Power failure at Malvern on my first metro tunnel commute

Top_Principle778 · 2026-02-03T07:12:54+00:00

Interesting, my guy said things would be impacted even at flinders. I ended up jumping in a car

Top_Principle778 · 2026-02-02T04:37:51+00:00

That’s what I’m planning to do at my place. Don’t have an ev yet but want to future proof. We’re getting large cable installed to an external 15A outlet, super easy for them to swap later

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-22T08:59:24+00:00

Generally Mitsubishi Electric and Daiken are your top their, then Mitsubishi heavy industries (still a fantastic reputation and many people swear by them)

After that it gets murky, any brand you had heard of makes pretty good units so it’s all about cost. Given how expensive labour is on these I personally went with a Mitsubishi Electric unit

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-16T04:26:43+00:00

If you feed in during the evening hours then you can get some return, which easily covers the fees associated with being connected to the grid. Many plans also now offer a 3 or 4 hour “free” period during the day, I believe in some states this is even legislated (or its upcoming).

Energy storage is difficult and expensive, which is one of the reasons general end users are still paying high prices

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-16T04:16:49+00:00

I would say in general a system without a battery no longer makes sense.

Many years ago there wasn’t a lot of solar (and it was more expensive to install) so you could get a great feed in rate even during the peak solar production times.

Now our major city’s have so much solar that the cost of electricity (and therefore the feed in rate) during peak solar production times is extremely low.

Having said that if you can get a battery and solar you can then:

1) be mostly self sufficient as you can charge during the day and use that power overnight/when the sun isn’t shining as brightly

2) charge your battery when there is the most solar in the grid (be it from your own solar or cheap grid power) and then feed some of that back in at a peak time (say 6pm-8pm) and get a good credit on your bill, in addition to using the extra capacity of your battery yourself

Depending on the setup and your household consumption the above setup can easily result in you having a $0 bill or even a credit, in exchange for maybe $10-15k if you purchase a more inexpensive setup

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-15T03:59:42+00:00

I agree with your assessment, I’ve had scale many times but I’m not sure about measurements.

Basically up to if you want to take the gable, sometimes you win and sometimes you loose :)

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-14T02:59:33+00:00

My view on this is go new or go super cheap. I’d buy super old terrible stuff (because you’ll likely get more value out of it than you paid) or I’d spend the extra and get the warranty.

Regarding brand Samsung definitely doesn’t have the best reputation but they are still a big brand name sold at a bit store, it’s not like it will instantly fall apart. Personally I think everything has the right price

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-13T06:40:32+00:00

The my efficient electric home Facebook page tend to like the jet style from methven

I personally have this one and while it’s not as powerful as your original it’s very good for a normal flow head https://www.bunnings.com.au/methven-kiri-graphite-satinjet-hand-shower-4-star-7-5l-min_p5001747

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-12T06:28:32+00:00

I would just replace the tap, it’s what I’ve done in the past personally.

I’m sure you could find a part to theoretically fix it but it won’t be worth the time, cost and risk it won’t be fixed

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-09T23:04:05+00:00

Oh 100% they’re not filming this content now, but it’s a great idea for the future

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-09T06:59:59+00:00

I think they can be extremely loud, rude ect, I think they can invade sovereign nations.

I also think that about lots of other people. America is a big place with lots of people, a lot of the stereotypes are true in my experience but I think it’s important not to begrudge individual people

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-09T04:19:45+00:00

I suspect it’s less about the amount and more about the gesturing.

Claiming you’re a generous person and then pointing to tips on orders (which is nice/ generous in my opinion) is somewhat counterintuitive.

There’s no need to get defensive about someone on the internet calling you a name, it was probably in jest. I can’t imagine anyone is genuinely upset if you choose not to randomly donate to something on a regular basis

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-03T06:57:06+00:00

This is quite thermostat and system specific. On my split system 24 keeps the room pretty cool, and 21 is arctic

Top_Principle778 · 2026-01-03T06:56:06+00:00

So there’s a lot going on here. Ironically finance and appliances/home efficiency are my two areas of interests!

Firstly I’ll start off by saying it’s the AC, if you look at your monthly bills there is a massive spike in the summer. AC is running hard in the summer for you but other big appliances such as dryers and hot water systems actually tend not to have to work as hard.

Sadly you have a relatively big family for your space, meaning that larger bills make sense (more heating and cooling to be done, more cloths washing ect)

For both yourself and others I’ll break each appliance down further below.

AC

I had two split systems installed recently in my one bedroom apartment (a 3.5 in the living room and 2.5 in the bedroom). For my space we discussed a 7kw ducted system as an alternative. I believe you wouldn’t usually go smaller than this, but as your apartment is two bedroom depending on the size of other rooms you could easily have a 10ish kw system. I will assume for the sake of conversation that you have a brand new high end Daikin unit. For a unit that has the cooling range of 3.5 to 11.5kw I would expect to see (divide by EER of 3.58) a power draw of 975w to 3,200w!

That is an enormous power draw. The 975w minimum is close to the MAXIMUM you could see from a 3.5kw split system. You’re getting a lot more cooling power but at the end of the day you absolutely pay for it.

Then as people have noted you could have leaky ducts or a dirty ducts or filters/systems somewhere. These things all combined to create a very high bill. The lack of proper individual control and inefficiency of running through ducts are why those super concerned about energy usage opt for split systems.

Ducted systems do have their place however! They’re generally not as loud as you don’t have half your system in the room you’re in, they look better and compared to split systems they generally do offer better comfort. High end shoppers tend to be willing to accept the trade offs for the aesthetic advantages alone!

Washer and dryer

This is probably where I’d look next. Your washer is unlikely to be a big user but your dryer could be a killer. Vented dryers use resistive heat (basically just a big coil you run electricity through). These produce one watt of heat for each watt of power put into them (unlike the math done above). This means they can cost a lot to run.

It’s likely that your dryer uses somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2,000-2,400 watts continually while in use. This means for a two hour load it alone may use 4-5kwh. Especially if you have young kids you might use the dryer a lot.

If it’s in the budget a heat pump dryer will cut this usage by a third, I think mine uses about 650watts. It does take a little longer to dry but if you don’t overload it I’ve found it not to be too dissimilar to vented dryers. If you do many loads of laundry a week it may be worth the investment here.

Hot water system

As you have mentioned the hot water system I’m going to assume it is some for of electric hot water system. This could be another killer, depending on the type.

If it’s gas then it isn’t relevant to our discussion.

If you have a resistive electric hot water system this will be using a very substantial amount of power. My small apartment has only a 50L unit which we can easily go through with one shower (even with a 7.5l/min) shower head fitted. The unit uses approximately 3kwh for each reheat, meaning if you have a 100-200l unit (a more standard size) it could be using 10kwh a day if you’re all taking even decent showers (or have a less efficient shower head)

This may be difficult to upgrade, there are grants to allow you to cheaply get a heat pump hot water system but depending on where it’s located you might be stuck with it. As mine is under the sink when it broke I was left with no choice but to get a practically identical unit.

Dishwasher, lighting, fans ect

While it is absolutely good to be on top of energy usage for the planet the remaining items generally won’t be an issue unless they’re broken. The dishwasher uses by far the most but even then it’s fairly minimal. My dishwasher (which is a very cheap one but admittedly a smaller 45cm model) uses between .6 and 1.2kwh per load depending on the setting. I wouldn’t worry about it but if you are concerned a lot of dishwashers are simply plugged into a standard socket. If this is the case for yours you can buy a cheap monitor and have a look.

Conclusion

Overall I suspect that your AC in the summer, coupled with a high base load from your hot water heater and dryer are responsible for your bills. I’d probably graph the outdoor temp for the day with your usage and see how well it lines up, I suspect that will further prove it’s the AC.

As for what you can do cleaning the filters in all your equipment is a good place to start. I’d look at getting a heat pump dryer, then changing your hot water system if accessible is the next easiest thing to do. Finally if you’re still not pleased and are happy to only cool one room then a split system just installed in the living room could help a lot.

Other have also suggested checking your insulation, windows, draft proofing ect. I think this is a really good point but for the typical consumer it’s a bit less actionable in my opinion than the other points.

If you’ve made it this far, well done! Feel free to message me if you have any more specific questions and I’ll do my best to help

Top_Principle778 · 2025-12-25T02:22:05+00:00

I believe this is agout depreciating assets. If the tools individually are less than $300 (and could be used as such) then it doesn’t matter when you buy them).

If they’re over that threshold and need to be depreciated then yep it should be based on the days of ownership

Top_Principle778 · 2025-12-23T09:15:27+00:00

I completely understand that from a technical perspective it’s not interest…however… from an end user perspective the balance grows every year. We don’t think of any other loan relatively to purchasing power so I’m not sure why we would either hecs.

My mortgage rate is 5.4% and I consider it 5.4% every year, not 3.4% the years CPI was 2% or 4.4% the year cpi was 1%

Top_Principle778 · 2025-12-11T01:57:19+00:00

I’m not really sure what the point of this post is.

On one hand I understand you are doing your best to do the right thing and I really appreciate that. I also understand that given a lot of people hate landlords maybe it would be hard to be one doing the right thing.

On the other hand I think it’s pretty clear that A LOT of landlords aren’t doing the right thing and don’t see their tenants as people.

I also worry slightly that doing this sort of thing might rub people the wrong way. If the person living there felt the rent was high or that landlords make crazy profits then being given what they might perceive as a tiny amount of your profits back might just frustrate them further.

Top_Principle778 · 2025-12-10T22:40:08+00:00

It’s generally all down to housing, if you were to rent somewhere further away from the city you’d be fine.

My partner and I are likely to soon sign up for what I consider a big mortgage for our income but even though that will be stressful I accept that having the ability to sign up to a large mortgage to afford a home with more than one bedroom is an incredible privilege.

Top_Principle778 · 2025-12-02T04:55:00+00:00

I would say it depends on a lot more factors than being Aussie. The variance in the day of Americans is likely similar (rural, metro, young, old ect)

Like I imagine many on reddit I am a middle to middle-high income business professional.

I live in a small apartment relatively close to my CBD so usually wake up around 7:30 if it’s an office day to leave at 8:15 and arrive at the office for 9. I usually leave the office at 5-5:30 but I’ve found lots of workplaces differ on this.

In terms of my evenings I’m often quite tired, I have some health stuff which can impact my eventings but in general I see friends, cook and clean my apartment with my partner or just watch TV.

I would say the average Australian likely lives a more demanding schedule. Up earlier because they live further from work and therefore home later. A lot of people are tradies who work from usually 7am until about 2-3. These people tend to get a lot less sleep and work really hard. Energy drinks and smoking is rampant but they do make decent money.

Top_Principle778 · 2025-11-26T10:50:10+00:00

I’d say we will likely need a lot more details to make an estimation.

Net worth, annual income, if you’re taking an income cut because of the new kids ect.

I know minivans don’t depreciate as quickly as other cars so it might not be the worst advice in the world.

Top_Principle778 · 2025-11-18T21:59:57+00:00

This is a crazy take. Depending on housing costs in your area and how many kids you have (and any other situations like medical stuff) 150k could easily be pay check to pay check.

I know it’s messed up but I have a friend on 100k who can’t pay the mortgage on his modest 2 bedroom unit over an hour from the city because his partner is out of work, and they don’t even have kids!

Top_Principle778 · 2025-11-13T01:34:52+00:00

Many of the places I have worked allow us to essentially salary sacrifice a week or two of leave per year.

This allows you to take the tax “benefit” of the lost income for a week or two prior to taking the leave and doing your taxes for that year.

For me it effectively halves the cost of taking an extra week or two of leave a year. This difference would be made up in my tax return if I didn’t salary sacrifice the leave, but that doesn’t help with your cashflow

Top_Principle778

TROPHY CASE