Pittwater Life March 2018 Issue

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Health & Wellbeing Health & Wellbeing Time to think flu vaccine Local GP Ethel Gilbert says April is the month to book vaccinations to protect against the flu virus, reminding parents that the Government is now supplying all children aged 6 months to five years with free vaccine. Dr Gilbert said two new, enhanced flu vaccines would also be free for people over-65, in a bid to prevent a repeat of last year’s horror season, with chronic disease patients also to benefit from the free program. Meanwhile Gilbert Collins Medical Practice has expanded its team and services to meet the growing health needs of the local community. “Our focus remains on delivering comprehensive general practice healthcare in-house,” Dr Gilbert said. “We provide shared antenatal care services, all immunisations including childhood immunisations, influenza for all ages and are an accredited Yellow Fever Clinic. “We also provide contraceptive services, childhood and elderly health checks, men’s health checks and management of long term illness.” Dr Ainslie Maddock has recently joined the team – a local with a wide range of GP experience, Dr Maddock trained in Sydney and worked in Dee Why for four years. She is looking forward to helping new patients of all ages. Also new to the rooms at 20 Bungan Street is psychologist Louise Adams, who has 20 years in clinical practice. Louise sees people from all walks of life for many kinds of issues. She uses cognitive behaviour therapy, mindfulness and selfcompassion training, and ACT techniques to help her clients learn to take care of themselves and to become their own therapist. In addition to general psychological issues, Louise NEW PATIENTS: Dr Maddock. is an expert in the space of treating people with eating disorders, body image problems, and people struggling with weight, all from a non-diet perspective. Louise also trains other health professionals and regularly presents professional training workshops around Australia. She is the author of ‘Mindful Moments’ which is about discovering selfcompassion. Online bookings gilbertcollinsmedicalpractice.com. au – Lisa Offord EXPERT: Psychologist Louise Adams. 52 MARCH 2018 The Local Voice Since 1991
Business Life: Money Cutting through hype on home solar power Not keen on burning fossil fuels to create the electricity for your house and thinking about solar? Already got solar panels on your roof and are wondering about installing batteries to store power? Want to say goodbye to expensive power suppliers and take responsibility for your own power? Or maybe you just want to read a bit more about solar, to try to cut through all the hype and misinformation. Read on… Most of us don’t like burning fossil fuels to make electricity. There are myriad reasons why we do it – efficiency, immediacy, convenience… even questionable political agendas. But the sun provides a viable alternative. The sun is an extremely powerful nuclear reactor (it’s been burning for 4.6 billion years) some 149,600,000km from earth. Light takes eight minutes to get here from there. It’s a sensible place for a nuclear reactor and it is going to run smoothly for about another five billion years. Nobody charges you anything for the energy that you can freely collect from this reactor; putting up some solar panels will only have a positive effect on global warming; solar panels pay back the energy/pollution created in making them within weeks (contrary to myths spread by fossil fuel fanciers). Prices are falling, payback in maybe 3-4 years. The case for solar panels is compelling. So how much solar power do you need? A good starting point is to find out your daily power consumption from the last couple of electricity bills. A frugal 4-person house without a pool might need about 20kwh of power per day. (20 kilowatts for an hour, 1 kilowatt for 20 hours etc) per day. Add 50% for a pool or spa, add another 50% for aircon and non-frugal families. Then you need to size your solar system. A 5kw system is pretty much standard nowadays, as a starting point (usually The Local Voice Since 1991 around 20 panels). That means, theoretically, it will put in 5kw per hour in peak sun conditions and, when the sun hits the panels less than 90 degrees, or when there is a bit of cloud or pollution, or when the neighbour’s tree has dropped sap on your panels, the production will be much less. In fact, the realworld output of a solar install is typically around 80% of the rated output at best, with occasional glimpses of better. Also, in the real world, you might get five times your system’s rated output per day in summer, and three times in winter (if lucky). So, bottom line, a 5kw system might just about produce 25kw in summer – enough to run a 2-person house with a pool, but this ignores inefficiencies, clouds, bird poo, losses through heat, resistance, losses through charging and power conversion. In winter, you’ll need 60% more in the way of solar panels to get similar output, so the 5kw isn’t going to be enough unless you are especially frugal. So fit as much solar as you can and keep in mind that when the sun isn’t out you’ll still be buying power from your electricity supplier, and they will be paying you half as much, per Kwh, for spare power from your panels that you send to them in the daylight… which is why some people like the idea of batteries, and where it gets really complicated, especially working out what sort of energy storage system will suit you. If you have enough solar power to run everything during the day, and also enough spare solar power to fully recharge batteries, replacing the power you took from them last night, then your batteries only need to get you from dusk to dawn (so you use the dishwasher, washing machine, pool pumps and other power-hungry appliances during peak sunshine, and not all at the same time). In that case, you might want to consider one of the fancy lithium batteries that fits onto your wall and has quite small capacity that you’ll use, every evening, to get you through the ‘shoulder’ charging period so you only buy your power at offpeak prices. (A caution, though. Look at cost versus savings, the payback period, expected service life and also take a look at how much power one of these units can supply. I’m in the battery business and I haven’t seen one of these that reliably pays back in less than 8 years, or one of the single packs that can handle the dishwasher, washing machine and aircon running together without pulling power from the grid so, at the moment, they’re not a universal solution, and an By Clive Weatherhead 8-year payback on a product that might last 10 years is not compelling, either.) If you want independence from the grid, but are happy to stay attached and pay a small service fee every quarter, just in case you need it, then it’s a bigger system, bigger money, and battery selection is critical. There’s a bit of choice here but, for simplicity and unless you live in a submarine or warship, it comes down to lead acid (cheaper) or lithium (longer lasting), with a few zany technologies emerging around the edge. My personal preference is to use 2-volt lead acid batteries (also used in forklifts) wired together in series to output 48 volts, with some clever technology to take power from the solar panels into the batteries, and then to convert battery power into something suitable for the house. There are good arguments in favour of lithium batteries, and for more expensive types of lead acid battery. Make sure you talk to someone who knows, not just someone with an opinion. What about cost and payback for a self-sufficient battery system? Well into five figures and if you live in a house with a reliable grid connection, the case won’t stack up on economic grounds alone because, if it did, everyone would be doing it. Payback in about 6 years is about achievable at the moment, for some, so there has to be more to it than saving a few dollars, and it comes down to helping heal Mother Earth. In that case, you might just want to harness and store all that lovely wireless power from the perfectly safe nuclear reactor at the centre of our solar system. If so, I hope this has piqued your interest. * Clive is the co-owner of Battery Business, based at the Warriewood office. Read more at batterybusiness.com.au MARCH 2018 53 Business Life
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