Alternatives...

From July this year, our electricity bill has gone up even more than previously... I'm at my wits end trying to save money. For a 90 day period we pay more than $100 just to have electricity now... Unfortunately, we can't choose which power company we can use. In the city, people have choice. Out here we don't...

A couple of years ago, we had gas cans going really cheaply. I got four packs. Guess what we are going to use for cooking for the time being...

Yep, we are using the gas cooker... Working a treat so far :) Seeing we have 16 cans, I wonder what sort of impact it will have on our stove cooking power usage? Can't wait to see at the end of the quarter...

Blessings,

So many cans to use...

Have to brag...

We got our electricity bill last week... It was fantastic! We had trialled not washing with the dishwasher for the whole quarter... The outcome was shocking... Hubby thought the difference would be about $40 but in fact it ended up at around $50-$60! And that's just for one quarter...

Needless to say, we will continue to wash by hands. The Asko will stay for when we have a heap of guests... Was very surprising...

Blessings,

Power Bill...

Been doing an experiment for the last quarter... Washing dishes by hand and not using the dishwasher... Wanted to see what the difference was in power consumption!

Well, the verdict is in and by hand washing our dishes we saved between $50-$60!!!

Yep, you guessed it! We are continuing to wash dished by hand :)

Blessings,

A good solution...

Over the last little while we have missed a few calls made to our home number...

Our old cordless phone with an answering machine no longer worked...

Yesterday, hubby and I went into Dick Smith and had a look at their variety of phones on offer. There was a pack with a Base, answering machine and two other handsets... Discounted to a ridiculous $36.72!!!

So, now we won't miss calls anymore. I don't like it when I am being forced to ring a mobile, so I certainly don't want to do it to others... The other thing I like about this trio is that it uses such little power too... Always a bonus :)

Blessings

Our Solar panels shine again...

Got our quarterly electricity bill on Monday... Our bill is awesome :) To think that we got our lovely six panels for nothing, as they were put on the roof because of a Federal Government grant, is amazing!

I really hope that the panels help our household for many, many years to come :)

Cheers

Ergon, Warwick Rocks...

This afternoon, hubby and I went into the Ergon office in Warwick. We had been getting barely luke warm water for about three months now. Didn't bother us really but in the last week it has been getting worse... Hubby hates a less than boiling shower lol

We got served by a lovely lady named Tamara. She arranged to have someone come out and check the relays as that was what it sounded like could be wrong. She said they'd be over this afternoon. With a 400 litre tank we should never really run out of hot water.

I got a call 1.5hrs later and sure enough it was the relays, just as Tamara had thought. Couldn't thank her enough for all her wonderful help.

Today, I find allot of times that it seems so much easier to complain when you don't get the service you expect. Yet when someone goes out of their way to help, some just say 'Thanks' and move on. I do say something in the negative when it is warranted but I also make sure I tell the supervisor when the check-out operator does a great job, the grain is packed really well into my car or whatever. Not hard to do... I like to treat others as I would like to be treated. Makes me smile to be positive, as well as the other person and I like that :)

So I'm off to write a letter of thanks to Tamara's boss. Me, I'm hoping for hot water for tomorrow and that the replaced relays has fixed our problems :)

Cheers

New phone... No electricity usage :)

A lovely friend of mine, Lisa, gave me a phone a few years ago. It needs charging though...

Tried to get the batteries replaced and they aren't on the market anymore... Was going to try eBay but couldn't walk past this $4.95 cutie of a phone... Got the 8m long lead for $9.05 instead of $19.95 :)

$14 and I have a brand new phone. Means I can't lose it as it's attached. Also means if we lose power we still have a phone to make and get calls with.

Must say I was surprised at the decent quality. I know Dick Smith in Warwick were getting rid of the last three but there's no crackling or line dropping like with normal cheap phones :) I'm impressed :)

So with this phone I can hold it between my shoulder and neck and I won't be pressing any buttons ;) This is an old style retro phone too as it even has the lip on top of the base to balance your phone while you get the right person for the call... Very cool! Haven't seen that feature in years!

Sounds great too. You can't ignore it which is good as usually it rings when we are outside and couldn't even hear the other phones we used to have. Think I will be very, very happy with it... Especially seeing it doesn't use electricity hehe!

Cheers Damaris

Been slack but here I am...

My beautiful new Swarovski Crystal Ring :)

Little Rosella Plant... It's forming buds now :)

Bailey and Nova doing their thing... lol

Lots of harvesting has been done over the last four months...

Oh boy I have been very slack... I think of the blog so often but just don't get on the computer anymore... This is the first time in months that I have sat down properly... Mainly the reason is due to me not having a computer of my own anymore... Tim has the iMac now. Russell has the iMac 2 and Josh has the Laptop... I don't need my own. I use the iPad or my phone. But from those I can't upload pictures... I might have to look into this a bit more as I would like to upload stuff as I do with Facebook...

Allot has happened since January... Josh has commenced with High School. Tim is doing exceptionally well at school. He got 13 A's and 3 B's for Effort and Behaviour last term. Josh has to pull his socks up a bit but he is only just getting used to not only homework and assignments but also having so many new different teachers.

During the last holidays we also went fossicking for the first time, for real. We packed up the family and went to Glen Innes for a week. We had a ball. NSW was not on holidays yet so we had most operators to ourselves. Many oldies around but it was lovely and quiet. :) The camper trailer did really well. We did underestimate the weather just a little and therefore were a little cold some nights. The days, though, were beautiful to say the least. Lots of Garnets, Sapphires, Black Jacks and Zircons were found...

More and more things have been put into our garden too and the herb garden especially has served us very well. Things are starting to now cool down. During the night we usually have 7-9 degrees so things are slowing down. Just hope that my Rosella will finish growing in time for me to make some jam :)

Work for me has been fantastic as last year. 1.3.12 saw me sign up for my Certificate 3 in Disability, which I am yet to start. It's all in the pipeline...

One of the guinea pigs was accidentally caught by Nova so we replaced her. She is multi coloured. I still take them up to work on a weekend which the residents just love. Am also having a ball driving the bus still. Must say that I really appreciate the way that my boss looks after not just me but all of us...

Russell is loving working at the local school... Maryvale still has him on a Tuesday and 1/2 Friday. Tough that. lol So glad that he is home and that he is also getting on board with the whole No Technology Day thing. That was hard at first but we now have Mondays and Thursdays as No Technology Days... We don't do the Low Electricity Days on Wednesday at the moment. That will probably come again when it's winter... maybe... I have a bit of resistance from Russell on that one so getting the two days no technology is great for now. Our electricity bills have been averaging $120 for the four of us, per quarter. This will be the last quarter without the new Carbon Tax that is being introduced in July. That is something that I am very concerned about and wish that it was being dealt with differently... 400 companies being charged... 400 chances (at least) to get slugged with another tax. At this point no one can tell us what it will mean for power, food, petrol, you know all the day to day living stuff. We already to as little as we possibly can and turn everything off. What else can we do but the powers that be are predicting $300 extra a year... That's a heap of money I don't want spend. Just so glad I have my panels on the roof, thinking I should have gotten more when I had the chance...

So there you have a quick update from what has been happening... Lots of work and not much else. Don't go anywhere really unless I really have to when I'm off.

Cheers Damaris

Very, very blessed...

Down comes the broken one :)

With Brian's wonderful help the new one went up :)

You may remember that over a year ago I had nothing but problems with our Solar Hot Water Panels... One broke due to frost. It has a thermostat which means that the pump should have pumped up warm water or taken all of the water out of the panel in the first place. It should never have busted in the first place...

Anyway, long story short I ended up organising to have the booster switch put on Tariff 31 which meant that it only heated during the night hours and at a fraction of day time hours power costs. Worked really well :) Then a lovely couple by the name of Michelle and Brian had exactly the same panels and set up as ours as we built with the same company at the same time... They had nothing but problems and had the electronics in their system die on them. It was going to cost them way too much to replace it all and in the end they found out that the company has gone into receivership anyway... So they went for Instant Gas Hot Water instead...

Glad they did too as we scored their two working panels. How lovely was that off them. Another member of our community ended up with their 400 litre tank :) How blessed are we all :) All cost nothing as these items would have only gone to the tip anyway. This way there was less landfill and I could organise for the panel that was broken to be replaced.

I did just that and within a week had our plumber our and Brian even helped to get the old one down and the new one up :) Now we are going to take the broken one apart and sell it for parts, especially the copper :) The other panel will stay with us as a spare :)

Love the community spirit in this place. :) Now I have two panels working and loving having my solar back on track :) :) :) :)

Cheers Damaris

Candles galore...

Candles...

A friend of mine was decluttering a few weeks ago... I was fortunate enough to score all her candles. Many of these were still from her father so they were very old... I am using them as I need them.

Am very thankful for them as it slows the need for me to buy supplies... :)

Cheers Damaris

TV dies...

Our new TV...

We had our Sony TV for only 1.5 yrs. 1/2 year out of warranty off course. Found the receipt and was not impressed... It was a 65cm TV and had done us well but now all it did was play the sound and a black picture was all we got. This was due to some overheating in the machine... Not happy!

So we went and had a look for some other TV's. Russell did his research on the net off course... We found a new model LG and he was all ok for getting another 65cm TV again. We then made the mistake of going to the shops and looking at the actual TV...

One shelf above I saw another LG, same sort of LCD LED lighting etc etc... Long story short it is 20% more electricity efficient than our old Sony so we went for it... Just as well as from 1 July this year power has gone up 6.6%. Final size 110 cm. Wow does it show up movies sooooooo much better.

And this TV comes with a 3yr warranty. Another win, win situation...

Cheers Damaris

It's here :) :) :) :)

My new Solar Oven... :)

The Solar Rocket :)

Have wanted a Solar oven for many years and here it is :) We ended up getting the rocket as well as I wanted to be able to heat water for my coffee without using the kettle... I am sooo happy with it and will post photos when we start using it. At the moment we have had so many cloudy days and when the sun has been out I haven't been here... I have boiled water in it though to get rid of any fumes. :)

If you want the same large one let me know as if you mention our names you can get discounted postage. Comes from Europe and sent from Newcastle :) Heather is lovely to deal with and has lots of tips as well. Comes also with a cookbook as well as really easy to understand instructions. Very well made and is able to bake and cook which is what I really wanted. Most only cook... Can't wait to try it out. :)

Will keep you posted. :)

Cheers Damaris

I DID IT!!!!!

Proof of our wonderful achievement :)

One of my aims in life... (I know rather sad right???) I have always wanted to have a quarterly electricity bill of less than $100...

Well this last quarter I did it :) :) :) :) Our bill came in this week and it was $99.90. $73.31 without the ambulance levy... How fantastic is that??? I am soooooooo stoked :)

With the increase in electricity again in July I doubt I will have this low a bill again unless we start getting more of a rebate for our solar that we put into the grid or until I get more panels up on my roof... Will see. Just glad to have done it once at least...

Not bad for four people... And just because Russell is not here three nights a week... Trust me he makes up for it on the weekends... :( Anyway I did it and am really proud of our efforts. :)

Cheers Damaris

1500kWh produced... :)

Loving the solar panels :)

Our panels have produced that many kWh's. Very happy about that. We have used about two thirds of that. As of this morning have exported 583kwh into the grid. Very happy to use my own sun :) :) :) Here is to many more kWh's. :)

Cheers Damaris

Power losses...

Out come the candles, by force...

This week has been rather interesting, I must say... Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights we had quite bad electrical storms and on each night we lost power... Was wonderful to see the village below us in darkness. :) Couple of lights illuminated as people had candles on or torches... I know of one couple that is off the grid and they made sure that they turned on all of their lights so that people knew they had power. hehe

We had no problems here off course. Part and parcel of being part of this household... We had the candles going and had our normal 20l water container with the tap on it over near the kitchen sink... Amazing how water wise the boys get when they can't just turn on a tap. :)

Either way had we lost power for a long time, (longer then the six odd hours on the Wednesday night) thanks to my brother, I would have been able to put on the generator anyway and plug it into the house to keep the fridge and freezer running... Am sooooo grateful for that. :)

Am also very grateful that none of the electrical storms hit us directly. There were allot of lightening strikes around. We could see them dancing in the night and Timothy especially was very scared. But we hung out together and all was good :)

Cheers Damaris

Bowing to pressure...

For a while now I have had just a press dial phone in the kitchen and a cordless phone in the Study. I keep that one in the Study as we make our phone calls through VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). We make our calls through the Internet which is saving us a fortune actually. :)

Last weekend Russell changed around the cables on the computer to isolate the ones that were drawing power while not actually turned on. ie Speakers, computer, monitor etc etc. I didn't realise that they were still drawing power if they were not on but the switch at the wall socket was on... Things you learn when you have a power meter to tell you these things. Now I can switch on the Internet on its own and not draw power for the rest. Yay!

So we also changed the VOIP to be just over our mobiles. We have just changed over our ADSL to ADSL 2+ and this meant that one of the phone filters was not working at its best. So the cordless has been placed out in the kitchen area and I have bowed to... not pressure but a certain amount of hint giving shall we say, mostly from my little sister... (God love her :)) that I also put a cordless phone in the bedroom. That was my intention anyway... Both the phone batteries were getting on so I knew that they would need replacing. That I did for $58 the other day. I get home and one is working fine now but the other battery is not working at all...

So now I have to go back today, get another battery and then charge that one for 24 hours before it will be of any use. That one is going into the bedroom... While I know it will make life easier to have it there I don't like it that it draws the power. I am trying sooooo hard to reduce the usage not increase it. At least I don't have to bolt at night in the dark for the phone anymore. I guess you have to weigh up your options... Still don't much like the usage but am sure I will get over it...

Cheers Damaris

Another Milestone :)

Well I took readings again today, as I do every day and today was a rather special one :)

Today I read that 700.8kWh have been produced by our Solar Panels since 20 January 2010. And the other good news was that today we had a total of 200kWh go into the grid since connection to it.

I really do wish I had more panels and trust me I am working on it but for now I am very happy that we have had 500kWh of free power. :) Thank you Sunshine :)

Cheers Damaris

Remembering my Oma...

I honour my Oma by using the candle...

Whenever my Oma (my Mum's Mum) would come to Australia to visit she would always bring some goodies with her. The times I went back to Austria she would also give me goodies to bring home with me... She has been gone a number of years now but I treasure her old belongings very much...

This candle I have had since before I got married and therefore have had it a little while (over 17 years)... I used to think that I should hold onto things from her and treasure them from afar but I have changed my thinking allot lately...

Many years ago I started using the cutlery set she gave Russell and I for our Engagement Present. I couldn't handle them coming out of the box to begin with but wouldn't have them anywhere else but in my cutlery draw now as whenever I use it I think of her. Same with when I see Irises... She is always there...

The candle has angels all over it and is supposed to be used at Christmas time. I am using it now. :) Always been a bit of a rebel or as some would say, the black sheep in the family. If there was mischief to get up to I would be the leader... hehe

The candle was a hard one to bring out and use though, I must admit. Cutlery, sheets, doilies etc you can see them for a long time while using them but with a candle it slowly disappears... That is now what is happening with mine. I have had it for so long so am trying to make it last and it is doing a great job. It is a non drip candle which is also handy but I usually will light it each night while Russell is not home. That is three nights a week. I turn the lights off in the power box so we don't use them and use candles instead... I love the atmosphere and the shadows that they throw. It also ensures that you slow down and relax more, which is important after a hard day at school or at home.

I am really starting to like lighting it but am not looking forward to the day it is completely gone...

Cheers Damaris

Loving my power bill...

Got my bill on Tuesday... for 90 days it came to $121.80. Woohoo... and that is with boosting half a dozen times too... Had that not have happened I reckon we could have been around $100. Never mind. That is the target for next bill...

So I must say that I am very happy with my panels up on my roof. :) They are doing a great job.

Cheers Damaris

Solar update...

Very exciting news... On Wednesday we reached 100kWh put into the grid. Woohoo... Very excited about that. I usually use most of what we produce and only have about 1kWh go in a day, sometimes a bit more...

Can't wait for my next power bill. hehe

With our family going Failsafe we are cooking everything from scratch and that is certainly having me to use the oven more but must say that the Thermomix is doing a fantastic job... Wouldn't be without it. :)

Cheers Damaris