Andrew Patrick’s Weblog

The AFL’s Brownlow Medal is essentially the Best and Fairest for the league, and each local league also holds a Best and Fairest at the end of the year.

Now I played a few games this year for Murdoch in the Mercantile League here in Perth, and apparently, though we didn’t win any of those games I picked up 2 votes in one of them.

I gotta say I am pretty chuffed with myself, and certainly didn’t expect it. I can only guess it came from a game where I took about 1o marks and kicked 3 or 4 goals, as I think I did pretty well that week, but still, we lost by a fair bit.

Just thought I would brag a little as I am quite proud of myself

Okay, so I have my hands on the policy statement, and it reveals they are going with a gross feed in tariff, instead of net. This means you get paid $0.60 for every KwH you generate, regardless of it reaching the grid.

Fantastic news, unfortunately, it is only for the period it takes to repay the system.

I still think they are full of it in terms of a 1kw system only costing $10,000. That must be a cheap, crappy unit, but anyway, still a positive step.

The reduction on peak power loads is the biggest advantage to the government. Having homes generating extra energy during peak power periods takes stress off the grid, and reduces black outs and power shortages…worth the 13 million investment, and certainly better spent than on another power station or two.

With todays announcement by the WA Labor Party that it will introduce a feed in tariff of $0.60 for renewable energy has prompted me to revisit solar power on this blog.

Last time we looked at it I obviously wasn’t very clear, as I was shouted down by a commenter I had never previously seen or seen since, so I will attempt to be very clear this time.

Here is the scenario, you buy a 1kw solar power system from Alinta Assist, my place of work. This system is put on your roof, and connected to the power grid, allowing you to export excess power. You get a new meter, which registers power out as well as power in on an hourly basis.

What this means is that during the day, whilst your solar system is generating power, and your home usage is probably low, you have an excess of power, at the system sends that out to the power grid, and the meter records that. In the evening however, your system is generating no power, so you are importing it at a cost of $0.12 per kilowatt hour.

Here is why the new scheme would be fantastic;

Previously, the feed in rate was the same as the buy rate, $0.12, giving very little advantage to you unless you buy a system capable of covering all your needs, an average of 17kwh in Australia. A 1kw system only generates about 5kwh a day….

So you have put a 1 kw system up on your roof.
It is now generate 5kwh a day. You are using 17kwh a day, but most of those are used in the evening, when you have the tv, washer, dish washer, dryer, oven, microwave, stereo, air con etc etc. all cranked up.

during the day, lets say you use 3kw of the 5 you have generated, which is basically your fridge and a few other bits and pieces.

This leaves 2kw, you now get paid out at $0.60, a total of $1.20.
You have already got 3kw at $0.00, this leaves 12kwh a day.
These you buy at $0.1267, totaling $1.52 a day.

Do you see what has happened?

You now are paying just $0.32 a day for electricity instead of $2.15, a saving of $1.83 per day.

This adds up to $667 per year.

The likely cost of installing a 1kw system is around the $4,000 mark after the $8,000 rebate, meaning your payback period based on current electricity costs is 6 years.

Without this tariff it would be more like 15 to 20, big difference.

Now lets add the fact that power is likely to increase 30% in the next 18 months, this takes the kwh price to $0.165, or $1020 per year at 17kwh a day.
You savings then are closer to $900 per year, bringing your payback period to just over 4 years.

Does this all make sense?

Not only is solar power prevent 0.936kg of carbon dioxide per kwh from going into the atmosphere, is will also return you a big dollar saving in the not too distant future if this policy becomes a reality. SA already do it, QLD and ACT are on the ball too, it is fantastic to see WA starting to come out of the dark ages.

UPDATE: The policy announcement is now out, and is of course not quite as good as it first sounded, and somewhat embelished. Go Here to see it in full.

The main points to consider are that my figures are alot more accurate than their claims, unless the intend on writing cheques for power generated instead of using it as a feed in tariff. If they use a standard meter and payment system, you only get paid for excess sent to the grid, not every watt, as some of those watts don’t exit your home, they are used….the figures they have released work though if they just write you a cheque for 5kwh a day for 2 years….

Also they have a very conservatively low price for a system, and i would suggest you would struggle to find someone installing one for $10,000 less rebate, at least one where the parts aren’t cheap crappy Chinese parts. We use Sunpower panels which have the highest efficiency and best warranties on the market….

The other point is that they only pay the $0.60 until you have recovered the install cost, so it will be interesting to see exactly how this pans out, in reality they might as well just be giving a top up to the federal rebate…

Queensland is really showing the way in environmental concerns at present.
The premier, Anna Bligh has put a 20 year moratorium on exploration and extraction of the shale oil deposit near Proserpine.

The reason for the decision is due to the extreme youth of the technology for this process. In fact, these sorts of deposits would have been totally ignored 5 to 10 years ago due to the expense of the process, but with the very high price of oil these days, it is now feasible.

The environmental impact of such a development would have put local farming, tourism and health at risk, so it is great to see government standing up to industry pressure and the almighty dollar in order to ‘do the right thing’ for a change. The WA Liberals could learn a lesson or two with their recent announcement that they will overturn the ban on uranium mining in WA.

I am not much for baking. I mean, it is always messy and I am kind of finicky with that sort of thing.

Anyway, There is a recipe here for a 3 minute cake in a mug. Thats right, you just pop the ingredients in a coffee cup, throw it in the microwave for 3 minutes and there you have it, a chocolate cake in a cup.

For you coffee snobs out there that brew your own, you can probably make the cake quicker than your cuppa…

I can’t remember the last time I was happy with sports coverage.

Channel 10 routinely enjoy showing the AFL in close up, so you cannot tell the context of the play. Where is the player on the field, who is near him, who is he kicking to, all of this is lost by Channel 10’s close up footy. Not to mention them having the worst commentary team in history, Michael Voss is a moron, good luck Eagles with him as a coach, I think you will be hearing alot of the bleeding obvious, and many references to how good he and the Lions were.

Channel 7 simply keep showing replays during the footy whilst play is taking place. They are busy showing how someone got tackled whilst the ball is moving away at speed and marks are being taken etc. But their footy isn’t the worst. Oh no.

The Olympics have been horrid! Every time I want to watch an event, it isn’t on. Right now, an Aussie is a real medal chance at Javelin, but we are watching a group of non-Aussie chicks running around the field where the Aussie is throwing his stick….for goodness sack, can’t we watch our atheletes? Or last night we couldn’t watch the pole vault because the footy was on….Is channel 7 not aware they have 2 channels? 10 has worked out they can have different programing on the HD and SD stations, why can’t 7 put the footy on HD and show Aussies competing in an event that only happens every 4 years, rather than 8 times a week, on their SD channel?

Rant over.

Currently writing a paper in relation to the ability of environmental agencies to enforce law etc. etc. I wont bore you with the details, but I need some proof reading of this paragraph. I think it makes sense, but I an not 100% sure, so please those of you with a very good grasp of english and grammer, give me some pointers.

“…..are concerned with environmental agencies with the discretion to enforce environmental protection and law not prosecuting or charging entities who are operating outside the relevant legislation due to the discretionary powers of these agencies, and the absence of adequate review of these discretionary decisions……”

Does that make any sense at all?

Many of you have heard about the revelation that Mike Gugliamucci or however you spell it has been lying about having a terminal illness for a few years, and making a pretty penny out of the scam in terms of song sales etc. I won’t go into my thoughts about him, but rather where it leads my mind to.

I have a big issue(one among many) with emotive youth ministry. Ministry centred around shared emotional experience. The alter call, the worship music that goes on and on, the use of music, lighting and voice in a way that makes people more susceptible to emotion.

We justify this as helping them get in touch with God, or bringing down barriers to let them get in touch with God, but I for one don’t buy it. I used to, until I saw that the products of this system had the weakest faith of all. That as soon as something else equally emotional, generally a boyfriend (as it works better with girls than guys) would have them denouncing church and moving in with him at age 16…..

The scenario around Gugliamucci is one around the cult of personailty. He was a hero and role model because he was soldiering on for christ amidst great adversity. Because he still had faith his God would heal him….All the while, none of it was true, and he was using the lie to manipulate people emotionally to be responsive. Now his motivation might have been pure, CD sales and extra high paid speaking engagements might not have been why he did it, but they were the end result. Perhaps he did it because he thought it would help people get in touch with God…but surely this points to a shallow and insignificant encounter with the Almighty, if it is brokered by a lie?

I alluded to Door to Door Salesmen on another blogs comments. There are laws governing door to door sales due to the confrontational and emotional nature. There were people who because very good at closing the deal, because they knew how to manipulate people into buying their product then and there, so laws were introduced to protect people from this. If they still wanted the product, they could still get it, but they couldn’t pay for 24 hours, and were able to change their mind till then.

Churches, and youth ministry in particular, has been getting very good at being the door to door salesmen for God. Learning the tricks to manipulate people into converting. The right music, the fervent prayers over the microphone, the keyboard playing just the right blend of music, that seems to flow with the prayer reaching a crescendo as the crowd cries out!……I hate it.

I hate it. I think it is emotional manipulation. I think that alot of churches are pulling con jobs on kids that don’t know any better. They save them and keep them coming back week after week, and some of these kids keep going forward week and week because they aren’t quite saved enough yet or something….

The alter call has its roots in getting American christians to come forward to sign an anti-abolition petition….put that in your pipe and smoke it…(i have it from a reliable source, but stuffed if i can find a reference for that, so take it with a grain of salt anyway.)

If anything, this whole Gugliamucci thing should lead the church to an honest appraisal of the personality cult. of church websites and stationary with the pastors face on it, CD’s with pictures of the singers looking sexy yet virginal, of the pastor being the centre of the church…oh for God’s sake pastors stop being the centre of the church….

Being somewhat gen x, i would be happy having church in my slippers with a bottle of something good at any location that suits, as long as we talk about Jesus. I can leave all the music and preaching and praying, I just want to talk about Jesus….

but we don’t. And i am seen as being too simplistic or idealistic. That gen x missional post christendom emerging whatever doesn’t see results…and guess what, i don’t give a toss any more.You can keep your budgets,KPI’s, rosters and meetings, I have enough of that at work.  I’m just going to follow Jesus, and with any luck, some people might think this Jesus guy I try and be like is worth them following as well, even if I don’t sing to him like he is my boyfriend.

*I think I might be tired, that was somewhat like a rant wasn’t it? My rant posts normally attract a bit of flack, so fire away. Just remember though, I don’t get paid to say the right think anymore, so i dont really care.

AFL.com.au is building up this weekends game between Geelong and the Roos as match of the season. After Geelong also playing match of the season against the Dogs and the Hawks in recent weeks…

The thing is, it isn’t even on free to air TV, as is the case for most Skilled Stadium matches, its straight to foxtel.

Fortunately, next week against the Eagles at SS will be on free to air here in WA due to the fact it involves the West Coast. I hope sundays game this week is a good prep match for the finals requiring the Cats to fight hard for the victory.

Live friday night football tomorrow, then some Olympic goodness followed by packing and preparing for Margaret River, woo!

Some Woody Nook Port, various cheeses, chocolates, wines etc. will all be returning with us from our indulgent little trip, hopefully the goodies will last more than the drive back…