Soap Nut Saga

I left the soap nut bundle in the washing machine and so the rinse water which we collect, to water the non edible plants and fruit trees, was a little soapier than usual.

'That's it' declares my other half 'I am going to buy my own detergent and wash my own clothes and the children's, I hate the feeling that they are still full of detergent'
I foolishly used an in wash booster the other day  and the yellowing sheets came out a sparling white. Another nail in the coffin of the soap nut.
'But its harmless natural soap' I splutter 'the other stuff has all sorts of nasties in it!!!! Use it on the kids clothes. No way!'
My heart actually sunk. Off I walked, my internal monologue whirling. 'He doesn't have the same values as me, what about the earth, what about toxins? Not on the same page'....and so on.

Innocent bystanders

From the beginning I feel he has a vendetta against the soap nut. What irritates him so much? He loves plants and natural things. He thinks it is an expensive gimmick, although I have showed him the maths and they are actually very reasonably priced. I think they clean as well as any environmentally friendly clothes washing liquid, which unfortunately isn't as good as their more chemical cousins. But nothing smells, surely that is all that matters?  But I wonder at my reaction why am I so attached to the soap nuts? why does criticism of them feel like a personal attack? Should I just get over it? Its just washing detergent after all. But I think I just desperately want there to be a natural alternative that works, a small step towards solving the worlds problems and lessening our impact (although they are flown over from Nepal).

He is a little bit right though, leaving the soap nuts in for the rinse cycle does make the rinse a little bit more soapy.  But its pretty annoying having to sort through the laundry in between wash and rinse. Am I just annoyed because he is catching me out being lazy? No no no I am sure that's not it. ;) I will make another batch of soap nut concentrate ( boil up some soap nuts in water and then drain of the liquid) which can be used like a detergent, this would solve the dilemma.

I huffed and puffed some more, even refusing to let him help me put the clothes on the line.

A little later he is standing in the kitchen boiling up some Bunya nuts on the stove. He is a little grumpy with me. I go over and give him a hug from behind. My hands run through his hairy comforting chest. 
'When you criticise the soap nuts it really hurts my heart' I say, we pause and then both burst out laughing.

Solar for Novices - Part 1

Harness my power!

About six months ago we got solar installed on our house. It was a steep learning curve. An exciting and emotional, brain frying process.  Once we had decided to go for it and you start researching and talking to those who have already gone solar what seemed like a straight forwards thing actually becomes a vast and sometimes confusing subject. However its been half a year now and our system is performing really well and we are very happy with it. So I thought I would write a mini series about what I learnt along the way, in lay persons terms, because that is what I am. There is plenty of information available online, but hopefully I can help clarify some basics to get you started.  Also I am writing about getting solar in Queensland so my advice may not be accurate for else where with different energy prices and feed in tariffs.

What Are My Options?

Lets start at the very beginning. There are basically three types of set ups that you can go for-

If you live in the wilderness and are not connected to the grid you will need a system which consists of battery storage, panels and inverter. The benefit is that you don't have to pay power companies anything and they can't hit you for a daily charge. When the grid is down you may still have your power and setting up the system might actually be cheaper than getting mains electric to your property. However you have no safety net, so if it is cloudy for days you might run out of electricity and won't be able to top up from the grid. Storage batteries can be very expensive, though they are getting cheaper

The middle option maintains a connection to the grid but has battery storage too. In some of the new versions the inverter is combined in a large roll in battery, that you can take with you when you move. These are great because you can decide how much power you want to send back into the grid and how much you want to store. With a system like this you should be able to draw very little from the grid, thus keeping your bill low, however in prolonged grey weather you would have the grid safety net. You would still have to pay the daily charge as you are connected to the grid. Again some of these systems can be very expensive.

Finally the most common system is the one where you have no battery storage. You are connected to the grid. panels generate whatever they can in the conditions, this power goes to the inverter where it is either fed back into the grid if not needed, or if it is needed, used and any shortfall at any moment in time is drawn from the grid, for instance in the evening or if using the oven, kettle and toaster at the same time. This is what we went for, and we have seen savings, but it is a bit unfair that the power company will only pay you a small amount per kWh, in our instance 6 cents, whereas any power we use from them costs about 25cents per Kwh. The government used to offer fantastic rebates of 44 cents per kWh feed in, however although some people still receive this, no new contracts are being offered.

What Size

My advice here is for a system with no battery storage. I kept looking at my power bill which said I used 4.75 kWh per day and was so absolutely resolute that I didn't need to generate more than 6 kWh per day, which is the average output for a 1.5kw system. However in hindsight I was wrong. The way it works is you might be using no power and feeding the full 1.5kw ( quite rare to be generating full capacity, especially not all day) into the grid. Then you decide to make lunch and put the oven and a stove top ring on, straight away you are using 2.4kWh and 1.2 kWh approximately and will need to draw 2.1 kWh from the grid to cover the shortfall. Less than you would have used with out solar, but say you used both for an hour, at my current energy charge which is approx. 25cents per kWh I would therefore have spent 50 cents on power just to make lunch, despite my system generating 6kwh over the day. Say I then used very little power for the rest of the day and was able to feed in 4kWh, I would recoup some of my money but it would be very little, just 24 cents (6 cents per kwh).

If you are looking to be totally without a power bill  you might want to invest in a 5kw system, which is obviously a greater outlay, but on a good day would generate approximately 20kwh (1 Kwh per 250W panel per day, based on an average of four hours sunshine) and would generate enough power for you to run appliances  up to nearly 5kw. So if you used 5kwh during the day you would potentially generate a further 15kwh to feed back into the grid, which at a feed in tariff of 6 cents would give you 90 cents per day off your bill, which would nearly cover the daily charge.

When considering what size of system to go for your available roof space is obviously very important (an average 250W panel is approx. 165cm x 102cm x 4.6cm) and its orientation. In the southern hemisphere a north facing roof is the ideal orientation as it will get sun all day. However if like us you do not have such a roof, do not despair. Most installers would recommend that your panels be installed on the westerly roof as they would assume you would use more power in the late afternoon, cooking dinner and kids home from school etc. However we have a flattish veranda roof which is orientated east. It gets sun all day until approximately four in the afternoon, when it is over shadowed by the main roof. Our westerly roof gets lots of shadow cast from trees so we felt that the veranda roof would be the best bet, and it performs well. Because we are generally at home most of the day we can take advantage of the power generated and because I know that after four o clock our power generated will dramatically drop I cook any big meals at lunch time or early in the afternoon. So my advice would be look at how your family uses power so you can decide how best to place your system. It is possible with a larger system i.e. 3 KW plus to divide your panels in two, having half on the east/ north and half on the west.

Although Wholesome Green Mama has endeavoured to make the information contained within as accurate as possible, she is not an expert or qualified professional and therefore if you are unsure please do further research before making any decisions, and if your research shows that there are glaring inaccuracies please leave a comment. Thanks