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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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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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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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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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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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First Tesla service call: a new wheel
First service call for our Tesla Model Y. Replacing our loaner wheel with a new wheel. As you can see in our posts from a few weeks ago, we hit a pothole, damaging our left rear wheel. At the time, we only knew that we had a slow leak. We logged the problem in the Tesla app. They arranged for roadside assistance to come to us, in about an hour, to install a loaner wheel, and take ours away to diagnose. Today, Tesla replaced the loan wheel with a new wheel, costing a whopping $1319. I asked them to clean the damaged wheel and put it in the back of the car. In the photos, you can see the buckle and crack. I am wondering if it is fixable. When I booked this service in the app, I also asked them to fix the water in the light bar, and some issues with the steering wheel buttons. They replaced both. I’ll discuss the steering wheel buttons in a separate post. All covered under warranty. I had a bit of trouble figuring out where to leave the car. Several after me also mistakenly parked in…
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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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Bonang Road brought back my motorcycle days
Harkening back to my motorcycle days, enjoying the endless curves along the Bonang Road from Tubbut to Orbost, Victoria, leaving the Snowy Mountains. The Tesla handled the drive beautifully. FSD off, for some driving fun. I had to watch out for quite a few sharp dips, barely marked with crayon width paint on the road. This road has stopping spaces specifically for motorcycles (pictured). Yesterday, I grabbed some groceries in Bombala and noticed the "Welcomes Motorcyclists" sign. Before we bought our first EV in 2022, we did a lot of motorcycle road trips. As you can see from the photos from a decade ago, we haven't aged at all! 😉. I'd love to see some "Welcomes EVs" signs in regional places. My stay last night in Tubbut was thanks, in part, to the simple EV changer provided by Gippsland Climate Change Network. They are on to something!
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Misty drive from Tubbut to Orbost
Heading south, out of the Snowy Mountains, from my overnight camp near Tubbut, towards Orbost. Beautiful mist topped mountains, after last night’s rain. After about 20km of dirt road, I spotted tar, and another sign warning that there’s no petrol around here.
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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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A creekside lunch in Delegate
Creekside stop in Delegate. Pop the tailgate, pull out the kitchen drawer and dining table, grab some sustenance from the fridge. Chilling in the shade, on my collapsible camp chair. Nice. Right next to a camp site, complete with amenities. I need to find a campsite for tonight, but I’ll go further south west.
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Across the high plains of the Snowy Mountains
Heading further across the high plains in the Snowy Mountains. Not a lot of trees around, but a few wind turbines and windmills, not bothering the livestock or mobs of kangaroos.
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No petrol in Dalgety, but plenty of power points
No petrol, no worries. The small town of Dalgety has no working petrol station. The last working bowser I passed yesterday was about 50km away in Cooma, along with the nearest fast EV charger. But Dalgety does have hundreds of power points, including the powered camp sites at Snowy River Holiday Park. I could have used any one of them to fill up my car. It’s a beautiful spot. I car camped there last night. This morning, I pushed the Teraglide kitchen drawer back in, pressed the Deflate button on my Snuuzu mattress, flipped back the top (pictured), and moved the drivers seat back into my preferred position by hitting the Restore button in the Tesla. Super quick transformation, ready to drive on to the next camp site today.
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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.
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Photo op in Bredbo, campsite hunt in Cooma
Photo op in Bredbo, before stopping in Cooma to figure out where to camp tonight. On the way, I used the Tesla’s navigation to search for “campground” and similar. One option was The NRMA park in Jindabyne. I tapped the phone icon, to make a call. Handy to do it all from the car’s controls. Unfortunately, all their powered and unpowered sites were booked for tonight. This looked like a job for WikiCamps. Since Tesla doesn’t support Apple CarPlay, I needed to pull over to use my phone. Whenever parking, I aim to charge, so I don’t lose any time. So, I pulled into the new-ish Tesla Superchargers in Cooma. This is the second site in Cooma, with more chargers and faster speed. But the only service nearby seemed to be KFC (again 🤔). No matter, I just wanted time to access my phone. Snowy River Holiday Park looks great. I rang them, gave them my ETA, entered it into the navigation, added Cooma Coles as the first destination, so I could grab some supplies. Cooma Coles also has Tesla…
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Sleeping in the Tesla — does it fit?
Sleeping in the Tesla, on a Snuuzu mattress, on a Teraglide platform. The obvious question: can I fit? Short answer: plenty of room to sleep, rollover, look at the sky, out the window, or my phone. I never banged into the glass or support arch. But, getting in is a bit tight. I had to shuffle through, like a recruit in a commando course. I also forgot to pack a collapsible stool, to step onto, high enough at the back to crawl in. The Snuuzu mattress is super comfortable. It has a few layers of foam, supported by an inflatable layer. With the back seats down, the Tesla floor slopes down towards the back, with a kink where the seats hinge. This makes sleeping uncomfortable, and slides the occupants slowly down to the boot. One way to rectify this is to add a slightly elevated floor, that is truly horizontal. That’s where the Teraglide platform comes in. Teraglide also has a basic model, without the drawer, that isn’t as high as ours. And there are car mattresses that aren’t as thick as…
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Dinner by the Snowy River
Dinner next to the Snowy River. I grabbed soup and butter from the fridge in the sub trunk. Heated the soup and toasted bread at the camp kitchen. Enjoyed the simple meal as the sun set, listening to the river. Happy place. My 35L Kings fridge is in the sub trunk. It’s powered by the car’s 16V supply, with an outlet available in the boot and driver’s console. The 16V in turn is powered by the car’s massive 60kWh battery. No need to run an engine, with noise and fumes, to keep it going.
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Setting up the Teraglide bed in the Model Y
Setting up the Teraglide platform and Snuuzu mattress in the Tesla Model Y. Steps: 1. Folded back seats down, using the buttons in the Tesla. 2. Slid the interleaved top of the Teraglide platform onto the folded down rear seats. 3. Moved the front seats forward. 4. Unfolded the top hinged bit of the Teraglide. 5. Clipped on the side supports of the Terglide, near the doors. 6. Placed the Snuuzu mattress bag on the Teraglide platform. 7. Unzipped the bag, unrolled the Snuuzu mattress. Unclipped the mattress and opened it up flat. 8. Pressed the `Inflate` button on the mattress. Waited a minute for it to finish, then turned it off. 9. Added bed linen, blanket and pillow. Gotchas: 1. Teraglide (the business) had warned me, after seeing earlier photos of my installation a few months ago, that I had neglected to strap down the front of the Teraglide. With this in mind, I brought along the supplied straps, but I hadn’t yet installed them. When I fully extended the kitchen drawer without…
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Just me, the Tesla, and brown snakes
Just me, the Tesla, and some brown snakes, along Lake George, near Canberra, on the way to The Snowy Mountains.
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A quick stop at Erina Fair
A quick shop at Erina Fair, on the NSW Central Coast, before heading south to The Snowy Mountains, where I will car camp tonight.
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Great chargers, sad site, at Coolac
Time for a break and a cup of tea. The navigation says that the next EV charger is at Coolac, just north of Gundagai, so we stopped there. Wow. It’s a pretty bad. The chargers are great, simple and fast. But the site is woeful. The hotel is closed or being renovated. The toilets are port-a-loos, but are disgusting . I don’t know how much of that is due to infrequent maintenance versus just being the busiest time of year. There is a service station nearby with some food and hopefully better toilets, but it’s a ten minute walk away in the heat, and not an option for Mum’s walker. Some people were sheltering from the sun under the three tall trees begging the toilets. Not a great spot. Tesla/government really needs to ensure better location for EV chargers. We enjoyed a cup of tea from our thermoses, and some Christmas snacks (thank you Krissy). Some way further up the highway, we pulled over into Bookham, for a conveniently located toilet and a bit of a stretch in some broken shade. In…
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New Superchargers and lunch at Batemans Bay
We checked out the new Tesla Superchargers in Batemans Bay. Super fast. The fish and chips shop next door didn’t have anywhere to eat. The Catalina Club, which hosts the Tesla chargers in the car park was the obvious choice for lunch. We needed shoes to get in 😉. And ID. What a great find. Good food, impressive facilities. Thank you Marie for showing us around.
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Emerald to Maffra: praising and grumbling at FSD
First leg on our 4000km journey: Emerald to Maffra, in Gippsland Victoria. The tall trees of our Dandenong Ranges gave way to rolling green hills. FSD (Full Self Driving) makes the (non) driving a breeze. One minute I’m singing its praises after it flawlessly indicates and merges into traffic. The next I’m cussing at it for complaining that I was looking at the navigation too long. We stopped in Maffra to grab some lunch, and just made it before small-town-closes-o-clock (2pm), to grab a veg toastie, banana bread and coffee. Next, north, over the alps towards Bright. What are the chances of a sealed road all the way?
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Tech AU picked up our home-battery tips
Tech AU just published an article based on our recent post listing recommendations for home battery installation.
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What to ask for in a battery installation
I suggest getting your installer to agree in writing that your battery installation will include: 1. Remote control via an app and/or website to monitor your battery and house power. 2. During a grid outage, the battery should provide backup for everything you need. 3. During a grid outage, solar continues to provide power. 4. The ability to curtail export of power to the grid when pricing is negative. 5. Compatibility with Amber Electric, if you might want to use them as your energy retailer. Let’s look at each in detail: 1. Using an app or website, you can: 1. Monitor power in and out of your battery, house and grid connection, instantaneous, daily and historical. 2. At any time, set your battery to a minimum charge percentage. 2. In the event of a grid outage: 1. The battery will switch over automatically. The installer should test it and show you. 2. The battery will power all of your home, up to the battery’s maximum power (which should be at least 5kW). 3. If you have three…
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What do the kW and kWh measurements mean?
What do all the electricity measurements mean? 1. Australian household electricity runs at about 240V “volts”. All your power points and devices are 240V. This is basically a measure of the force used to push the electricity. 2. The “current” is basically the throughput of electricity, measured in Amps. It varies for different devices. A modern LED light bulb uses less than 0.1A (Amps). A toaster or heater will use around 8A. The typical maximum allowed by a standard power point is 10A. 3. The total power of the electricity is measured in watts. We multiply the volts by the amps (voltage x current) to get the watts. For example, if your appliance uses 5A at 240V, then that’s 5 x 240 = 1,200 W, which is 1.2kW (kilowatts). A light bulb uses less than 0.1kW. 4. The total energy used by a device is calculated as the power x time. For example, if you use an appliance running at 1.2kW for 10 hours, then it uses 1.2 x 10 = 12kWh (kilowatt hours). A light bulb could run for days on the…
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Home battery introduction
Are you considering a battery for your house? Here is a basic introduction, based on our experience. I hope it’s helpful. Please comment about any errors, omissions or questions. 1. Why is there more talk lately about getting a battery for your house? 1. As of July 1 this year, the federal government will pay for 30% of your home battery purchase. This makes it 30% cheaper to buy one. 2. What’s the purpose of a house battery? 1. A battery provides power to your house, as electricity. 2. It can power anything in your home that runs from electricity, including your fridge, lights, power points, TV. 3. It can keep your house appliances running when there is a grid outage (a “blackout”). 4. If you have solar panels, a battery can store the excess power generated during the day, so you can use it at night to avoid paying for electricity. This is why it is often called a “solar battery”. 5. You can also charge a battery from the grid when electricity is cheap, and use it when electricity is…
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.