Customer Story - QLD

Name: Martin MacDonald

Location: Queensland

Joined Amber: January 2022

Household: 2 adults, 2 children.

Energy set up: 6.6KW solar, Tesla Powerwall 2 (13.5KW), SolarEdge Inverter

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‍Total earnings over last quarter: $469.13

Average FiT: 89.8c/kwh

Average Usage Rate: 58.2c/kWh

Max earnings on a given day: $56 on 12 June, 2022

Savings from adding solar, battery and Amber for Batteries: $957.66

(Time period: 14 April -14 July 2022 (3 months/92 days).  

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1. What initially motivated you to get solar and a battery?

It was the expense really. Living in Queensland it made sense to make the investment so that we would not have a huge bill all the time. We found that the tariff would change every 12 months, and it got to the point where you would say, ‘What are we going to do?”.

I saw a competition come up at work to win a battery installation and I was really lucky to win. We then signed up pretty much right away for Amber for Batteries.

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2. How’s the experience been so far with Amber for Batteries?

There’s probably people who are really early adopters, take risks and try new things - I don’t know if I’m that type of person generally, but it’s been really good so far. When we got the solar and battery and SmartShift™, I almost thought it was too good to be true. I was checking the app a lot during the day. Then I realised it just works; it’s really simple and the smarts are in the tech, so you can be quite carefree about it.

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3. How has it affected your bills?

When we just had solar, we’d always still have a bill to some degree.  I didn’t really quite know what to expect with the battery and Amber. I didn’t know it would cover all of our energy consumption and then some.

I’d go in there and just see that I have a credit on my bill. Eventually we cashed out something like $300-400 in credits and put it towards plane tickets to go and visit family in Sydney.

You’re really self sufficient. I feel really fortunate to be in that position, and the bonus is that you get to make a bit of a difference environmentally as well by putting sustainable energy in the grid when it’s really quite dirty.

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4. What’s it been like having access to the wholesale price of energy?

I was probably a bit hesitant at first, unsure what it meant for us, whether we would be exposed in any way. I was quickly reassured, not only by the regular updates from Chris and Dan (Amber co-founders and co-CEOs) when there was volatility, but also just because I grew to trust the tech to do what it is designed to do.

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5. What’s next?

I think the next thing for us would be that when we get the next family car, it’ll be an EV, so we can get that hooked into the system.

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6. What would you say to any other battery owners out there who are wondering if they should join Amber for Batteries?

I’d say it’s brilliant. It works; it does what it’s meant to, and we’ve had a substantial benefit from it. And on top of that, it’s better for everyone because you’re putting that extra renewable energy into the grid.

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