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Adding a second battery
When Lightning Energy installed our Powerwall 2 back in December 2023 it was great. Paired with our 13 kW Enphase/Jinko solar system and 10 kW inverter, it's been handling our fully electrified home in Emerald pretty well — five reverse-cycle ACs, heat pump hot water, EV charging, and grid outages lasting up to nine days. But as we've added more loads, I've been thinking about expanding battery storage. There was a problem, though. The Powerwall 2 is no longer CEC-approved for new installations in Australia. Tesla stopped taking orders for it in late 2024/early 2025, and as of January 2026 it's no longer on the Clean Energy Council approved list. So you can't add a second one. And until very recently, the Powerwall 3 — Tesla's current model — was completely incompatible with the Powerwall 2. They couldn't talk to each other. That meant anyone with a Powerwall 2 who wanted more storage faced a painful choice: rip out the existing battery and start fresh with new hardware. For me, that…
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Grok AI is on its way to my Tesla
Incoming software update. Grok AI 🤖
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Car charge now on the Tesla app's home screen
Woke up to a minor but very helpful change in the Tesla app. The house screen now includes the percentage charge of the car (shown in the screenshot at 84%). Very handy to see it all in one place, without switching to the car view.
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First Tesla service call: a new wheel
First service call for our Tesla Model Y. Replacing our loaner wheel with a new wheel. As you can see in our posts from a few weeks ago, we hit a pothole, damaging our left rear wheel. At the time, we only knew that we had a slow leak. We logged the problem in the Tesla app. They arranged for roadside assistance to come to us, in about an hour, to install a loaner wheel, and take ours away to diagnose. Today, Tesla replaced the loan wheel with a new wheel, costing a whopping $1319. I asked them to clean the damaged wheel and put it in the back of the car. In the photos, you can see the buckle and crack. I am wondering if it is fixable. When I booked this service in the app, I also asked them to fix the water in the light bar, and some issues with the steering wheel buttons. They replaced both. I’ll discuss the steering wheel buttons in a separate post. All covered under warranty. I had a bit of trouble figuring out where to leave the car. Several after me also mistakenly parked in…
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Why are utes always the aggressive ones?
Why does it seem to be utes that are predominantly aggressive on the road? A few unnecessary and dangerous overtakes on my way home through Gippsland. Towards oncoming cars, or a kangaroo. Wildlife and police also out. A bit busy on the roads today. Glad to see that the latest software update on the Tesla now shows speed and details now on playback of videos.
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Tesla's Christmas update finally arrives on HW4
Merry Christmas 🤶🎅. Tesla’s Christmas software update arrived just in time. It seems that those of us with HW4 had to wait longer? Glad to finally have the speed recorded on dashcam footage. I was hoping it would also apply to previously saved footage, but no.
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Flat tyre — part 2 (the callout)
Flat tyre – part 2. We arrived home yesterday with a slow leak in a tyre. I opened the Tesla app, tapped on Roadside -> Flat Tyre, selected which wheel, and added a note about the slow leak. I received a response with a couple of minutes. About an hour later, Alan arrived to replace the wheel. Tesla subcontracts the roadside assistance to other companies, like this one. They have a bunch of Tesla wheels ready to go. Neither of us could find the source of the slow leak, but that’s not his job. He just tagged the wheel and sends it to Tesla for inspection and repair. Pretty seamless operation. We have a replacement wheel fitted, in less time, including the call out, than it would have taken me to do it myself with a spare. And they take care of sending the original to Tesla. We have a “space saver” spare wheel. If we had taken that with us on the trip, it would have majorly impacted our storage space. But worse: we would have had to then pack the full sized original wheel into our boot…
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What to ask for in a battery installation
I suggest getting your installer to agree in writing that your battery installation will include: 1. Remote control via an app and/or website to monitor your battery and house power. 2. During a grid outage, the battery should provide backup for everything you need. 3. During a grid outage, solar continues to provide power. 4. The ability to curtail export of power to the grid when pricing is negative. 5. Compatibility with Amber Electric, if you might want to use them as your energy retailer. Let’s look at each in detail: 1. Using an app or website, you can: 1. Monitor power in and out of your battery, house and grid connection, instantaneous, daily and historical. 2. At any time, set your battery to a minimum charge percentage. 2. In the event of a grid outage: 1. The battery will switch over automatically. The installer should test it and show you. 2. The battery will power all of your home, up to the battery’s maximum power (which should be at least 5kW). 3. If you have three…
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What do the kW and kWh measurements mean?
What do all the electricity measurements mean? 1. Australian household electricity runs at about 240V “volts”. All your power points and devices are 240V. This is basically a measure of the force used to push the electricity. 2. The “current” is basically the throughput of electricity, measured in Amps. It varies for different devices. A modern LED light bulb uses less than 0.1A (Amps). A toaster or heater will use around 8A. The typical maximum allowed by a standard power point is 10A. 3. The total power of the electricity is measured in watts. We multiply the volts by the amps (voltage x current) to get the watts. For example, if your appliance uses 5A at 240V, then that’s 5 x 240 = 1,200 W, which is 1.2kW (kilowatts). A light bulb uses less than 0.1kW. 4. The total energy used by a device is calculated as the power x time. For example, if you use an appliance running at 1.2kW for 10 hours, then it uses 1.2 x 10 = 12kWh (kilowatt hours). A light bulb could run for days on the…
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Home battery introduction
Are you considering a battery for your house? Here is a basic introduction, based on our experience. I hope it’s helpful. Please comment about any errors, omissions or questions. 1. Why is there more talk lately about getting a battery for your house? 1. As of July 1 this year, the federal government will pay for 30% of your home battery purchase. This makes it 30% cheaper to buy one. 2. What’s the purpose of a house battery? 1. A battery provides power to your house, as electricity. 2. It can power anything in your home that runs from electricity, including your fridge, lights, power points, TV. 3. It can keep your house appliances running when there is a grid outage (a “blackout”). 4. If you have solar panels, a battery can store the excess power generated during the day, so you can use it at night to avoid paying for electricity. This is why it is often called a “solar battery”. 5. You can also charge a battery from the grid when electricity is cheap, and use it when electricity is…
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Our car drives itself: FSD lands in Australia
Our car now drives itself! We choose the destination, and it drives all the way there, turning left, right, indicating, changing lanes, negotiating roundabouts. It’s amazing and boringly uneventful – a combination I heard called “bore-mazing”. Tesla released FSD Supervised in Australia a few weeks ago, for purchase ($10k). This week they also started offer it as a monthly subscription ($149 = $5 per day). We subscribed for one month to try it out. Yesterday I was picking up Amber from Melbourne airport, and decided to try FSD on the way. I paid the subscription through the Tesla app. It seemed to be instantly available, with no additional software download. I hopped in the car. It read my destination from my linked calendar. I pressed the FSD button. The car started reversing out of my driveway. At our street, it failed to figure out what to do, and started heading the wrong way down our no through road, over the grass. Francis was watching from the garage, keeling over with laughter.…
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Our Powerwall — one of a million deployed
Our home Powerwall battery is one of a million deployed so far. The Tesla app celebrated by listing the stats of our install, and the fleet as a whole. Our battery has saved us (and our neighbours via extension cords) from 13 days of blackouts, without any noisy smelly generator, or trips to refill it with petrol. Our solar system has generated 16MWh of energy so far, used by our house appliances, home battery, our car and exports to the grid. At an average ball park price of say 15c per kWh, that’s $2400 worth of electricity, with no ongoing running cost.
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Finally, the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden
After two years in the Dandenong Ranges, we finally visited the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden. Amazing to see in Spring. It’s a huge place. I think we covered only 20% of it. Parking seems to be extremely limited and unmarked, in a dirt section across the road, which led to highly questionable parking.
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No, my Tesla didn't cut off my arm
For those who might have seen “Massive Tesla Recall”, headlines: No, our car window does not cut off my arm 😉. The car has already updated to the latest software version, a few weeks ago, including the latest fix. I do find it annoying that it is referred to as a “recall”, since that implies that the car has to be returned for some physical fix. It is just a software update, which is handled automatically. Having the fault isn’t great, in any car. But having a car that can fix a fault while I sleep, is pretty impressive.
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First software update on our new Tesla
A few updates for our Tesla. All free, and automatic, via the first software update our new car has received. The music rave cave, with synchronised album colour and beat of the ambient lights is pretty cool. But the other updates are probably more practical.
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Charging confusion at Spud's Roadhouse
Although it’s in the middle of nowhere, Spud's Roadhouse is a great place to stop on the way to Uluru. For one, it has a few EV charging options. Now, charging should be simple, like it was for the two EVs that were here when I arrived. They each plugged into one of the two DC charging cables, walked over to get some food at the roadhouse while their cars charged. Then off they went – one towards Adelaide and the other to Roxbury. But life isn’t always so simple. I plugged into the remaining charger, which is a slower AC station. It’s only 7kW, compared to the faster DC adjacent chargers at 80-150kW. But, that’s fine – I’m staying here overnight, so I have the time, or I could have just used a fast charger when one of the other drivers disconnected. This AC charger requires your own “Type 2” (technically “Mennekes”) cable, which we have, so I plugged it into the car and EV charger. To my surprise, it immediately started charging, without using an app or tap card. I left it connected…
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Why our Tesla has no spare tyre
Tesla, and many other car manufacturers, don’t include a spare tyre, or a dedicated place to store one. Tesla encourages owners to just ask for help via the Tesla app, if they get stuck somewhere with a flat tyre. The response time and service is reportedly pretty good. But, what if you’re going to drive well off the beaten track, and want to keep a spare with you?
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A new find: Ripe Cafe in Sassafras
In life you need goals. Today’s goal was to find a cafe we hadn’t yet tried 😉, in our home of the Dandenong Ranges. Ripe Cafe in Sassafras was a great find. Guacamole (avo toast) topped with thin sliced potato crisps, and zucchini slice. Lots of cyclists out today, including this giant Saint Bernard. The local park has interesting seating, or perhaps a one turn swing set 😳. I checked in on our parked car from the Tesla app, after some dodgy parking in front of us. We love driving through the fern trees and tall timbers of the Dandenong Ranges. Beautiful all year ‘round.
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Space-saver spare wheels for EVs, $395 to $900
A couple of “space saver” spare wheel/tyre options at Melbourne International EV AutoShow. Pricing ranging from $395 to about $900. We haven’t had a flat tyre during 100,000km of EV driving. If we do, we can contact Tesla via the Service option in the Tesla app. Or we can try out the pump and tyre goo we have in the car. But we’re planning to soon drive to Uluru, where a flat tyre could take quite a while for Tesla or The NRMA to sort out. So, we’re considering taking a spare.
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An 'ICE' car morning near Wagga
We had an “ICE” car this morning. Well, our EV was covered with ice. Cold morning near Wagga Wagga. We warmed up for dinner and breakfast at the on-site Rivergum Restaurant. We warmed up the car using the Tesla app. That melted the ice, and left it nice and toasty when we hopped in. And no fumes filling the motel.
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First time charging on the Wangaratta rooftop
Our first time charging at the rooftop in Wangaratta. We stopped here to grab some shopping. Up a few ramps, the T signs pointed the way. The signs to find the chargers were good, but the signs to exit the roof by foot were hard to find. We walked towards the lone Tardis looking box, which turned out to be a lift. Other signs said that it’s all paid parking now. So, we paid 60c through the Easypark app, for 30 minutes. It seemed odd for a short stop at a shopping centre.
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Emerald's Lost Woods Market draws a crowd
This is probably the busiest we’ve seen our town of Emerald, Victoria. The Lost Woods Market draws a huge crowd. It’s a beautiful stroll through the tall trees, past numerous stalls and food outlets, with Puffing Billy Railway choo-chooing past every now and then. It’s a magical place. We parked up the other end of town, starting off with brunch at Over the Road Cafe, then walked through the jammed main road to the markets. The generators of many stalls lined the back path, filling the air with slight fumes and noise. It’s a shame they don’t have grid power. We hoped to see some stalls powered by V2L EVs, as we’ve noticed at some other markets, but none here.
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Home in Emerald, autumn in full swing
We arrived back home, in Emerald Victoria. Autumn is still in full swing. 🍂
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Coffee Guru, opposite Mittagong's Evie chargers
On our way out of Bowral this morning, we grabbed a coffee at Coffee Guru Mittagong. Conveniently located across the road from Evie fast chargers, so we could all be charged up for our long drive to Cessnock and Seal Rocks.
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A cafe opposite the Yass Superchargers
Stop for a late lunch, in Yass, at Kaffeine 2582. We picked this place, because it’s opposite the Tesla Superchargers. I wonder if the cafe realises how many EV drivers now eat at their cafe 🤔.
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Farewell to our 2022 Model 3
Farewell old friend. We traded in our “old” 2022 Tesla Model 3 today. It was unexpectedly emotional to say goodbye. So many great road tripping memories. 2022 Tesla Model 3 RWD White paint + White seats + Enhanced Autopilot + Boom box and Pedestrian Warning System 91,000km We ended up just going with the Tesla trade in quote of $27k. We could possibly have got $35k if sold privately, but it would have taken time away from work. And since it’s a business purchase, trade-in was just simpler. Our car was in great condition. It runs as well as the day we bought it. It has a few stone chips, paint chips around a side mirror (from reversing against a leaning wire fence), and a bent front license plate. I used my high tech equipment to straighten the plate. But I left the rest for Tesla to spruce up, since they have all the expertise for that. They can also replace the air filter and the rear tyres, which are due for replacement. Trade-in was all managed through the Tesla app, including…
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Picking up our new Model Y 'Juniper'
Today we picked up our shiny new Tesla Model Y “Juniper” from Tesla Mulgrave. Most of the process was done through the Tesla app over the past week, so the actual pickup was super sleek. We traded in our 2022 Tesla Model 3 RWD, also streamlined through the app. After we arrived, the staff just spent five minutes checking the condition of the car. No issues found. Thanks to Nathan for leading us to our new car, and sharing our excitement, since he has also ordered one. He left us to inspect the car and said to just turn on the hazard lights if we had any concerns or questions. We spent 15 minutes looking over the car and taking photos. Then we just drove out of the building, to take it home. We have new custom plates “TRIPNG”, but we didn’t get to VicRoads in time to allocate them today. So, we just used a lump of Blutac to stick one on for the photo today. In Victoria, we only pay once for custom plates, not every year. The Tesla app automatically removed our “old” car and added the…
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Why we ordered a Model Y 'Juniper' launch edition
Back in January, we took the plunge and ordered a new Tesla Model Y “Juniper” launch edition. “Ultra Red”, white interior, 20” wheels (which was the only option for the launch edition). We chose the same battery and drive as our Model 3: RWD (rear wheel drive), LFP battery (no nickel or cobalt), 0 to 100km/h in 5.9s. The main reason for the upgrade is for the greater ease of getting in and out of the car, which has been increasingly painful on Fran’s arthritic hips. As those of you who follow our Tesla Tripping blog will know, we have looked at and test driven quite a lot of other options. The best contender was the XPeng G6. In the end we stuck with the Tesla Model Y because of the huge storage space, driving performance and the tech. The Tesla app has guided us through the whole process up to now, with registration, trade-in, insurance. Today is delivery day. The final `Start` button is still disabled in the app. I’m guessing it will enable at exactly 3pm, when we’re at Tesla…
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XPeng G6 — second test drive
We took another test drive of an XPENG G6, this time from a new dealership in Berwick, Victoria, which is closer to us. Nice interior, comfy seats, great tech. The handling wasn’t bad on some windy roads, but not as sporty as the Tesla Model Y. Disappointing storage. The auto driving hesitated quite a bit around bends. The lack of full stop on one pedal driving is annoying, but they will reportedly solve that in a few weeks via an OTA (over the air) software update. The G6 includes auto parking and lane change, which costs extra in a Tesla. It has vehicle to load, but it requires some adapter plug into the external charge port, which wasn’t available. We had a chance to play with Apple CarPlay, which is great to have. But the XPeng doesn't seem to support pinch and zoom in Apple Maps, which makes it very limited. Acceleration was terrible (doesn’t move for a second), until I turned in “launch mode”. I couldn’t figure out how to enable launch mode and regenerative braking (x-pedal) at…
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Renting a Tesla Model 3 in Sydney
November 10-11. After surviving the long flight back from Europe two days ago, I hopped back on a plane, from Melbourne to Sydney. Crazy, right! At Sydney Airport, I rented a Tesla Model 3, similar to ours, for a couple of days. Pretty seamless process, except for the web page directions to find the pick up spot at the airport. I could add my own profile to the in car list of drivers, and manually adjust to my preferred settings (such as seat position). But they didn’t give me access to connect my iPhone’s Tesla app. I increasingly missed the app connect features such as automatic lock/unlock and remote climate control. I had to tap the Tesla card to get into the car each time, like a Neanderthal 😉. Out of all the portals through which I could rent it, it turned out to be cheapest to rent through the Uber app, which now also lists car rentals. Go figure.
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Cooling off at Seaford Pier
Cooling off at the beach under Seaford Pier. Dinner: Chicken and mango salad, brought from home.
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The tiniest lift, near Verona
One night stay, by the river, in a suburb of Verona. Our host, Ariana, helped us reset our booking, since we’d somehow picked the wrong date in Booking.com. We squeezed into possibly the smallest lift we’ve ever seen. Fortunately, we had grabbed only our next day’s clothes from our large suitcases, in the back of the Tesla. Breakfast included, which was delightful, along with interaction with friendly staff and a three generation Italian family of guests. On our drive here from Lake Como, we stopped at a shopping center along the highway. It’s amazingly just like the ones at home in Australia, except, of course, everything is in Italian. The Tesla Autopilot driver monitoring is over cautious. Even with my hands on the wheel and eyes ahead, it often complains that I’m not paying attention, until I wiggle the steering. On this trip, it counted three strikes and disabled Autopilot until I parked 🖕.
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A balcony view of the Swiss mountains
We checked in last night to our accommodation. It is just stunning here. Our balcony and the breakfast dining room both overlook the lake and towering mountains. You don’t fully appreciate the scale of them until you notice how small the cars are on the other side. Our hosts, Richard and his wife, have been lovely. When we realised that, like their own currency, Switzerland has its own power point socket, different to the rest of Europe, Richard loaned us an adapter. So, now we can plug the iPhone Lightning cable into the USB-C into the power brick, into the Australian socket, into the Europe adapter, into the Swiss adapter, into the wall 🤪. Our UFODRIVE Tesla car rental doesn’t give us access to the Tesla app, which we’re really missing. We had a drama this morning when Tom left the car to go back to our room, leaving Francis in the car. A few minutes later, the Tesla’s car alarm went off, half deafening Francis with the noise from the horn and some loud heavy metal music playing…
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A failed-charging cautionary tale
A failed charging story. We’re heading off on a road trip through the Netherlands for a few days. We’ve been parking near our boat home, but hadn’t yet made use of the nearby charger. When I finally got my act together to plug in our Tesla, I couldn’t find any tap option on the machine for the payment card that UFODRIVE provided. I tried the QR code on the charger to get the app, but it isn’t available for an Australian AppStore account. I checked the UFODrive app for another nearby charging station. I tried to share the location with the Tesla (like I can do from the Tesla app), but it doesn’t offer that option. I shared to Apple Maps and watched my iPhone as I drove around looking for it, but couldn’t find it. Some hours later, when we were about to depart, Nico (a local) pointed out that there was a tap to pay panel on the back of the machine 🤦.
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Spotting Marvin's Dutch cousin, 'Henk'
Continuing our day trip with a stop for lunch at a marina. Delicious Dutch crocettes and a salad. We wandered along the wharf and spotted Marvin’s (our robot mower) Dutch cousin, “Henk” the Husqvarna mower. Now that’s confidence, mowing on a dyke, next to a canal. I am missing the Tesla app. The UFODRIVE rental car does not come with connection through the Tesla app or with a Tesla card. Instead, everything must be done through the supplied UFODRIVE app. It is not a proper native mobile app, with strange and slow UI navigation. Today it took several attempts to unlock the car to drive it, while I was in it.
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First time driving on the right
I managed to drive on the right hand side of the road, sleep deprived and all. It’s weird having the driver’s seat and the car console flipped over to the other side, like some mirror universe. I managed to keep the curb on my right (instead of left, in Australia). That method works fine, until you come across a roundabout, where it’s the reverse of the already reversed method. Our cousin, Nico, had by that stage come out on his bike to guide us the last few hundred metres. He facepalmed as he watched me hesitate at the last roundabout and then proceed the wrong way around it. Fortunately, we were in a quiet neighbourhood, with no one around. Until then, I had managed many other roads and a few roundabouts, so I’m blaming my brain glitch on jet lag 😉. We parked 100m from our cousin’s houseboat, in a quiet neighbourhood street. It has several EV destination chargers next to parking spots! Amazing. Our Tesla has 90% charge, so I don’t want or need to take up a charging spot yet. The…
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36 wild hours on battery in the Dandenongs
It’s been wild 36 hours here in the Dandenong Ranges. Yesterday afternoon, the power went out in our town of Emerald. We heard it was due to a fire somewhere. We sent out a few texts to our neighbours to offer our battery backup power. We ran our heavy duty extension lead over the fence and set up a power board on the front porch for phone charging. A few hours later, the grid was back up and running. But, the pending storm warnings made us cautious. Sure enough, an hour or so later, the storm hit. Heavy rain, pounding hail and strong wind. Marvin the robot mower happily sits charging out in the rain. But I didn’t fancy the chances of his camera eyes surviving the hail stones. I used the iPhone app remote control to drive it under our pergola, while the ice golf balls bounced on the lawn. Sure enough, the grid connection died again during the night, probably due to storm damage to power lines and other infrastructure. In the morning our neighbour reconnected to our power supply. We…
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First impressions of Marvin the mower
He’s such a good boy! 🐶 🤖. The latest addition to our household, Marvin the mower, has done an impressive job so far. It’s a Mammotion Tech Luba 2 3000 robot mower, from Robotech Australia. I just tell Marvin to mow a particular area of our yard, and off it toddles, looking like Wall-E, to do its job. It’s fully automatic, detecting obstacles, returning to charge when necessary, and sending me a notification when finished. Hardware setup was pretty easy. Plug in the camera eyes, position the recharging pad, assemble the transmitter pole and stab it into the ground. The RTK transmitter pole needs to have fairly clear view of the sky, but seems to work fine where I put it, with some light nearby vegetation. To program the yard mowing areas, I tapped in the app to add an area, then remote controlled the mower around the area boundary, while walking beside it. Francis laughed, took a photo, saying I looked like a lone lonely loner walking his dog. When I returned Marvin to the starting…
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Lauritos pizza, transported in the frunk
Friday night, pizza and movie at home. Pick up from Lauritos Pizza, in Emerald, in the Tesla, transporting it in the “frunk” (front trunk) to keep the takeaway smell out of the cabin.
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Another free upgrade: adaptive high beams
Another free car upgrade: adaptive high beams. The sun had set on our way west from near Bega towards Bombala. We generally prefer to find a place to stay before dark, but this time of year the daylight is shortening, and we discovered there aren’t many accommodation options out here. High beam headlights help us travel along the unfamiliar road in the dark, lighting up not only the path ahead, but on the sides, such as helping us keep a lookout for wildlife that might dart onto the road. When we pass the occasional other vehicle, we of course don’t want to blind them with our high beams. Until now, the Tesla would automatically detect the oncoming car and dip the high beams, just like we would do manually. The latest software update 2024.14, was sent to our Tesla a few days ago. It included several new features, one of which is adaptive high beams. Now, instead of dipping the whole high beam lamps when there is an oncoming vehicle, it only dims the pixels of light that are aiming at…
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Four double scoops, kept chilled by the Tesla
Double the EVs and double the ice creams. This time I took a large container to Bam Bam Italian to buy four double scoop ice creams for us and our guests. The car kept the temperature at a chilly 15°C while Kyla accepted the challenge to scoop two spheres into each cone. Tomorrow, we’re off to Emu Plains Markets.
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An 'EV' for the hedges
I tried out another “EV”, kind of – an Electric Vegetation cutter 😉. Okay, that’s a bit of a stretch. It’s an electric hedge trimmer. Emerald has so much vegetation, and our place is no exception. Hundreds of meters of hedges. The RYOBI electric hedge cutter is fairly quiet, instantly turns on and off, and is fueled for free by the sun via our roof solar panels. While cutting, it did occur to me that using a petrol powered hedge trimmer would be a much less pleasant experience. Much louder, with fumes in my face, heat and higher fire risk. I’d be dependant on an external fuel supplier to truck in petrol from hundreds of kilometers away, and I’d have to drive to a petrol station to get it. When the battery goes flat on this electric model, I just plug it in and walk away to do something else. It will take an hour or more to recharge, but I don’t have to do anything. Plugging in the battery takes a few seconds. If I really wanted to keep going immediately, I could swap with another…
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'Drive on sunshine': free fuel from our roof
“Drive on sunshine” ☀️ Also known as “charge on solar”. Or, just free car fuel from the sun, with no ongoing cost, fumes, noise, trips to a fuel station, burning coal, paying for oil to questionable regimes… well, you get the picture 😉. Tesla updated the software today to finally enable this feature in Australia. We first saw reports about it coming last week, but it didn’t appear. The USA has had it for a while, perhaps a year. I don’t know why they need to release it on a per country basis. Being the tech nerd that I am, after reading an email from Tesla today, I checked several times that my Tesla app was up to date, manually triggered the software update on the car, tried logging out and back into the Tesla app several times. Finally, a few minutes ago, the new feature appeared! If I had just left it, the overnight update cycle would probably have just done it all for me. Ironically, it’s after sunset now, so I can’t actually use it. But I have configured it so that the morning…
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Nine days of grid outage in Emerald
It’s been nine days of grid power outage here in Emerald Victoria. The community has pulled together to share resources. Today I received an SMS from Ben to ask if he could charge at our place. I assumed it was another neighbour asking if they could plug their phone or laptop in to the power board we laid out in the porch. We were the only house in the street to still have power after the storm hit, thanks to our Tesla Powerwall battery. It’s been charging up each day from solar panels on the roof. But Ben was actually after a place to charge his EV. I had forgotten about our listing on PlugShare during all of the neighbourhood blackout dramas. I said yes, no problem. Today he had driven from his home in Packenham east to Sale, then back west and up the hills to Emerald, and has a few more nearby drives to do before returning home. The navigation said he would get home with 8% charge, but that wasn’t accounting for extra stops. So, he wanted to play it safe.
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Back home with battery power
We’re are back home in Emerald and have power! The grid is still out, and is expected to be down until mid next week. But our house is getting power from solar and our Tesla Powerwall battery. Driving back home (after our road trip to NSW), we could see why Emerald is still in the dark. Many power lines (and phone/broadband lines) are still down. Emerald featured in the first story on last night’s (Friday) ABC news: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/abc-news-vic At least one of our neighbours is running a fuel generator. Another has a couple of solar panels hooked up to a car battery for night lights and a 12V car fridge. Schools are effectively closed. The local petrol station had one pump going, with a long queue. We have offered our neighbours electricity from our solar/battery power. One family had no power for three days, but now we have connected some extension cords over the fence. History: The grid died on Tuesday 14th. We were away road tripping in NSW. Our Tesla Powerwall…
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Powerwall hits zero during the grid outage
Well, that’s not good. The Tesla Powerwall at home has just gone flat (zero percent charge) at about 5pm today. Our new home town of Emerald is one of many affected by the grid outage in Victoria, after a wild storm hit on Tuesday afternoon. A couple of months ago, we had Lightning Energy install solar and a Powerwall battery at our new home. In a grid outage, the solar array is supposed to keep the house electricity going, recharge the battery each day, and keep the fridge cold. But the solar production stopped working when the grid outage started. Something is wrong with the installation. The battery has slowly depleted, until it hit zero percent two days later (this afternoon). I contacted the installer, Lightning Energy, a couple of days ago to hopefully fix it before the fridge died. No answer from service. So, I SMSed Andrew, who works for them and lives locally. He kindly offered to pop in on his way home to take a look. Here’s hoping we can get power from the sun back…
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Wild weather hits Victoria
Wow, what a wild weather ride in Victoria yesterday. We’re still in NSW, but the Weather app summarised the weather at home in Emerald as “Fire Weather” 😮. The heat was followed by a heavy storm that knocked down many trees and power lines. In the middle of the day, wholesale electricity prices peaked at a hundred times the norm at nearly $20 per kWh (normally under 20c per kWh). I checked our home remotely using the Tesla app. It was exporting power from our battery (and solar) to help keep the grid supply going, whilst paying us about $100 per hour for the supply! Our battery has continued to supply power to our home during the blackout. We messaged some of our neighbours an invitation to come over and plug in any needed devices (such as phones or a portable fridge). A few of them also checked on our house for us. Great neighbours and community ☺️. We might need to also offer them showers because those with on demand gas hot water often need electricity to light them. All the petrol…
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Most mechanical I've been with the Tesla in 60,000 km
This is probably the most mechanical I’ve had to be with or Tesla in nearly 60,000km. Tomorrow we’re off on a road trip to Sydney, in part for the Fully Charged Show’s Everything Electric expo. In a recent rain downpour, our conversation went something like: Tom: The wipers aren’t very clear. Francis: Didn’t you order new wipers? Tom: Yeah, a few months ago. Francis: Oh yeah, I remember seeing it in the boot. Francis: Have you actually installed them? Tom: No. they’re still in the boot. Have been for about the last 20,000km, including our last trip to North Queensland. Francis: 🤦♀️ Anyway, now they’re installed. Pretty straightforward: 1. Order online via the Tesla app. 2. Receive package. 3. Place package in boot for a few months (optional). 4. Remind yourself each time it rains that you really must fix that smearing on the windscreen. 5. Finally, remove from boot and open box. 6. In the Tesla, in the `Service` menu, press `Wiper Service Mode`. The wipers move up to be accessible.…
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Tesla battery and wall charger installation
The team from Lightning Energy installed the undercover pieces today, while it’s raining, and deferring to tomorrow the installation on the roof of the solar panels, if the sun comes out. We had originally scheduled this installation for December 11 and 12, but rain on December 11 saw it canceled. We had this Tesla wall charger at our last house in Saratoga NSW, a year ago. The new owners there didn’t have an EV, so we modified the contract for us to remove the EV charger. It has sat in storage until the removalists delivered our belongings here a few days ago. It wasn’t really practical for us to bring the Tesla “Powerwall” battery with us from the old house, so we bought a new one for this house. It costs about $15k, which is a lot. There are cheaper battery options, but we know the Powerwall has a large capacity compared to cheaper batteries, and works well with the app, scheduling, blackouts, etc. We have heard from a few people in Emerald and the Yarra Ranges in general that…
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Kallista brunch, and a spin in a BYD
A lazy day trip up the Dandenong Ranges to Kallista Deli for brunch. Delicious smokey beans and corn bread or Eggs Benedict. Our friends, Sue and Ron, took us for a spin in their newly leased BYD EV. We envied the retractable sunroof, V2L (vehicle to load) and virtual top camera view of the car parking. But it lacks Tesla features like autopilot.
Formerly: Tesla Tripping
Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.
Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.
We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.
At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.
Got questions, or insights of your own? We'd love to hear them — please drop a comment on any post.