Evil Green Lightseses
30/05/2008 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaIzzie's just slinked into the Lair from an afternoon spent at a so called green home building and renovation show
Picked up a pile of freebies but found a bunch of things that made Izzie a rather peeved python
Was particularly curious to see how all those solar panel installers popping up like mushrooms all over the place would be getting on in the wake of this month's budget which contained a few nasty and rather unexpected surprises
The Federal Government had been offering rebates of up to $$8,000 for installing photovoltaic panels but had tweeked the terms to introduce a new means test meaning that households with incomes over $$100,000 would no longer be eligible. Earning not even one third of that, the Izzie was not affected but did suspect that the majority of applicants would be. Even with the rebate, it is still a pretty pricy proposition with a very very low return on investment and more of a decadent feel good thing.
It rather reminds us of the ever so generous 150% government grant for folks to top up their superannuation accounts. They will pay up to $$1.50 for each $$1.00 after tax contribution up to a maximum of $$1,500 on their part. But the wicked twist is that the freebies phase out once your annual income reaches $40 000 something. And there's very few folks on that sort of income who've got a lazy thousand or so just lying around and that of course is the whole point of the exercise.
Was looking at composting toilets, rainwater tanks and grey water systems and lamenting the fact that all these great greenie ideas have such high upfront costs that they are generally unaffordable for house elves such as Izzie.
Already picked most of the low hanging fruit so it's really only the big ticket items left on our agenda
Well. Seen the electric company's stall and figured we might pick up some more packets of free seeds. Then seen a new brochure about how they are being all nice and user friendly to wannabee greenies by now waiving the $$107 application fee for renewables producers connecting to the grid
A bit miffed was the Izzie. But that was nothing when compared to the Solar Shop stall next door which was offering the very same system that the Izzie had bought for half price for the duration of the show.
There's Izzie thinking that the restrictions on the rebate would make things more expensive but apparently not so
Went over and asked what the story was and if this sale had anything to do with the new rules. Turns out that it most certainly did.
Sales had been increasing at a rapid rate as the rebate had finally made solar panels affordable for many people (Izzie among them) The company greatly increased its orders of panels to meet demand only to have the goal posts so unexpectedly moved. So loads of cancellations and all those panels piling up in the port prompted this weekend fire sale
So there's Izzie - the princess of procrastinating pythons - the one time we finally got our finger out and did something - turns out that waiting for a rainy day and doing nothing would have been the best course of action. It's not quite correct to say that being an early bird cost us $$2,500 plus that $$107 application fee in that the present price is not the real one but a bit of delay could certainly have saved us that $$2,600 to be spent on other stuff like rainwater tanks and kept the inner vulture happy
It's just one of those unexpected things. Would have been better not to have known about it and then would have been none the wiser
Was already feeling a bit cheated by the green washing of the local electric co
Innocent Izzie had been buying so called green power for the last five years or so and paying 3 cents extra per unit - gone up to 4.4 since last October.
So when our first bill arrived two weeks ago with those 240 units clocked up - figured that they'd be paying us that 4 cents (the other 0.4 being for the 10% goods and services tax)
Oh but no. The sneaky beasties were selling peak electricity at just under 28 cents but paying Izzie only 24 and likewise selling the cheaper weekend juice at 18 cents but paying Izzie only 14. The cheapest juice they sell for 10 cents but we got none of that for sale since there's not much sunshine after 9pm
Ended up with a grand total of 30 silver sickles credit for the 240 units we sold and that soon shrunk down to 9 silver sickles after they took out what we used, the supply charge and the $$4 fee for last month's over due notice.
At that rate - will be nowhere near the $$400 or so savings per year needed to cover the cost in interest on the $$5,000 redrawn from the house loan. It looks even less attractive when also taking into account the $$107 for the application fee and $$200 for the new meter
Yesss. Izzie might be a greenie but she's also a goblin too and the numbers just do not add up at all.
Needless to say - rang up the electric co to cancel our green power. Firstly that 4 cents is better in our pocket than theirs but especially since it's just an act of sneaky tricksiness that is simply not acceptable. Not sure if false advertising is too strong a claim since it is quite possible that the 28 cents they charge for peak green is less than the actual cost of production. But at least they should have the manners to pay their producers the premium as they are not the people who are handing out those $$8,000 cheques.
Yesss. Once again it proves the truth of one of the many clauses of Murphy's Law which states that no matter how long it takes to choose and buy something, a week later the very same thing will be in a sale some place else.
Picked up a pile of freebies but found a bunch of things that made Izzie a rather peeved python
Was particularly curious to see how all those solar panel installers popping up like mushrooms all over the place would be getting on in the wake of this month's budget which contained a few nasty and rather unexpected surprises
The Federal Government had been offering rebates of up to $$8,000 for installing photovoltaic panels but had tweeked the terms to introduce a new means test meaning that households with incomes over $$100,000 would no longer be eligible. Earning not even one third of that, the Izzie was not affected but did suspect that the majority of applicants would be. Even with the rebate, it is still a pretty pricy proposition with a very very low return on investment and more of a decadent feel good thing.
It rather reminds us of the ever so generous 150% government grant for folks to top up their superannuation accounts. They will pay up to $$1.50 for each $$1.00 after tax contribution up to a maximum of $$1,500 on their part. But the wicked twist is that the freebies phase out once your annual income reaches $40 000 something. And there's very few folks on that sort of income who've got a lazy thousand or so just lying around and that of course is the whole point of the exercise.
Was looking at composting toilets, rainwater tanks and grey water systems and lamenting the fact that all these great greenie ideas have such high upfront costs that they are generally unaffordable for house elves such as Izzie.
Already picked most of the low hanging fruit so it's really only the big ticket items left on our agenda
Well. Seen the electric company's stall and figured we might pick up some more packets of free seeds. Then seen a new brochure about how they are being all nice and user friendly to wannabee greenies by now waiving the $$107 application fee for renewables producers connecting to the grid
A bit miffed was the Izzie. But that was nothing when compared to the Solar Shop stall next door which was offering the very same system that the Izzie had bought for half price for the duration of the show.
There's Izzie thinking that the restrictions on the rebate would make things more expensive but apparently not so
Went over and asked what the story was and if this sale had anything to do with the new rules. Turns out that it most certainly did.
Sales had been increasing at a rapid rate as the rebate had finally made solar panels affordable for many people (Izzie among them) The company greatly increased its orders of panels to meet demand only to have the goal posts so unexpectedly moved. So loads of cancellations and all those panels piling up in the port prompted this weekend fire sale
So there's Izzie - the princess of procrastinating pythons - the one time we finally got our finger out and did something - turns out that waiting for a rainy day and doing nothing would have been the best course of action. It's not quite correct to say that being an early bird cost us $$2,500 plus that $$107 application fee in that the present price is not the real one but a bit of delay could certainly have saved us that $$2,600 to be spent on other stuff like rainwater tanks and kept the inner vulture happy
It's just one of those unexpected things. Would have been better not to have known about it and then would have been none the wiser
Was already feeling a bit cheated by the green washing of the local electric co
Innocent Izzie had been buying so called green power for the last five years or so and paying 3 cents extra per unit - gone up to 4.4 since last October.
So when our first bill arrived two weeks ago with those 240 units clocked up - figured that they'd be paying us that 4 cents (the other 0.4 being for the 10% goods and services tax)
Oh but no. The sneaky beasties were selling peak electricity at just under 28 cents but paying Izzie only 24 and likewise selling the cheaper weekend juice at 18 cents but paying Izzie only 14. The cheapest juice they sell for 10 cents but we got none of that for sale since there's not much sunshine after 9pm
Ended up with a grand total of 30 silver sickles credit for the 240 units we sold and that soon shrunk down to 9 silver sickles after they took out what we used, the supply charge and the $$4 fee for last month's over due notice.
At that rate - will be nowhere near the $$400 or so savings per year needed to cover the cost in interest on the $$5,000 redrawn from the house loan. It looks even less attractive when also taking into account the $$107 for the application fee and $$200 for the new meter
Yesss. Izzie might be a greenie but she's also a goblin too and the numbers just do not add up at all.
Needless to say - rang up the electric co to cancel our green power. Firstly that 4 cents is better in our pocket than theirs but especially since it's just an act of sneaky tricksiness that is simply not acceptable. Not sure if false advertising is too strong a claim since it is quite possible that the 28 cents they charge for peak green is less than the actual cost of production. But at least they should have the manners to pay their producers the premium as they are not the people who are handing out those $$8,000 cheques.
Yesss. Once again it proves the truth of one of the many clauses of Murphy's Law which states that no matter how long it takes to choose and buy something, a week later the very same thing will be in a sale some place else.
