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I don't use the cast iron hotplates on top of the electric small oven.

They are fixed heat level, on or off, no adjustment. That is crap, but I bought it for the oven and it's a very good oven for a benchtop model.  Many small ovens have elements that run too hot, so they sort of  half-toast-half-bake the food, which means they tend to burn top and bottom surfaces of food. This one has more elements (3 top and 3 bottom) but they run at "barely red" rather than "glowing red" so they warm the air in the oven, not scorch the food. It is more of an oven than a toaster-oven.
 
In California we have net metering. Sort of. As I understand it, all it means is that you can return power generated by a solar system back to the utility, and it is subtracted from your monthly bill. But if you provide more power back than you use, you don't get a check for the extra you provided.

I may be wrong on this, but it's my understanding of how it works here with PG&E, at least for residential accounts.

And there is also a fee for the transmission service. It's quite substantial on a monthly bill. Don't know if providing power back with a solar system reduces the transmission fee or not, although I suspect not.
 
In our state (Victoria) you have separate prices for import and export, but you have the right to earn away your fixed supply charge and can demand payment for your export surplus - I think it is once a year you get a payment to the bank for your surplus exports.

I know a couple of people who have earned over $1000 in export credits in a year. That is after their entire fixed charge and imports were covered by the value of exports to grid.
 
whooa

Imagine covering your roof with rented solar panels and perhaps having the space for a ground installed array
PLUS
making your home super efficient

So that you get like a $1000 a month income from your panels.

There are people who are doing it.
 
He is cute....

but he kind of scares me.

His story as it's evolved since I first started following him..... doesn't completely seem believable.  Originally he was living in an RV on the street.  Now, supposedly he has money and his family situation is different, has bought a house in NV and drives a new Tesla.(?)

 

 

He's pushing a good cause so even if someone's paid him, I'm along for the ride.  
 
#18

Thanks for the info. I figured there must be a gas backup somewhere. My stereotypical northern latitude response was, "It can't be that sunny that consistently that he has an all-electric kitchen. Suppose it's cloudy a few days in a row and he needs to cook every evening!" I get it now.

My ex has cousins in Brazil who have 2000(?) litre water tank heated by solar panels. Hot water and heat run from coils off the tank. The tank has backup resistance heating that he's used only a few times in the 5 or so years he'd been living there.
---
I've seen similar oven in the US. I only looked at one seriously once (didn't buy it) and I recall you COULD use both burners and the oven at the same time but there was (conveniently) no mention of how the 1500 watt max power would be divided up. I remember reading that and imagining someone putting two pots of water on top and trying to bake something..... then wondering why everything was taking forever...... Because that WOULD happen here :-)
 
..... Because that WOULD happen here :-)

happens here too...

The reviews online of my oven are terrible. Many bitching about the fact that you can't use oven and hotplates at the same time.

Standard power outlets in Australia are 2400W max so theoretically you could use at least one hotplate with the oven, even limit oven to bottom element only to do that. Having non-adjustable hotplates is lame, for sure. But I only wanted it for the oven and it is great for that.

My gas stove...brand new, $1500, boy I could write a nasty review about that... deservedly so...I'll leave that for another day.

Suffice to say it was designed by accountants who don't cook and don't clean.
 
He is cute.... but he kind of scares me.

Me too a little.

I saw a live youtube of him talking to his supporters and he started talking about his gun collection... a little too enthusiastically for my comfort. But I dislike guns.

The story as I understand it is just that he has made his fortune with sponsorships and commissions on sales through his channel. I can understand that.

I wonder if he is just a bit "on the spectrum" as he gets so intense. That's not a criticism, I sometimes wonder if I am too...

I notice he wears a lot of Ripcurl shirts. Ripcurl HQ is just down the road from me...a few hours drive, but it is a looong road.

He could wear a hessian sack and still look stunning.
 
Hey Chris, Panasonic have released a bench top convection oven that I’m curious to try. They manage to pack multilevel cooking and a convection fan in there.

I’ve been and fondled them a few times in MYER, but I can’t justify getting one to play with. It does look like a solid quality product.

2000l sounds like an awful lot of capacity, that’s 500gal. Our 450l tank has three full-size panels, so 2000l would potentially need a roof full of hot water panels to keep that hot.

Cheers

Nathan
 
re; Will Prouse, Maine house listing Zillo

Do you think he may be "family"? I have guns that were my dad's. A vintage 300 Savage rifle, and a Winchester 1400 semi automatic 12 gauge with a swap off deer slayer slug barrel. No handgun though, yet. If I think we need one to protect ourselves, then maybe.
Iam currently building a Faller ho scale kit of a similar house for my model r.r. layout. The Villa. Lots of detail, gingerbread and moldings. I'm leaving the stucco cram, but color washing the brownstone corners and collonades over with a light grey.
 
#28

I was extrapolating from 20+ year old memories. So I could be way off, lol. Here's the data I recall

- family of 4
- 2 bathrooms
- 1 washer & 1 dryer ... both usual 24" undercounter size
- 1 dishwasher, also appeared 24". Don't remember if it heats its own water
- No problems with hot water running out if showering while washer is running

Hot water and heat start getting luke-ish on the 3rd cloudy day in a row of typical winter ~8-10C (?) weather.
The previous winter they had 3 nights in a row of killing frost (MAJOR cold snap for them) and it didn't warm up as much as it usually does during the day although it was mostly sunny. The electric backup wasn't needed. I'm pretty sure the tank was bigger than a typical 250 US gal. oil tank. The tank was exposed to the weather with northern quarter and top uninsulated for sun exposure.

Mind you, all this was through my own home made version of Interlingua (see link): Two very different dialects of Italian & Spanish, all of which were at 2nd year college on a good day... plus the Portuguese I was picking up as I bumbled along. So I might've gotten a few details wrong.

 
Hi Jim,

Brisbane is a subtropical climate, so we generally only have 5-10 days per year where we need backup electric resistance heat to keep the water hot. The rest of the time, the only cost is the electric circulation pump, to move the water through the panels.

The issue with more capacity, is that it obviously takes more solar gain to heat it all. In summer our three panels in our climate can overheat the tank, so the controller has a program to shed heat, by pumping water through the panels, when the panels are colder than the tank temp.

I'd be curious to see how many panels are needed to keep 2000L at 140deg, even in a tropical climate. My inquiry is purely based on the fluctuations we get here, with 450L and 3 panels.

I just found the attached brochure for commercial systems. 2000L needs 12-24 panels which is 250 to 500 square feet of roof space

 

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