How and why the Bogey Hole Café, Bronte Beach, got solar power
By
Debra Gray
We own, live above and operate The Bogey Hole Café at Bronte Beach, Sydney, NSW.
This is the story of how and why we put solar panels on our building.
I’m writing this in July 2020.
We installed the panels in December, 2019 and for 4 months we had solar power.
It’s a long story but we have only just been connected again in June after 2 months without solar.
• The Bogey Hole Cafe, Bronte beach - named after the rock pool at the beach
Brief details of the delay are:
3 phase power, Waverley council were installing underground power to our whole street front and at the same time supplying 3 phase power. I assumed that we would have immediate access to this 3 phase but no, it was connected only to the switchboard. It was then up to us, to connect to our café and residence.
So between me not really understanding how all these things worked I relayed to the solar installers that we would have 3 phase when we in fact, didn’t! We have now made the changes so that we can use the 3 phase with a lot of toing and froing between different electricians with different standards of work. Be mindful that you will need at least a level 2 electrician to work at this level.
It was exasperation with our political ‘leaders’ in not wanting to make the necessary changes in the way we are contributing to climate change that was the catalyst for me actually wanting to do something myself.
It is all too easy to just let things continue the way they are.
“Oh”, I thought, “But the financial cost, the red tape, the decisions to be made, potential disapproval from the neighbours, the disruption to home life . . . “
Now I know; yes it will cost money to put in those water tanks, install those solar panels and yes there are . . . and so on.
The biggest push to get me started was meeting Michael Mobbs at his open house Saturdays in Chippendale. What an inspiration! And he has been doing this for over 20 years! To be completely off-grid in the middle of the city is truly inspiring.
As well as appealing to my wish to be greener, to tread more lightly on this planet, it also appeals in that it will save you money in the long run, win win. As he will tell you, the technology keeps improving and the value for money increases.
Yes, you could wait until the battery technology gets even better but I believe there isn’t time to wait or waste. We all need to be doing our bit to ensure we are heading in the right direction for our children and grandchildren. Who knows if it will be enough with the worst big policy decisions being made by our blinkered politicians but we surely can’t keep sitting on our hands.
We live in a terrace situation at Bronte beach. Our daughter now runs the café downstairs which we operated for 20 years. It is a daytime café so the solar power is produced in line with the maximum usage. For this reason we have decided not to install batteries.
We have lived in the first house we bought 42 years ago.
When you stay in the one place you get the opportunity to improve, to reinvent when things don’t work to plan.
The back deck timbers need replacing for a third time. This provides the perfect opportunity to install water tanks and grey water usage plus I will get that outdoor shower I’ve always wanted. Just wondering whether to make it cold water only so that the grandchildren don’t stand there for hours warming up after surfing. Mmmm… Michael Mobbs has recommended using radially sawn timbers which is more sustainable, less wastage, more renewable. There is an added cost in going down this path.
Anyway, back to the solar.
Here is an excellent post installation report from Mike Haydon of 24 Hour Solar Power who arranged the installation.
You can take the link to the report to see how the monitoring system tells us how system is working in great detail. Mike speaks by video from his office and explains what he is showing and seeing on the system’s monitoring system. He shows how to use the monitoring system.
• Electricity use before 3 phase
The link and report shows how much power is produced by the panels. The video report shows how the power can be analysed a day at a time, weekly, monthly or longer. The graphs show how much power we are using 24/7. You can see, for example, the high amount of power used when the café begins operating early in the morning.
We are looking at getting more value out of our solar system by checking and reducing energy use appliance by appliance both at night and day times.
• Bronte Beach from the cafe with the rock pool around to the right of the image
Also am amazed at how much power we are using now, 300kw as opposed to 100kw in summer!! What is going on? At least I am aware of it now from the monitoring system.
At the moment these figures don’t seem right to me. I’m getting installers out to have a look at what’s going on.
When I find the answer I’ll either add a note here or (if Michael twists my arm) do another short blog.
• Electricity use after 3 phase
All up the system cost us $13,000.
The monitoring system will tell us how much money we will save a year, and how many tonnes of carbon pollution a year we will stop producing.
To do this I will take a full year of electricity bills which will show the amount of electricity used, the cost and the amount of climate pollution we caused. I’ll then compare the electricity bills after the installation, the costs and amount of pollution. This comparison will give me before and after figures.
Obviously, If we can lower our energy use those figures will increase.
So, life has gone on despite the delays, to and froing. And every day the sun comes up our little roof and solar system are doing good things for our lovely Earth, including our lovely Bronte surf and ocean. You can, too.
Debra Gray. Solar powered!