How Ashley Cut His Townsville Power Bill From $1,500 to $20

Today’s guest was paying 1,500 a quarter on his power bills, something many Aussies know all too well. But unlike most Aussies, he decided to just stop giving in to the power company and he made a change. I’m Jason. I’m Cam. We’re the owners of Source Energy Group. We’ve designed and installed countless solar and battery systems for Australian homeowners. In this episode, the boys are sitting down with Ashley who has recently installed a solar and battery system.

It’s only been about a month so far, but already he’s starting to see savings roll in with his next bill predicted to come in at $20 total. So, welcome back everyone. Cam’s not here today who’s normally with me, but I am here with Luke, our North Queensland face of Source Energy Group. G’day guys. And not only do we got Luke here today, we’ve actually got Ashley Baxter. He’s one of our clients up there in North Queensland.

He’s going to share his experience with Source Energy Group, you know, life before his new system and what it’s done for him and everything along the way. Yep. So, thanks for coming in, Ashley. And hello from beautiful Townsville. Yep. So, what was main thing was what was the What was your favorite part or the best part about your install so far? How How’s your power bills and how how’s the experience been for you? Yeah, look, it’s it’s early days, Luke. It’s it’s been up for for a month or so.

So, you know, in terms of how we’re going with our bill, you know, it’s I haven’t had a full ergon bill yet. However, I have been tracking every day, you know, it’s it’s wonderful. You showed me the app and and we get on there and we have a look and I’ve got using AI to help me keep track of the days so I know how many, you know, kilowatt hours I need to to send back to the grid to cover my daily supply charge and things like that.

So, at the moment, my bill for August, you know, we’re you know, couple of weeks in, it’s it’s sitting under $5 for the month. So, in terms of where I’m at, we’re stoked. As a as a as a family, we’re we’re a big family, you know, that there’s five of us, my wife and my three kids.

And to get our power bills down from nearly 1,400 bucks a quarter down to, you know, it might be under 20 bucks a quarter now is is something that, you know, we’re we’re super stoked with and yeah, looking forward to seeing how that goes from winter into summer and continuing on. That’s That’s awesome. Yeah, it’s a good result. Yeah. What’s the size of the household just to put it in context for other people that might be listening? As in? Four bed four bedroom Yeah, so it’s a four four bedroom house. It’s got high ceilings. We’ve got a pool.

Um we’re high energy users. It’s one of those things where we have had solar on on the place for a number of years now, but you know, we’re not the we’re not the kind of people that we can be home very often during the day to maximize the the the sun if that makes sense.

So, you know, we we would try and do the washing and the dishwasher and all that sort of stuff during the day, but um the the beautiful thing about having a big battery now in the house is that we can do the dishes at night or the washing at night and we don’t really need to worry about it anymore cuz we’re not having to buy the power from Ergon at night time.

I think that’s the biggest benefit of the battery, you know, and there’s a lot of time there where everyone was getting solar only, they all got educated to do what you’re talking about, shifting that energy usage. Now, once you get that battery, essentially you can just live the normal life, can’t you? Do your normal usage patterns and you’re you’re still getting that benefit and result. Yeah, well, that’s it.

I look at it in you know, my my parents have had solar since 2009 or something and they got locked into that 44 cent tariff and you know, they haven’t paid a power bill since and and good on them, but you know, I wasn’t at the stage where I could buy a house or have solar then. So, I look at this as the you know, the the 44 cent tariff of of my generation, I guess, as as a as a dad with you know, with wife and three young kids.

So, it’s one of those things I didn’t want to miss out on, especially with with with the rebates that are available at the moment. It’s it’s great that you say that cuz that’s exactly what it is. It’s like it’s not the 44 cent rebate for selling the power. Now, you got the battery, you’re now storing it instead of paying that 44 cents cuz that’s what it is during peak hours now in Ergon territory. Um you’re saving that and storing it and you’re no longer paying it. so it’s essentially the same thing, isn’t it? You know? Yeah, that’s it.

For for us it was it was a no-brainer. It was it was one of those things where I looked at my bill every month, and you you look at, you know, the the loan that I was able to secure for the for the battery, and you know, my loan repayments per month are less than my power bill. So, it was it was a no-brainer for for me, and it it makes perfect sense for for me and my family, and yeah, we’re we’re we’re stoked with the results so far, and excited for the future. Yeah, that’s awesome.

So, on on that loan sort of thing, cuz, you know, some people buy it outright, some people take the loan path and everything like that. Now, your your repayments are obviously a lot less than um what your bill used to be. Some people have the argument, “Oh, you know, you’re just swapping one for the other.” In your mind, or in your words, what’s the benefit of that? So, cuz yes, you have swapped it, but I I know the benefit, I understand it, but it’s it’s always good to hear it from from the client side. So, Yeah.

Yeah, look, I understand that. I’m I may have switched from, you know, 450 a month to just a little bit under 400, and and, you know, you go, “Well, that’s only 50 bucks a month, Ash.” But, I I look at it in terms of that the system will be paid off, and, you know, this is a 7-year loan. Do we plan on paying it back in 7 years? Hopefully, we can get it off sooner, you know?

And it it’s one of those things that as soon as that that power uh as soon as that loan is paid off, then, you know, at the moment, all I’m having to cover every day or is a percentage of my Ergon service fee or the connection fee, you know? So, it’s for me and my family, it made sense, you know? It’s just like people, you know, renew, look at, you know, health insurances, look at life insurances, look at car and house insurances.

We looked at power, and for us in Townsville, there there’s not many options in terms of where you can go for power, you know? We’re we’re sort of locked into Ergon, especially if you’ve got solar. And, you know, we don’t have the virtual power plants as such yet. So, you look at ways that you can maximize your dollar as the cost of living increases, and you go, “Look, hey, this is a good way to do it. So, let’s do it. 50 bucks is 50 bucks.” And but then in a few years time, I’m laughing.

Well, that saving $50 say this year, you come to next year, it’s actually going to be what closer to probably 60, 70, or even $80 because as the power price power price climbs, that saving benefit the difference between your your bill that it would have been for your repayments is going to get greater and greater, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s it. And look, that is just a snapshot of where we’re at at this point in time.

Yeah, who who knows what the future brings, but it it it’s one of those things where the the price of electricity is, you know, in 10 years time definitely isn’t going to be where it is today.

So, um yeah, it’s it’s super interesting to be a part of it and to to learn all little tricks and and as it comes along and just to to to see, you know, how I can help you know, how we can help each other out, help our family out to you know, to save a bit of bit of money, but also it’s also good to be able to know that, you know, you have your own power supply. You know, being up in Townsville, we we do get the odd, you know, weather event and things like that and it was off-grid capability of the plant.

going to I was going to say um a lot of all all the clients we’ve had on here so far have been in the southeast corner. Um so, you’re the first one from North Queensland that we’ve had on here. I was going to say, what’s um North Queensland um specifics uh like your dry season, wet season, and usage patterns, and like you say, the obviously the backup Yeah, the backup especially in a cyclone situation or, you know, even some of our most of our power around that area is overhead.

So, nine times out of 10, you know, it could happen once a month, once every couple of months. Yeah, you’ve lost you’ve lost power. To give you an example, that happened a few weeks ago. I was at the shops with with my wife and kids and I get a text from my neighbor. Um he goes, “Ash, is that battery installed yet? Your house is lit up.” And I went, “Yeah, mate, what’s happened?” And sure enough, there was there was a car accident, the power pole had been taken out, and he’s sent me a picture of him cooking his dinner by torch light.

Meanwhile, my house is lit up like Vegas. So, You should send us that picture and we’ll use it in the marketing. Yeah. That’d be awesome. It’d be good. I love hearing that stuff. Yeah. I mean, that’s not necessarily North Queensland specific cuz a blackout can happen anywhere. No, that’s it. Blackouts can happen. It’s more common. And I think where we were at with channels is we get a lot more daylight hours in the southeast at this time of year as well.

So, you know, my system is generating from 7:00 in the morning through till 6:00 at night still. Whereas, I know you know, in Brisbane Gold Coast, generally speaking, it’s pretty dark by 5:00 and But then it does flip when it comes into the wet season up there cuz there’s more rain and overcast. So, it’s producing more than the southeast. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah. Yeah. So, look, as I said, I’m I’m I mean, but that’s also why I went with such a big battery, you know, like I’ve got 49. Yeah. So, you know, I’m trying to capture the for talk about.

But when when you was going through the design, I think you done it with Zach, I think it was. Yeah, it was. He would have walked through, you know, oversizing for specific reasons, especially the whole home backup, wet season, for example. Yeah. Yeah, it’s one of those things. Zach put Zach was very keen on the whole just go 10% more than you need, Ash. Just go 10% more than you need.

And and that was really good advice because like obviously, we we looked at many different suppliers before we chose Source Energy Group, you know, and I encourage every single person out there to go and make sure you get as many, you know, get all the information that you can because information is power.

And it’s one of those things that that that that the lesson Zach was the first person we talked to and we came back to Zach and we came back to Solar Energy Group because of the knowledge that Zach had around, you know, let’s put a little bit more on there. You never know, you know, you want to save for the for the for, you know, if there is an EV in the future or if your if your energy needs change, you know, like my kids are getting older, they’re going going using more power.

There’s going to be things where, you know, they’re not going to want to turn their air conditioner off. They’re going to say, “No, Dad. I’m not going to do that.” And as much as I’d like to think that, you know, they will always listen to me. How how old are your kids now, Ash? Uh I got a 9, 7, and 3-year-old. So, they’re they’re starting to hit that. Yeah, that’s when your usage increase is coming. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, that’s my sort of hit around the 12, 13. The showers were all half an hour each, and then the power bill goes boom.

All right, you’re sorted now. So. That’s it. We are we are very fortunate. We’re very lucky. I love hearing that results, especially like was it around 1,500 down to your, you know, you’re going to be around $20 for the quarter. Yeah, like And what are you saying about And that will see that that will fluctuate, but, you know, like in terms of I I guess that the thing that I’m looking at doing now is um I’m looking at a little different tariffs on on Ergon. Um that’s that’s the next sort of thing that I’m looking at.

And you know, there there’s the new, you know, solar share and the solar soak and all those sort of things. I don’t know if they’re the ones for me, but there’s a I think it’s tariff 14C or 14D or something, which is it it’s one that Ergon solar share, is it not? No? No, it’s the it’s the demand it’s the peak demand one where they charge you in kilo in your highest 30 minutes of kilowatt usage per month and like whatever it is between 4:00 and 9:00 p.m., but the daily supply charge is a dollar 30. So, it’s 50 cents cheaper a day.

And it’s one of those things that if you’re going to use power between 4:00 and 9:00, it’s probably not the right one to use because I think it’ll end up costing you more money. But if I can not use my the grid at all between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., um then it makes my which with the size battery I have, I shouldn’t need to, it makes my power bill even work better for me and all that sort of stuff. So, even more little savings. That’s what I’m experimenting with at the moment.

So, before the 3 hours of free power came out, GloBird were basically doing that already. So, the clients that we’ve had with GloBird were getting the 3 hours of free power, and then they’re working out between that 6:00 and 9:00 window. I’m not What’s Ergon’s window? Is it 6:00 and 9:00? No, 11:00 till 2:00. 11:00 till 2:00 during the day. All right. So, yeah. My My battery’s pretty much full by 11:00. So, I don’t So, yeah. So, it’s not really going to work. It’s not the same as GloBird. Yeah. No.

He’s going to be stung with that 44 cent usage even if you get that 3 hours of free power. Yeah, that’s it. So, and like Luke Luke will mention to me on the day that he goes, “Ash, your battery’s going to be pretty much full by 11:00 a.m.” And he’s right, you know, like most of the time it’s between 11:00 and 12:00 is when my battery’s full up again. So, then there’s no sense to me going with the with the free power cuz I’ve got nothing to power between 11:00 and 2:00 really, you know, like it’s all it’s all working for me.

So, yeah, the only the only way that I can see myself in Townsville reducing my power bill or my connection fee more is moving to that that tariff that has the the the cheaper daily connection fee. That’s That’s That’s the only way at the moment. So, yeah. Yeah, we’re just looking at your system on SEMS Plus 5 minutes ago. And full battery, already exporting back to the grid, and the house has been powered for free off the solar.

And and the goal is to get to 30 every day cuz if I can get to 30 kilowatts back to the grid every day, I I cover my connection fee. Yeah, but Ergon Ergon’s still paying 6 cents, which is quite high compared to everywhere else. Yeah, but I think that is reducing down to I think 3 cents and and things like that soon as well. Yeah. Well, now you do have to get going there, Ash. I just want to sort of recap for everyone. You know, living in Townsville, North Queensland, you know, you got more power outages up there than we do down here.

You now got the full home backup, and as you said, it’s already kicked in. You’re seeing the benefits of it. Your neighbor let you know when it was out. That was awesome. You know, you basically wiped out the majority of your bill. You have wiped out your usage. You still got that small supply charge, which we tell everyone you’re still always going to have something there. Yeah, that’s that’s it. I don’t want to cut off that connection. You know, was it four-bedroom house? You got three kids, isn’t Three kids. Air con.

So, it is a high usage house. The last customer we had on here on couple episodes ago, it was almost the exact opposite to you. You know, tailored for their house, they got their benefits. They only needed a 16 kW battery cuz it was low usage. Yours is almost the exact opposite. It’s in another part of the country. Again, I guess what I’m trying to say here is every system we design is designed specifically to the household based on the household usage and what they think they’re going to be doing in the future.

And I think that’s the real difference. And you said we were the first one you spoke to, but not the last, but then you came back to us. So, what was the deciding factor to come back, I guess? Yeah, it’s it’s a good question that you ask. And I think it came down to, you know, at the end of the day, your price was was outstanding for the value of system that I was getting.

Like it’s one of those things where, you know, I looked at many different companies and, you know, I ran lots of different quotes through different different things to come up with the with the final final figure. And I think for, you know, there were people that were 20 grand more than you for the for the same system that I got. And, you know, like it was one of those things where, you know, they they they promised next day service and next day all this sort of stuff. And they’ll they’ll cover your bill if it’s ever down and things like that.

And I look at that and I go, that’s that’s lovely. And and I’m sure they’re a wonderful company. But for for what was right for for me and my family at that time, Who knows? They have 18,000 reviews, apparently. Sorry. Sorry, didn’t want to interrupt. That It’s not for me to say. It’s not for me to say. But look, it’s one of those things where we’re stoked that we went with Source Energy Group. You know, it’s one of those things where the only red flag that popped up was that your company is new.

And why should I penalize you guys because your company is new? You know, like I can’t complain about the service or the the the positive nature of every single person from yourselves to to Zach to Joe to Delphi. It’s it’s been a really positive experience and one where I feel like if I do have any dramas, I can just pick up the phone and and someone will be there to help me, you know, whether it’s tomorrow or the next day. I don’t really mind because I know that someone will be there to answer the phone. That’s awesome.

Another thing I’m glad you said is cuz all we continually say, I say it in all episodes and it’s across our website or anything like that, our whole goal, cuz we’ve all come from the industry across multiple companies and everything like that to create Source Energy Group, the whole goal is, you know, if something goes wrong, cuz it will at some stage, we’ll be the ones there to pick up the phone. It’s exactly what you just said. Yeah. Same. Yeah. That’s that’s that’s that’s why ultimately why we went with Source Energy Group. Awesome.

Awesome. Yep. Good deal. All right. Well, yeah, as we said, I just tried to wrap it up there before, but I know you got you got to get going, go pick up the kids. Um thank you very much for coming on and it’s great to hear the results and everything so far. I’m sure it’s not the last time we’ll be talking. Um you know, you system on your roof, we’re here. Something goes wrong, pick up the phone, Joe’s going to answer and if we need to, obviously me and the team will be out there. So. Awesome. lads. Pleasure talking to you.

Have a great day, hey.