Meet the family spending less than 50 cents a day on their power after becoming the first household in the world to try new technology
- Nick and Danielle Pfitzner installed a Tesla Powerwall battery storage system
- Mr Pfitzner said they'd managed to cut their power bills by $2116 per year
- The family-of-four power a pool, air conditioning, a dishwasher and televisions
A family-of-four are spending just 46 cents per day on electricity after becoming the first household in the world to try a new technology.
Nick and Danielle Pfitzner installed a Tesla Powerwall battery storage system in their four-bedroom Kellyville home, in Sydney's north-west, in January 2016.
Mr Pfitzner said they'd managed to cut their power bills by $2,116 per year since making the change.
The Pfitzner family (pictured) was the first in Australia to get the Tesla Powerwall
The Pfitzner family home (pictured) in the Hills District in Sydney's north-west, has a pool and outdoor entertainment area
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'The money we save on electricity, we actually use for other things,' Nick Pfitzner said, according to realestate.com.au.
'We went on a road trip to country NSW and then up to Kosciuszko, and then down to the beach over the course of a week. So if you're saving about $2000 a year, give or take, that's fuel and accommodation for a family of four.'
The father-of-two also said he monitored his family's power usage closely until he learnt how it worked.
'In that first year I had it installed, I knew everyone was watching and wondering how much it's going to save.
'I was pretty vigilant with our power usage, but once I'd learned those lessons, I became a lot more relaxed.
'I'm not looking at the app every hour, I just get the alerts saying "Hey, the battery's full and if you've got anything you want to do, you've got spare power until four o'clock this afternoon".'
The Pfitzner family home has a pool and outdoor entertainment area.
The family use multiple high energy products including dishwashers, air conditioning and several televisions.
Their personal renewable energy solution includes the Tesla Powerwall, 5kWp of solar panels, a SolarEdge inverter and cloud-based monitoring software to see the direct output of energy from the entire system and the Tesla Powerwall.
Mr Pfitzner standing by his Tesla Powerwall at his Kellyville home while holding a power bill
Mr Pfitzner said the switch has taught him a lot about consumption, while the monitoring software helps him make informed decisions about the efficiency of other technology the family uses in the home.
He also gets an option with each bill to sell power back to the local grid, saving hundreds of dollars per year.
Chris Williams, CEO and founder of Natural Solar told the publication the technology will eventually become mainstream.
