The weekend with a park run and not a lot else

 Hi,

First weekend without Toby after he headed back after his holidays.  I'll njust get used to it and then I'll be off to visit my parents.  Hahah.

We did a few things through the weekend - even though we are trying to semi isolate ahead of my trip.  Mike got the doorbell installed with the security camera.  It's quite cool.

Testing the new doorbell/camera

Lovely sunrise Saturday

We decided park run would be low enough risk for us.  Janine and Maureen met us there.  Maureen ran like a machine (25 mins) and then ran back to help me finish the last 250m.  It must have worked as I got another PB.  Yay!

Maureen helps me finish with another PB.  Parkrun #4

Here I go - powering (hah!) to the end

We popped into that cafe opposite the Dowse for some brekkie.  Had a good chat until Janine had to rush off to meet the plumber coming to fix some leak under the house.  And we said goodbye to Maureen and went home via Mitre10 in Crofton Downs.

Iced latte at the cafe in the new convention centre

This is me and an iced latte

Mike wanted rat bait and ended up buying some new traps.  He set them when we got home and when he checked them around 90 minutes later, there was a dead wee mouse.  That trap constantly had its peanut butter bait eaten.  But was obviously too light to set off the trap.  Since that mouse was killed, there has been no more bait nibbled out of that trap.

Catch#6. Mouse caught within about 90 mins

We caught up with Andrew at the Thai Country Cafe in Tawa for tea on Saturday night.  He was in Tawa as a carer for Helen as she recovers from her recent hospital incident.  She is recovering slowly - her brain is making her go slow so it can rebuild more effectively (I think that is how she described it to Andrew and how he explained it to me - but goodness knows if I got that right).  The food was okay - probably what I would expect from a suburban Thai place.  Not super spicy.  But it was good to chat to Andrew and hear about his week and how Helen is doing.

Headed home at 9pm - ooohh - out late!

I got up early Sunday morning to try and see the Eta Aquarids meteor shower with its radiant around the planets that are lined up at the moment.  You can see 4 of them below (Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn).  And actually Uranus is also in there - but you can't see that with the naked eye.

Up to watch the Eta Aquarids meteor shower and the planets all aligned

This is what my Sky app says I was seeing

I saw 4 meteors in the 45 mins I lay out on our bench on the deck.  The first one I saw was pretty good - a decent trail over a second long.  The other 3 were pretty faint and if I wasn't peering intently at the area of the radiant I would not have seen them.

Shame there was high cloud making things fuzzy.  The clouds also came through from the west from time to time.  But it was the faint high cloud making it less than ideal seeing conditions.

It was fun to chill on the deck for a bit, gazing into the lightening pre dawn sky.

Sunday was chill.  Mothers Day.  Got brekkie in bed (the best fruitless, crossless, bunless loaf Mike ever made!).  Read a bit.  Spoke to Karen in the morning.  Then Mum and Karen during our tea time here.  Mike spoke to his Mum.  Yep - quite the social day - but remotely.  Hahah.

Woke up Monday to a wet, grey day.  Bit windy too - but not too bad.  Apparently Mum says it is like that in Queensland too.  Oh.  But - like 10 degrees warmer I guess.

Anyway.  Back at work.  Got Friday off for my flight to Aus.  Exciting.

Have a great week.

Love,

Angela

Solar - the first three months

We've had solar for long enough now that we can see the trends. How is it going? Is it everything we hoped and dreamed of?

The good news is - we're saving a LOT of money on our power bill.

The bad news is - we spent a LOT of money on our solar and its payback is pretty slow.

Good news

Look! The black line is our average power spend (in $/day) over the last 6 years. The red line is our spend in 2022. The solar went in in mid February.

In April we had a $40 bill instead of the usual $210 bill. That's pretty awesome.

Bad news

Adding extra Sparky work and the various timers, it's going to take us 8 years to pay off the work from that savings. That's  probably about when we will be selling the house, letting the next owner cream all the profit of our hard work.

That's just extrapolating that $170 per month savings out to the future, since we've only had one power bill with everything set up right. Who knows what will happen over winter - we need a year of data to do this properly. But then, power prices may go up, our usage may change ... it'll all be approximate at best.

It's also not like the good news graph is that robust either. Over the last 6 years we've added roof insulation, underfloor membrane barriers and some double glazing. We bought a beer fridge and changed our washer/dryer. Toby went through his teenage years and then left home. We've moved electricity providers and plans a couple of times. Oh, and there was that thing that happened that changed our habits a lot over the last two years!

But I figured that's the best I have to work with, no need to overthink it. (Um, maybe I've already overthought it.)

It's the dashboard too!

You can see the spikes where we boiled the kettle or microwaved breakfast.
And just how much usage we can shift to 9pm.

Solar or not, I reckon having direct visibility of exactly what power we're using in real time makes a huge difference. Everybody needs it! You can't budget what you can't measure. 

I'm astonished how much you can save running your high use appliances - dishwasher, washing machine, dryer - overnight on cheap power instead of say after dinner when it's convenient to just turn it on without thinking. And it's no change to the usual thing we'd do (for dishes and clothes) of turn it on, go to bed, empty it in the morning. On the other hand, modern lights use next to no power, there's no point turning them off like in the old days with 100W lightbulbs. 

You just don't know these things unless you can see what exactly what happens when you turn things on and off.

Solar Web Dashboard - translating tariff jargon

This Fronius Solar Web Dashboard also lets us estimate our costs and savings, if we enter our import and export tariffs.  The tariff names are really confusing though. Luckily I found a forum where someone had kindly translated the German English to New Zealand English:

• Feed-in tariff (without Fronius smart meter) This is the yield of solar generation, (this is needed only if you do not have Fronius Smart Meter)
• Reference tariff (with Fronius smart meter) This is the cost of electricity you pay to the utility in kwh, ( this is needed if you have Fronius Smart Meter)
• Feed-in tariff (with Fronius smart meter) This is the how much utility pays to for solar going back to the grid, (this is needed if you have Fronius Smart Meter)
• Offset [kWh] The offset Kwh allow you to add in missing kwh hours that the logger has not picked up, eg. you have inverter installed for couple of months and then you start recording the kwh. This allow you add in the total missing kwh here.
• Offset Earning The offset earning allow you to add in missing yield that the logger has not picked up, eg. you have inverter installed for couple of months and then you start recording the yield. This allow you add in the total missing yield here.

It's the Electricity plan too!

The big red bars are FREE FREE FREE

Contact Energy's three free hours of electricity is amazing.

Between the solar during the day, and shifting all possible usage to the free power evenings, we don't have to pay for very much power at all. 

So little in fact that we've been able to move to a 'low use' plan with a base charge of 30c per day instead of $1.70 per day. Break-even is about $160 per month. We'll see how winter goes.

In a year or so we'll see if there are spot price plans that give us better export rates and maybe really cheap overnight power instead of 3 free hours. Maybe it'll be worth it.

It's the timers too!

I've also installed (or started using) all sorts of timers to restrict anything that doesn't have to run on demand, to when power is cheap.

Hot water  (3000W) - Sinotimer - 9pm to 2am

This is the big one and I've written far too much about it already. But if you don't have a timer on your electric hot water cylinder, you're spending hundreds of dollars a quarter that you don't need to.

Beer fridge (some W) - $10 Mitre 10 plug timer - 9pm to 12am, 10am to 4pm

Both Consumer NZ and my mate Gareth from EECA say that beer fridges are one of the biggest power vampires in your house. But (apart from Christmas when it's probably got turkey and ham in it) it's only got beer in it and doesn't have to run 24 hours a day.

Towel Rails (2x 100W)  - Goldair towel rail timer - 9pm to 1am, 9am to 1pm

This simple little box sits inside your plug box and turns your towel rail on for just 4 hours in 12. It's intended to get your towels warm and fluffy in the morning and evening. But I've set it to use cheap power instead. So our towels are cold and clammy, but they're dry at least.

Bathroom heated floor (some W) - Warmup W3115 timer - 9pm to 12am, 10am to 4pm 

This thermostat/timer (that came with our underfloor heating system) was a nightmare to program, I had to study the instructions in detail and write down the algorithm to program in. If it wasn't a one-off job I'd replace this thing for sure.  It's pretty old and there'll be much better ones around now.

It's also heating the floor when it's cheap, not when our delicate feet are walking over it. Oh well.

So, is it all worth it?

We went into this for largely non financial reasons, and that's lucky. Solar is going to save us money, but not for a while and if we sell our house this decade, not at all unless we recoup our investment in the sale price. 

But we're using far less power, far less dirty peak power, and we understand our usage much better. That's what we wanted and that's what we got.

The Thursday with work

 Hi,

After a day where we were busy at work, it was nice to chill in the evening.  Mike did have some meetings (for things like leadership and some late work meeting) but he was done not too long after 7pm.  

Sleeping cats

I was looking after Moxley as she explored the flax bush in the front yard.  She loved it!  Hunkering down in the gloom of dusk.

Moxley exploring

Home made iced late Friday morning - made with instant coffee

We went to bed and Mike said the funniest thing.  My comment was:  I need to add that to the blog.

Readers - I cannot remember the funny thing he said.  And I asked him.  And he pretended he didn't remember.   :-p

Up for scrambled egg brekkie with Mike at home.  As we're self isolating.  No potato cakes for him.

Weekend plans - I think we will do the park run.  I figure running outside must surely be low risk.  Surely?

But nothing else.  We'll stay home and do some stuff around the house.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Love,

Angela

The Wednesday with my last late work meeting

 Hi,

With the project winding down from build mode to ops mode, our late work meeting is done and dusted.  No more late meetings for me.  Woot!  I can stop my alarm.

Yesterday was good - busy.  Mike headed away after work for a run and a pint at Macs.  He did close to 7km.  Good on him!

Home made iced latte

Random selfie from you-know-who

Home made granola

During lunch break I made more granola.  I haven't tried it yet.  Well, apart from the chef's allowance of bits that fell off the tray as we moved it to the container.

Slept well during the night.  Up for my online session with Quentin.  And I spotted the planets lined up in the sky.  Saw Venus (brightest), Jupiter and Mars.  Then spotted a faint Saturn.  Very happy.

Seriously.  If you zoom in, you can see Venus and Jupiter here.  And on a higher resolution pic I even spotted Mars

Busy day at work.  It has clouded over since the stunning morning skies.  Let's see what the day has in store for everyone.

Love,

Angela

The Tuesday with a big day at work

 Hi,

Mike and I are still hunkering down ahead of my trip to Aus in just over a week's time. But yesterday (Tuesday) saw my work project go live with barely a hiccough.  It has been a year in the making and I hope it goes smoothly as it beds in through this month.

Today (Wednesday) is May 4th - and therefore Star Wars day.  We have a work BBQ planned - but Mike and I are at home (for reasons stated above) so today I have used a Star Wars plate for my toast and I'm wearing my t shirt.

Iced latte done and dusted - and my Star Wars t shirt

Empty toast plate

Last night saw us chilling at home after a run into Northland and back.  I was so cold at my desk all day that I rugged up for the run.  And stepped out into a rather warm evening.  Colder in the house than outside, I reckon.  Run was okay.  The slight uphill on that route is a lot harder than the Park Run on Saturdays.  Hahahah.

Moxley went to sleep in Mike's arms last night.  She was so relaxed - it did not look at comfortable.  She was just a limp lap of wet noodles or something.

Moxley sleeping in Mike's arms

You taking pics of me?

Dreamy cat

Slept well.  Up for work from home.  Mike and Janine have a run planned after work to The Botantist and I will drive there with warm clothes on and some for Mike so we can sit outside in their garden bar and have dinner.

Good fun.

Have a lovely day.

Love,

Angela

The Monday back at work

 Hi,

Well, Monday was fairly long and busy.  Up early for Toby and I had a late meeting at work.  But it all went well.  The house seems much quieter without Toby in it.  I think the cats are also missing him.

Last night here for Toby

I will miss him

Checked the rat traps - bait has been swiped but no bodies.  And I checked the chili plants.  They are looking huge now - unsure exactly when to start harvesting them.  I might need to do some research.

Wow - big chilies

Chilies are huge!

Next broccoli coming along

After work Mike had a session with Quentin and then we had tea ahead of my work meeting.  After that finished, we had a bath and relaxed before heading off to bed.  Good sleep.

With no visits from my mother or Mike's, we've had to clean our own fridge!

Up for my online PT session.  My poor glutes had quite the sweaty workout.  Thanks, Quentin.  He was best man for his mate's wedding on Saturday and I need to watch his best man speech.  I am sure he nailed it!

Tuesday today.  Still overcast but no sign of rain.  Cold but no wind.  So - could be way worse.  Hahah.  Given it is May already and winter is approaching pretty fast.

Work is interesting today.  Go live for the project that has been a year in the making.  Woot!  Let's see how that goes.

Enjoy your day.

Love,

Angela

The last weekend with Toby in Wellington

 Hi,

What a good weekend - except as I type this on Monday morning, I am sad because Toby is now back in Chc.  Waaaahh.  He has had a safe journey back to Chc with Tessa and their beersies made it back intact in the hold of the plane.  

We are planning to be hermits for the next two weeks so I don't have my Sunshine Coast trip derailed by covid. But that meant we were out and about this weekend, our last weekend of socialising and freedom.

Friday we both had one of our first "working from work" days. They want us back in the office part time now. That evening we went out to Borough in Tawa to meet up with Iona - she is in town because Helen is sick. It was good to catch up with her. Sally and Andrew came too.  

Our traps were populated when we got home! 

Catch #3. "Is this what my job is supposed to be? Ah, there are machines for that now."

Catch #4. Big fat mouse.

We did our park run on Saturday.  I shaved off another wee few seconds.  Yay!  Mike did three laps - 16 km in total. He's ready for his half marathon now (though he said he should have been faster). Popped into the supermarket too.

Saturday morning

Running, running

We used to have one of these Fairlane 500s.

Andrew picked me and Iona up and we headed up Transmission Gully to show that piece of engineering off to her.

Transmission gully trip

Grabbed an ice cream at Waikanae beach.  Enjoyed the mint choc chip and mochaccino combo.

Mint choc chip plus mochaccino for the win 

This is our band photo should we ever decide Iona and Andrew need a lead singer!

Picked up some orchids off Helen when we dropped off Iona.  They now look lovely on our dining table.

Orchids from Helen

Toby was out at his friend Ethan's place on Saturday night, so we had a romantic night in watching movies.

They were all pretty terrible.

First up was Downhill. On paper it was great - Will Ferrell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jim Rash director - but it was awkward and cringe. Two unlikeable people on a holiday they shouldn't have gone on that widened the cracks in their relationship into chasms. Their character arcs were, well, staying unlikeable but probably realising they weren't nice people. Then the credits appeared.

Second up, Underwater. This was better done but absolutely terrifying horror. The much reduced rational part of my brain was squeaking, "This is a highly derivative film! It's note for note the same as Alien!" while my lizard brain screamed and shouted and wanted to hide under the duvet. My watch said I was 97% stressed at one point. Hmm. It did the job but was it good?

Finally we redeemed ourselves with Cas and Dylan (reflected in the evening topping 6.6/10 IMDB rating). A nice feelgood movie about a doctor in his twilight years picking up a young old free-spirited woman needing a lift, and mayhem ensuing across Canada. It was nice. Well acted and stuff. Directed by that famous director, Jason Priestley, well known for his directing skills.

Sunday saw Mike stormed around getting stuff done. Pinning the garage doors (yeah, it's complicated - but for the first time in 10 years you can't just pull our garage doors open and climb underneath). Putting a grille over the rat-sized vent hole in the under-garage pit. Checking the traps (success!).  Packaging up Toby's beers for the flight, and delivering Andrew's beers from his brew session. Buying obscure PC cables for Toby and ordering a smart doorbell for us. 

His trello board must look good now. I hope he's content with it.

Meanwhile, I lay on the couch and read. Much better.

Sunday catch #5, Dead little mouse

Monday morning, on the plane, homeward bound

Toby was up early Monday (5am!) and packed up and having brekkie with Mike when I got upstairs.  They loaded his stuff in the car and they headed off at 7am for the airport.  Mike was back for his 9am meeting easily.

The house is somehow already quieter without Toby in it.

Have a fantastic week.  It seems a lot colder here than it has been.

Love,

Angela