“We don’t get a bill anymore — we get cheques”: How Anthony turned his home into a mini power station with Amber
In the heart of Sydney’s inner west, Anthony lives with his wife Bridget and their teenage son in a single-storey terrace that’s over a century old. It might not look futuristic from the outside, but inside - and especially on the roof - it’s a different story.
With a 9kW solar array spread across his rooftop and a 19kWh SolarEdge battery setup (2 x batteries), Anthony’s home doesn’t just run on renewable energy - it earns from it. But it wasn’t always this way.
The frustration before Amber
Before switching to Amber, Anthony was with a range of traditional energy retailers, most recently AGL. Like many solar households, he was frustrated. Despite generating more power than his family consumed, they were still getting energy bills.
“We were putting 70–80kWh a day into the grid in summer, and getting 5 cents per kilowatt,” he recalls. “Meanwhile, they were charging us 35 cents at night. It just didn’t feel like we were getting any reward at all.”
On top of that, the complexity of energy bills was maddening: “You needed a science degree to decipher the line items.”
This imbalance pushed Anthony to install a battery - and later, to discover Amber through an electrician who spotted his solar setup and said, “If you’re getting a battery, that’s the way forward.”
Flipping bills to cheques
With Amber, everything changed.
“Amber’s basically taken what was a bill and turned it into something you don’t have to worry about,” says Anthony. “We don’t get a bill anymore - we get cheques.”
Anthony now earns between $1,200 and $1,600 a year through Amber, thanks to its real-time access to wholesale energy prices and smart battery automation. On average, the family earns $100–$200 a month - and during a recent price spike, they made $375 in a single day by discharging their battery back into the grid at just the right time.
“We asked Amber to send us $3,000 from our credit. Two days later, it was in our bank account.”
Transparent, automated, and empowering
Amber’s app has given Anthony a whole new level of visibility and control. “You can literally watch the money come in every half hour,” he says. “That’s the difference — it gives you clarity.”
And the automation takes the stress out of energy management. “We just let Amber — the AI or algorithm or whatever — do its thing,” he explains. “It works out when to charge and when to feed into the grid.”
The economic turnaround has been significant. Anthony estimates they’re $10,000 better off after just two and a half years — between avoided bills and earned income. That means their system will pay for itself three years earlier than expected.
Smarter, simpler, more rewarding energy
While some adjustments were needed - like using appliances during the day - Anthony says they’ve been minimal. “We charge the EV during the day, run the dishwasher, the hot water. But we can still have a roast dinner.”
And the experience has converted even the sceptics. “Around Christmas, I showed my parents and their friends our Amber app and bank statement. They couldn’t believe it.”
Looking ahead
With new rebates and battery prices dropping, Anthony’s already eyeing an upgrade. “It’s like buying your retirement early. Once it’s paid off, everything after that is just free money.”
His advice? “Do your research, buy quality, and make sure your system’s compatible. But if you’ve got the setup, Amber just makes sense.”
