Pierre Marasti
Wānaka · 2 people, 145 m² · Battery, EV, Solar
We love the fact that we live with zero emissions and our home is much healthier than before.
$8,220 saved per year
What's in your electric home?
Everything is electric. We have a normal resistive hot water cylinder, normal resistive hot plates for cooking and resistive electric heaters for heating the house. It isn't necessarily the most efficient set up but because of our large solar system we are powering the house for free.
When did you start, and why?
We ditched the gas guzzling vehicle for an EV in 2018. Our main goal was to reduce our emissions. At the same time we discovered a certified carbon zero electricity scheme so we decided to stop using our log burner. In 2020 we installed 36 solar panels covering 3 sides of our roof, and a battery. We haven't looked back since and haven't burned anything in 7 years.
How much have you saved?
All in all about $50,000 after being electrified for 7 years. We're getting the largest savings from the EV.
What do you love most about it?
We love the fact that we live with zero emissions and our home is much healthier than before. In addition, we really look forward to receiving our electricity bill every month so we can see how much money we have earned by exporting our excess solar power.
How has it changed your behaviour?
We try to avoid using grid electricity so we have attempted to shift our energy usage as much as possible towards the middle of the day when we are actually producing electricity.
Any advice?
Don't wait, electrify your life as fast as you can and when installing solar, install as large a system as possible. The larger the system, the better the returns and the greater you energy independence.
Solar: 10 kW, 36 panels
Battery: 13.5 kWh
Vehicles: 1 EV