From $600 to $50: How Bob Cut His Quarterly Power Bill With a 16 kWh Battery

This homeowner already had solar on his roof, but he was still paying $600 a quarter for electricity. The issue wasn’t that his existing solar system was useless. He was producing power during the day, sending excess away, then buying power back from the grid when he needed the most. I’m Jason. I’m Cam. We’re the owners of Source Energy Group where we’ve designed and installed countless solar and battery systems for Australian homeowners. In this episode, we’re sitting down with a Coorumbin homeowner to break down how adding a 16.6 kWh battery to his existing 8.6 kW solar system cut his grid use right down reduced roughly 2.5 megawatt hours of grid consumption and gave him latest quarterly bill of around 50 bucks. All right, good day team. Welcome back. Good to have you back on board. Got Jace. Jay obviously here with us. One of our first customers actually on today. I got Bob here. Bob Kilgore. Hey Bob, how are you? Yeah, good thanks.

We installed your job at Coorumbin existing 8.6 kW system up there. another company come and installed that for you a few years back. But what what sort of led you in the direction to start looking down the path of getting batteries up there and wasn’t quite satisfied with what it was getting. Yeah. Um and I thought if Coorumbin gets a fair few blackouts and like that you got the backup supply you’ve got why not go for it. Yeah.

You know it’s all in place now so we don’t have to stress anymore. Yeah. Don’t worry about anything. It just goes just happens. Yeah. Just everything runs. Ticks over nicely.

Yeah. What size system do we end up popping up there? 16 kW 16 kW batteries. Batteries. Yeah. I’ll be honest, you were great customers to come out and have a chat to. Came out and saw you guys myself. War me favourite footy shorts and thongs. That’s what got you the job.

Yeah. Told you. Footy shorts or the thongs. That’s the way we clicked when he came. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry I’m wearing jeans and boots today. It still was cold this morning. And the table’s a bit revealing. Maybe before we get too far ahead, you got any questions about the experience or you actually went out to see Bob and Vicki yourself too? Yeah, that was after the install a little bit afterward just run through the app and everything like that. But um I think it was Dan you’re speaking with originally and you know I think you had a when I spoke to you on install day there was a little bit of a story about how Dan went and everyone else you’d spoke to along the way. You know

you’re making me memory go back. Like obviously you on the solar game people get bombarded by phone calls and everything like that. I did a lot of research, a lot of research and I hate to say I’d hate to say it but you guys were just so far above them. You know I’ve had I think three four sale rep come out out of about 15. Most of them just sort of did a Google map and started talking at that one. I’m thinking well that’s not how it works. Yeah, customer service is what gets you the job.

No tape measure, no no measuring up the roof like looking at the most important part of the job that’s already there that the batteries are going to hook into. Only one other two sales reps that turned up. One actually stood on the ver on the ladder and looked got up there and explained everything. Yeah. And I said, you know, like we just looked at each other and the Mrs. and I said, well, we know where we’re going. This makes sense, doesn’t it?

Yeah. It all clicks. Yeah. To explain it to you, not you get told what you got to do. Because when we had the solar panels put on, we I had to argue to get what I wanted with this all the difference people trying to quote the solar panels. Yeah. They all saying, “No, you only want a 5k.” And no, I want an 8 kVA. Well, what do you want one of them for? Because I want one of them.

You only need a five. No. And I ended up getting the eight. Yeah. And it still didn’t reach what we were sort of hoping to achieve. Yeah. Yeah. And we’re stuck. We just don’t have to worry about it.

Yeah. We look at your in the SEMS portal since it’s been installed. You haven’t drawn anything from the grid. That’s one we did. I don’t know what it I was going to say. That was uh May just in May. Something must happen there. It must have been a bit overcast weather or something like that. But I’ll jump back there quickly now. Uh I just loading most of we get you. We get feedback. Yeah, it’s quite a lot per month feedback to the grid. But

I’ve just put on an all. So that’s been 29.7 kWh from the grid in in the entire month of May, which is um the rest is borderline nothing. Well, I’m pretty impressed with that given a lot of people have the stigma. They want to go the biggest battery out there just to be able to cover them. But you’re living proof. Uh you can use your power correctly and you don’t need the biggest battery that exists and you’re covered for off grid, but you understand your power. Even like we’ve during this colder months, I’ll whack the air conditioner on about 4:00, heat up the house, and turn it off at 8:00. And when we wake up in the morning, there’s still half

the gauge on the battery still there. Yeah. So you just And even with then you get a couple of overcast days and it gets down to We’ve never been under. Yeah. Much just under half.

Just comes back to what we keep saying. By the time we get home with an afternoon, it’s fully charging. Yeah. Yeah. Comes back to what we keep saying about sizing it right for the household. Perfect. you’ve only got the 16 kW battery which is small for a lot of households but for you guys it’s actually spot on isn’t it? Um

it’s fine with us. I feel like we did discuss that going on an extra battery and I I recommended going a 24 I think um by memory and then I had a chat with you guys about how you use your power and whatnot and explain to me you know your power and the situation you had before when you got your solar and we went with it. But you’re the customer, you know, you how you use your your power, your household, all that. It’s the same thing as what you said about the story with the people who came and did it before. You know what you want. You know what you need. Yeah. Um all we can do is advise that we’re advised correctly of what your usage is from what you guys told us. So, and it it worked out perfect.

We’re we’re conscious of the you know, I mean, I’ve changed all the lights. They’re all solar. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. You can’t just expect everything to happen right. No, exactly. You’ve got to work with the system.

That’s a very good point actually. Yeah. So, Braden’s actually spoken about that when he was on the show. A lot of people say do the opposite. They think just because they got it on now they can go crazy with everything, but you don’t. You just you got to be mindful. Exactly. Like people will go, “Oh, it’s it’s cold. I’m going to put me air con or my heater on 30 degrees.” You can’t really just do that. You got to cuz then it’s just going to hum. But Well, you can do that if the system’s sized for that correctly. Yeah. Exactly right.

Well, we stick it on, as I said, I’ll stick it on at 4:30 the air condition on heat. Yeah. And it runs to 8:00 and then we got to turn it off. Yeah. Cuz it’s just too hot in the house. Yeah. And the house holds it well.

And the house holds it well. And your household, just sort of, you know, give everyone listening a bit of context. It’s just you and Vicki, isn’t it? Y. So obviously there’d be a lot of people out there similar situation. You know, somewhere between a 6 and 10 kW system on the roof. They might still have a bill. So somewhere between a 16 24 kWh battery is going to suit them quite well. So

since it’s been in, we’ve spoken about it a lot and we’ve said this is probably one of the best things we’ve done. Yeah. That’s awesome. Yeah. You know, it’s probably one of the best things because we don’t have to worry about a power bill. I mean, 80 bucks, I think the last one that was connection fee. Yeah. Just the supply chain.

And the connection fee, I think, is about 160 or something. Yeah. Yeah. Normally. Well, with the feedback, we got it down to $80. Cuz you can spend that out in the night in the pub. Easy. Easy. You mustn’t drink much beer.

Once every once a quarter to get an 80 buck bill, you don’t even notice it. We just don’t cater for it. Yeah. Just pay them anything. Yeah, I’m the same. My place is I mention it every time on the show because I’m so proud of it, but 38 bucks round about that. And that’s yeah, pure feedback. It’s probably going to do a bit better in the summertime. I’ve got north south facing predominant roof faces. So the north is pretty heavy. South in the winter, the south won’t get as much hit, but I’m still not it’s still not dying. It’s still covering me massively. So now um a few of our customers have gone over to Globe. I don’t know. Have you had a look at the VPP? There’s so I mean as you say the $80 is stuff all you know but these days you can go with companies like GlowBird um and you can set it up to send some power that you don’t use back and they’ll pay you like 15 cents or whatever it is per kilowatt hour. That’s one way people are now getting rid of the supply charger and stuff. So maybe something you guys look at or you might just be happy with it.

Happy to look at it. But yeah, give Joe a call in the office and she’ll sort you out. She’s got around it pretty well. She’s actually organised. Yeah, that’s actually you’ve obviously had a bit of communication with Joe. What’s what’s your thoughts on the lovely Joe? Absolutely love her. She’s just so nice, you know, such a pleasure to talk to and the whole company has been.

As I said, like I checked it out when we were going for it and it was just chalk and cheese, you know, when we got to Source and I was talking to them. I think I started with a guy in Sydney. Yeah. When I first got it. Yeah. In Sydney. And from then it just improved. Every customer service was up and beyond, you know, it was way above anyone else. And that’s when I said to them, Vic, I said, you know, like you’ve got to go to these guys. They’re so easy to work with.

You’re not getting told what you got to do. They explain everything. I mean, when you came out, you actually fixed the old app. Yeah. Solis her and got that up and running on her phone. And, you know, it’s just been great people to work with. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you. That’s a big reason. Yeah. Thank you very much. That’s like I was saying when we first come out, that’s the biggest reason we started this up is we wanted to start something where everybody did want to work like be able to give the customers a good product and a good good experience to work with us. Obviously with the stigma on the industry, we’ve been pretty sort of pushed around on this is what you got to do. It seems very heavily uh what’s the word? Um profit based. everyone sort of chasing the next buck rather than actually giving out an individual customer.

Yeah, it’s business so it is always heavily that but people forget about that every business regardless what it is is serving the end customer. There’s a lot of just in there to to do it but like anything with a government incentive but the yeah just I guess the biggest thing I’m trying to say is not everyone’s that way and not everyone’s just looking out for that incentive in the buck like there’s also another reason we’re in the business and that’s obviously to love where we work and give the customer the end result they deserve. That makes me hold me head eye every day in the industry.

We can do that. Yeah. Thanks, man. We’re very happy. Bloody beautiful and we recommend you all the time. So,

yes. Thank you for that as well. Definitely. Yeah. So, we we’ve actually done a couple of your friends of yours. Good referrals and like you mentioned to me before might be another one coming through. Mhm. So, we’ve done Scott Isaacs and Dre.

Yep. Um that I think that’s all we’ve installed yet. And then they’re both larger. So, Ian went over the top. He put extra in. Yeah, but I’ve explained it to them, you know, like we had the generator. When the power went out, you go and buy a generator. Yeah.

And I thought, we’re going to get batteries. Why get rid of the generator? If the batteries go flat, we stick and it’s all set up. So, we we don’t have to care anymore. Yeah. Power goes out. Good luck. Just plug the generator in. Keep on going. Invite the neighbors over for a party. Yeah. Invite the neighbors over for a party. Now we’ve um that’s we actually people bring their stuff over to us and put it in our fridge cuz our house works.

That’s gold. I love that. That’s like like the guy across the way. He’s got a disabled daughter and they come over and they put all the medications and stuff in our fridge and Oh, that’s beautiful. That’s good. Went around and said, “If you need any camp, just bring it over.”

Yeah, that’s perfect. Doing a good thing. Jamie. Yeah, same thing. Jamie said that he’s he wants us to put a inlet on his neighbor’s board so he can just plug it from the power point we put in on his board over to his and he’ll just run. Yeah. And he just wants a couple of dedicated circuits there on a changeover switch. When they go out, he can just run it with a power lead. You do. Yeah. It’s funny that it’s actually built itself up this way. Like solar itself and solar and battery itself. We got to start saying solar and battery, not just solar, I guess. Yeah,

something we got to get in the habit of. But oh, where was I going with that? Lost it. Building up to the full home backup and the fridges. Oh, yeah. The full home backup. So, now that we’ve got Well, or GoodWe ESA’s been around for a fair while. They have actually told us that. Yeah, it is completely approved to be on grid charging. So, you can plug your generator in and run your generator in a power outage scenario and it can actually charge your battery. So, we will have to get out your place and reconfigure it now that they’ve given us that. Go ahead and obviously free a charge, but yeah. No, we can do that. Come and set it up. I mean, hope to cross my generator’s been borrowed by my son in brain eyes because he’s powering it.

Well, anything like me with my dad, you ain’t getting that back. No, I’ll get that back. That’ll definitely come back. So, yeah. Well, in the terms of um or when you were to refer us over to Scott and and Ian, what were the main sort of points for or for them to want to go to solar and what sort of job that Well, they both had their roofs and we were just talking about batteries and I said, you know, like I know them and I said, “Hey, I tried a lot. I got a lot of quotes and s just come up above them.” They were in a different level.

Yeah. Completely different level. there was somebody you could talk to that somebody that explained things that you understood as a layman as a as a dumb, you know, person that just lives in wants to do this. By the time you guys had left, we understood it. Yeah. I mean, I had reps that come around and they just sat there and told us and then gave me a quote and they walked out and I thought, well, yeah, what’s that?

What’s that? What’s that going to bring to us? That’s a lovely lovely This is what you need, mate. And I’d already been through that with the solar and arguing with them saying I wanted bigger than what they were telling me. And I had to really convince them to make it bigger to try and put more back into the grid. And I thought I’m not going down that road again. And you come out when you left, we looked at it. I said, “Well, there’s the deal.” Yeah.

There was no conversation about we know where we’re going. Yeah. Yeah. It’s golden. And obviously Scott’s Scott’s place is the big one of the first three phase we did as well. There’s quite a quite a big system on his place. So bit different result but it’s big reason of what we always talk about on um different size house different usage. Yeah probably two or three times bigger than there’s only four of them but see they got a different lifestyle on

Yeah. 100%. They run the air conditioner 24/7. Yeah. Like, and that’s what he says, you know, once he gets his head around and teach his boys to turn the thing off, like he comes home at 10:00 at night and the air conditioners on, there’s nobody been home. Yeah.

You know, central air conditioner’s going and just got to educate himself and get the system working for him. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly right. That’s it. Yeah. What work the system for your house wanted to be. That’s the difference. Ian’s different again. He he got a bigger system, but him and Jake work shift work like different hours. So they might be away all night or they might only be home during the day or they might only be home during the night. Liam usually gets home or anywhere between 1 and 2:00. Yeah.

And he say and he’ll he’ll put the air conditioner on. Yeah. And goes falls asleep in the chair and he wakes up at 4 or 5:00 and he can hardly breathe at that goddamn M. And Jake’s the same. He works shift where he goes away, you know, four nights a week and Yeah.

It works for them. Yeah. They got the big batteries there. I was looking at them yesterday. Put the curtain up to stop the sun getting on it now. And Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect. That’s it. Yeah. Big thing. The same thing for the generator. They got I showed them like they they come to my place and I showed them what I had.

Yeah. And then they, you know, we talk to him and give us that number. Yeah. You can refer people to us all day cuz they’ve all been good fellas. So, yeah. All been good. Yeah. But it does like I like how you sort of explained it and they’re like all different systems cuz a lot of people still don’t quite understand that they need a specific system.

It’s always like oh my my brother got a 6 kW so I’m just looking at a 6 kW or my parents got a 10 kW or whatever it may be and without actually truly understanding and it comes down to what you’re saying people just rock up and go oh this is what you need what you need and then there you go. Well, they cookie cutter. We call them cookie cutters. They’ll they’ll just choose a cookie cutter spec for the household. Done and it done work.

Exactly. Right. Cuz nine times out of 10, those ones, they’re just going off a price list that fits in wherever they think they’re going to get a sale and they just hand that to you. Say that. That was so obvious. Yeah. With the quotes that I got, it was I reckon we’ll get this out of it. We’ll put this in. and the variation in quotes was just ridiculous.

And that’s what makes you go, “Hang on a minute. This ain’t right.” That’s the same thing be so different. Yeah. That’s exactly what causes all the mistrust in the industry as well is is that and they’re trained to do that.

A lot of the ones where you’re saying like you’re saying you wanted that bigger system and they’re trying to say no, you only need this is because they know if they went to that bigger system you wanted, their pricing is just going to be astronomically out of the park. So they’re just scared they’re not going to get it. So that’s actually one of the things that we’ve done in our pricing is you know every business has got to allow for marketing and sales and that but it’s just captain no matter the size of the system. So if the system gets bigger it’s the price gets bigger but that portion is portion it doesn’t grow whereas a lot of price was very fair. The standard ones will the bigger the system goes it grows cuz it’s I call it the commission creep. You know we’re just got one set figure no matter what it is. So no one copy our business model or do it and then

better for the industry. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, that’s what we’re here for. I wouldn’t change anything. Yeah. What you what the way you operate and the way you do it. Um you make satisfied customers.

Yeah. That’s the at the end of the day it’s all customer service. 100% you know and you’ve got a you’re on a good trip. You’re on a good lead at the m the way you work at the moment. You got a bloody good customer service. Yeah. And that’s what meant. M

unfortunately like every business like I still try to get out and Jay still tries to get out to every job but as businesses grow it’s not not the easiest thing to do but do still get out to customers houses and say good day and some even have a beer but yeah it’s something we want we never want to lose where we are and I’m not a religious person but I said where we’re blessed is the people that are coming to us are basically the same type of people that you and I are. So the people that are working for us have the same values. They’re providing that same customer service and it’s it’s actually awesome to see 100%. And it’s probably one of the hardest things in business is to be able to have that go through the business and everyone replicate it. So

most definitely. So even though I’m not religious, but I guess we are blessed 100%. We’ve been told that by a few customers as well is um like the on-site teams we got, the people in the office we got and now even the people that are managing that we got we’re quite lucky cuz they wish their teams operated together like that. You’ve got that damn right because the young fell to that come out will put a cord in and a plug on the wall. Yeah.

Just couldn’t do enough. Yeah. Want to shoot down the road and grab this for me? I shot down the road and grabbed it. Had it all set up. He plugged it. There you go. How easy was that? Just a real nice his name. It was at the He came out and put the generator in. Yeah. Cooper. Cooper. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good.

Mhm. He’s awesome. He had it on the wall while I went and got the other end and he made the plug the lead for me. Yeah. And he says, “Oh, I said, “No, I just want a bit to go to there.” No, no, no, no. He says, “You need to go in here. Then you can put your garage door down. You don’t have to worry about it.”

Oh, right. Whatever. You know what you’re talking about. Not me. Yeah. It sits there and the lead’s right next top of the battery. Yeah. Top people there.

You’ve been lucky with who you’ve got here. Most definitely. Um, even the managers we got on now, you met them just before. And we got Luke, our business partner, and he’s up in North Queensland doing jobs. And then we got Timbo down in Newcastle, New South Wales. Then we got Scotty, sales manager, and Braden, the operations manager. So, it’s like all of those people and the core values they’ve got just completely align with the business now. and gives us an opportunity to stand back and make sure we keep those core values running exactly how we wanted to. The guy that come out and fitted it all, Shane. It was Shane’s on Bob’s. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Lovely guy. They’re beautiful. So, what are you doing with your electricity savings? Can’t in two weeks. Perfect. That’s good. Maddot.

Yeah. just doing, you know, stuff like that. Find We’ll always find somewhere to spend it. Yeah. Bloody hell. You know, there’s no point in your pocket. Well, put it in the bank and that the government wants D anyway. So, just go and spend it.

Yeah. Most definitely. It’s better being spent on a trip to Vietnam than Energex bills. What’s Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You guys, what’s that? It’s roughly 500 a quarter, maybe a little bit more. Yeah, it was was

Yeah. I think the last quarter was 80 bucks. Yeah. I mean, as I said, I don’t look at it. I I know it’s there. It works. That’s That’s all that worries me. Me keeps an eye on them all the time. She come home at 8. Oh 80 a quarter. I was thinking 80 bucks a month. 80 a quarter is phenomenal. That’s good. Yeah.

Yeah. Not a month. Quarter. Quarter. Yeah. That’s 20. Oh, you’re less than me. Good. I’m good. Oh, yeah. Just with the battery part, there’s like 2,000 a year plus in savings from the 16 kWh battery.

Yeah. And if you look at it, you can say, “All right, the big outlay, how long does it take to get it back?” For me, it was either do it or don’t. You know, if you say, “Oh, it’s going to take 10 years for you to what? You’re still going to be paying $6 $800 a quarter.” Some are paying more than $1,500. I know people pay $1,500 a quarter for power book. Oh, I should You kidding me? I got people doing that a month or they were doing that a month before. Yeah. There was Jamie. He was up there like up around 1,600 a quarter and Braden was 1213, wasn’t he? Something like that. And I’m glad you said that cuz it’s so many people are so focused on that payback period and it’s because the internet and what they search and everything like that.

100% payback period is something that you got to look at. But the end of the day, whether it’s 5 years, 8 years, 10 years. When you do those calculations today, it’s just a number today and everything afterwards is made up. You know, you pay for it and you wipe it out how you have now. You’re not having that anymore. The other side of that too is they’re thinking and they’re working that out on today’s price. Yeah. Yeah. For power today’s price is not going to be the same as 12 months time. No,

it’s not going to be the same as 2 years time. It’s going to go up and up and up. So actually gets smaller and smaller. Exactly. If you get it done now, well, you can at the price is what it is. You know, it’s the same as like the government. They say, “I’m going to build a road. It’s going to cost.” Oh, we can’t build that bit because it’s going to cost an extra billion dollars. What’s it going to cost you in 5 years time when you think about doing it? $5 billion. It’s not rocket science, but you’re not intelligent. That’s what we call a highly educated customer, ladies. Now,

you know, they just don’t think outside the square. And you’ve got to do that with life these days. Oh, definitely. Definitely. I mean, I’m tell most of the time, but I think outside the square. I think you don’t think highly enough of yourself, Bob.

A wild for that now. But I’m just trying to make my life easier. Yeah. And our life easier. Definitely. Well, to us it makes sense, but as I said, it’s that payback period is one of the biggest things that people always go on about. And yeah, each to their own and people are going to make their own decision. But 100% what you’re saying is 100% correct. And the way I look at it, you snooze, you lose.

You take action today, you set yourself up for tomorrow. Exactly. Get them price today and get it done. That length of time to pay it back is going to come down because the price of electricity is going to go up. Yeah. And you you can anyone say a time when electricity has come down. It’s not gone up. No. Exactly. Right. Yeah. Never. They all talked about this before. They they everyone like waits for the price to come down because the data says price has come down, but the price doesn’t actually come down. It’s the um

our companies maneuver it so that it looks like it does. Yeah. No, but when they look at the data in they go comparative to 10 years ago, the price is now cheaper, but it’s actually three times the price. Um if that makes sense. compared to the square, you know, you just got to think and that’s just the power price we’re talking about. You got the other factor is obviously the rebates. So as time goes on may get less and less. So the actual physical cost without the rebate or what the government’s going to help you is less. So you’re going to pay more in that respect and then obviously savings you lose by not doing it. So yeah,

and they’ve already put the price of to your meter box if that’s gone up since we b. So, you know, just how do we find people that think like you, Bob? Stuck to Good luck with that. Just keep getting the referrals.

Yeah. Well, I mean, people I talk to people and I tell them I tell them how it is. Hey. Yeah. But it’s I just It’s one of the best things we’ve done. Well, that what you said there, that’s actually what we’re trying to do is we just tell people how it is. And like we’ve got the sales team and one of the first things we got to do with people on the sales team is untrain them from being sales reps and like talk to people, show them the facts of what will happen, what they got now, what will happen, tell them how it is, let them make a decision.

So, well, I’ve referred to another guy and he’ll, if he hasn’t already rung, he said he was um he’s got two systems. So, he’s got one in the shed and one on his house. So, he’s got to get two lots of Yeah, we can sort that out. Yeah, it’s um

and I said to him, mate, you won’t look back. That’s what comes down to. It’s a different situation for him. We might not have to do too, but coming out the site the way I did, everyone’s house is unique. So, um what’s HJ say? It’s unique like it uniques up on you. Yeah. But yeah, so Hjo’s place was pretty unique and it sounds like your mate will be the same thing. But we can connect that shed to the house. We can um put one set up on the shed and one setup on the house and we can get them to talk to each other. There’s plenty of opportunity on how to do things. This also comes down to what’s the desired outcome and what are they trying to achieve with it all. Obviously, everyone’s trying to get a cheaper power bill, but there is more to it than just that.

Yeah. Well, air power, we’re happy with air power. Yeah, definitely. Cuz that that is the thing. There’s in my mind there’s two types of customers in what’s available now. And it’s um like the people who want to bring the power bill down to zero or the people who want to go heavily off-grid backup capabilities and whatnot. And like complete off-grid backup capabilities. Obviously, you go a bigger system and it’s oversized past what your usage actually needs or to cover your bill down and like actually keep an eye on your usage like you guys are. You go for the stack that’s sized correctly for your home plus a little bit. Yeah. I’ve since it’s gone in, I’ve often thought, should I go another one?

Yeah, just one more battery. You’ve proven you don’t need it. Well, I don’t need it, but the thoughts there. Should I just get one more just to make it a little bit It’s not going to do anything for your $80 supply charge unless unless you go to say GlowBird or a VPP. But in the full home backup,

that’s where you know you have the full power outage and that um it might come in handy there. But the way your power is going at the moment, you’re still going to be soothing. haven’t got down even with there was a about a month ago we had two real crap overcast days and there was the sun didn’t even think about coming out and it still only just went below half and I’m thinking oh here we go it’s not going to make it through you know the first like I’ll come home overnight and when I come through the garage I’ll look like I can get up in the morning go to work and it’ll be half so that’s what we’ve used overnight by the time I get back at 10:00 it’s fully charged

nice those two days it wasn’t wasn’t fully charged. It was sort of creeping up very slowly because there was no sun at all. Overcast. And then the next one I got home at 9:30, 10:00, it was charging. Yeah. Well, you know,

I’ve had that with mine. It’s just like Yeah. On the overcast days, it’s still working, but it’s just slowly getting up and up and up. Just not It’s not in a couple of hours. It’s not fully recharged. It’s takes four hours instead of two hours. Yeah. And I I work from home a fair chunk. So, like they got the office set up at home, so I’d chew the power a fair chunk, I reckon. Yeah, but still it does slowly climb and climb which is decent.

And during the warmer months we just like I I’ll come home at 10:00 in the morning, stick the air conditioner on, shut the windows, stick the air conditioner on. By 5:00 at night, 6:00 at night when I come home, I turn it off. The battery is still full. The house is cool. Yeah, that’s awesome. What more do you want? Hey, how much more you could want? Like the house next door, they their air conditioner goes 24/7. They got battery pack. They had all that done way back.

Yeah. Electric car, the whole lot. And I don’t know how they do it. Just the why you want an air conditioner to run 24/7. It’s got me beaten. Yeah, some people do that. Yeah, some Yeah, Jamie.

Yeah, Jamie does it. Some like it, some I can’t sleep with air conditioning going. So, I just sort of going to recap cuz it’s been very good information there, Bob. And thanks for sharing cuz couple very good points there that I love that you said cuz it’s just what people going get stuck on, I guess. M. Um, but just to recap, so obviously you guys were around that $600 a quarter. You had, was it 8.6 kW system already installed? Um, and you, you know, you looked around and the battery, you knew you needed one. Basically got sick of looking for one because of the whole process. Uh, luckily enough, Dan, you know, convinced you. I guess

funny because Dan convinced you to get Cam out there. Yeah, it it was funny because he wrote I said it got to the stage where if I was talking to someone I’d say where are you and he said Sydney. I said well you’re no bloody good to me. I’m on the Gold Coast you know like and he goes but we got and I and then he said I’ll get Cam to ring. I said where’s he? He says he’s in Illinois or the Gold Coast. I said that’ll do and you did and that’s what made the difference. I wasn’t talking to someone in Sydney. I wasn’t doing it to someone in Melbourne

Pakistan that too but I was leaving the light and they never even looked at the roof. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been trying to get a signature on paper not bloody inspect a solar job. So you had been researching for a while and going through the whole process for a lengthy time and yeah just someone to actually talk to someone to show you what’s actually going on was the final I guess decision explained it in a language that we understood

and you know made out what we were thinking what we were thinking as people wanting it. You made it understand that that’s what we needed. Yeah. This is what we’re thinking we need and you you came and explained it. Got up and you looked under all the panels and saw they were all nearly new. Yep. Don’t have to do anything up there. We went away and I said, “That’s what I wanted. Somebody just to sit there and talk to us and explain to us, not just go, this is what you need.” Yeah. Take it from Google. This is what you need.

Yeah. That’s awesome. And so now it’s been on, what was that? That was installed in January or February. So started the year. Yeah. Started. Start of the year. I think it was end of January. Yeah. So that’s over 6 months now. And you been consistent the whole 6 months, hasn’t it? You just been paying for what? Half the 3/4 of the connection fee. Not even the full connection fee. So I guess you know anyone in Bob and Vicki’s situation I guess. So you guys you are both still working on aren’t you? Um

casual casual. Yeah. Semi-retired almost retired. Yeah. Um two days a week. Yeah. Same. No. You know a low usage household essentially what it is. And it’s still a benefit to them. And as you say the cost of the battery it’s not so much about the payback period. It’s now you have that excess cash flow. And as you said, you guys are going to go to Vietnam. There’s extra money there that you put away for trips and things like that.

Do those things we want. We can go out to dinner if we want to. Not that we couldn’t before. Don’t get me wrong. Not that we couldn’t afford to do it before. We didn’t because you’re always looking for money. I’m not looking for money. You’re always trying to save. Yeah. Just making sure you got everything. We shouldn’t go out to dinner tonight. Cost you 100 bucks. Yeah. Well, like in this situation, shouldn’t go in the night. The power builders come in. Yeah.

Something like that. Yeah. Silly crap like that. We don’t have to. And we’re not misers on like sure I’ve changed all the light and I’ve done everything to sort of make the system work for us. Yeah. But in saying that we don’t like if I walk out of a room I turn the light off. But I’ve been educated that I mean I’m 74 and I’ve been educated that since I was four 74. So 70 odd years I’ve been that was pumped into

Yeah. And generations these days don’t but they need to just think outside the box. Yeah. Do things. We we leave lights on. Yeah. So essentially your lifelong good habits been helping you out anyway. But now with this whole situation with the battery, it’s just all that working together.

You don’t have to worry about it anymore. Yeah. Power act now I can honestly say in our household power is the last thing we have to worry about. Yeah. We just cruise along with life. We don’t have to stress about it. It’s there. If the problem arises with where we live, you get a fair few outages.

Yeah. Um we’ve got it covered. Yeah. It’s a 10-minute job to get the power running again. Yeah. Well, we won’t It’s not saying get the power running again cuz the battery is there. It’s going to be running, but to keep the battery charged, it’s 10-minute job.

Yeah. Mhm. Well, the battery will charge itself if you use that extra power or anything like that. You’re set up to Yeah. Everything’s ready to go. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect.

Awesome. No, it’s good. Where where is happiest? Well, it’s obvious we’re as happy as pigs in mud. Yeah. You know, it’s one of the best things better things we’ve done. You can say it, mate.

I was going to say he can say happy as a pig and Yeah. I’ll let you. We are actually just thinking it’s probably the first one we haven’t dropped anything. Yeah. Pretty pretty tame there. No, it’s good. We’re very happy and I’ll keep recommending you.

Awesome. No, I appreciate it, mate. You know, I said 15 people, 15 companies at least that I sort of looked at or I mean, you just had to click online. You only had to look at it. Yeah. Online and then all of a sudden people started emailing.

Oh, inundated anywhere in Australia and anywhere in the world. Yeah. But yeah, no, it was good. Hey, awesome. Good experience 100%. Beautiful. We’ll keep the experience going.

In saying that, if I wasn’t happy, I wouldn’t recommend you. Yeah. Simple as that. If I wasn’t happy, and as you know, I recommend you be here.

It was um it was Ian who said that, I think. If Bob recommends you, I’m going with you. I was like, yeah, right. He goes, he’ll tell everyone if someone’s no one will use you. That’s great. Well, I’m not going to tell you you’re good if you’re not. Appreciate it, mate. That’s what we want. Honest, upfront. Exactly. So, that’s what we try and be. So,

we’ll keep it going. We’ll get out there. I even said to Scotty, “Don’t waste your time chasing anybody else. Get on to this guy.” Perfect. Yeah, we’ll wrap it up there and we’ll That’s cool. Um Well, yeah, we’ll get out there anyway or get on to Braden after this and we’ll get him to line up coming out your place and getting that.

Yeah, adjusted. Yeah, adjust it. say that generator charging we can look into how that’s talking about the VP reach out and she’ll chat with you about that talk you and Vicki should probably be Joe and Vicki probably um cuz power provider swap over

she’s a technical but yeah so I guess in short essentially existing system only a couple years old it was $600 a quarter now paying you know less than the supply charge every quarter so $80 roughly you know with just a 16 kW battery installed for the right size house. Okay. If you I guess anyone listening if they’re in that similar situation, low income uh low usage household, not low income, low usage household um similar situation to Bob and Vicki, give us a call. Yeah, definitely. Actually, it’s funny just on that friends of mine come up from Melbourne and I was staying at and we were talking about it and they’ve got it on their house and they like it’s a him and her. Their system’s not as good as theirs.

Yeah. Right. Melbourne’s a market I’d break into, but it’s tough for the licensing side of things down there. Well, their system they they’ve got the same very similar batteries and everything, but they still pay more than what we pay. You’re right. Could be their usage pattern though. Um system could be working fine. It could just be come down their usage patterns totally different to you and Vicki. Melbourne being four seasons in a day. Yeah.

Rain rains nine months of the year and drips off the trees the other three. Yeah, that’s good. I used to live there. A beauty. All right. holiday.

Thanks for coming on, mate. Yeah, thanks for coming on, Bob. That