Our family home has become the Better Energy Lab itself — a real-life testing ground for energy independence. Through a carefully designed solar and battery system, plus an electric vehicle and plug in hybrid car charged almost entirely from our own solar power, we’ve created a lifestyle where we drive and live on clean, self-generated energy.
This experiment in sustainable living has delivered remarkable results:
- Thousands saved every year in electricity and petrol costs
- Zero reliance on fossil fuels for daily living
- Automated energy management, where solar, battery, EV, and appliances work together
- Resilience and backup power for peace of mind.
- 4 br all electric home with an electric vehicle and a plug in hybrid. The plug in hybrid has done 3000kms and used about 50L of petrol.
The property has:
- 30kW solar system with 9.7kWh battery - adding 80kWh more
- smart EV charger,
- electric hot water automation making the hot water run from renewable energy.
- efficient variable speed pool pump,
- Bionizer swimming pool water treatment that uses copper and silver to sanitize the pool instead of chlorine, allowing the water to be recycled on the garden.
- solar LED skylights that increase and decrease the light with the intensity of the sun without the potential for leaks or impact on your homes thermal performance as they allow insulation to be installed over the skylight.
Insulation increased to R5 in the ceilings with the original insulation being repaired to fill in the many gaps and a second layer added.
- wall insulation and breathable vapour barrier added to walls as they have been renovated.
- A singular split system AC that has had automation added to switch on based on time and temperature so that the house is precooled with renewables keeping the 4br home cool through summer.
- recycled materials
The house and cars, ran on just 710kWh of grid energy last year with the rest coming from the solar and or battery system.
