This story is beyond the scope of my normal pieces, but I thought it may be of interest to some, and even possibly useful to others.
And involves electricities.
We have had solar panels on our house since we bought it 7 years ago – it was the first thing we added and being in the sunny south west of WA, made sense. WA is a bit different from all the other states in that we don’t have a multitude of power suppliers to choose from, just the one that is government owned which makes life easy.
Solar Batteries
When the government subsidy for the addition of a battery kicked in on July 1st of last year, we were one of the first in line and had it all installed and running within 6 weeks. There was a small hiccup in that the company who did the install decided to shut its doors the day after, and we had a fault with the system the day after that, but the manufacturer, Solar Edge, stepped in and assisted and got us back up and running very quickly, and all kudos to them.
I highly recommend them as a consequence.
Since the battery went in, our power bill for the last two periods has been $0 and in fact, we are in credit to the tune of $169!
This is despite the fact it is summer and have at least two air conditioners running almost 24/7, a multitude of computers, tablets, mobile phones on charge, TVs and all the other gadgets and gizmos in the modern house.
All of the lighting is LED so that helps, and both cooktop and hot water are gas based too adding to the power saving.
Now to digress a bit but bear with me as it is pertinent.
Petrol Head
Those that know me or are long term readers know I am a petrol head. I started in this biz as a photojournalist specialising in motor sport back in the 70’s and still keep my hand in. In truth, my interest started way before that after my Dad took me to see the movie Grand Prix in the 60s, and my all-time hero is still Graeme Hill, the suave Englishman who tragically died before realising his true potential.
My own car, which I purchased new in 2003 is a Holden Monaro 5.7l V8 6 speed, and I have always owned some sort of “muscle car” or another. I even had a brief stint on the track and in rallying in my younger days, but truth be known, it is like ripping up $100 dollar bills while standing in the rain, hence I went back to photographing and videoing others, although I still have my racing licence.
Anyway, our second car, a 2014 Honda Accord Euro which has been very reliable decided it was going to play up a few weeks back. For no known reason any auto sparky has been able to find, we would go out in the morning to start it, and the battery would be stone dead.
We put in a new battery, and the same thing happened two days later. And then again three days after that. Even all of the mighty diagnostic power at the local Honda dealer could find no fault, but the next day it happened yet again!
So it was time for the Honda to go. But what to get to replace it?
EVs
We had been thinking about going electric for a while, but like many, the price was too high to justify it at the time, but we decided to have a look around to see what the current state of the nation was.
And it can be confusing to say the least. Brands like Chery, MG, BYD, Geely and of course Tesla are added to by “established” manufacturers such as Audi, BMW, Ford Hyundai, Kia, VW, Volvo and others.
A look at pricing tells you straight away the Chinese branded cars have a distinct advantage over the likes of Volvo, Kia, Hyundai etc, and when you look at the features on a “bang for buck” basis, they can be streets ahead.
In fact, I was surprised to find out that BYD is now the largest vehicle manufacturer in the world, out stripping the hapless Tesla this month. (I wouldn’t buy a Tesla on principal by the way).
Australian pollies have a quaint term for an area like the SW of WA. They call us “the regions”, and this causes issues in many areas not evident to people who live in the capital cities.
One of these became very evident when we were trying to choose which brand and model to go for, and in fact made the choice much easier.
Initially, the MG range looked to be the best value for money and had the type and style of vehicle that suited our needs. Big problem though. If something went wrong, even under warranty – which is very generous in its period – we would have to get the vehicle back to Perth to get it fixed, a distance of 160Kms + as there is no local dealer.
The only one that DID have local representation in terms of a service department was BYD, so we took a trip into town and had a look at the range available.
It turned out to be an easy choice; we picked the ATTO 2 Premium at under $40,000. Colour choice was easy too – there are only 4 available being white, black, charcoal or a weird green, so white it was.
The Premium model was selected over the base model due to the extra features like far better tyres, fittings, bigger and more comprehensive LED panel and so on, plus the added luxury of a sunroof for only a couple of thou’ more.
The battery range of 350Km is adequate as that will get us to Perth and back as long as we have a safety top up while in the Big Smoke, and trips to the grand kids in Mandurah, 10-km up the road or to Busselton / Margaret River 100 km south will not be an issue. Anything longer we’;d just take the Monaro of course.
We take delivery this coming Monday as of course the Chrissy period put a bit of a spanner in the works, and I am quite looking forward to the experience.
There will be an extra investment of around $700 + installation of the super dooper charging system to speed up the process over a straight 240v charge, but as this comes off the solar battery system, it is not an issue.
Conclusion
I guess the major point I am making here is that if you do decide to make the leap to an electricity-based future, whether it be domestic power or motor vehicle, please do your research very carefully as there a number of hidden traps that are not immediately evident – local servicing being a case in point.
While not professing to be any expert in this stuff, just a participant, if anyone would like to ask any questions of me, feel free to email me at david@creativecontent.au.