Sustain Myself

For a long time now, the only financial benefit to installing solar panels in Australia was the reduced power bill. Well, it seems that now you can receive up to 60c per kilowatt for any excess power introduced.

One of the easiest and most cost effective installation techniques of solar panels is to plug them back into the grid. This eliminates the need for batteries to store the power and also allows you the use of the grids power if anything were to happen to your panels. Until now, you didnt get anything (except a credit) for supplying power to the grid. If you were to produce 110% of power from your panels, then you’d get nothing for that extra 10%. Now you get up to 60c a kilowatt.

Unfortunately, the eligibility of receiving this ‘payback’ for supplying power is a little bit of a grey area. It would appear that the lesser income earners will get more back than the higher income earners. That being said, even with the government’s (soon to be abolished) $8000 rebate for solar installation, the cheapest outlay for a small solar install is around $2000 on top of that rebate and even then you are lucky to be generating 25% of your power. So, the lower income earners are less likely to get solar panels to start with, especially if the rebate is removed.

Either way, I am hoping to get at least some panels installed next year to cover at least a small portion of my power consumption.

Households to be paid for solar power

When we decided to get a dog, my biggest concern was that I love my gardens and I didn’t want them littered with little smelly landmines. I regularly kick the rugby ball around the backyard with my brother in law and didn’t want to have to give that up because of the dogs’ business.

We are slowly training Baci to go in a particular corner of the garden where nobody goes. The problem then is, what do we do with the waste? There is much conflicting information out there about dog waste in compost or worm farms. The waste can introduce a bacteria which will throw the compost system out and worms simply to not eat it quick enough (Requiring a much larger worm farm). Then, because of the excess time to break down the waste in a worm farm, you run out of room for your vegetation waste and start seeing problems with a slow down in the cycle.

So, after some researching and a few enquiries, I decided to get a Doggie Doo Digester. There are a lot of products like this on the market now and they all seem great. The idea behind this is that the digester contains water and an enzyme which breaks the waste down into liquid, then monthly, you pull the plug out of the bottom (on a long handle so you dont get goo on your hands) and it drains into the earth. Easy, clean, safe. You can get a better idea of how it works at the digester site.

Anyway, we installed ours over the weekend. I will post pics and updated info on its ongoing use as we eliminate our waste with it.

About 4 weeks ago I put the last grass clippings into my compost and have been patiently waiting for the day that its ready to use. We have also been stuffing the worm farm over this period as you cannot add more to the compost bin or it will never compost, you need to have a ‘cutoff’ period. Unfortunately, the worms are now backlogged and that’s not a good thing. Worms should not be over fed as it can produce pests and mould, bad smells and the like. Our worms have been eating very well and I don’t think they will have a problem getting through this excess food.

But, now we have a problem. We simply cannot get through our vegetable waste any quicker. The compost is waiting to break down, so it cant go there and now the worms are full so it can’t go there. Enter the chooks!

Chickens are a mans best friend (well, besides Baci) and it surprises me that more people don’t keep them. Chickens are very self sustaining. They require very little assistance from you and will in return provide fresh eggs, chicken poop (which is fantastic fertilizer) and a way to get rid of your vege scraps. Chickens eat crap loads and will very happily take over when the compost and worm farm are full. They can even keep bugs and other critters away from your Vege patch.

Rent a chook is a great way to ‘ease’ into chicken keeping. You ‘rent’ the chooks for 10 weeks and if you dont like them then you give them back and get a refund minus fee’s and delivery charges. I have kept chooks before and I know that I’ll be keeping them but for folks who do not know what they’re doing, then what better way is there to try before you buy?

There is a lot of valuable information on the Rent a chook site and its worth reading. I think most families with the space should keep chooks. Its easy and extremely beneficial to yourselves and the environment.

I cant wait!