail: 1. Using an app or website, you can: 1. Monitor power in and out of your battery, house and grid connection, instantaneous, daily and historical. 2. At any time, set your battery to a minimum charge percentage. 2. In the event of a grid outage: 1. The battery will switch over automatically. The installer should test it and show you. 2. The battery will power all of your home, up to the battery’s maximum power (which should be at least 5kW). 3. If you have three…

    7 Dec 2025 post 536
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    What do the kW and kWh measurements mean?

    What do all the electricity measurements mean? 1. Australian household electricity runs at about 240V “volts”. All your power points and devices are 240V. This is basically a measure of the force used to push the electricity. 2. The “current” is basically the throughput of electricity, measured in Amps. It varies for different devices. A modern LED light bulb uses less than 0.1A (Amps). A toaster or heater will use around 8A. The typical maximum allowed by a standard power point is 10A. 3. The total power of the electricity is measured in watts. We multiply the volts by the amps (voltage x current) to get the watts. For example, if your appliance uses 5A at 240V, then that’s 5 x 240 ‎ = 1,200 W, which is 1.2kW (kilowatts). A light bulb uses less than 0.1kW. 4. The total energy used by a device is calculated as the power x time. For example, if you use an appliance running at 1.2kW for 10 hours, then it uses 1.2 x 10 ‎ = 12kWh (kilowatt hours). A light bulb could run for days on the…

    6 Dec 2025 post 537
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    Home battery introduction

    Are you considering a battery for your house? Here is a basic introduction, based on our experience. I hope it’s helpful. Please comment about any errors, omissions or questions. 1. Why is there more talk lately about getting a battery for your house? 1. As of July 1 this year, the federal government will pay for 30% of your home battery purchase. This makes it 30% cheaper to buy one. 2. What’s the purpose of a house battery? 1. A battery provides power to your house, as electricity. 2. It can power anything in your home that runs from electricity, including your fridge, lights, power points, TV. 3. It can keep your house appliances running when there is a grid outage (a “blackout”). 4. If you have solar panels, a battery can store the excess power generated during the day, so you can use it at night to avoid paying for electricity. This is why it is often called a “solar battery”. 5. You can also charge a battery from the grid when electricity is cheap, and use it when electricity is…

    5 Dec 2025 post 539
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    Solar, battery and electrification — series intro

    A few neighbours and friends have asked us lately for advice about solar panels, house battery, EVs etc. Here’s our real life experience, starting a series of posts on different topics. We installed solar and battery when we moved into our house (Emerald, Victoria) about two years ago. We already had an EV (electric car). This week, we finally got around to replacing our gas hot water with an electric heat pump. Next month we’re replacing our gas ducted heating with a multi head split air conditioning system. Overall, our solar and battery provide more electricity than we use. We’re also connected to the electricity grid so we can import when we need more, or export when we have a surplus. We aim to produce all the power that we need. On the rare times that we import electricity from the grid, our retailer bills us. More often, we export our surplus electricity to the grid, for which they give us a credit. Overall, we have more credit than debits, so we don’t have to pay anything. All…

    4 Dec 2025 post 541
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    Heat pump installation

    We finally got around to installing a hot water heat pump, to replace our gas hot water system. We were paying about $40 per month for our instant gas hot water (plus $40 connection fee). Now we’re paying nothing, because the heat pump is just using our excess solar power. Without solar, I estimate it would be costing us $8 per month to power it from the electricity grid. There are a few incentive schemes around to replace gas (or other old inefficient systems) with a heat pump. An installer will factor these into their quote. The subsidies can be significant. In our case, the total price was $4480, but it was reduced to $1650 for us to pay, after subsidies were subtracted. A hot water heat pump uses the same principle as an air conditioner (which is also a heat pump). It “pumps” heat from one side to the other. In this case, it pumps heat from the outside air into the tank of water. The basic physics is that when you compress air in a confined space, it gets hot, and when you expand…

    3 Dec 2025 post 483
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    Our Powerwall — one of a million deployed

    Our home Powerwall battery is one of a million deployed so far. The Tesla app celebrated by listing the stats of our install, and the fleet as a whole. Our battery has saved us (and our neighbours via extension cords) from 13 days of blackouts, without any noisy smelly generator, or trips to refill it with petrol. Our solar system has generated 16MWh of energy so far, used by our house appliances, home battery, our car and exports to the grid. At an average ball park price of say 15c per kWh, that’s $2400 worth of electricity, with no ongoing running cost.

    9 Sep 2025 Emerald, Victoria post 559
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    Finally, the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden

    After two years in the Dandenong Ranges, we finally visited the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden. Amazing to see in Spring. It’s a huge place. I think we covered only 20% of it. Parking seems to be extremely limited and unmarked, in a dirt section across the road, which led to highly questionable parking.

    4 Sep 2025 Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden post 561
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    A new find: Ripe Cafe in Sassafras

    In life you need goals. Today’s goal was to find a cafe we hadn’t yet tried 😉, in our home of the Dandenong Ranges. Ripe Cafe in Sassafras was a great find. Guacamole (avo toast) topped with thin sliced potato crisps, and zucchini slice. Lots of cyclists out today, including this giant Saint Bernard. The local park has interesting seating, or perhaps a one turn swing set 😳. I checked in on our parked car from the Tesla app, after some dodgy parking in front of us. We love driving through the fern trees and tall timbers of the Dandenong Ranges. Beautiful all year ‘round.

    5 Jul 2025 Ripe Sassafras post 631
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    Emerald's Lost Woods Market draws a crowd

    This is probably the busiest we’ve seen our town of Emerald, Victoria. The Lost Woods Market draws a huge crowd. It’s a beautiful stroll through the tall trees, past numerous stalls and food outlets, with Puffing Billy Railway choo-chooing past every now and then. It’s a magical place. We parked up the other end of town, starting off with brunch at Over the Road Cafe, then walked through the jammed main road to the markets. The generators of many stalls lined the back path, filling the air with slight fumes and noise. It’s a shame they don’t have grid power. We hoped to see some stalls powered by V2L EVs, as we’ve noticed at some other markets, but none here.

    14 Jun 2025 The Lost Woods Market post 649
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    Home in Emerald, autumn in full swing

    We arrived back home, in Emerald Victoria. Autumn is still in full swing. 🍂

    27 May 2025 Emerald, Victoria post 656
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    Why NRMA Airlie Beach is a shining EV light

    The NRMA Airlie Beach Holiday Park is a shining light. EV destination chargers at each of the new cabins. Fast chargers out front for the public. Efficient electric hot water heat pumps. On site cafe and coffee. E-bikes. Walk to nearby Coles and shopping center. This is the future. Well done, The NRMA! Missing our own EV right now, still parked back in Melbourne airport.

    6 Apr 2025 NRMA Airlie Beach Holiday Park post 705
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    Cooling off at Seaford Pier

    Cooling off at the beach under Seaford Pier. Dinner: Chicken and mango salad, brought from home.

    3 Feb 2025 Seaford Pier post 693
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    36 wild hours on battery in the Dandenongs

    It’s been wild 36 hours here in the Dandenong Ranges. Yesterday afternoon, the power went out in our town of Emerald. We heard it was due to a fire somewhere. We sent out a few texts to our neighbours to offer our battery backup power. We ran our heavy duty extension lead over the fence and set up a power board on the front porch for phone charging. A few hours later, the grid was back up and running. But, the pending storm warnings made us cautious. Sure enough, an hour or so later, the storm hit. Heavy rain, pounding hail and strong wind. Marvin the robot mower happily sits charging out in the rain. But I didn’t fancy the chances of his camera eyes surviving the hail stones. I used the iPhone app remote control to drive it under our pergola, while the ice golf balls bounced on the lawn. Sure enough, the grid connection died again during the night, probably due to storm damage to power lines and other infrastructure. In the morning our neighbour reconnected to our power supply. We…

    26 Aug 2024 Emerald, Victoria post 871
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    Preheating the house from John's Hill Lookout

    After a beautiful morning drive in the Dandenong Ranges, with our last stop at John’s Hill Reserve Lookout, we decided to head for home, about 20 minutes away. It was 6°C outside but warm and toasty in the Tesla. Our house was going to be cold 🥶. If only there was a way to heat it up remotely, before we got home, like we can with the Tesla 🤔. Fortunately, there is! We bought a Sensibo remote control. It communicates with the air conditioner via infrared, and communicates with our phones via the Internet. It even works with our ten year old Panasonic air con. So, we can be in bed, or many kilometres away and say “Siri, turn on the air conditioner”, to have a warm lounge room waiting for us. We can also control the temperature, fan speed, schedule and so on. We could even set it up to turn on the air conditioner automatically when we’re within 20km from home, via geofencing. Nice 😊 We opted for the “Air Pro” version, which also monitors air quality. I’ve noticed that it sometimes shows…

    21 Jul 2024 Johns Hill Lookout post 881
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    Lauritos pizza, transported in the frunk

    Friday night, pizza and movie at home. Pick up from Lauritos Pizza, in Emerald, in the Tesla, transporting it in the “frunk” (front trunk) to keep the takeaway smell out of the cabin.

    28 Jun 2024 Lauritos Pizza post 889
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    Four double scoops, kept chilled by the Tesla

    Double the EVs and double the ice creams. This time I took a large container to Bam Bam Italian to buy four double scoop ice creams for us and our guests. The car kept the temperature at a chilly 15°C while Kyla accepted the challenge to scoop two spheres into each cone. Tomorrow, we’re off to Emu Plains Markets.

    15 Mar 2024 Bam Bam Italian post 959
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    An 'EV' for the hedges

    I tried out another “EV”, kind of – an Electric Vegetation cutter 😉. Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch. It’s an electric hedge trimmer. Emerald has so much vegetation, and our place is no exception. Hundreds of meters of hedges. The RYOBI electric hedge cutter is fairly quiet, instantly turns on and off, and is fueled for free by the sun via our roof solar panels. While cutting, it did occur to me that using a petrol powered hedge trimmer would be a much less pleasant experience. Much louder, with fumes in my face, heat and higher fire risk. I’d be dependant on an external fuel supplier to truck in petrol from hundreds of kilometers away, and I’d have to drive to a petrol station to get it. When the battery goes flat on this electric model, I just plug it in and walk away to do something else. It will take an hour or more to recharge, but I don’t have to do anything. Plugging in the battery takes a few seconds. If I really wanted to keep going immediately, I could swap with another…

    2 Mar 2024 Emerald, Victoria post 962
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    Nine days of grid outage in Emerald

    It’s been nine days of grid power outage here in Emerald Victoria. The community has pulled together to share resources. Today I received an SMS from Ben to ask if he could charge at our place. I assumed it was another neighbour asking if they could plug their phone or laptop in to the power board we laid out in the porch. We were the only house in the street to still have power after the storm hit, thanks to our Tesla Powerwall battery. It’s been charging up each day from solar panels on the roof. But Ben was actually after a place to charge his EV. I had forgotten about our listing on PlugShare during all of the neighbourhood blackout dramas. I said yes, no problem. Today he had driven from his home in Packenham east to Sale, then back west and up the hills to Emerald, and has a few more nearby drives to do before returning home. The navigation said he would get home with 8% charge, but that wasn’t accounting for extra stops. So, he wanted to play it safe.

    22 Feb 2024 Emerald, Victoria post 970
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    Back home with battery power

    We’re are back home in Emerald and have power! The grid is still out, and is expected to be down until mid next week. But our house is getting power from solar and our Tesla Powerwall battery. Driving back home (after our road trip to NSW), we could see why Emerald is still in the dark. Many power lines (and phone/broadband lines) are still down. At least one of our neighbours is running a fuel generator. Another has a couple of solar panels hooked up to a car battery for night lights and a 12V car fridge. Schools are effectively closed. The local petrol station had one pump going, with a long queue. We have offered our neighbours electricity from our solar/battery power. One family had no power for three days, but now we have connected some extension cords over the fence. History: The grid died on Tuesday 14th. We were away road tripping in NSW. Our Tesla Powerwall battery continued to provide backup power to our house (and a few devices plugged in by neighbours). But the solar…

    17 Feb 2024 Emerald, Victoria post 974
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    Powerwall hits zero during the grid outage

    Well, that’s not good. The Tesla Powerwall at home has just gone flat (zero percent charge) at about 5pm today. Our new home town of Emerald is one of many affected by the grid outage in Victoria, after a wild storm hit on Tuesday afternoon. A couple of months ago, we had Lightning Energy install solar and a Powerwall battery at our new home. In a grid outage, the solar array is supposed to keep the house electricity going, recharge the battery each day, and keep the fridge cold. But the solar production stopped working when the grid outage started. Something is wrong with the installation. The battery has slowly depleted, until it hit zero percent two days later (this afternoon). I contacted the installer, Lightning Energy, a couple of days ago to hopefully fix it before the fridge died. No answer from service. So, I SMSed Andrew, who works for them and lives locally. He kindly offered to pop in on his way home to take a look. Here’s hoping we can get power from the sun back…

    15 Feb 2024 post 975
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    Wild weather hits Victoria

    Wow, what a wild weather ride in Victoria yesterday. We’re still in NSW, but the Weather app summarised the weather at home in Emerald as “Fire Weather” 😮. The heat was followed by a heavy storm that knocked down many trees and power lines. In the middle of the day, wholesale electricity prices peaked at a hundred times the norm at nearly $20 per kWh (normally under 20c per kWh). I checked our home remotely using the Tesla app. It was exporting power from our battery (and solar) to help keep the grid supply going, whilst paying us about $100 per hour for the supply! Our battery has continued to supply power to our home during the blackout. We messaged some of our neighbours an invitation to come over and plug in any needed devices (such as phones or a portable fridge). A few of them also checked on our house for us. Great neighbours and community ☺️. We might need to also offer them showers because those with on demand gas hot water often need electricity to light them. All the petrol…

    14 Feb 2024 post 977
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    Tesla battery and wall charger installation

    The team from Lightning Energy installed the undercover pieces today, while it’s raining, and deferring to tomorrow the installation on the roof of the solar panels, if the sun comes out. We had originally scheduled this installation for December 11 and 12, but rain on December 11 saw it canceled. We had this Tesla wall charger at our last house in Saratoga NSW, a year ago. The new owners there didn’t have an EV, so we modified the contract for us to remove the EV charger. It has sat in storage until the removalists delivered our belongings here a few days ago. It wasn’t really practical for us to bring the Tesla “Powerwall” battery with us from the old house, so we bought a new one for this house. It costs about $15k, which is a lot. There are cheaper battery options, but we know the Powerwall has a large capacity compared to cheaper batteries, and works well with the app, scheduling, blackouts, etc. We have heard from a few people in Emerald and the Yarra Ranges in general that…

    19 Dec 2023 Emerald, Victoria post 995
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    Woodend and Kyneton house-hunting

    Today we drove out through the towns of Woodend and Kyneton, Victoria. Beautiful towns, even on a cold windy day. We’re still looking for a possible new home. We looked at one house at Kyneton Bushland Resort. Another house had 14kW of solar panels, a Tesla Powerwall house battery and a Tesla EV charger. Lunch at Home Grown on Piper was delicious. We bumped into the owners of a blue Tesla Model Y with the licence plate BEM3UP (“beam me up”) at one of the houses and at the Kyneton charger. Of course we discussed Star Trek 🖖. Also had a brief chat with Tony, on a ride on his electric Harley Davison LiveWire, with his other biker mates.

    24 Jun 2023 Kyneton Bushland Resort post 1162
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