How US President Trump upped Australian household electrification
By 'Electrify Everything' advocate Peter Aubourg
Who would have thought? What was President Donald “Drill, baby, drill!” Trump thinking? His war has caused a spike in fuel prices that has created a corresponding spike in the already expanding EV market. This is happening in Australia and worldwide. Thanks Donald!
I’m sorry if I seem to be making light of what is a very serious problem. The fact is, we are very vulnerable without liquid fuel, particularly diesel.
High fuel prices have a knock-on effect to most things we buy, and a lot of people are hurting. But, not having any fuel would be devastating. At the time of writing, the Strait of Hormuz is closed again. Hopefully some sanity will emerge soon.
Now zooming back down into household electrification world: we have had our home battery for a full quarter and have just received our latest bill. We’ve managed to run our house and EV for $42 for the quarter – well, that’s not exactly true. I couldn’t resist trying out the fast charger at Bunnings while I was shopping and got 200km extra range for about $15.
My wife was very keen on the house battery, one reason being that it would protect us from future disruptions, whatever they were. Maybe the change from coal to renewables might be a bit bumpy? But Donald going bonkers was not on the radar!
I am not a “prepper” by any means, but this three-month test of the rooftop solar and house battery has shown that the system has the capacity to run the house and car off-grid… just. However, I am not looking to disconnect from the grid any time soon!
For solar nerds, our system for two people is: 5kW solar inverter, 24kWh house battery and 51kWh car battery in an MG4.
Soon, I will add a Home Energy Management System (HEMS) to our house as part of the Electrify 2515 pilot project. This should be able to automatically control the house loads, house battery, roof-top solar, and EV charging.
The system has built-in weather forecasts and an AI option that “learns” your usual electricity consumption patterns and shuffles power around for best results. We’ll see.
