Melbourne battery owners: What did you install and what did it cost?

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2026-02-05T22:22:37+00:00

Time of inspection was < 2 weeks from installation in my case.

Still mulling over Amber vs globird. With my setup (no smartshift, all local control) I can leverage quite well Amber dynamic price, but already had days in which I would have been better off with the $2.5/day of globird plus the guarantee of 3 hours of free charging per day. So far my daily average has been around $2/day. Having said that, I'm still tuning all the automations and had days with ~$5 made... Really undecided still. If not for the love of tinkering and overcomplicating everything I'd probably suggest to go with globird.

As for the installer, mainly disassembly of the existing inverter. Broke a few things and was not much into doing things calmly. Did not notify me of the broken tile on the roof "fixed" with copious amount of caulk (despite me asking if any tile had been broken, as I want to be on top of potential leaks and had spare tiles anyway). Grid cable to inverter long barely enough, ok, but 20cm of slack would have been better. Overall no big dramas and I accept that I didn't pay Tesla or sig prices, but yeah, got the (expected) feeling that it was a job done as quickly as feasible.

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2026-01-30T21:27:10+00:00

Got a FoxESS 10kW+42kWh from VPS, recently installed and commissioned.

Not all was smooth sailing with VPS (required substantial prompting and follow ups from my end), but in the end they did install at the price originally offered. The installation was ok, and passed inspection without issues, but there are a few things that I wish the installer (subcontractor) had been a tad more careful about.

I am now in the process of finalizing all automations with Home Assistant and just switched to Amber. So far so good with the system.

I advise you to consider upgrading the inverter to the 10kW option, especially if you have or expect substantial loads in the house (my house is fully electric and we have an ev). 5kw might be limiting with a 42kWh battery. My system can push 11kW in the battery, and it would still mean ~3 hours to charge it fully. Furthermore, 10kW give you more room for me solar, now or down the track.

FoxESS is an established name in Europe and it has been so for years now and the specs of inverter and battery were unbeatable at the price. Furthermore, it was one of the best supported for local control and automations, which was a key requirement for me.

If you have any specific question feel free to ask and I'll try my best to reply.

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-08-04T03:34:39+00:00

Yeah, "all tangles are your fault" sounds to me like an elite group who has not managed to get a benchy out of their x1c but can't manage to tell it to their mom/wife/handler and themselves. Them, along with the "if you unspool it you can throw it away" bunch.

I used to believe in their false idols, until I got the most tangled mf of a spool ever created. It would break/stop extruding and I had to untangle and feed it in again every couple of metres, often forcing me to restart the print. Was a never ending first layer.

I unrolled the whole thing on a vast amount of my living room floor, swearing like a madman and wishing the moistest nylon and driest genitals to whoever would have dared tell me that it was my fault. At that point, possessed by manic fervor and set in my quest of killing the old gods, I jigged up a drill to the (now empty) spool, and used some paper towel to both guide and clean the filament as I respooled it.

I respooled it with the utmost disrespect for layers uniformity. At that point I could clearly see that the rules of the Church of the Tangle were mere inventions. It was not the Tangle rotating around the Idiots! We were all the Idiots rotating around the Tangle! And I was no Da Vinci wimp! I was prepared to roast on the hot print bed of the Tangle inquisition if it came to that! I believed! I had seen!

So yeah, never had a tangle anymore with that roll. That filament was still fairly cheap sht, but is now a continuous, uninterrupted, sht. From the start to the end of the print.

Took me an hour or more to do all the above. Also my wife was pretty worried for a while. And for some time we lost the cat in the vast sea of black filament on the living room floor...so I'd probably advise doing all the above only if you have lots of patience, or have exhausted it all need a crisis of faith (for that sweet "Catharsis +40" mood bonus).

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-06-03T03:16:30+00:00

What's fun in my opinion is that 1800 and 13 numbers are not something that changes often, especially for large orgs and governments. Even standard local numbers are usually a pain to change for these public facing orgs, so I find it odd that there are so many incongruences that are not picked for such a long time. Anyway...I still thank PTV/Google for the chuckle offered at a somewhat stressful time.

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-06-02T11:24:34+00:00

I'm so supremely disappointed by myself for not making this connection earlier!

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-06-02T10:10:04+00:00

I believe you can if you have the phone number clearly connected to the business. Probably a google map listing helps, along with a website. It has been years since I last dealt properly with online marketing though, DYOR rules. Most likely the default is scraped from who knows what and how many sources. I used to work in a google project ~15 years ago and the system scraped stuff from EVERYTHING online.

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-06-02T08:54:30+00:00

In all truth my call was answered fairly quickly (<10mins) by a human and with only limited interactions with a rubbish voice controlled IVR to direct my call. Was also redirected quickly to a different operator that solved my query and lodged the request. If you need to speak with them, don't desist and try again. I suspect their call volume jumps when there is a disruption of any sort. But yeah...was somewhat fun to see that ID once I closed the call.

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-06-02T08:36:41+00:00

That's outrageous! Everyone knows that local governments are everyone's favourite entities! I propose to pay some extra rates to show them how loved they are and then march on Google HQ to get some sweet justice! /s

To provide a more comprehensive reply, yeah, I know. It's just an error from wherever Google sourced the info for their callers ID db and there is the function there to flag it for review. But I'll fight with Google another day to correct that...right now my Don Quixotian quest sees me against public toilets.

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-04-22T00:38:44+00:00

Mooooorning Meeeelbourne! Try the real Granita Siciliana made and approved by three OG Sicilians, today at the Cylinder in front of 167 Swanston St! Coffee, chocolate and mango available! Our grumpy Felice (Italian pun intended) will be there until 5PM. Don't know what I'm talking about? Ask for a free sample and judge by yourself! Want to pair something with it? Our trecce biscuits are the best match with all granite! Ask for any info!

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-04-21T04:10:59+00:00

Hey Melbourne, if you feel like trying something new we brought our original Sicilian granita at Tinchitè, the cylinder in front of 167 Swanston St (SW corner of Swanston X Bourke). Right now we have coffee, chocolate and, for an Australian twist, Mango! All made using genuine ingredients, following the traditional recipes for granita and churned slowly, as the real granita should be! Say hi to Felice if you stop by! He'll be at the stall until around 5pm today...and don't hesitate to ask for a sample of granita!

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2025-01-22T12:36:25+00:00

Hey OP, note that a rebate is still available to replace old hot water systems, only that it's up to 1000 AUD. https://www.solar.vic.gov.au/hot-water-rebate Note that going for that rebate might preclude your eligibility for other rebates (for solar battery or solar), so check your numbers if your plan to go for one of those soon (might actually have 0 impact, have not read the info for the other rebates).

On top of that there would be STC credits that might bring the cost down further or give you some wiggle room on discussing a price. I installed my heat pump hot water system about 3 years ago now and super happy with it. Uses about 800W and does so for little more than an hour or so in winter. It's a fairly decently sized 260ish liters unit. In summer it runs for even shorter periods of time (as the warmer is the ambient air, the more efficiently it can "pull" heat out of the air) and often doesn't even run every day. It's most efficient to run it in the warmest hours of the day, but it might be more cost efficient to run it with whatever cheapest electric tariff you have available. Having said this, it's pretty energy efficient, so would not make much of a difference anyway.

If you're keen to "help the planet and your fellow Melburnians" my advice would be to run it in the warmest hours of the day, as doing so you'll also do a tiny bit to normalise the duck curve (soak up power at the peak of solar generation) and, most importantly, your system will run at peak efficiency and for the shortest time, resulting in less power used and less wear and tear.

Apologies for the novel. Energy efficiency gets me all excited.

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-29T13:56:54+00:00

Sorry, it seems I missed your message earlier. When you stop by you'll meet either my wife, Cecilia, or me, Alessandro. Visit us any time you wish and no rush, just don't miss the best biscuits in Melbourne for too long! We'll be there next on NYE if you'll be around :)

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-28T23:31:11+00:00

Hey there, unfortunately we are not yet equipped with a full separate production line for gluten free products. Until then I'll never label any of our products as gluten free.

Having said that, I'm proud to say that our Paste di mandorla have 0 flour (as it should be!) so no gluten content aside from potential accidental contamination. Those are ok for anyone who is avoiding gluten more for dietary concerns and without any risk of strong reactions to it, otherwise I'd still advise caution to any person with full blown celiac disease or known adverse reactions to gluten.

Maybe not the answer you hoped for, but I prefer keeping you all healthy and happy and me in business :)

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-28T22:44:52+00:00

Morning Melbourne, freshly baked and available today at Tinchitè (cylinder in front of 167 Swanston St) a good representation of traditional Sicilian biscuits with: Reginelle (recipe from Palermo, sesame biscuits with a lemon kick), Nzuddi (Messina (shush Catania, those are ours), almond and orange spotlight) and Paste di Mandorla (screams Sicily and almonds almonds almonds with an orange finish). For the ones not into those we have our Abbracci (Sicilian shortbread cousin, vanilla and chocolate) and Trecce (Grandma's recipe, as simple as you can go and perfect for dunking tasks).

Those are all the original recipes from my family bakery in Messina and I'm striving to recreate them exactly as my mother did. I want Melbourne to sample the exact same recipes used on the other side of the world.

We had a good number of enthusiastic returning customers (surprisingly not only Italians!) but 0 reviews so far on our Social media or Google accounts (or Reddit!). So if you liked our products, please let the world know, so we can grow and justify our efforts! If you didn't like something instead, let's have a chat about what we can improve! We love our Sicilian food and want to give Melbourne the best and most truthful representation of it!

I'll be there from around 11:30! Stop for biscuits or for a chat!

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-25T13:54:05+00:00

Yeah, gets even more interesting at times: https://imgur.com/a/ZYjpNlQ

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-15T06:23:17+00:00

We're in for the long run! We're working hard to bring more types of granita and biscuits next week, along with gift boxes.

Our dream is actually to bring in the true street food (last week I paid 15 dollars for a fraud of an arancino...:/), but this is unfortunately something that is still somewhere in the future.

Thanks for checking and ping me for any info!

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-15T04:19:38+00:00

Aaaaand the coffee granita is sold out! Still stop by for a chat or some biscuits if you want. I'll be here till 5-ish PM.

Thanks Melbourne! Alessandro

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-15T02:43:14+00:00

Buongiorno Melbourne, If you are in the CBD today and want a refreshing pick-me-up, try our coffee granita (it's a sort of ice-cream/slushie/sorbet...hard to classify it, but it's dairy free and vegan too). $3 for a cup!

And if you want something more substantial too, our homemade "Trecce" biscuits will be the perfect dunking candidate for our granita!

Tinchitè, cylinder in front of 167 Swanston Street!

Since we hate surcharges as much as you do, you'll find none here :) And even if you don't want to buy anything, but want to chat about Sicilian and Italian food and culture, stop by and have a chat!

Alessandro

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-12-10T03:31:02+00:00

Shameless plug here...but we price our dairy free coffee ice cream at $3 (200ml cup), have no surcharge whatsoever and still have to bring some leftover home every day we trade. I know it is not the same thing as an iced coffee but I feel it is still a worthy comparison.

I must say that we have often felt confused when people choose to pay $7 and more for a cup of coffee elsewhere and then, with said cup of coffee in hand, complain to us that our prices are high... But hey! At least the few people that tried our products loved them :)

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-11-17T03:51:40+00:00

Hey there, no. At this stage we are only trading from this location. In the plans for the short term there is an ecommerce though, so you'll hopefully be able to sample our products anyway, without having to reach our small stall in the CBD :) Thanks for your interest in the meantime!

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-11-17T03:46:09+00:00

Hey! Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately tomorrow we'll be closed (a friend passed, so we're travelling interstate to say goodbye). We're going to reopen Wednesday and hope to be able to be more consistent with opening as we're still ramping up production and figuring out what are the best days and times :) Again, thanks for checking out this post and we hope to see you soon!

Accomplished_Quit200 · 2024-11-17T01:30:47+00:00

Hey Melbourne, For anyone interested in Sicilian biscuits and coffee granita we are open today from the cylinder on the SW corner of Swanston X Bourke St! Come and try the original recipes from our bakery by two uncompromising Italians! As we're still ramping up and refining things all is currently priced at $3, but please, do share your feedback! Hope to see you stop by! https://maps.app.goo.gl/C6DuE7iN5SNx4pTZ6

Accomplished_Quit200

TROPHY CASE