The Lair of the Emerald Serpent

Today was a glorious sunny goblin free day. Work was a totally different place without these evil meddling petty creatures. Had such a good day so figured it would be nice to go for a coffee and read the papers after work instead of slinking straight back to the Lair for a snooze in the garden

There was also another reason to celebrate. Got out the bottle of bubbles for a toast as the counter on the solar panel inverter ticked over from 4,999 to 5,000 kilowatt hours produced. Not too bad for a pissy little 1 kilowatt system for just over four years of work. Looking at the latest meter reading - used only 1,000 of those and sent the rest out to the grid. That was the whole point of getting photovoltaic panels rather than a more energy efficient solar hot water heater. Unused hot water gets wasted but unused electricity can be sold. And when the biggest ‘gas guzzler’ in the house is the fridge then there’s plenty of juice left over to sell.

But nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Nothing like having solar panels to make reading the electricity meter an entertaining and addictive activity. However this new interest soon led to the realization that the readings on the electricity bills were not the gospel truth they claimed to be. The best one ever was the 290 something off peak units we got paid for producing. Photovoltaic panels producing juice after 9pm even in the middle of summer is a bit of an achievement. There must have been a full moon for three months in a row.

But things are now getting interesting. Back in 2008 only weirdos and greenies had those strange bright shiny things on their roof. Since then assorted governments brought in various incentives and the price of the panels and assorted bits are now around one third of what they were back then. At the same time the price of electricity has been skyrocketing having been frozen at the same price for around 8 years.

It seems that the huge budget blowouts have led the electricity goblins to resort to all sorts of means to avoid paying people with panels or to get extra income where ever they can find it.
Cannot really decide after all this time if it was a good idea or not. Did pay more than the going rate now but got in before the hordes of dodgy dealers with substandard Chinese imports entered the market and also managed to get the 47cent net feed in tariff since August 2010. That rate got totally scrapped for new comers last year due to a massive budget blow out. Izzie still gets another 7 years at that rate but somehow suspects that will be the going price per unit around four years from now.

But it is a good idea investing in infrastructure in good times in order to reduce expenses for the lean times. Unless we rent out rooms again then there will be no electricity bills to pay for the foreseeable future. Assuming of course that the utility goblins play nice. And that it turns out is one very big assumption indeed.

( Sharks and Sparks )

So the first week of work is over after the last few weeks of serpent craziness. Had a reasonably good day followed by a coffee crawl and a visit to the local shops to get some milk and kitty litter and a fix of evil green pesto.
The serpent avoids the local shops like the plague. They are creepy and soulless. There will soon be an IGA added to the offerings along with an enormous two storey car park. Still waiting for a half decent cafe in the place. Gloria Jeans does not count as a proper coffee shop.

It was tempting fate to darken the door of that place as far too often a good mood has dramatically transformed into a bad one on darkening its doors. These things then rapidly become self fulfilling prophecies in a Pavlov's dog kind of way we suppose

Got back to the Lair just after 4 with the grand plans of getting started on some serious gardening. There's bouganvilleas to be pruned, dragon fruit cacti to be planted and a whole pile of the cutest little baby banksias and wattles to be planted. But most important is the kitty litter. It's the stuff that cheapskates like Izzie use to improve the water holding capacity of the seriously sad sands here that masquerade as soil.

But that was before taking a sniff in the letter box. What a silly idea that was. A nasty white envelope with a window and an obscene word beginning with S. Oh yessss hisses the Izzie. The useless losers left a note in the mailbox last Thursday to say that they could not read the electricity meter as the gate was locked so they will be doing an estimate.
That should be rather amusing thinks the serpent especially after the last one. The gate was most definitely not locked two months ago but they some how managed to read perfectly well the bit of the meter referring to electricity used but left a big fat zero for juice produced and added a little note to say it was estimated.
How very convenient. Now the new laws state that they've got to pay out on any accounts with over 50$ in credit at the end of the financial year, it was of course in their interest to stretch out the numbers for as long as possible. So that was an extra forty or so silver sickles they got to keep in their pockets

But it gets better. This bill that truly was 100% estimated - once again they used the old reading they had from late May and left the juice produced at zero but they did not follow the same procedure on their side of the ledger. They came up with the ridiculous claim of some 500 or so units used and a grand total of $146 owed to them. Filthy thieving little cheats. Some damned sneaky way that is of getting back the $100 cheque that the new rules forced them to mail out last month.
The serpent got on the phone straight away and made a point about this ridiculous double standard with estimation. Izzie says that we could give her the correct reading from the day the meter people came and could not get in but she said that would not be possible as they are not allowed to take meter readings over the phone.
There were only two options - pay $20 to have them come out and read the meter again and adjust the bill or to simply pay it and then they will adjust it for next time.
Nice little earner that one is. They can stuff up all they like but it is the customer left holding the can.

She kept trying to make out that it was all Izzie's fault for having the locked gate. Could not seem to get it across that it is not the fact that they had to do an estimate that was the problem but the completely illogical and inconsistent ways of doing this and especially the refusal to accept an actual reading
Said a definite no to the second option as firstly we would have to wait a whole year to get the money back as cold hard cash, secondly we do not have a spare $140 just lying around for paying electricity bills as the whole point of having solar panels is not to be paying for electricity any more. But the main complaint is that we have produced 200 units in the last four months and not been paid a cent for them and have been charged for 480 units that we did not even use.

Apparently there is some option where you can become a so called 'self reader' and they then come out only once a year to verify that you are not cheating. But they will still have to come out to do the initial reading and will charge $20 or so for the privilege.

The ma and pa delight in telling Izzie all the sob stories on various news and current affairs shows about folks with Smart meters and smartpower getting landed with enormous bills.
It seems far too many folks just take Synergy's statements as 'gospel truth'. Apparently this meter estimation trick is becoming increasingly common. Guessing that the meter readers are getting sub sub sub contracted out and each layer wants their cut with the work load on the meter readers reaching such ridiculous levels that they are resorting to cheating.
Been keeping independent records ever since the day the panels got switched on. Just as well. The most entertaining bill ever was the one where they claimed the solar panels had generated some 260 kilowatts off peak. Aside from the completely insignificant and irrelevant fact that they used to pay producers around 10 cents per unit off peak but 35 cents at peak rates, what so amused the serpent was to think that these panels are so damned powerful that they can turn sunshine into juice between the hours of 9pm and 7am.
(Now the feed in tariff is a flat rate ranging from 47 cents per unit if you got in before the end of June this year to a pissy paltry 7 cents for anyone after then)
In those days they did let you ring in the correct readings. But even if you don't make your own, everyone in Dursleyville should keep regular records of their meter readings because Synergy are a slimy sneaking bunch of thieving goblins who will shaft you at every chance they get.

So Izzie's gotten all side tracked from the rest of the evil green adventures. The whole point of last week's holiday's which got half ruined by that flu was to be able to go to the Sustainability Street festival in Fremantle on the weekend. Aside from the fact that the place was infested with squawking squealing rug rats for most of the day, it was still most magical and amazing and an absolute inspiration to get out there in the garden and do quirky green stuff.
It sure helps living on a cul de sac which means that growing herbs and vegies on the verges and streets is quite doable as you don't have the worry of all that petrol head pollution.
It was also very noticeable that this old street puts cars where they belong - down the lane at the back of the house and out of the way. Most of the new McMansions with their double garages forming an integral part of the main structure of the house (with some planning codes making this a condition of planning approval) look like they were built for the cars to live in and the humans were a mere afterthought. They are literally the servants of these big tin beasts.
There were so many birds, so many trees and everything blooming and gorgeous. But it was the lo tech resourcefulness and sense of fun and joy that was particularly inspiring. You don't need a money tree to be green, whatever Josh Byrne might like to claim.

Now Izzie too wants her own pedal powered grain grinder. At least the string bean awnings are a bit more doable. They consist of twine on the eastern side of one of the houses. It runs from near the gutters to the garden at a 60 degree to the ground. You plant your runner beans or sweet peas or other rampant growing thing and it entwines itself along the string and there you've got solar powered awnings that you can eat.

Looking forward to making the most of this gorgeous mild spring and getting lots of stuff growing so we can have a little oasis of insanity in McMansion land