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Cheaper than free, to fill the car
Beautiful spring day. Flowers soaking up the sun. Solar panels soaking up the sun, but I’ve switched the solar off. Why did I turn off free fuel for the car? There’s a cheaper option today than free. Say what? There’s so much electricity in the grid, mainly from renewables, that the wholesale price has gone negative, so retailers are actually being paid to use it. Our retailer is Amber Electric, which passes on the wholesale price to us. Right now, they’re paying us up to 9c per kWh to charge the car or run any appliances. Probably less than 5c per kWh on average, over the afternoon. Our house battery is “unfortunately” full from solar yesterday, so we can’t use it to soak up more of the cheaper than free electricity and get paid more. Realistically, we’re not going to get rich from this. We might make a few dollars today. But getting paid a few dollars to refuel the car is better than paying $100 for petrol.
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Top pub and top motel in Yackandandah
We aimed for Yackandandah tonight, as it's one of our favourite places to stop. One of our favourite motels is here too: Motel Views, so named because ... well, you can figure that out. On the way, we crossed the border back into Victoria, and back to the potholes. There's a new twist, though. Many of the filled-in ones still have the painted warning circles around them, which were helpful when there was a hole inside. Now we steer around potholes that are no longer there, and the circles around the ones that are still there play the boy who cried wolf. For dinner, we drove straight to the top pub, the Star Hotel Yackandandah. Not to be confused with its fierce rival, the bottom pub (the Yackandandah Hotel). To our surprise, it was a quiet night, and we were one of just two couples eating. We had some laughs with the staff, as they explained that many in this holiday town had gone away on holidays. One of the deciding factors was the fast charger just out the back, though it's…
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Banana fritter and a Tesla test drive
We’ve passed The Big Banana many times, but this was the first time I’ve stopped there. It’s grown over the years to include a toboggan ride, water slides, ice skating, laser tag and a lot more. But we’re far too sophisticated for all that 😉. All I could think about in the drive up was getting a banana split, which changed to a banana fritter and banana smoothie when we reached the important decision at the counter of Bananas Cafe. In the car park, I noticed a Tesla Model 3 and Y with a QR code on the side, and a label “Self-Serve Test Drive”. It seems that you can just walk up to it, scan the bar code, and take the EV for a test drive. Clever idea, since I guess many people see the EVs parked at the superchargers and wonder what it would be like to drive one. Years ago, I think we first saw EVs charging at the chargers behind Olivers in Gundagai and wondered the same. A couple of years later we took a Tesla for a test drive, and were so impressed that we ordered one on the spot.
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Just plug in, because you never know.
Nearing the end of today’s driving, we pulled off the highway to visit the town of Urunga. A walk along the waterfront to the iconic boardwalk. We have walked it before, but not today. Bellies beckoned, so I grabbed some “emergency shoes” from the frunk so we could get into the local pub for dinner. We did our usual trick of ordering one meal to share, and were glad we did when we saw the size of it. And, of course, the pub cat found Francis.
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Norah Head Lighthouse
Heading off from Norah Head, our accommodation for the past three nights. Beautiful flat in a home, complete with an electric Weber BBQ like ours at home. Lunch yesterday with Mum at the Cessnock Leagues Club, after doing a conga line at the front steps. Nice place, but the Keno (?) announcements are too noisy for conversations. Brekky at Norah Head Beach Haus, followed by a photo with the lighthouse. Car packed with a portable cot for our new grandbaby, at our next stop in Thornton, near Newcastle. We noticed that the Hexham bypass is finished – looking good.
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Northern Central Coast
Hopping between Tuggerah, Budgewoi and our accommodation in Norah Head. Great to see Amber and her new (used) Tesla Model Y.
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Bright to Holbrook, with FSD interventions
We don’t really plan our day’s trip ahead. We hopped in the car this morning in Bright, entered our destination for tomorrow as Budgewoi, and let the car decide the route. It decided that we’d stop at Holbrook and (I think) Goulburn, to charge along the way. The route seemed picturesque on the map, so we followed along. The views did not disappoint, but no photos of the scenery this time through, sorry. Parked the car at Holbrook. Our windscreen shade got its first use this warming season. I have the car set to keep the car at below 35°C so the snacks don’t perish. And the fridge in the sub-trunk keeps the cold food chilled. Lunch a block away at The Ten Mile Cafe.
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Bright idea for a road trip
And we’re off again. Heading north to see family strewn from NSW Central Coast to Byron Bay. Driving straight up the Hume Highway is easy, but a bit boring, so we took the back roads along the Black Spur to Alexandra, with packed lunch (thank you Krissy) by the creek, then followed another spur through Tolmie, with a photo op next to a random Tardis.
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The grid went out and the car kept charging
I happened to see AusNet's email this morning — a possible outage in our street. Then I noticed an alert from our Tesla Powerwall, to say it was running off grid. Nothing in the house had missed a beat. Every appliance had kept running without a hiccup. I tapped into the app to see how it was going. The solar was still funnelling through our system, charging the car up from its 60% low after yesterday's run into the city. Once the car was full, the leftover topped up our Powerwall batteries. When you install a battery and solar, get it in writing that in a grid outage the battery will still charge from solar. It is one of the things on my list of what to ask for in a battery installation. I suspect the outage was caused by a tree on a power line, given how windy it is today, up in the hills. This one only lasted a bit over an hour, unlike others that have gone on for up to nine days, taking out streets of homes, shops and the local petrol station. And then, just as I posted this, a…
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Mid day drive to nearby Selby.
Watching Puffing Billy cross the Selby Trestle Bridge, showering Francis in steam (harmless) as she sat on the hill, waving to excited tourists. Brunch earlier at Selby General Store & Café. Basic menu offerings, including the best egg and bacon roll we’ve eaten. We were welcomed by the hosts, cute dogs, turtles and fish who were as keen to watch us and we were to watch them.
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A month of cooking on induction
We have cooked on gas and on electric elements for years. This is our first month with a Westinghouse full induction cooktop in place of the gas. We had trialled induction on a small scale first. We bought a portable hotplate last year (also Westinghouse), as a spare in our kitchen — on the bench at home, and in the back of the car on road trips. Induction still gets confused with the electric cooking most people remember, a metal hotplate or a coil glowing red, sometimes under glass. Induction works differently — it makes the pan itself the heating element, so nearly all the energy goes into the pan rather than into the kitchen, and the glass beside the pan stays cool enough to rest a hand on. Here is what a month of it has been like. What stands out is how fast and how responsive it is. It comes on instantly, goes off instantly, and changes power the moment you ask. It boils faster than the gas did. CHOICE's testing has induction boiling a litre of water in about half the time gas…
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Where does the shower steam actually go?
We run the ensuite fan for every shower, and I have wondered where it blows. Last week I took a torch up through the manhole to find out. It does not go outside. There is no duct at all. The fan is part of the combined heat lamp, light and exhaust unit in the ceiling, and it discharges straight up into the roof space. So does the one in the loft bathroom, an older unit doing the same thing, but I think into a tighter roof space. Up there it is timber, insulation and still air, and in winter it is colder than any room below. Every shower we have taken in this house has sent its steam to the coldest, least ventilated part of the building, several times a day, for years. Fixing it properly is not simply a matter of running a pipe out to the eave. The cheap axial fan fitted in most Australian ceilings moves plenty of air with nothing attached to it, and far less once it has to push through a duct — so the fan has to be able to shift air through the pipe as well. The Australian…
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Wet windows: the free dehumidifier
One morning the guest room windows had condensation 70 cm up the glass. The same night, in the same house, two other rooms had none at all — and the only difference was that those two had a window open. My first thought was that the wet glass was the problem. It is the opposite. That water was in the room's air an hour earlier. The glass is simply the coldest thing available, so it is where the water goes first. The measurements back it up. Overnight the guest room's moisture level fell, even with the two of us asleep in it and the door shut. Nothing in that room was removing water except the window. The catch is what happens next. Leave it and it runs down to the frame and sits in the corners, and that is exactly where the black spots turned up. We bought a RYOBI window vacuum at Bunnings for $119 — a battery-powered squeegee that sucks the water off the glass into a small tank as you draw it down. Unlike a cloth, it doesn't just move the water somewhere else. Tim Forcey, whose…
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Did going all-electric cause our mould?
We spent 2025 and 2026 getting off gas — heat pump hot water, a multi-head air conditioner replacing the ducted gas heater, and finally an induction cooker. Then we found mould on the bed slats. Was it due to electrification? We first found this same mould, on these same slats, in December 2024 — fourteen months before the air conditioners went in, while the gas ducted heater was still doing all the heating. Whatever causes it was here first, and it was here while the gas was. Gas cooking turns out to actually make it worse. Burning gas makes water: roughly 1.6 kilograms of water vapour for every cubic metre burnt. That is on top of the water coming out of the food or boiling water, which happens whatever you cook on. Going induction removed the extra moisture. Not to mention the benzene, which is a known carcinogen. What did change is the ventilation. The old ducted system leaked, and those leaks quietly brought in outside air. Reverse-cycle doesn't leak. Better heating, staler air.…
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Flushing wet air out of the house
Warm air holds far more water than cold air. Heat a closed room and moisture is drawn out of the carpet, plaster, timber, furniture and us. Turn the heating off, the room cools, and the air can't hold it any more. It picks the coldest surface it can find: our single-glazed windows, or the slats under our mattress. The fix turned out to be free: open the windows when the heating goes off. Wide open for half an hour reliably removes a third to a half of the moisture the room is holding above the outside air — we've measured that seven times now. But simply leaving a couple of windows open for a few hours, such as overnight, has beaten it every time we've compared the two. Slower per hour, but it keeps working through the small hours when the outside air is at its driest. Our sliding windows turn out to have a catch built into the sill that locks them open a few centimetres and stops them going any further. I had lived with those windows for years without understanding what it was for —…
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Our heating doesn't breathe
Last post we found the mould. This one is about where the water was coming from. I assumed the ensuite — showers, obviously. That is a real part of it, though not quite as I pictured. The door stays shut and the fan runs while we shower. It's afterwards that the moisture gets out: the fan goes off, the door opens, and the wet walls, floor and towels carry on evaporating into the house for hours. But it wasn't the whole story, and working out the rest meant unlearning how I thought our heating worked. Here's the misconception, and I held it for years. You switch on the air conditioner. The big fan in the unit outside starts spinning. Air blows out of the head on the wall inside. Obvious conclusion: that fan is pushing outside air into the house, warming it on the way in. Wrong. No new air comes in at all. The outdoor unit and all that white insulated pipework only move refrigerant gas, and the gas never enters the room. It just makes a hot surface inside, and the head blows the room's…
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Our winter guest: mould
While changing the sheets last week, Fran spotted green mould on the bed slats. Then black spots on the window sills. Then more on the curtains, and on the underside of the mattress. Up here in Emerald, in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, winter means months of fog, rain and single-digit nights — lovely for the ferns outside, less so for the timber inside. We'd met this mould before — the same slats, the same underside of the mattress cover, in December 2024. We cleaned it off and thought that was that. Cleaning treats the symptom, so this time we went looking for the cause. That decision turned into a two-week investigation that took over the house. We started logging temperature and humidity in every room, several times a day, and we bought two dehumidifiers and a window vacuum along the way. What we turned up were things we didn't know about our own house — behind the tiles, under the floor, and in the ceiling. The surprise wasn't where the water was coming from — showers,…
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Off the gas for good
91.16 cents a day for a pipe we no longer used. Cancelling it took a chatbot, a $9.13 fee, and a question about whether the house was being demolished.
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Rebate for replacing our gas stove
The rebate is worth about $200. I'll get $120. You cannot claim it yourself — and the app only accepts documents from your phone's photo gallery.
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Installing our induction stove
The crew arrived at seven. By lunchtime the gas was capped, the old Smeg was gone, and 40 amps of new circuit ran from the switchboard to the kitchen.
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Where does this circuit go?
Ten circuits, one unreadable label, and a 20 amp breaker that powers nothing. What I found by switching off every breaker in the house, one at a time.
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Quotes to install an oven and induction cooktop
I thought connecting an oven was an afternoon and a few hundred dollars. The first quote was $3,014 — so I went looking to understand why it's such a big job.
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Oven bought in March, arrived in July
The docket said “ETA 3 weeks”. It took 106 days, six phone calls, and an oven posted back to the warehouse because nobody read the email saying hold it.
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Day trip to Torquay and Queenscliff
We left our home in Emerald, crossing the mist-ical Puffing Billy Railway for a two hour drive to an appointment in Torquay. What to do after a long drive with a few hours to kill? Let’s take a drive, along the coast, from Torquay to Queenscliff, stopping at a few lookouts along the way. Oh, and a few stops for lunch (The Salty Dog Cafe Torquay), coffee, coffee and dinner (Pholklore).
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Between the sun and moon, on Gippsland Lakes
The shortest path between two points is usually mundane. So, we tapped a random lookout on the way home, and asked the navigation to add it to our trip. The self driving car took us all the way there, and back to our accommodation, except for a couple of abrupt interventions by me to avoid potholes.
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Everybody loves Raymond Island
With the promise of seeing koalas, we headed over to Raymond Island, in the Gippsland Lakes. We opted to leave our Tesla on the mainland, in Paynesville, and caught the ferry across as pedestrians. The ferry runs every twenty minutes, free for pedestrians, $15 for cars. On the other side, we hired a four person bike for $50, for one hour. It turned out that we created more emissions pedalling the bike around than we would have if we’d taken the car. I blame strained digestive systems fuelled by the coffee and cake from the cafe van. The koalas were sleepy and elusive, but we managed to find a few.
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Metung, Winter Festival
Soup, souvlaki, juggler, chainsaw (electric and fueled) wood carving and a fun collection of outlets for locals and visitors. Happy end to another lazy day.
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Up Swifts Creek, along the Great Alpine Road
Beautiful sunny winter’s day in East Gippsland. Perfect for a half day trip from Metung, along the Great Alpine Road. We only drove as far as Swifts Creek, this time, having previously traveled all the way to Bright and beyond. Swifts Creek is a charmingly quiet small town, where I attempted to blend in with a couple of the locals (see photo). The Great Alpine Gallery’s Winter Festival Exhibition was somewhat oversold, but interesting nonetheless. Bakery for lunch, coffee, a thermos of tea, and packed snacks. Then back south, taking any chance along the way for a detour and a photo.
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Right on the tip of Metung
Lazy morning, followed by a lazy drive around Metung, and down to the tip of the peninsula. Beautiful bayside town. Plenty of boats and accommodation along the foreshore. Lunch at Aroma Metung, where I demonstrated my precision road trip meal dissection skills, giving Krissy exactly one quarter of my burger.
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Packing our chef and barista, for the road trip
Off on another road trip. This time to Metung, Gippsland Lakes, about 300 km away from home. We picked up our passengers, Tim and Krissy, at Alkira, in Emerald, and made use of the large luggage space of our Model Y. Bringing along our own chef and barista is a little indulgent, I agree. But their professional standards apparently necessitated them packing their own cooking and caffeinating equipment. One onlooker came over to assist with our “engine trouble” because I had the frunk open to pack more in. Archie, our cat, supervised the morning packing. We grabbed what has become our ritual road trip brekky, at Over the Road cafe in Emerald.
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Our last gas appliance
Our Smeg 90cm oven and cooktop. We’re replacing it with a Westinghouse 90cm oven and induction cooktop, from The Good Guys. Then we can finally get off the gas.
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Hey Siri, unlock the front door
That's the sentence I wanted to be able to say. It now works. It also took several weeks. Our old brass door handle had stopped working after an earlier repair — a replacement was on the cards anyway. Smart felt like the upgrade worth doing. The brief was simple: unlock with Siri, share a code with a visitor when we're away, and use a fingerprint to simply open while grabbing the handle. Bonus marks for Apple Home Key — tap an iPhone or Watch against the lock, like a hotel room. The Aqara Smart Lock U300 was the only one in Australia that ticked every box. $268 from Officeworks, matte black. 4× AAs, paired with HomeKit through our HomePod mini, first fingerprint added — easy enough. Fitting it to our door was the bit that should have been easy. Our handyman, also named "Tom", had the new unit on in an hour, only for both of us to realise it was wide enough to clang against the screen door handle on every swing. I'd measured. Apparently not well enough. That's why we call him "handy…
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Does size matter? Tesla Model Y vs YL.
A six-seat Tesla Model YL turned up at the Worldwide Light Show meet — parked right next to our red Y, captain's chairs and all. Tesla had loaned it to Garry from TOCA (Tesla Owners Club of Australia), Victoria for a few days to bring along to events like this one, so we got to climb all over it before the show started! Likes: - The captain's chair armrests in the second row — cleaner than the bench in our Y. - The sub-trunk lid that magnetically clings to the back of the seat when you flip it up. Lovely bit of engineering. - V2L! We would love to have vehicle to load on our EV, like most models now have. If only we could cook food on our induction cooktop, while camping, from the massive battery in the car. The Tesla Model Y L and new Model Y Performance both have V2L. Unsure: - Six seats vs our five. The third row is tight — elevated floor, very little leg room. I had to stick a leg out into the aisle just to half-fit. Climbing in and out takes some practice. - The captain's-chair…
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Siri, open the pod bay door
"Pod Bay Door, open." Siri obliges, and the garage door at the end of our driveway opens. From our iPhones. From the HomePod Mini (HomeKit hub) in the lounge room. From Apple Home anywhere there's an Internet connection, the door responds. The new bit is a Meross MSG100 controller. $58 from Amazon. After 2½ years of a small green four-pin plug sitting unused on top of the Rhyno opener, two thin wires into the PB and GND terminals were all it took to wake it up. Plug the Meross into a USB power point, stick a magnet on the door and a reed switch on the track, and run the sensor cable along the chain bracket — slightly fiddly, but a cable tie and tape did the job. Pairing with HomeKit took several goes; Wi-Fi handshake gremlins. Once it was in, it stayed in. In HomeKit, we named our garage "Pod Bay Door" — a small tribute to 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Tesla Sentry Mode image is a nod to HAL's electronic red eye. In the movie, when asked "HAL, open the pod bay door", it replied with…
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Adding a second battery — Tesla finally makes it possible
When Lightning Energy installed our Powerwall 2 back in December 2023 it was great. Paired with our 12 kW Enphase/Jinko solar system and 10 kW inverter, it's been handling our fully electrified home in Emerald pretty well — five reverse-cycle ACs, heat pump hot water, EV charging, and grid outages lasting up to nine days. But as we've added more loads, I've been thinking about expanding battery storage. There was a problem, though. The Powerwall 2 is no longer CEC-approved for new installations in Australia. Tesla stopped taking orders for it in late 2024/early 2025, and as of January 2026 it's no longer on the Clean Energy Council approved list. So you can't add a second one. And until very recently, the Powerwall 3 — Tesla's current model — was completely incompatible with the Powerwall 2. They couldn't talk to each other. That meant anyone with a Powerwall 2 who wanted more storage faced a painful choice: rip out the existing battery and start fresh with new hardware. For me, that…
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Heat pump testing — how fast does it heat?
In my December post about our heat pump installation, I mentioned that one of the reasons I chose Emerald was the integrated app. It shows the tank capacity, water temperature, outdoor temperature, and lets me turn it on and off or activate Boost Mode remotely. I've since used it to answer a question: how long does it actually take to heat the water, and does outdoor temperature make a difference? Over the past couple of months, I've been taking semi-random screenshots of the Emerald app at intervals through the day, tracking the water temperature as it heats from "Low" (around 25–30°C) up to the 60°C target. I did this on 11 different days, with outdoor temperatures ranging from about 14°C to 32°C. I then used AI (Claude, by Anthropic) to read all 87 screenshots, extract the data, and plot it on a chart. The chart shows each day's heating curve overlaid, with the lines colour-coded by outdoor temperature — red for hot days, blue for cool days. We might expect to see the warmer days…
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Why ducted air conditioning is inefficient
Ducted air conditioning (or heating) is inefficient. Let me explain, and see what you think. I am not a fan (pun intended) of ducted. It seems to be very inefficient. But only one in five air con sales reps seem to agree with my reasoning. At our previous home, in Saratoga NSW, we had a large (10kW) ducted air con system upstairs, which included all the bedrooms. When we just wanted to cool or heat one room, we tried to close the door of that room. But the door would slam shut and whistle, as the air would try to escape. The ducted air con had one or two outlets in each room’s roof. It had one shared return vent in the hall. Turning on the air con in a single room, the air needed to return to the hall to circulate. Closing the door blocked that path and made the pump work extra hard. The thermostat was also in the hall, as part of the control unit. We could set the target temperature of a room to say 22°C, but the room might cool down to 18° before the hall thermostat would register…
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Make way for more air con compressors
Two weeks after the downstairs install, the upstairs heads finally go in — but the one shared compressor became three.
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Goodbye gas — disconnecting the ducted heating
Goodbye gas! I finally organised disconnecting the ducted gas heating at our home. If only we could see the burnt gas pouring into the air, all the time, and not just when the condensation highlights it (as in the photos). Pumping carcinogens and greenhouse gases into the air that we breathe. It’s nuts. It was costing us up to $528 per month to run the heating in winter. Our replacement air conditioning will be closer to free, thanks to our solar and battery. We recently also replaced our gas hot water with a heat pump. Our one remaining gas appliance is our stove top. Once that’s gone, we will save $35 per month just for the connection fee. And no more gas! We’re replacing the gas heating with some split air conditioners. For those who might say “what about in a blackout”? Note the power point connection on the old gas heating. Our old gas hot water heat pump had one too. They both needed electricity to run. In fact, in addition the gas consumed, the heating used about 1kW of…
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Multi-head air conditioning installation, stage 1
The original plan was to install a multi head system, with five heads (one in each of five rooms), and one shared compressor, outside. Due to a change of plans (see “Problems” below), we end up with three heads on our multi-head system, covering our downstairs living area (lounge, dining, kitchen), master bedroom, and guest room. Configuration: Shared compressor: 18kW (though much lower in actual use) Head 1: Master bedroom: 2.8kW Head 2: Guest room: 2.8kW Head 3: Living area: 8.4kW Cost: The original quote was for a five head system, including two more 2.8kW heads and a slightly larger 20kW compressor. $14,776 Emerald 20kW with 5 x heads -$7,140 VEECS discount -$386 EOY Sale $7,250 Total inc GST Inclusions: Removal of Gas ducted system 1 (no duct removal) Double storey We paid about 20% deposit up front, and the rest on completion. As you can see above, the VEECS rebate/discount paid for about half of the system. As part of the project, we replaced the existing gas ducted heating. We…
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ICE vehicles also benefit from charging points
I’ve come across a few ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles that could benefit from charging points. Bear with me here. This ambulance, parked outside a nursing home, was running the engine, with no-one in it, I presume to keep the air con running, on what was a pretty hot day. Perhaps they were keeping the vehicle cool for a patient they were collecting. Fair enough. But, of course this leaks fumes (and noise) into the car park and reception, which isn’t great for health. I noticed that it has a power socket at the rear of the vehicle. I’m wondering if they could plug that into an electrical supply, if there was one at the parking spot (but wasn’t one handy here). This rental van I’m guessing has refrigeration, parked outside a butchers in Emerald. They made use of the external power socket, creatively plugging in from the shop. No noise or fumes. I wonder if it would be handy to have more accessible power points for these ICE vehicles? Or better yet, have electric vans that can…
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A surprise picnic by the Yarra River
Surprise picnic. Making use of all the hidey-holes in the Tesla. Let’s pull over here next to the Yarra River. Would you like a cold drink? I just happen have a powered fridge in the sub trunk of the car. We can sit on the camp chairs from the frunk (front trunk, since there’s no engine). How about a cheese platter and some cherries to go with it? Ok “platter” is a bit of an overstatement, but work with me here. The car also has kitchen utensils and a dining table. We might as well just stay here for lunch now.
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Fast charging at the Bairnsdale Superchargers
It's conveniently located close to shops, near the centre of town, but it's right next to the entry of a very busy car park. There are only three charging spots. I watched another Tesla try a few times to reverse into a charger from a park opposite. Fortunately, other waiting drivers kept their holiday cheer. I tapped on the window and asked if they'd like me to park the car for them. She explained that it was her husband's car, who had apparently gone to the shops. She seemed very relieved to hand over control to someone familiar with the car. I parked it and plugged it in. After that and a cuppa, the car was charged up enough to take me all the way home. I had to do a slight three point turn to exit the car park when I was done. Did I mentioned it's a slightly awkward spot?
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A Vegemite sandwich stop in Orbost
Brief stop in Orbost to make a Vegemite sandwich, a cup of tea and to use the amenities. Pop the tailgate, pull out the dining table, open the fridge. Easy.
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Breakfast and a free shower in Tubbut
Breakfast, from the kitchen drawer and fridge in my Tesla. I drove a few kilometers from my overnight riverside camping spot, back to the community hall in Tubbut. A free shower in the provided facilities was a welcome way to wake up. The rain eased shortly after I arrived. I boiled water using my induction stove, for a hot thermos of tea. Beautiful, relaxed start to the day.
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Creekside car camping in the Snowy Mountains
Car camping in my Tesla, beside a creek, off the beaten track in the Snowy Mountains. It took me a while to find the site. Earlier, in my search, I pulled off onto two tracks that ended up in someone’s property. At least it gave some local kids an excuse to run outside to see what the UFO sound was I did a three point just outside their gate. I waved and grinned. A cup of tea and a snack from my Teraglide drawer, sitting in my camp chair, watching the bush life. Until the bush life started eating me (just a few bugs), signaling time for bed. I again wished I had remembered to pack a collapsible stool, to help climb into the back of the car. Followed by the commando crawl to get on top of the Snuuzu mattress and Teraglide platform. This is the highest sleeping option, which gives lots of storage space and a very comfortable bed. The only down side is requiring more effort getting in and out. Once I’m in, it’s great with plenty of room to move. Please forgive the “Tesla Tripping – after…
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The best rest stop in the middle of nowhere
Wow, possibly the best amenities for a road trip, at this spot in the middle of nowhere (in the Snowy Mountains). Seats and tables, beautiful location, playground, water, toilets, WiFi. Even has a shower and laundry tubs. Oh, and a pizza oven. Hard to beat! Gotta love the various signs on the amenities (see photos). Thanks to Gippsland Climate Change Network and Chargefox for the destination EV charger here. It’s probably the only public fuel source (of and kind) for over 100km. There are no shops or food outlets here. Fortunately, I grabbed some supplies when passing through Bombala and Cooma, over the past few days. Instant kitchen: pop the Tesla tailgate, pull out the Teraglide drawer and table, flip up the lid to reveal the fridge in the sub trunk. After a couple of hours to eat and chill, off to find a campsite for the night, nearby along the river. I’ll come back in the morning to use the shower.
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Chasing a lone PlugShare pin to Tubbut
In search for a place to camp tonight, I gambled on the solitary green pin that appeared in the PlugShare app (see screenshot), west of me, way off the beaten track, across the Victorian border, in a little town named Tubbut. Plugshare showed no check-ins at that location, but the Chargefox app said it was functional. WikiCamps also showed some freecamp options around there, so it looked like a good option for the night. It was a beautiful drive, along some windy unsealed roads. I followed the navigation, but ended up in the middle of nowhere, I think due to the Apple Maps and Tesla map using different references. At this point, I wished I had Apple CarPlay, so I could show the PlugShare map on the big screen. Turning back a few kilometers, I found “the town”, which is basically just a community hall with add-ons. Fortunately one of the add-ons is the Chargefox EV charger. It exists! And it works! There’s a fuel bowser across the road (pictured), but I don’t think it’s been…
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I wish my Model Y had V2L
I wish my Tesla Model Y had a power point, where I could plug in my induction stove to make breakfast 😞. What I need is “V2L”, which stands for “vehicle to load”. Unfortunately, my Tesla Model Y RWD does not have it. This omission almost made us switch to BYD, Kia, Xpeng or one of the many other EV car brands that provide V2L. Tesla’s CyberTruck, new Model YL, and Model Y Performance all reportedly now provide V2L. The Cybertruck has built in power points. The other two require an adapter plugged into the charge port. I can only hope that in the near future Tesla offers some retrofit option for my car. In the mean time, I just have to find a power point, in order to cook. If I had booked a powered site at this location, that would work fine. This morning, I just used the camp kitchen. My car’s massive (by camping standards) 60kWh battery provided air conditioning all night, and has run my camp fridge non stop, via the 16V outlet. It powers other mod cons, such as the lights, wireless…
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Breakfast routine, Tesla-style
Good morning! Time for breakfast, after a great night’s sleep in the Tesla. “Siri, open Tesla boot”. The tailgate opens to reveal a beautiful day, beyond my bare feet. Breakfast mode: 1. Pull out the Teraglide drawer and table. 2. Flip open the Teraglide rear lid. It’s assisted by gas struts, so it’s easy to lift and stays up, even with bedding on top of it. 3. Open the fridge in the subtrunk to get brekky supplies. This morning, that’s eggs, butter and milk. 4. Use the kitchen drawer bits to crack and whisk the eggs, add milk, soak some bread, ready to make French toast. 5. Stroll over to the camp kitchen. Fry the toast and boil some water for my thermos. Return to the Tesla. Enjoy my French toast, with a cuppa tea, overlooking the Snowy River. Nice.
Formerly: Tesla Tripping
Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.
Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.
We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.
At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.
Got questions, or insights of your own? We'd love to hear them — please drop a comment on any post.