Tell Telstra to stop sending you dead trees.

[Sylvia Else]

But solar nicely fits with modern airco usage. Because people demand
their summer comfort cooling? My electricity peak is winter heating,
only a couple fans for summer.

The correlation between sunlight availability and airconditioning demand
is certainly high, but it's nothing like 100%, meaning that provision
would still have to be made for high airconditioning load at times when
the sun is sufficiently obscured to compromise solar power generation.

Photovoltaic solar power generation would also be an exceptionally
expensive way of supporting the demand for air conditioning if it were
only used when airconditioning was required.

In practice of course, the power solar panels generate is used whenever
it is available, displacing the grid power generation with the highest
marginal cost, thus decreasing the economic viability of that generation
plant, which in turn feeds into higher electricity prices. Greenies also
need to be aware that it would change the finances of natural gas
powered generators, with the result that less efficient (i.e. more CO2
releasing) plants would be built.

A much cheaper solution is for people to own petrol generators capable
of providing occasional power, and for those to be used at time of high
airconditioning loads. I looked at buying one a while back out of
concern that the grid would fail to handle peak loads during heat waves,
though I couldn't quite convince myself of the need, and it didn't
happen - that summer at least.

Sylvia.

 

[Ross Herbert]

SNIP
:
:I can imagine people burning their houses down by shorting them out
:while changing them.
:
:Sylvia.


I doubt that homeowners will be allowed (technically) to change their own
battery. The UPS forms part of the equipment supplied by the service provider
and it may be the case (I haven't yet seen anything on this subject though) that
only licensed ACMA installers or electricians are allowed to perform this task.
I estimate that even if a prime quality battery is used and a licensed installer
is used, it will cost around $100 - $140 every 5 years.

Of course, most homeowners will do the job themselves or get somebody who can do
it for them.

 

[Ross Herbert]

Snip
:
:The SLA's described in the Telstra page appear to be these
:
:http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=SB2486

This is the UPS which Telstra was using on their Velocity service
http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/ASTE-6Z8LRK_R0_EN.pdf

It is now superseded so I don't know what they are using now, but it will be
similar.

:
:The discrepancy in the height relates to whether the connection tabs are
:included.
:
:My UPS uses them. The problem is they're not cheap, as you can see,
:about $35 retail, and I get only about three year's use out of them even
:though they spend almost all the their fully charged, and are rarely
:called on to deliver power.
:
:I can imagine people burning their houses down by shorting them out
:while changing them.
:
:Sylvia.

 

[terryc]

The spec sheet linked to from the Jaycar page I posted indicates 648mA
for 10 hours.

Feel free to do that. It is your battery.

 

[Sylvia Else]

Feel free to do that. It is your battery.

OK, so you're talking about the effect that deep cycling has. But
blackouts of that extent are rare in any given place, and these
batteries only last a few years even when not being deeply cycled.

Sylvia.