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I particularly suggest reading p.12 (Myths and Misinformation) of the OCN submission I linked. Some building consultants are incorrectly advising people that fireproof enclosures or firewalls are required for EVs and charging equipment when that is not true. Someone at your Strata might try to...

Well, it didn’t! 😱 This might bore people who have been on Amber for a while and have seen this before, but the price spike is on and I am currently exporting the grid at $7.80/kWh and the export price at 6pm is forecast to be $14.81/kWh 😱😱. That is only 740 times the FIT on my previous plan...

If I find the answer to that question in my readings I will let you know. At least the Owner's Corporation Network (OCN) submission to the NSW inquiry pushed back on the "FUD" on this topic, so you could always wave that at any Strata getting the nervous nellies...

In my one-week sample, I’ve yet to see a price in NSW go below 15c/kWh at any time. It’s forecast to hit $13.60/kWh at 5:30pm today, with exports at that time being $12.21/kWh. Amber is planning to preserve my battery later this afternoon and then discharge to the grid when the price spikes to...

And how many people might actually care about the 5 cent difference in the amount they pay? 🙄 It can go the other way too - any time delay in starting a charge might increase the amount of time spent charging at a lower rate. This is such a non-issue I barely know why I’m writing a reply…

You may be aware that the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) is currently consulting on updating the National Construction Code (NCC). It does this every 3 years. Consultation is open for another 6 weeks and closes on 1 July. The NCC covers all aspects of building but two areas of...

Yes, other people weren't very helpful. Instead of suggesting ways to do what you want, they instead told you that you were wrong and that you need to change. That is rarely helpful. One way to do what you want is plug in a blutooth adaptor to your MP3 player, and connect the car to the...

Well I hope so 😄 because I’m doing everything possible to maximise self-consumption and minimise grid use. I’ve now relinquished control of the battery and given it to Amber, so we’ll see how that goes. Even still, over the past 12 months, solar has only provided 51.4% of our total electricity...

House batteries are inevitably going to be aggressively cycled - that’s the whole point of them. My PW2 is cycled, on average, 0.63 times per day. Most days it will reach 100% charge (either through solar or me telling it to grid charge overnight when the solar forecast is poor) and then be...

I’m happy to give you chapter and verse if you want, rather than answer one question at a time. But to answer that one question… on average… 7.5 kWh/day of solar went into the battery, 1.3 kWh/day of grid went into the battery, and 7.7 kWh/day of battery went to the house. A tiny amount went...

In the past 12 months, 33.5 kWh/day.

Thanks for your observations! Still very very early days for me, but observations to date (noting I am on Ausgrid, NSW): The price forecasts are a bit wonky. I get that it is just a forecast, and you don’t know the final 30 minute price until the final 5 minutes (due to the 5-minute...

I’ve used my 10m extension lead a few times when on holidays. It is quite handy to have in the sub-boot. Because when you need one, there is no alternative.

My previous plan, before jumping to Amber a week ago, had peak electricity at 63c/kWh.

Extension leads are not recommended for UMCs because frankly most people aren’t aware of the risks or what’s required so its simpler and less risk to just tell everyone to not do it. However, getting a lead with appropriate conductor size (e.g. 1.5mm for 10m/10A) is OK… check your AS3008...

I calculated the payback time of my battery by itself, based on the value of the electricity it has discharged at the time it discharged it, less foregone FIT (I’ve kept all my PW2 5-minute data since installation). Payback time is currently at 12.6 years. Increasing grid prices reduce the...

No, but my one claim to fame in an ICE is that I once did a hill-start in reverse.

It’s OK, but my understanding is my PW2 degradation is not “normal” and somewhat of an outlier. As to why that is, 🤷‍♂️.

I did check that out before signing up… if you are part of a VPP then the warranty limit is 37 MWh throughput measured at the AC output. Guesswork isn’t required because this figure is reported by the PW2’s own API. Mine is currently at 13.9 MWh discharged, and I’m exactly 5 years in. I don’t...

Well the economics of house batteries are pretty ropey to begin with (>10 year payback) and a second battery will be even worse (>20 years) however the advent of VPPs will change that if you get paid healthy amounts for being able to export power at the right time. Clearly at a grid scale it is...

Yes, Amber manage everything if you are part of their VPP. I figure their algorithms are going to be ten times smarter than anything I could come up with, so I happily gave them control of my battery. Amber provide some ability to manually override their control, but frankly, I can’t imagine...

Amber have taken control of my battery so I am formally now part of their VPP. I noticed this (overcast) morning my PW2 started to grid charge while electricity is (relatively) cheap and certainly cheaper than the 62c/kWh forecast at 5:30pm today when Ausgrid is forecast to have 0% renewables...

Never heard that one. It sounds similar in scientific rigour to the stupid green highlighter pens that in the 90s people used to argue you could colour the edges of your CDs with and you’d get better quality sound on playback 🙄. It was rubbish science easily disproved. If a charging cable...

Treating others the way you would like to be treated is a universal humanist principle, hence can be considered the “right” way to go about things.

So close… and yet so far…

I also noticed last week for the first time that bicycle lane icons are also visualized in the road markings along with turn arrows. Maybe it’s been there for a while and I only just noticed it.

It’s also due to a lack of automated data integrity checking too. It’s not that hard to algorithmically weed out obviously false entries (e.g. stations in the middle of the ocean) and to park submissions for human vetting if they look dodgy (e.g. unusual or unpopulated areas such North Korea...

In a CCS2 session, the vehicle’s current SoC and target SoC are reported to the DCFC and this visible to the network operator via the management interface, otherwise they would not be able to estimate time to completion. Every vehicle’s charge profile is different, of course, which is why any...

What you are saying is that Elon was so out of tune as to what everyone does, that he could not possibly work out who to retain and who to let go before making a major decision, so he nukes the lot and then has to spend time and money to work out what skills he does need and rebuild the team...

Because there is a right way and wrong way to go about things. People can be “different” but be self-aware enough, or have the right people around them, to take emotion and impulsiveness out of decisions and do it properly. Treating people and suppliers like disposable trash, and waiting 10...

By the way… I called this back on 2 May:

More proof, if it was ever needed, that the original decision was an impulsive and emotional one by Elon. Act first, think of the consequences later. That’s not the kind of CEO I have respect for, because it leads to poor business decisions, loss of organisational trust, and brand damage that...

That’s because most senior executives are smart enough to know that bitterness is a quite unattractive quality in a future employee, and a future employer would rightly question the judgment and wisdom of someone who publicly vented under their own name. Also the internet has a very, very long...

Yes that’s what they do. The ToU network charges for different distributors are provided in full here: https://help.amber.com.au/hc/en-us/articles/360060072251-Personalised-app-prices-for-Time-of-Use-ToU-tariff-customers Reading their many FAQs, it seems the “Live Price” displayed per kWh in...

It was even 51% at 11:30 today in NSW, according to the Amber App 😲. There was a weird extremely bright thing in the sky at times today, and some of the sky actually looked blue not grey. Hold the phone!

And one of the people sped away without “unplugging” their car… and probably without paying either 🤣 Fossil fuels are clearly very dangerous and should be completely banned, based on the evidence of this one video… 🙄

Currently showing 32c for that.

The ACT has its own distributor - ACTEWAGL - hence its own set of electricity rates. The ACT has been smart and negotiated supply agreements with generators to supply 100% of ACT’s consumption with renewable energy, ACT’s rates are cheaper than in NSW. There are 3 distributors in NSW: Ausgrid...

Some more thoughts a whole 5 days in… 😄 It’s a bad time of year, but I’m yet to see electricity selling for less than 18c/kWh. Overnight hasn’t gone below 22c so far - which is when we charge the LEAF and PW2 🙁. What rates do others see overnight? It’s not clear if the realtime rates include...

Can folk experienced with Amber provide their comments/thoughts on this (noting I have solar and PW2): I am comfortable with Amber taking control of my PW2 with SmartShift. My assumption is their algorithms will be way more sophisticated than anything I could brew up. Is my faith misplaced 😄...

Lots of troglodyte comments though if you view it on YouTube…

They are competent, because in all the instances I know of, those business have rolled out an internal and external comms plan and had media Q&A ready to go when such announcements have been made. Can you name any specific instances where they have not done that?

Yeah, I suspected it would be given Amber’s model, but my “plan” with my previous electricity provider expired yesterday so I was forced to made a decision. And staying with my previous provider wasn’t an option I was entertaining, since I was completely jack of them. I always play the long...

It is, provided it is made completely clear what the “promise” is. For example, if at checkout for FSD Tesla had a disclaimer along the lines of: …with a box to tick to indicate a positive affirmation and acceptance by the buyer, then Tesla would be on much more solid ground to avoid any...

…aaaand I have already received a code. Thanks all!

Well based on my 3 days with Amber so far 🤣 I’d be paying nearly double what my previous typical bill would have been. And that’s not including daily supply charges and GreenPower 😬. But not panicking… the last 3 days have been complete rubbish weather-wise in NSW and (hopefully) not...

Goodo… if anyone wants to PM me their code then it will be gratefully received… I’ll use the first one I receive 😄

It’s inexcusable that no-one knew what was going on after the announcement was made. A comms plan, if one had actually been developed (and clearly there wasn’t one) would have put everyone (employees, customers, partners, the public) on an equal footing with the same information. No need for...

As others have pointed out, all the major DCFC network providers pay for 100% renewable electricity or offset the emissions. The fact that electrons are fungible means that every dollar of electricity they buy goes to a renewable generator, hence is a dollar that is NOT going to a coal or gas...

Cool - I didn’t know that Amber have an API. Now that I’m a customer I’ll check it out and probably write my own code to do similar. I wrote a python script to do my own version of “Charge on Solar” until Tesla implemented their own, which works better. I can repurpose my script to be “Charge...