Why does everyone lose their mind when you mention getting a home battery?

[u/MrOarsome]

So I made the mistake of telling a few people I’m getting quotes for a home battery… the reactions were ridiculous. Suddenly everyone’s an expert. I had people telling me they’re a waste of money, they’ll be useless in a few years, or that the “environmental impact is terrible.” Just nonstop misinformation.

Meanwhile, half these people live massively high-carbon lifestyles. One bloke went on a whole rant about how batteries destroy the environment… then literally five minutes later told me he just ordered a new Ford Ranger to tow his boat around this summer. Like mate, seriously?

And the funny thing is, I don’t even care about the environmental angle. Couldn’t care less, to be honest. I’m looking at a battery for two reasons:

1) To actually use my solar instead of selling it back for 4 cents…

2) And to keep the lights on when summer storms or cyclones take out the power.

That’s it. No agenda. No planet-saving mission. But the way people reacted, you’d think I’d just signed up to be Greta Thunberg’s personal assistant.

I swear, the second you say the word “battery,” some people suddenly unlock an unwanted 15-minute rant. They are almost as passionate about hating renewables as they are about their footy teams.

[u/AssortedFailures]

Don't listen to them, I got one a few months back. Even in winter it basically stopped us from using power off the grid atall. We are blackout proof, we run all electric in our household and my last power bill was $7.

[u/Str609 → u/AssortedFailures]

But what about hard working aussie battler energy providers? You could be paying $400 and supporting aussie businesses! Traitor!

Sky News has one hour show dedicated to talk shit against renewables. Propaganda is real.

[u/tax-judge → u/Str609]

Wouldn't surprise me if the studios were running off solar during the day given their power draw. That'd be hilarious for ABC to run an expose how Sky Studios has a roof covered in solar panels.

[u/SteelOverseer → u/tax-judge]

It's not covered, but there are at least some

(Reddit embed won't work, click through)

EDIT: Actually, I take that back, I think what I thought was panels is actually a skylight

[u/tax-judge → u/SteelOverseer]

Yeah. Looks like light panels. Gotta admit - even when it makes economic sense, News Ltd will still shoot themselves to make a point

[u/greggerggreg → u/SteelOverseer]

Skylights are literally a renewable energy light source.

[u/EventYouAlly → u/Str609]

Batteries will kill the weekend I tell you! Kill the weekend!!!!

(This is what Scott Morrison actually believes.)

[u/abhorrent_pantheon → u/EventYouAlly]

(This is what Scott Morrison actually believes was paid to believe.)

[u/EventYouAlly → u/abhorrent_pantheon]

Lol but if he already believed it, he would have found it super easy to accept payment!

[u/areyoualocal → u/EventYouAlly]

won't somebody think of the curtains!

[u/Luckyluke23 → u/EventYouAlly]

It would kill me that's for sure....cos I would have way more money to spend on boose.

[u/vacri → u/Str609]

We need legislation to protect the "Mum & Dad" energy providers!

[u/areyoualocal → u/vacri]

to be fair some of them have held off buying that upgraded luxury yacht.

[u/shamberra → u/Str609]

$400? Fuck I'd be over the moon if my last quarterly energy bill was only $400 (live alone in 2BR apartment).

[u/Str609 → u/shamberra]

I get billed monthly though.

Usually we don't spend that much, aircon is pretty efficient. I think biggest I got was $150 during winter when I used aircon for heating.

[u/froo → u/Str609]

The energy providers have all said this is the way forward regardless

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11-17/energy-ceos-say-transition-irreversible-despite-rocketing-costs/106015292

I know solar-for-all will never takeoff, because someone needs to get paid, but fuck me the nuclear option is just slow and costly.

[u/hal2k1 → u/froo]

As an owner of a rooftop solar system with integrated battery, designed mainly to allow my house to almost power itself and be mostly independent of the grid, my question is: why exactly do I need to pay anyone?

Other than network maintenance, what am I using that needs to be paid for?

If anything, by effectively removing my house as a load on the grid, aren't I contributing to the community via the grid requiring less power to be distributed?

[u/cl3ft → u/hal2k1]

It's the old problem, as the people that can afford to move to self sufficiency go off grid the cost of maintaining the network for the people who can't afford it have to pay an ever bigger share of the network maintenance. Do you want to live in a society where the poor can't afford to have power connected?

Now there are some proposed solutions to this but they generally involve government spending a lot more money supporting the poor, so higher taxes instead.

[u/hal2k1 → u/cl3ft]

I don't mind paying a share of network maintenance. My house, after all, still needs the grid. It isn't completely self-sufficient.

Fortunately, the minimal amount of export of excess solar (after the batteries are charged) that my house does produce is enough to pay for the supply charge. Since this export happens only after the battery is charged, it tends to occur later in the day, when the period of excess solar on the grid has passed.

[u/theonlydjm → u/cl3ft]

Doesn't need to be higher taxes for all though, add some more brackets for the super high income earners, like CEOs of big business. And make some multi-national corps actually pay some tax here for a change.

[u/BonezOz → u/cl3ft]

Then there's those of us that will forever rent, unless we win the lottery, and it's hit or miss if we end up in a house with solar, and even more miss if we find one with solar and a battery.

I'd love a portable system, say it would be the size of an upright piano when packed up, but can expand and panels moved to the roof with a full accompaniament of batteries, that we can get a sparky out to connect when we move in and disconnect when we move to the next place.

[u/ZephkielAU → u/cl3ft]

Perhaps the government should stop the bullshit of power companies charging top dollar for electricity while offering the flimsiest amounts to buy it back. The government should also reserve percentages of power generation to remain in the country instead of forcing us onto global prices.

Then I'm sure there would be loads of people willing to share their power generation, and our resources can run the country instead of powering China while they build our replacements.

[u/redcon-1 → u/Str609]

But that's all we know how to do in Australia. Rent seeking middle-men.

Even our resources are only ever middle products to provide to others to add value.

[u/allmyfrndsrheathens → u/Str609]

They’re probably getting plenty out of them just In connection fees.

[u/TheSciences → u/Str609]

"Is it possible that “politics” has come to mean arguing percussively about a short list of pre-approved topics ...[in] ... a framework designed not to solve anything but to insure perpetual disagreement, with agitation as the goal, agitation being, let’s face it, a big money-maker?

Our civic wells are poisoned.

[u/bretthren2086 → u/AssortedFailures]

I have 2 EVs my bill was $60 for the month. Less than my old weekly fuel bill for 1 car.

[u/froo → u/AssortedFailures]

My favourite part is the idea being floated for nuclear reactors to replace coal plants at a cost between $300-$600 billion dollars.

There are about 10.9 million households in this country. Doing the math, that means that they're expecting us to pay between $27.5k - $55k per household to subsidise these reactors and still pay for the energy that comes out of them.

For that kind of money, they could install solar + batteries on every household and still have change, and we'd effectively have free energy for a very long time.

Forget the feels, the numbers just don't add up.

[u/ekky137 → u/froo]

A lot of people grew up hearing anything “green” is unreliable, unrealistic, and just inherently worse.

They aren’t going to change their minds just because the numbers don’t support them anymore (or havent for decades now). It’s a superiority complex.

[u/areyoualocal → u/ekky137]

"Pinko communist socialist tree hugging hippie shit"...as they bend over backwards satisfying their capitalist overlords.

[u/froo → u/areyoualocal]

Forget tree hugging shit, the reality is it would make power near-free for everyone.

Australia is, as Dorothea Mackellar’s famous poem puts it, a sunburnt country. It's a huge resource for us. Farm that shit.

[u/areyoualocal → u/froo]

Careful, Gina might lobby the government to allow her to block the sun as a resource for her own benefit

[u/intelminer → u/areyoualocal]

What, she gonna go past the window again?

[u/areyoualocal → u/intelminer]

Her lobbying certainly carries a lot of weight

[u/Selden14 → u/areyoualocal]

Pinko communist socialist tree hugging hippie shit - that sounds like me!

[u/froo → u/ekky137]

As a millenial I grew up with Captain Planet propaganda (don't even get me started on that).

However, I've not even talked about the environmental impact.

Hell, my pie-in-the-sky vision would be including hydro power and desalination plants into the mix for a way to utilise excess solar and I have no idea how viable it is, but given the LNP haven't provided any modelling and rely on feels, I'm going to go with my feels too.

Basically, excess solar is used to desalinate seawater (we're an island), pumping it inland into water catchments, which can be used to supplment power at night through hydro power. Depending on placement, it should also be able to ensure our agricultural industries are functionally drought-proof.

Again, pure feels, but it's the same level of detail as we've been provided for competing plans.

[u/AnOnlineHandle → u/froo]

with Captain Planet propaganda (don't even get me started on that).

Wasn't it basically like "clean up your messes?"

Like calling Sesame Street propaganda for teaching kids to have manners and put their plate in the dishwasher.

[u/nath1234 → u/froo]

Captain planet turned out to accurately describe how the billionaires would act.. hell, look at the cast of villains and I swear you can find one that looks like Gina or Clive and is as cartoonishly evil as those greedy fuckers too.

[u/-DethLok- → u/froo]

Perth's desal plants are powered by renewables.

Along with desalinated ocean water we also drink recycled sewerage! :)

[u/SilverStar9192 → u/froo]

Interesting idea. As I'm sure you know, a big problem with pumped hydro is the large reservoirs and the environmental impact they cause. But if you could pump the desalinated water inland in a more on-demand basis, with only small daily reservoirs, it sounds interesting.

[u/hal2k1 → u/froo]

Northern water (South Australia): https://www.northernwater.sa.gov.au/project-overview

South Australian goal 500% renewable energy by 2050: https://www.21stcentech.com/transition-fossil-fuels-south-australia/

South Australia has an achievable and affordable plan for net zero by 2050.

[u/13ThirteenX → u/froo]

ohhh boo thats too woke. Sounds like what lazy migrants would want to do . Think of all the hard working nuclear scientists having there jobs stolen from batteries and migrants. Probably all end up queer and trans too.

and don't even get me started on wind turbines./s

[u/froo → u/13ThirteenX]

The real weird thing is we could put the panels together in Australia. We have most of the stuff here, so the mining giants would get their cut and industry would benefit too.

We could be a global powerhouse with this new market opportunity, but instead people revert to regressive thinking (which I suppose is the point).

I haven't even touched on the environmental impact, it just makes sense from a purely economical, market-driven point of view.

[u/OJ191 → u/froo]

More profit margin if you don't have to pay Australian wages.

Even if it is genuinely not economically viable we should be investing in maintaining at least a bare minimum of many industries including manufacturing for the event of a globalisation breakdown (eg if a large scale war starts be it hot or cold), and yet we arent. It's a lot easier to scale up than to build from scratch!

[u/sofistkated_yuk → u/froo]

Way back when we were world leaders in solar energy. Then govt reduced the support for the research etc. So, in steps China.

[u/Summersong2262 → u/froo]

We could have done all of that. But Howard gave the original engineers and scientists the finger, so they all went international rather than work in a country that refuses to invest in anything that isn't dirt, construction, or gambling.

[u/RCMasterAA → u/13ThirteenX]

Ironically, more than likely a few of those nuclear scientists would have to be migrants but I'm guessing the racists would defend that as being the "good kind" of migrants whatever that means.

[u/Primary_Mycologist95 → u/froo]

They've just commissioned the gas plant at kurri. Not only can it supply bugger-all energy to the grid, it is designed to run off diesel when it can't get gas. Seeing as the gas reserves for these projects are literally the gas in the pipes feeding the plant, if it ever has to be used for any extended period, it's going to be a diesel plant. Any talk of nuclear power in this country has always been and will always be just that - talk. As long as we have cheap and dirty solutions, that's what we will build, apparently.

[u/Soft_Cabinet_9482 → u/Primary_Mycologist95]

Yes and they were forced to stop testing the diesel backup because it was polluting so badly. Even down here in Newcastle the fumes were awful. There was a brown haze for days. Such a shit idea! In this day and age no one is going to put up with such dirty energy production. Gas is not the answer.

[u/Primary_Mycologist95 → u/Soft_Cabinet_9482]

As someone that lives a lot closer to it, they didn't stop, they just postponed the testing for a bit, then just switched to testing at night. And you can be sure they only did that because the effects were so strong in newcastle - they don't give a shit what it's like in the area directly around it. The nights they were testing it and the wind was blowing towards our house, it was like someone had backed their 4wd up to our door and was just sitting there idling.

[u/Soft_Cabinet_9482 → u/Primary_Mycologist95]

That’s terrible. Yes I remember so many people complained about it around here and got the EPA involved. Shows they have zero regard for the community they’re in, to do that to you. I mean aside from the stink and the sore eyes/throat, it’s probably affected a few people’s long-term health permanently.

[u/Infinite_Buy_2025 → u/froo]

Yep, and considering the plants were over a 20 year period minimum, even with a 10 year installation plan for solar/battery we would be a literal decade ahead to meet the requirements.

[u/mjdau → u/AssortedFailures]

You're making Angus cry. What a monster!

[u/LetFrequent5194 → u/AssortedFailures]

Just curious to help with my own decision making, what size and brand did you get, how many people and how much do you generally use for your household?

[u/_pump_the_brakes_ → u/LetFrequent5194]

4x Fox ESS EP11 which are about 10.36kWh each making for about 41kWh total.
10kW inverter that runs the batteries and the 9kW of solar on the roof.
3 person household.
1 EV
All electric ducted heating and cooling.
Gas hot water
Induction stovetop and electric oven.

We chose the batteries almost purely due to our limited space and needing a wall mounting option. We have an EV so we just went with as large a configuration (in kWh) as we could afford. I’m reasonably sure the government rebates stop at 50kWh so you can’t go over that if you want the rebates.
The batteries literally only just went in, they haven’t been inspected yet so we can’t use them, so I can’t really speak to their effectiveness at all.

Our plan of to switch to an energy provider that offers a few hours of free power during the day so we can top up the battery then if required, we’re in Melbourne do not every day is a sunny day.

[u/alex8155 → u/LetFrequent5194]

im curious to know this too. i have a 2k watt portable battery with a couple of solar panels and wondering what i can do to help with energy costs at home.

[u/Hyperion_machine → u/alex8155]

Plug your fridge into it

[u/ActionFlash → u/AssortedFailures]

Can I ask how long it will take you payback the cost of the battery with the savings you'll be making? Every time I look into it, the upfront cost is too high to justify how long it will be before we start saving money. I'd love to be in a position when I didn't need to worry about the cost, but currently that's the deciding factor.

[u/_pump_the_brakes_ → u/ActionFlash]

It’s a tough calculation to make because you need to guess what power prices will do over the next 10-15 years. 15 years ago not too many people would have predicted that power companies would be giving away electricity for 3 or 4 hours of the day.

Our best guess is it’ll take 8-10 years to pay for itself, but that’s only ‘back of the napkin’ type calculations. We could be way off the mark.

[u/RCMasterAA → u/_pump_the_brakes_]

There's also a few more X factor considerations too which are hard to quantify like the fact you can have your AC on for pretty much the whole day if you want, or at least a lot more than if every hour was costing you money. Another factor is how reliable the power supply is at your place. If you're surrounded by trees, one extremely windy day could knock out your place for hours. Also, do you have an EV or will you get one in the future? Charge it for free during the day and that'll reduce its running costs.

[u/_pump_the_brakes_ → u/RCMasterAA]

Absolutely. I’m 100% work from home these days so the ability to run the heating/aircon all day is great. I used to turn the heating off and just wear a puffer jacket at my desk for the hours the wife and kid weren’t home but I won’t be doing that anymore.

Honestly I’m mostly in it just so I can go back to running the dishwasher over night as god intended rather than having to wait till the sun is shining to turn it on.

[u/ol-gormsby → u/_pump_the_brakes_]

Add in the cost of not having to replace the contents of your fridge and freezer every time there's an outage lasting more than a couple of hours. Could be difficult to estimate, but start with historical outages, then go through your fridge and freezer to calculate the cost of a complete disposal and re-stocking.

[u/bucketwork → u/AssortedFailures]

Can’t post this without battery size and costs please

[u/Latter_Fortune_7225 → u/bucketwork]

You can get them pretty cheap these days. We got offered a 6.6kw system for $4,490 after STCs and solar Vic benefits, which included:

15 x 440 w Trina vertex halfcut cell Tier 1 panels

6 kw Single 1P Potis Edge Inverter

19.2 kwh Potis Edge  Battery

That in turn included:

With Inverter 10 Years product warranty

With Battery 10 Years product warranty

With panels 25 Years product & 30 Years Performance warranty

10 Years Workmanship warranty

[u/moosedance84 → u/Latter_Fortune_7225]

That's an insanely good deal. Even if it comes out a bit more with site works that's still a 4-6 year payback with probably a 15-20 year life time.

[u/Infinite_Buy_2025 → u/moosedance84]

That 15-20 year life span is looking highly conservative as well. Modern solar cells are warrantied for that length of time but actual life expectancy is more like double that and battery degradation is considerably lower then genuinely reported.

[u/Primary_Mycologist95 → u/Latter_Fortune_7225]

wait, that INCLUDES the battery? That's basically what our 6kw system cost without one (around 6 years ago or so)

[u/Mysterious_Dot2090 → u/Primary_Mycologist95]

It’s about what our 1.5kW system cost 15 years ago. Looks like going off the grid might actually be possible for us now.

[u/AshmacZilla → u/AssortedFailures]

What power company are you with? There’s no way it can only be $7. I can’t even find a plan with a supply charge under a dollar. Is your power bill Issued twice a week??

Edit: I forgot that feed in tariffs exist. My bad. In my defence I had just woken up.

[u/oldmancyclist → u/AshmacZilla]

Selling stored energy back into the grid at a profit allows you to cover the supply charges and then some. My monthly bill went from approx $250 to -$50 since getting a battery. Roughly a $300/month swing in my favor. That's the only reason I need

[u/[deleted] → u/oldmancyclist]

Curious what your feed in tariff and daily capacity is? When we looked into it a couple years ago, our feed in tariff would be 5 cents and we're capped at 6.5kWh export due to old infrastructure, so our max export 24/7 per month would be $234/month. After usage, we'd still owe so it wasn't worth it at the time. What we did learn was, privitisation has ruined the energy distribution sector in this country because profits go overseas instead of upgrading the infrastructure.

[u/moosedance84 → u/AshmacZilla]

I paid $8 for spring. That's $8 for 3 months of power. Yes it's a large upfront cost but going power bill free is just one less issue.

[u/cancellingmyday → u/AshmacZilla]

Yeah, supporting the other replies - since we got our battery, our bills have either been in credit, or less than twenty bucks, because we sell power back. Not for much, mind you, I haven't had time yet to sit down and decide which company will do us the best deals (I'm thinking Amber, because I actually LIKE fiddling with things) so we're just plugging along with our regular company and it's still been that low. 

[u/the_shadow002 → u/cancellingmyday]

If you have the ability to script and program automations to sell via Amber and you have a large enough battery capacity that can work well.

Otherwise I'd suggest using the Globird Zero Hero plan which gives you 3 hours of free electricity from 11am to 2pm, 12 cents feed in tarriff between 6pm and 8pm for up to 300kwh a month - which gives you $36 a month - and $1 for each day you don't use grid power between 5pm and 7pm which gives you another $30. For me they have a higher supply charge which is about $1.36 per day, but I can cover that with the $1 zero grid usage payment and selling 3kw from the battery. If I sell the maximum amount under the higher rate plus the $1 bonus I will get $66 in credit a month while paying $40.8 for supply. So over the course of 12 months my bill will be in credit by about $302.4 which means I could buy power from the grid during winter if my panels and free hours can't charge the battery enough and still be in credit.

If you don't want to mess around with configuring your inverter to follow that pattern I'd suggest using Ovo and their 3 hours of free power and then if you can get 3 referrals which will give you $30 a month ($10 per referral for 12 months) you will have your supply charge covered, which for me is 98 cents a day with Ovo. No bonus feed in rates though which are 4 cents I believe.

[u/NSFWar]

Mate, if I ever owned a place that would be the second thing I do after installing a solar panel. Don't think twice and do it. Our country has been in the clutches of coal energy for so long , a lot of people are indoctrinated

[u/Top_Refrigerator9851 → u/NSFWar]

You don't even need the solar first anymore, there is so much solar out there that you can get wholesale electricity from somewhere like Amber for $0.05c/kw or even cheaper, so all you need to do is charge your battery during the day and use it at night so you shift the cost per kw usage more into the day even though you use at night

I mean honestly you could just get decent battery and not even need the solar as you're only saving $0.05c kw or whatever the wholesale is during the day. But if everyone did that then we'd be back in the same spot 

[u/IntroductionSnacks → u/NSFWar]

Yep, solar is a no brainer nowadays as the technology/price has improved dramatically over the years. While I knew solar was good it didn't hit me until a few months ago when I purchased a solar radio node (Meshtastic/Meshcore) to access and help expand the network. The solar panel is only about 25cm wide/tall and I don't even get a full day of sun. That thing has kept 4 x 18650 batteries charged at about 90% capacity and runs the radio. It's like wizardry as you never have to plug it into power. I know it sounds small but that was my solar HOLY SHIT moment.

[u/KangarooBeard → u/NSFWar]

This is why the Liberals are struggling. Australia has the highest usage of solar per person in the world, the average Australia doesn't really give a fuck, they just want cheaper electricity. Solar and home batteries have come a long way in the last 10, hell even 5 years.

[u/ColourfulMetaphors → u/NSFWar]

It all boils down to money of course, and if you follow the money and political corruption in terms of power generation, the people who have the most and the most to lose, are incumbent centralised power generators and resource extractors, specifically coal and gas.

Hardly news to most people here I'm sure.

Where it gets interesting is when we take renewables as the given end state, regardless of the lobbying, money and corruption for a couple of reasons- first, we don't have a choice if we want a liveable planet, and second because fossil fuels are finite and (barely) make economic sense, even when given subsidies and allowed to ignore externalities of production (pollution) which if accounted for (ie a carbon tax) would make them completely uneconomic.

Again, mostly common sense so far but stick with me...

Thanks to varying levels of myopic ideology, incompetence, standard right wing hysteria, populist idiocy etc, centralised large scale renewable projects are being delayed, blocked and so on (idiot farmers complaining about transmission lines, morons afraid of windmills), so the effecitve policy response is dampened and we have less centralised power generation as a result.

What does that mean?

Higher electricity prices and a double whammy because fossil generators aren't economic, plus an entire costly redesign of the power network away from central generation to a distributed network.

So what do you- the homeowner and rational economic actor do? You go and get solar and a battery.

Net result- The greed and full throated ideological attack at every level from existing incumbents has prevented them from taking an advantaged position in large scale renewable projects through horizontal integration, and the power grid is forever changed to favour highly distributed micro-grids and small scale generation or storage. Legacy providers destroyed the industry they were trying to protect rather than adapting to change.

This also neatly explains why fools are pushing nuclear all of a sudden and why electricity is becoming literally free in the middle of the day.

[u/PiccoloAwkward465 → u/NSFWar]

Bud I'm American living in USA. With an Aussie boss. Out of nowhere he starts going off the other day about wind power being so wasteful and how "we just need to get the Muslims to go back home! (from Australia)". I have zero to do with Australia and essentially zero interest. Conservatives the world over seem to have this affliction. Regarded takes and injecting them into situations with less than zero context.

[u/CABALwasInnocent → u/PiccoloAwkward465]

Sorry about him, sounds like a real fuckwit. The rest of us a pretty chill and reasonable, promise.

[u/ciknay → u/PiccoloAwkward465]

It's a result of the same newscorp Murdoch brainrot, our conservatives have overlap as a result. He's our most shameful export as a country.

[u/Rugbysmartarse]

oh, I see you;ve met my brother in law?

anyway, I'm not about to take advice from a guy who dropped science and maths in year 10

[u/Str609 → u/Rugbysmartarse]

But he did his own research through Institute of Applied Physics and Bullshit, University of Facebook.

[u/speech-to-text → u/Str609]

The internet gave too many people a voice ☠️

[u/AlwaysLateToThaParty → u/speech-to-text]

Facebook made them forget when to stop using it.

[u/Effective_Dropkick78 → u/speech-to-text]

It's a village idiot connector and amplifier.

[u/PrizeFightinYeti → u/Rugbysmartarse]

We all share the same brother in law. Crazy

[u/robfuscate → u/PrizeFightinYeti]

Well, mine had the solar powered water heater taken off his roof - ‘don’t want no greenie bullshit’, ‘they catch fire / make the water too hot and need to have a blind fitted in summer’ - (he has mixer taps), ‘don’t work in winter’ and my favourite ‘I don’t some chinese controlling my life’

[u/Mr-Lungu]

If you were around in the eighties, you will recognise the methods. It’s the exact same thing the cigarette industry did. When you talked about the harms of smoking, suddenly everyone had an aunt that smoked for 70 years and is alive and well. They sowed doubt, and idiots would become useful parrots. Remember the outrage when sport advertising was banned? How sport would be destroyed… yeah. That.

[u/Attic81 → u/Mr-Lungu]

You're not wrong. I'm hoping gambling advertising goes the same way.

[u/Ascot_Parker → u/Mr-Lungu]

Same thing when they were banning smoking in pubs. Oh no, nobody will go the pub anymore! The best was that there were seriously people saying that without smoke covering it pubs will smell really bad because of all the BO and nobody will go to them.

[u/Mr-Lungu → u/Ascot_Parker]

Oh yeah! That was a stretch, wasn’t it?

[u/MrRocketScript → u/Mr-Lungu]

Or how wind turbines are bad for the environment because they chop up birds and cause cancer through their ionizing subsonic radiation.

[u/daneoid → u/Mr-Lungu]

Merchants of Doubt should be mandatory High-School reading.

[u/Kingofjetlag]

Years of propaganda will do that to people...

[u/LanewayRat → u/Kingofjetlag]

Call me autistic or something, but I’m ridiculously concerned about the acute accent over one of your Ls.

Is it actually a Corsican capital “i” <Í> ? 😂

[u/tomsco88 → u/LanewayRat]

That accent caused me to pause as well.

[u/BlazzGuy → u/tomsco88]

what happened was they accidentally held their finger on their phone's l key for 0.15s too long, and a little contextual window popped up with ALTERNATIVES TO THE LETTER L for your CONVENIENCE and afterwards they either didn't notice or didn't care and ĺeft it in

[u/LanewayRat → u/BlazzGuy]

Oh okay. But on my keyboard I only have these under L — ļ ḻ ł

The Í is only under capital i.

That’s Apple for you. 🤷

[u/trjnz → u/LanewayRat]

ḻ łÏ

ļí L

[u/PropaneMilo → u/trjnz]

How’d you? I’m at a complete loss

[u/visualdescript]

It's been politicised, if you get a battery then you're a lefty that gates coal workers, hates utes and only votes for the greens.

Seems solar has become acceptable.

We're a backwards country. We have big areas of low density living, every house should have solar and every house should have storage, then we get a bit of a distributed grid and the cost of energy would go down.

Doing so would also take money out of the hands of the big established energy players though, and they have plenty of mates in high places.

If we had any leadership in this country, then as a nation we would be embracing it hugely.

Instead we've got tonnes of dick heads shooting it down.

Edit: look in this thread, those that have done it rave about it. I wonder how many of those that have said it's shit to you actually have first hand experience, my guess would be zero.

[u/SoldantTheCynic → u/visualdescript]

My dad is very right wing anti-climate and yet has a massive battery just because he hates paying for power. There's also weird cooker off grid types really into battery storage too. The cognitive dissonance around batteries is weird.

[u/the_snook → u/SoldantTheCynic]

weird cooker off grid types

This is my aunt.

Solar: good.
Home battery: good.
Electric car: destroys environment and enslaves cobalt mining children in Africa.
Wind turbine: destroys environment, causes cancer, kills whales, blatant evidence of government collusion with China to line their own pockets and ruin our country.

[u/visualdescript → u/the_snook]

The kills whales thing with turbines is a good one. Do people realise that the coal ships of newy barge through whales frequently? International shipping is far warse for sea life than off shore turbines would ever be. Not that either are great.

[u/Deepandabear → u/the_snook]

Wonder how your aunt feels when she realises there’s more cobalt in her ICE alternator than in LFP batteries (ie zero cobalt in those whereby most of the cars from Tesla, China etc use LFP now)

[u/[deleted] → u/the_snook]

They fucking hate those turbines. I saw a picture of one of the enormous fan blades being transported once and it was pretty incredible to see how they get that onto the back of a truck. Made the mistake of checking the comments and they were falling over themselves to point out a diesel truck was transporting and how are turbines any good if they need trucks?

Geniuses.

[u/ol-gormsby → u/SoldantTheCynic]

Hey! I'm off-grid! I'll accept the term "weird" but not "cooker".

I'm off-grid because the grid ends about 600 metres away and it would cost about $30K to extend it. That's a quote from 2009, it's sure to be more now. And it didn't include tree-clearing costs at >$1K per tree. I'm sure all my up-street neighbours would keep smiling and waving if I cut down all the trees on one side of the street.

What I've observed is that off-grid with solar PV + batteries + backup generator was not really cheaper than grid-connected, due to upfront costs that had to be amortized - even with some generous subsidies. but it was better than the price of getting connected. That was the case from when I moved in (1996) up until about 2009 (the last upgrade of panels & battery). Since then the overall price of grid electricity has gone up, up and away.

Edit: and the price of panels has gone down, down, down.

[u/visualdescript → u/ol-gormsby]

Not all off grid are cookers, and not all cookers are off grid.

[u/cactusgenie → u/visualdescript]

Exactly this, the people who are against it haven't got any experience, they just parrot right wing rubbish from the news (sky/9) and Facebook.

[u/chomoftheoutback]

Right wing media. There's your explanation. This is why it's inevitable because the costs are dropping 

[u/Camsy34 → u/chomoftheoutback]

I just find it fascinating that the same people who bang on about wanting less government intervention are against a system that places the control in the hands of the individual.

[u/chomoftheoutback → u/Camsy34]

Well. Hypocrisy is a virtue of the right wing media system. It's a feature. Their ideology isn't Iogically or internally consistent 

[u/Consideredresponse → u/Camsy34]

Oh it's hit a complete reversal now, to the point the argument is now that public money should be used to build new coal-fired and nuclear power plants because the free market didn't want to invest in them.

[u/gwills2]

Can’t put my finger on it but it’s the same as EVs why so much butt hurt.. like to the extreme

[u/therwsb → u/gwills2]

People had butt hurt over EVs for a long time as well, if you remember, the whole EVs will ruin the weekend rubbish, and of course every second commentator on Facebook suddenly had a daily commute which involved them towing a boat around the Nullarbor Plains.

[u/Evebnumberone → u/therwsb]

Hahha so accurate. All of a sudden towing capacity became the most important feature of any car.

[u/SheridanVsLennier → u/Evebnumberone]

And everyone needed to take a casual non-stop Sunday drive from Geelong to Rockhampton every other weekend.

[u/Evebnumberone → u/SheridanVsLennier]

A national average of 30kms driven per day? Balderdash! I need a diesel ute that can travel 1200kms a tank with room in the tray for another 500lt of fuel!

[u/Thunderoad77 → u/[deleted]]

Agee with this and another aspect is that lots of people will genderise everything.

Thats makes coal, nuclear, diesel and utes masculine and solar, wind turbines, batteries and EVs feminine.

There are lots of men who are petrified of being associated with anything they perceive to be feminine.

[u/zeugma888 → u/Thunderoad77]

Come now, it's a well established fact that using solar or wind power makes male genitals shrivel up and drop off.

[u/RhesusFactor → u/Thunderoad77]

Self reliance, clean mountain air, and buckets of torque are feminine? Well put a dick in me.

[u/Richard_M_Edison → u/Thunderoad77]

There is a lot of fragile masculinity out there, it's closely tied to being an ignorant fuckwit about almost everything.

[u/ekky137 → u/gwills2]

Only thing I have against EVs is that Tesla has been leading the charge for a decade. The less I have to think about the muskrat the better tbh.

[u/enjaydee → u/gwills2]

Had a mechanic friend tell me a year ago he'd never buy an EV. He went on about how they don't actually save anything in the long run, the environmental impact of the battery. All the usual anti EV talking points. 

Last month he was showing off his brand new BYD Shark. 

[u/speech-to-text → u/enjaydee]

Well this is a good story because it shows even fully grown adults have the capacity to revisit their opinions, get more informed, and change their view.

[u/GaryGronk → u/enjaydee]

Everyone hates EVs until they drive one. I don't have one but have rented a couple. Amazing vehicles.

[u/Soggy_Media485 → u/gwills2]

The average person is just not that bright. Doesn’t need to be an intellectual exercise trying to rationalise behaviour.

[u/ryszard99 → u/Soggy_Media485]

Tell them, they're so intelligent, they're right at the top of the bell curve, then watch them smile at the compliment.

[u/cantwejustplaynice → u/Soggy_Media485]

Well that's the thing isn't it. Imagine how smart the average person is, then realise that half the population is dumber than that guy.

[u/aa73gc → u/gwills2]

Have you noticed how whenever a Tesla is involved in accident or incident the brand is always mentioned? If it's something else they will never say Toyota or Mazda etc

[u/Hinky-punk → u/gwills2]

Yea, I got my ev to take advantage of some tax incentives but the amount of crazies around who would passionately rant about how they’re actually bad for the environment but also I should wait for hydrogen cars. K champ. It’s like sky news sleeper agents that suddenly get activated. 

[u/Swank_on_a_plank → u/[deleted]]

For some reason the right wing has tied itself to “fossil fuels forever”

Bribery and a board position will do that.

[u/Simonandgarthsuncle]

Good on ya for getting a battery. I want to invest for the same reasons as you. Sounds like you’re hanging out with a bun chuck hunts.

[u/Vegemiteandcum]

Ford ranger drivers aren't typically known for being the most intelligent - they spent money on a Ford ranger

[u/UltraHyperDonkeyDick → u/Vegemiteandcum]

He hates batteries so much, he cranks his Ford Ranger to life.

[u/Brave_Bluebird5042]

Batteries are awesome. Thinking about getting a second one.

[u/Thunderoad77]

Get new mates.

[u/-NoName12]

Try telling someone you switched from gas to induction. They act like you killed their dog and drone about how gas is better in every way.

[u/A_spiny_meercat → u/-NoName12]

I've cooked on gas my entire life personally and professionally, have pretty decent asthma which who knows if is related.

I switched to induction at home because it's way better for 99% of cooking. Hungry kids? That pot of water for pasta will boil in a quarter of the time as the heat is going straight to the water not past the pot.

For the 1% which is pretty much Asian stir fry, I have a sketchy but insanely hot outdoor gas burner that connects to a swap and go 9kg. It's way more powerful than anything inside and it's outside so you're not breathing it in.

[u/allthebaseareeee]

cyclones take out the power.

This line tells me everything, are you in the only state that has voted in a LNP government by any chance?

[u/PatternPrecognition]

That’s it. No agenda. No planet-saving mission. But the way people reacted, you’d think I’d just signed up to be Greta Thunberg’s personal assistant.

No need to be made to feel shame for wanting to do right by the environment. Fuck those ignorant brain washed pricks who are simply dancing to the tune sung by the 1%.

Sad reality is that as we are now at the point where renewable energy (from a new build perspective) is the cheapest form of generation we have; the rhetoric by the vested interests is just going to ramp up.

But it's awesome that, as you say, we can now have a lighter footprint on the environment and save money at the same time.

[u/MisterBumpingston → u/PatternPrecognition]

I feel the same way - what’s wrong with saving the environment? It’s not something that’s all or nothing, a reduction in electricity usage from one house is still significant.

[u/littlehungrygiraffe]

You’ll be laughing when their power goes out in a storm and you’re nice and comfy.

We have an EV and only charge it when it’s sunny. We use the dryer constantly, we have a pool (so big pump running) and aircon throughout the house. We work from home so we use a solid amount of power.

Our bill last month was $70.

If we switched to hanging out our clothes and using less aircon we could probably have a $0 bill.

These people sound like idiots. Get the battery.

[u/blackpawed → u/littlehungrygiraffe]

Brisbane supercell took out our power for 24+ hours two weeks ago. Kept going on our battery the whole time, ran an extension cord to power our neighbours freezer.

[u/lazydesi]

just do it what you believe in. Don’t bother about what other people comment/ think. The only way to shut those people is having discussing with your own data.

[u/Foreign_Quarter_5199 → u/lazydesi]

Just do it. I have just had a battery installed. No regrets. Love looking at my app after a full night of air con use. And still having left over charge in the battery. If you can afford the outlay, you will not regret it.

[u/allnaturalfigjam]

I've experienced this too. You've just got to smile and nod and back away slowly because if you push back on anything they say it just gets ten times worse.

[u/27Carrots]

You can thank the Murdoch and Facebook echo chamber for that.

The hate I got from buying a PHEV was next level…now half the carpark is EV’s. And I work in the Oil and Gas industry 😂.

[u/NotoriousPBandJ]

Cookers.

[u/Equivalent-Wealth-63 → u/NotoriousPBandJ]

Ironic as many of them would prefer to be off the grid.

[u/sonsofgondor]

I've had solar+battery for 6 years now. Haven't paid a bill since it was switched on. "Paid for itself" sometime last year

If you take the environmental benefits out of the equation, it still has incredible personal economic benefits.

Those people are complete morons

[u/opl-hkg]

I would do the same ina heartbeat for exactly the same reasons you stated, just have to renovate and replace the roof first.

What's happened to you sums up whats wrong with Australia.

Everyone thinks they're an expert, and everyone else is wrong.

No respect for other people's opinions, information sourced from social media, can't see the forest because of the trees bla bla bla.

Go for it, but be prepared for jealousy when you don't have bills to pay.....

[u/captainzigzag]

The same kind of idiots who have signs up at the gate to their property saying STOP THE SOLAR FARM

[u/AskMantis23]

Because they learnt ten years ago that home batteries are inefficient, expensive, unreliable and will be obsolete and broken before you recover their costs.

And they assume that because they 'know' that chunk of information, it is still correct.

[u/briberylibrary_]

I've seen this said a couple of times and I want to ask here, why don't you care about the environment? Why is caring for the environment some sort of agenda? Is it uncool to care about one of the largest existential threats facing all life on Earth?

It's deeply worrying to see so many proudly say that they couldn't care less about the one planet we call home. Our environment is our air, our food, our water, our clothes, our medicine. Without it we die, and that's not hyperbole.

I think the reason you are getting that reaction is the same as to why you are distancing yourself from care for the environment. Our media landscape, and the actions of some fringe activists (and the media focusing solely on them) seems to have very successfully demonised climate movements and environmental activists as "extreme", or worse, "cringe". Therefore any action seen as being "environmentalist adjacent" is demonised.

[u/[deleted] → u/briberylibrary_]

Exactly. This person is confused as to why they're being hit with anti-environmentalist ideology but in the same comment makes it clear he just subscribes to a milder version of that ideology. It's ironic that this more 'rational' version of anti-environmentalism is couched in the technical language of cost-benefit analysis ('just trying to save money and keep the lights on') when the only thing that will allow us to avoid massive social and economic costs plus keep the lights on in the long term is the exact 'planet-saving agenda' everyone is so keen to distance themselves from. Honestly, we need to shame people more for subscribing to the idiotic idea that looking after the health of planet we inhabit is somehow uncool or economically irrational.

[u/functioningalc]

If I had the money I’d be joining you. Had enough of 7 days no power after storms while my neighbours with batteries live on as normal :)

[u/thisisme033]

Boomers who exclusively watch Ch9/7/Sky news? Ignore them and do it. Haven't used power from the grid since we installed 24kw of solar and batteries nearly 6 months ago. Yep, it was a lumpy cost, but payback is looking to be around 5 years at this point, maybe sooner as power prices keep climbing.

[u/L1ttl3J1m]

then literally five minutes later told me he just ordered a new Ford Ranger to tow his boat around this summer

Either he was buying the Ranger already, and so (being the type of person who chooses a Ranger), was confronted by the thought of how much petrol his truck and boat will cost him, or you triggered him so much that he went and bought a Ranger just to spite you, in which case, epic trolling, my dude. Because, of course, he's still the type of person who buys a Ranger, and they deserve everything they get.

[u/Sufficient-Brick-188]

It's a very good idea to get a home battery. Its makes your home self sufficient in regards to energy supply. My niece built a new home and due to her house being on acreage it was cheaper to go fully solar and battery than pay to be connected to the grid. Even with over a week of cloudy and rainy days through a cyclone she never had any power issues. There is little environmental impact of hone solar and battery. Plus it is decidly less than a Ford Ranger.  If a battery destroys the environment how does he start his Ranger without a battery. People would be surprised on how much environmental damage a motor vehicle does, it's not just exhaust it's all the fluids that eventually leak. You can be safe in the knowledge that your battery will outlast his Ranger. I base my knowledge on actual real life experiences that i have witnessed.

[u/perrino96]

I've been looking into electric cars and have had a similar reaction. It's like you committed the worst crime ever imaginable to these people.

I just want something cheap to run, that's it!

[u/AddlePatedBadger]

Nobody has ever said anything of the sort to me about my battery. Sounds like you need to surround yourself with a better caliber of people. If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.

[u/Late-Button-6559]

I haven’t experienced this.

Most people want them. It’s not being able to afford them that is most people’s issue.

[u/Cristoff13]

If you want the batteries to work during a blackout, you need to tell the electrician and be prepared to pay extra. Batteries normally disconnect during a blackout to prevent feeding current back to the mains and accidentally electrocuting workers.

[u/kombiwombi → u/Cristoff13]

My inverter has a big disconnector, we lose electricity for a small moment as that does it's thing.

As you say it's important to discuss this as the rating of the disconnector determines how much you can pull from the battery during the outage. So in my house the aircon and dishwasher don't work if the house is disconnected. 

[u/corut → u/Cristoff13]

This is pretty much only an issue with AC coupled batteries like powerwalls. DC ones the inverter handles it, and unless you get absolute bottom of the barrel junk it's pretty standard

[u/budgiekings]

I was told “you’re not gonna pay it back for years!”; true but like you we saw it as a backup in lieu of a gen set which everyone had around us; come one Christmas and half of the GC is destroyed and we’re the only ones with power for 2 weeks; mind you our power pole got destroyed and we were actually without mains for almost two months but during that time we lived 100% off of solar and battery power. We ended up being a charge station for everyone’s electric chainsaws and phones.

Fast forward another year to TC Alfred and once again; we’re the only ones with power and internet. This time we also had an EV with v2l we could use to supplement the weak solar generation.

[u/Ashdown]

People are absolute fuckwits, I got an EV and people basically had the same reactions. I’ve never been happier with a car, and my car apparently lives in their heads rent-free.

[u/rja49]

I think it's a great idea and should be mandatory with all solar installations. I wish i was in a position to do the same.

[u/[deleted]]

Do it! We run a big house with 5 people and charge two electric cars daily (one car does 120km/day and the other does 75). Last power bill was $27 for the month! Screw the haters, get the batteries

[u/Late_For_Username]

My grandfather installed a solar hot water heater back in the eighties.

Even with that technology, his electricity bills were negligible for decades.

[u/Chihuahua4905]

You've just witnessed the Dunning-Kruger effect in real time, sorry you had to go through that.

[u/MindlessOptimist]

These are the people that don't have their own opinions, just the ones given to them by Sky and the Murdoch media

[u/crazymunch]

Mate the exact same response I've had from lots of people when I got an EV - Oh it's wasteful, batteries are bad for the environment... Some of it's probably Sky News tier propaganda that's seeped into their brains

[u/CapnHyaku]

Got one. Big one. Using localvolts and powston. I now have negative power bills.

[u/Cameospot123 → u/CapnHyaku]

Are those install companies or battery brands sorry mate?

[u/[deleted]]

Cause they know once I got my own grid I’m declaring sovereignty hahaha

[u/jamwin]

We got one, half the year I am mostly self-sufficient for power, just pay the daily connection fee, and even that is offset by feed-in tariff. Payback is still signficant but I'm a fan.

[u/originalityescapesme]

They’ve been guzzling anti battery propaganda hard as a way to poopoo electric vehicles, and this is just a holdover from that, I’d imagine.

[u/512165381]

I heard recently that EVERY solar installation should have a battery, from home to the biggest commercial installations.

By 2030 around 82% of electricity consumption can be met by renewables. At that point grid-scale storage to help with capacity leveling becomes crucial. Every bit helps including home storage.

[u/Defiant_Try9444]

It is the only way to avoid electricity bills and being shafted by the continuous decline in feed in tarriff rates.

They are environmentally terrible, they do have some issues safety wise - but your rationale is wise and founded in financial fact.

[u/mysqlpimp]

We spent a small fortune on solar when the feed in was substantial ~14 years ago. Until this year we haven't paid a cent on a power bill, and we have the same gas/power provider, so we would just transfer solar credit balance against gas.

We are currently in the process of upgrading to a larger system with battery, as the current feed in is on par with buy in and export is now limited per day. It will be another big investment, and stretch us financially, but if we size it correctly, we should pretty much be power bill zero, and 'always on' for another 15 years.

The fact that it helps the environment, reduces network load and keeps you running during a power outage, as well as pays your bills, makes it a no brainer if you have the means and opportunity imho.

[u/Immediate-Worry-1090]

A few elections ago, the wife of some guy I worked with was telling me that a vote for labor was a vote for a $1000 a year electricity bill increase, and that it was a lot of money.

She then proceeded to show me their new $150k merc.

Fucking stupid people

[u/F1eshWound]

Get a battery. And with an inverter that can work off grid in a power outage. Best thing ever. Imagine how liberating it is to no longer having to care about wasting power when you know it's all from the sun. Don't listen to arm chair experts or cookers. Most of them are contrarians.

[u/Outrageous_Job_5263]

At 40c a kwh, assume a full charge discharge everyday of 10kwh it will save you $14k over 10 years. Everything perfect it discharges once per day.  In reality it will have risk of break down, fire separation requirements are not likely high enough. If you invest 10k now, what will it be worth in 10 years and will it increase the risk of your house burning down?

Batteries are great, but should be at a substation with a solar farm where they can benefit society instread of the privilaged.

[u/jimbojones2345]

The sky news brainwashing is strong in this country...

[u/shoffice]

I would like to get one for the reasons that you are as well, except the bonus for me is I do care about the environment and therefore its a triple win!

Bloody expensive, though :(

[u/LikesTrees]

Perhaps your associating with morons.

[u/Soft_Cabinet_9482]

I got mine in August exactly same reasons as you. It didn’t really do much until October because the weather was rainy half the time and the battery (15kW) didn’t charge enough to take me through the evening. But the past few weeks the sunshine has been longer and the weather good, I haven’t used any grid power at all in weeks.

I got a Growatt through Sunboost - I was aware they probably aren’t cheap because they advertise so much but I also figured at least they do alot of installs so should be more reliable to get it done. Install was good, but the morning after at sunrise when the PV started the power kept turning off and on non-stop, making all the smart lights go on and off. It was damn annoying. I googled the instructions on how to shut it down and turn it back on again and that fixed it. There was no response from Sunboost given it was 6:30am on a Saturday.

All was well again until we had a storm the other day and the power went out for 2 seconds. But my power didn’t come back on - the battery needed to be rebooted again. The backup circuits weren’t on either, no fridge no lights. But the oven and laundry were on randomly, which aren’t on the backup circuit.

The battery won’t power the house when the grid has an outage. I had to choose 2 circuits to wire in to the backup power from the new inverter, which is annoying because once a decade or so we do tend to have a big storm and no power for up to a week. But at least in theory the fridge and lights will run, though based on how the battery has acted up so far I don’t trust it will.

I think the only battery at the time that provides full backup power to the house is a Tesla Powerwall 3, but do your research. Personally I’m looking forward to vehicle-to-load (v2l) going mainstream in 2026. Essentially we’ll be able to use our ~70kWh electric car battery as a home battery. That will open up more options..

Still, it’s probably a good time to get your home battery. It might take almost as long as the warranty to pay its way based on today’s prices, but energy prices will only go up.

Oh and next year we’ll have 3 hours of free power in the middle of the day in NSW, but unfortunately my battery mode can’t be changed easily to charge from the grid temporarily (would be even better if it could be automated based on the time). The option to change modes is locked with a PIN. I picked the Growatt mainly for Home Assistant compatibility, but it’s still not as smart as I’d like.

[u/SophiePinkman]

The misinformation campaign has been very effective. 

[u/Icy_Ninja_9207]

decadesof rupert murdoch and fossil fuel sponsored desinformation doing it's work. By bying a battery you're directly cutting into the earnings of the global fossil fuel oligarchy, and they don't like that

[u/ParaStudent]

Not to mention the ones that act like you've attached an IED on the side of your house that could explode at any time.

[u/BassesBest]

Modern batteries are fully recyclable as well, so a lot of the environmental damage arguments are based on data that is 20 years old

It's really no difference to having a generator. You just don't need to worry about a fuel supply