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How this NSW woman reduced her power bill to ZERO

Images: Provided, Getty
Images: Provided, Getty

When it comes to bills, smaller are generally considered better.

And if you can reduce your bill to zero – while difficult – that’s the best.

Installing a solar power storage technology is one way to do this, argues Tweed Heads’ woman, Wendy Litchfield.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Litchfield explained that she reduced her $250 – $300 power bills to $0 after installing a solar battery which connects the power gathered by her solar panels to appliances throughout the house and stores it in batteries for use at peak periods.

And most bill cycles, she even gets a rebate back which goes straight into paying for the Redback Technologies system.



In fact, in one billing period she received a rebate of $192.31, and in other she received $208. As she said, “I was very pleased of course, I was surprised that we actually got money back”.

Wendy Litchfield shared one of her bills. Image: Supplied
Wendy Litchfield shared one of her bills. Image: Supplied

But her decision to install the system wasn’t just fuelled by an urge to cut costs.

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For Wendy, solar-powered energy was an opportunity to be self-sufficient and protect the environment.

Plus there was another major upside: “With the battery one of the big benefits is that… if there are power outages, which there are, and because my husband is disabled that makes a huge difference to us.”

She purchased the system for $10,559 which included the 22 panels, battery and installation.

“Given that batteries alone cost around $10,000 alone I thought that was such a good deal.”

Rebate debate

Litchfield’s story is one that could become more common.

In February, the NSW Greens unveiled a $1.25 billion plan to double the number of homes with solar panels in four years, by offering rebates of $2,000 for households with weekly incomes of less than $3,000.

While the NSW Energy Minister Don Harwin warned such an influx of batteries and solar power could “destabilise the energy grid”, in a pre-election pitch the NSW Labor Party also pitched a rebate plan which would see households with a combined income of up to $180,000 eligible for $2,200 rebates for installing solar panels.

They argued such a plan would prompt 500,000 households to install solar panels.

And the NSW Liberal Government also announced a solar panel and battery rebate okan in February called the Empowering Homes program.

Under that 10-year scheme, no-interest loans of up to $9,000 would be on offer for battery systems and $14,000 would be on offer for solar battery systems. As with the Labor policy, households with an annual combined income of up to $180,000 would be eligible.

The party said that would mean a household paying $500 a quarter on energy would save $285 while paying bills.

The federal government also offers the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme granting owners an upfront discounts.

But it’s bigger than our energy bills

Climate change is increasingly occupying headlines following the Strike for Climate strikes in March which saw millions of students walk out of class in protest against government and big business’ inaction in the face of climate change.

The Reserve Bank of Australia also recently warned climate change will have “first-order economic effects”.

The planet’s energy consumption grew at nearly twice the average rate since 2010 last year, the International Environment Agency warned.

And while consumption of renewables grew at a double-digit pace, fossil fuels were responsible for 70 per cent of the growth in energy consumption.

“This makes coal the single largest source of global temperature increase,” the analysts said.

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