Redback Customer Powers Through NSW Thunderstorm

Liz Durbin’s property was one of the 80,000 homes that lost power in the recent thunderstorm that whirled its way through New South Wales early last week. This intense and frightening storm marked by flash flooding, damaging winds and golf-ball-sized hailstones, which left an estimated 30,000 homes still without power.

Liz lives in rural NSW and experienced power outages all too often before she had her system installed. In July 2017 her Redback Smart Hybrid System was installed, and since then has not been affected by a single power outage due to the uninterrupted power supply (UPS) feature in her Redback system. “Our neighbours often ring to ask if we’ve lost power too – and, as we’ve noticed no interruption in our service, I have to check the oven clock to confirm that we have lost the grid. I think it’s a great system and will be installing panels and batteries in our upcoming new property.” Liz said.

Liz’s property lost grid-connected power at 2 am on Wednesday due to the storm, and it didn’t come back on till near midday the next day. In this time, everything that was on her backup circuit – lights, power points and essential appliances (fridge, internet, tank pump) operated as usual. As soon as the sun hit the solar panels the next day, her system was able to generate energy, powering the rest of the home and recharging her solar batteries.

Photographer Christian Gilles (NewsCorp)

“I knew the power was out as, being rural and on a bio-septic system, the alarm goes off to notify us. In the morning, I saw the oven light was still off, so checked the Ausgrid site and saw there was not a restore ETA, then checked the Redback Portal to ensure I had battery power still available. I then was cautious of what power I was using until the sun hit the panels and started recharging the batteries,” Liz explained.

Liz couldn’t speak highly enough of her Redback Smart Hybrid System. Not only does it ensure she can back up in blackouts, but her electricity bills have also been reduced by half. “Our bills have reduced by around 50% on what we would’ve otherwise paid. I do not skimp on my usage – with ducted aircon, all water in and out of the house on pump and dryer when required – but my bills are often less than $2-300/qtr.”

Over the last 7-days, 73% of Liz’s power has been supplied by her Redback, and this speaks volumes to the system itself and Liz’s awareness of her energy usage thanks to the data collected by the Redback Portal. At Redback Technologies, we encourage homeowners to use their MYRedback app and Redback Portal (web application) to monitor their energy use. Providing customers with their solar energy data can help guide more informed choices that can be attached to tangible actions within the home to reduce energy costs. These data-driven decisions can make a bigger and better impact and can also attribute to further reducing carbon emissions, which is the ultimate goal for us here at Redback.

Liz has been so impressed with her system that she would be more than happy to extend a recommendation to anyone that asks! Would you like to learn more? Feel free to reach out so we can put you in contact with a trusted installer in your area.