We have has some cold mornings for the past couple of months, and have been using the old IXL Classic wall heater in the living room for a while now. We were warned that it used a lot of power, and I had been checking the meter regularly and plugging that into my spreadsheet. Our bill was going to be double what it was over the previous quarter. We should have done this 3 months ago, but we finally got a new Daikin split system reverse cycle AC unit, or as they are locally known, a Heat Pump, to replace the wall heater. It has built in WiFi so I can set up a schedule and control it with an app. I also bought a WiFi adaptor for the other Mitsubishi heat pump in the family room and have a separate app for that.
Our last meter reading was on the 17th, the heat pump was installed on the 20th, and I have been taking readings for a week now. So far it looks like our estimated bill will be significantly lower for this quarter. This is even after I had to get the installer back after I discovered they had wired the heat pump to the Residential tariff instead of the Heat/Hot Water tariff. It was actually some mix up where they used the common neutral bar in the switch box, not realising both tariffs had been completely isolated since the previous owners had once had off peak hot water. The higher load of the heat pump was somehow pulling juice from the Residential tariff meter.
Our last meter reading was on the 17th, the heat pump was installed on the 20th, and I have been taking readings for a week now. So far it looks like our estimated bill will be significantly lower for this quarter. This is even after I had to get the installer back after I discovered they had wired the heat pump to the Residential tariff instead of the Heat/Hot Water tariff. It was actually some mix up where they used the common neutral bar in the switch box, not realising both tariffs had been completely isolated since the previous owners had once had off peak hot water. The higher load of the heat pump was somehow pulling juice from the Residential tariff meter.
Meanwhile, the prep work for solar panels continues. We have had one quote from the same people who installed the heat pump, but I wan’t too impressed with it since they proposed putting panels on the south facing part of the shed roof, which would never have passed inspection. I am lining up a few more quotes and still working on the trees that shade the annex roof.
The only other news here is that after 65 days of no new Covid-19 virus cases, and a month of none at all in Tasmania, a young woman who had recently returned from Victoria tested positive in hotel quarantine, and is now in hospital in Hobart. I didn’t realise that there were about 700 travellers in hotel quarantine here, and they don’t actually test them automatically. That may change since we don’t want to be in a situation like on the mainland. On the positive side, they are doing human trials on a vaccine developed at the University of Queensland (AUS), as well as one each from Moderna (U.S.) and Oxford University (UK). Hopefully at least one of those will be the ticket out of this.
The only other news here is that after 65 days of no new Covid-19 virus cases, and a month of none at all in Tasmania, a young woman who had recently returned from Victoria tested positive in hotel quarantine, and is now in hospital in Hobart. I didn’t realise that there were about 700 travellers in hotel quarantine here, and they don’t actually test them automatically. That may change since we don’t want to be in a situation like on the mainland. On the positive side, they are doing human trials on a vaccine developed at the University of Queensland (AUS), as well as one each from Moderna (U.S.) and Oxford University (UK). Hopefully at least one of those will be the ticket out of this.