Edit note: Upcoming workshop timing has been updated (19/10/25)
Yesterday’s workshop on the Why, How and What of Household Batteries had a great turn out with over seventy people turning up. This exceeded the attendance at the Comfortable Homes workshop a month ago, showing the enthusiasm for information about batteries – particularly with the federal government’s new rebate scheme.
Mark Parnell as MC gave an engaging intro on the complexities of electrification that ordinary people are dealing with and which the following presentation was about. Then TRY’s Blake Edwards drew the audience through the effect of time of use on their electricity bills, what the ‘duck curve’ does to electricity rates and network stability, and the types of batteries that are available. Blake told a compelling story of why a household battery makes sense for most households, some of the key things to consider when deciding whether a battery is right for you, and how to approach choosing one.
There was lots of discussion at the break accompanied by pizza, and then there were some excellent queries in question time: including whether it was possible to be recompensed for providing power to the network during high demand periods; and whether using an EV battery to power a household would significantly degrade the battery life under most common usage. (The answer to the first was Yes, for enthusiasts, and the answer to the second was No.)
Participants were provided with some resources and links to take away with them. And TRY can provide further guidance if people get stuck. Our feedback so far is that it was a productive and informative session. We hope to have many more!
These workshops are part of a broader strategy to think differently about energy – what does technology enable that we couldn’t do previously? And how can we use that to bring benefits to communities, such as emergency and day-to-day resilience, lower costs, and boost local economies. At the same time reducing emissions, improving air quality and contributing to climate action at a local level.
Would you like to know more about electrification topics? Help determine what future workshop topics will be by voting below. Email us at [email protected].
You can also check out the following resources on batteries and energy plans:
Rewiring Australia
the Australian Government’s
Your Home website
Victorian Energy
Compare website
Compare retailers on the Vic
government’s Energy Compare site.
The SolarQuotes website provides
informative reviews and articles
on renewables technology, including
brands and technology types.
Upcoming workshops
We’ve got two more workshops coming up in this series – if you can attend a workshop, have a say in the topics for future sessions.
Monday 10 November
Topic to be confirmed
Final Workshop – to be scheduled
And you can see which topics are trending as people vote (click through to the third slide). Voting concludes on November 2.
Do you want another battery workshop
… or are you keen to find out about EVs?Is being outage ready a priority
…or do you want to know about hot water systems?What would help you to make decisions?
Live Poll Results – What workshop topics do Yack locals want?
Thanks to the support of Rewiring Australia and the many volunteers that made these workshops possible (and free).
