Hello folks,
My name is Max Opray, and I’ve just started in the new role of SolarQuotes editor. For over a decade I’ve been covering green energy as a journalist, and I’m thrilled to be enlisting with an organisation that has played such a key role in Australia’s solar revolution.
Across my career, I’ve reported on everything from how to phase out gas the same way we cut CFCs, to the homes with batteries hosting “blackout parties” in country Australia, to why home electrification doesn’t mean banning the barbeque, to the best ways to eliminate your sense of climate doom.
My appointment is part of a push by SolarQuotes to expand coverage to all things home electrification. As feed-in rates continue to fall, self-consumption is more important than ever to getting value out of rooftop solar, and we’ll be detailing how readers can soak up all that sun and use it to eliminate their gas and petrol bills entirely.
It’s a goal that resonates with me as I’m personally on something of a similar trajectory. After buying my first solar-appropriate home last year I went to SolarQuotes to get connected to three vetted installers in Adelaide, and opted in the end for DQ Electrical, who did a terrific job setting up my northwest-facing 10.4kW REC solar panel system (which has worked hand-in-glove with my Nissan Leaf EV to cut our electricity and transport expenses down nearly to zero).
All that’s left is my gas bill from hot water and cooking, so heat pumps and induction cooktops are next on the agenda. Finn’s latest video on hot water heat pumps is a great place to start if you’re on a similar mission.
I’ll be working with Finn and the rest of the team to refine our coverage without losing any of the rigour, technical expertise and colourful personality that has defined SolarQuotes to date. If you don’t believe me, see Ronald’s latest on the Dutch “meticulously torturing” solar panels — which for most of the edit made me feel like I’d slipped into a rather educational lucid dream.
If you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see SolarQuotes cover more of (or thinly veiled threats regarding what you don’t want to see changed at all), do let me know in the comments below.
Take care,
Max Opray
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One of the best and simplest changes we made 25yrs ago was in our then new energy efficient solar orientated house was get an induction cooktop. We bought a couple of high quality fry pans (Scanpan) and a new induction compatible kettle so we could straight away start using our new cooktop.
We eliminated gas fumes in the kitchen and reduced bench top clutter. Our next house will certainly have an induction cooktop.A simple cost effective move to protect ourselves from gas fumes.
Heating and cooling mainly comes from air conditioning, also better than gas heating.
Welcome and good luck in the role. You have some very well informed readers and the not so well informed who are here to learn. Some can be tough customers even if well motivated. But by and large we are respectful and all focussed on the challenges we all face in the shift of our energy use to more renewable resources as well as reducing harm to the planet we share.
I guess the thing I value most is independence – which comes from a combination of experience, knowledge, character and focus. Too many sites are driven by money, influencers and influencing, glossy brochures, blinded by the shiny and new, government or company rules and regulations or PR campaigns. They often have a lack of courage to ask the tough questions and stand their ground when challenged – or for that matter, to admit it when they stand corrected. Not SolarQuotes.
Congratulations to Finn and the team on bringing SolarQuotes to the position it is in now. They have done an excellent job and deserve great credit as well as the many recommendations I have passed on to others. I trust you will continue the high standards they have established. And will continue the sometimes strange and well placed humour that adds a touch of lightness to the website.
Hi Max, welcome aboard. Don’t forget the old fashioned resistance HWS. Its much cheaper to buy and much more durable than a heat pump and perfectly legal in SA. (As such it is not something many in the industry push.) We turn ours on when our solar output is greater than 3.6kW (the input of the Rheem 315L unit) and even in winter it returns to maximum heated water capacity in under an hour.
“As feed-in rates continue to fall, self-consumption is more important than ever to getting value out of rooftop solar, and we’ll be detailing how readers can soak up all that sun and use it to eliminate their gas and petrol bills entirely.”
Smart adaptive Automation is the only way you can do that in a away that will absolutely lead to lower grid consumption and greater self consumption. Automation at a single appliance level can do things like time shifting loads but that might lead to lower impacts CO2 wise but with the tariff shenanigans in play as they are you wont/cant save money that way.
So, to me dealing with Smart Adaptive Automation like Home Assistant and its equivalents is essential if you want to tie together all your in home appliances, the PV system and in the future a Battery and an EV charger. Such approaches generally don’t require a lock in to brand X for everything and that’s good because as far as I know no single OEM covers that breadth. As such you need something that can see the big picture in your home (like Home Assistant or an equivalent alternate) and make the smart automated decisions needed at an appliance level to enable lower grid usage and greater self consumption.
However learning how to use and apply something like Home Assistant is scary and needs a great deal of your time and brain effort. That’s a unfortunate fact!
As such the people that will know it exists is high, and the number of people who have taught themselves and implemented it will be unfortunately low.
Articles and pointers to internet resources that can help people transition from simply knowing it exists in passing, to being able to implement and use imho would be useful.
I would also guess that the number of current licensed electricians who are an Essential part of this picture because they need to physically install some of this mains powered stuff is pretty low. I don’t know if its even taught to apprentice electricians currently.
Hi Max and welcome to SolarQuotes!
I have been a keen follower of Finn’s work for many years now – I have heard his talks to the Alternative Technology Association – ATA – on two occasions. We were ATA members and supporters for many years.
We were early adopters for solar PV – well over 15 years ago I think. I have also been a strong supporter of sensible use of solar energy, going back to the late 1960’s in WA, when I used to help sell “Small’s Sola Heeta” at the Perth Royal Show!
We had Beasley solar HWS on two of our homes.
In our new 6-star home in the Clare Valley, we have a 5kW bank of PV panels charging a 12kWh bank of batteries, and are currently getting this updated to improve charge rate and storage.
New Idea:
We take delivery tomorrow of a 32kWh Radiant Heating Heatwave heat bank – which will be “charged” by excess solar energy instead of selling it for 4.5 cents per unit.
We believe this will greatly benefit us by reducing the need for wood usage in our slow-combustion heater.
Has this idea been adopted by other users? If not, I think it deserves serious consideration – a “heat-bank” is just another energy store – like a battery – much the same as a heat-pump HWS is.
I welcome your thoughts.
Cheers for now,
Peter
Gudday Max, and welcome to Solar Quotes.
As the new owner of a house that is the contender for ‘most difficult solar install’ award I’m considering a battery + inverter system, sans panels. I’ve signed up with Amber Energy and have been following their live pricing far too closely. (Don’t worry, the novelty is starting to wear off.) Seems there’s a case for buying cheap electricity between 08:00 and 15:00hrs and charging a battery bank for self-consumption the rest of the time.
Along the way I’ll be working towards a gas-free household like yourself and many others. (At this point I’m keeping my diesel 4WD as it has years of life left in it.)
I have an older friend who has recently moved into a retirement home. He’s since found the home won’t let him install solar panels so I expect there are plenty of people out there who could install batteries to possibly save on power bills?
So, this is my suggestion/request for a future article. “Battery installs without panels.”
Cheers,
Clive.
Hi Max,
A fresh message bearer can only help energise the program. With +1.5°C in 2023, +1.6°C in 2024, trending to +2°C by 2030, the bees in my bonnet say “Go for resilience first.” In my experience, that seems to maximise CO₂ emission reduction while minimising risk exposure. (See p74 of Jan 2025 Renew magazine.) And insulating and ditching gas have health benefits on top of economy and risk reduction.
Taking to heart, Tony Seba’s “Dimension renewable production for the trough”, a corollary of Finn’s “Fill the roof”, I find that even off-grid, with a 65 km shopping trip, a BEV can be 100% fossil-free photon propelled – all year round. (Only 8,000 km done so far, but when a million 2-car families ditch one fossil burner for a BEV, then it’s 8 Billion km p.a.. The EU will soon stop incentives for PHEVs, fortunately.)
HWS heat pumps are great on-grid, especially while we still burn coal, but on solar-only, some of us opt for the reliability of a simple heating element, as panels are cheaper, and there’s no CO₂ emission involved. On reflection, grid-connected heat pumps will reduce winter grid demand, easing the load on renewables/batteries, so they’re even a long term great asset.
As the roof provides all domestic water here, I went for Pb-free REC Alpha Pure panels and bird netting. (Anthony’s photos of grotty roofs are indelibly etched on my mind.) The REC yield in overcast is all I could ask for.
A (cheap Aldi) plug-in countertop induction cooktop is the fastest way off gas, I figure. (I omitted gas from my first OB, nearly 40 years ago. What’s that saved in service fees alone?) And ditching non-stick pans for induction-compatible stainless steel avoids risk of Teflon flu.
A round-up on imminent/current grid-scale batteries would be cheering. (I hope) Renewables firming is essential for hastening coal’s demise. All speed to exponential growth, ‘cos it’s still not fast enough to avoid a testing future.
SOMETIMES with the low fit a resistive is better than a heat pump half the cost of unit and installation lasts twice as long practically no maintenance no noise,hotter water and BOTH use FREE solar.
I do concede that the heat pump runs cheaper but you’ve gotta buy a new one twice the cost twice as quick !! Speaking from my experience !!