An interview with Evergen customer Tim from Fraser, ACT
Many empty nesters will relate to this story.
For decades, Tim and his wife lived a busy family life, both working full time with two growing teenagers in the semi-rural suburb of Fraser in the ACT.
Their house, built in the 1970s, was a big 4 bedroom brick home featuring large living and entertaining areas overlooking natural bushland and mountain tops. Being an older dwelling, it was a total electric home (hot water, heating, cooking) and very expensive to run. Fast forward to 2016, with 4 adults now living in the home, energy use skyrocketed.
“We are all using multiple devices, computers and trying to stay warm or cool.”
Over the years, Tim had researched solar but it was deemed too expensive for the returns and put on the back burner. But in mid 2015, Tim was captured by an advertisement he saw for solar and battery storage that was optimised by a smart piece of technology developed with the CSIRO, called Intelligent Control. Perhaps it was time to invest?
After discussions with Evergen and understanding the forecasted energy savings, this started the process of two installations hooked up to Intelligent Control.
- In 2016, 22 solar panels and a 6kWh Alpha Storian battery was installed
- And then, 12 months later in 2017, Tim added an extra 22 solar panels and an additional 6 kWh battery to further increase their energy storage capacity
To ensure their return on investment was even more affordable, Tim was able to claim the battery rebate from the ACT Government.
Benefits of Evergen’s Intelligent Control for Tim
The main reason Tim opted for Evergen’s Intelligent Control was to reduce their electricity bills, and being a teacher all his life, Tim was always interested in learning how to be more self-sufficient.
“I sometimes have a bit of a ‘caveman mentality’ but going totally off grid is too expensive, so this was a good middle ground for me.”
Now retired, Tim has plenty of time to become more sustainable. In the past, he would head outside to look at their electricity metre and take stock of anticipated bills. Nowadays, he uses the Evergen Intelligent Control app to easily keep an eye on their household electricity consumption and feed-in-tariffs. There is no bill shock anymore.
There will come a day when Tim and his wife sell their family home. They firmly believe their investment in solar and battery storage will only increase the demand for their property as future generations look for energy efficient systems.
Savings
- With Intelligent Control added to his solar and battery, Tim’s last annual electricity bill was $573 in credit.
- Without Intelligent Control, Tim’s electricity bill was around $2000 per year.
