Article on savings by the first Australian to install Tesla Powerwall could easily mislead.

When I read some articles in the news media I really can't believe them. The following article is one example.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/inventions/first-aussie-resident-to-have-tesla-powerwall-installed-has-a-saving-on-90-per-cent-on-power-bill/news-story/4fcb76b650468f99bb50ff7dce92e853

If you read this article the implication is the savings were made all because of the Tesla Powerwall. A massive 90% saving. However dig a little deeper and if I'm reading the information provided by the person through their own site and other news sites, a different story starts to appear.

Yes the person has made savings. Whilst I don't know how many kWh per day the $660 bill was for, the bill was for 91 days and a rough estimate would indicate around 24-25kWh per day. The person has now reduced their usage through knowledge to 13.7209kWh per day. That's roughly a 43% reduction.

Reducing electricity usage isn't a saving that can be attributed to the Tesla Powerwall. The same or better can be achieved using a $25 power meter device and reading the energy ratings on devices. Power companies now provide sites providing information down to the hour on your usage. Knowledge that doesn't need any outlay.

This is all very rough, but I think you get the picture. If we reduce the electricity usage by 43% (first removing the daily service charge) the equivalent bill for the same usage would be roughly $326 compared to the post Powerwall bill of $50.39. Yes an excellent saving, but not quite as much. That's a saving of roughly $92 per month, and if we assume usage is the same every month, a yearly saving of  roughly $1,100.

The set-up cost for the person for their system was $15,990. The payback period is thus around 14.5 years.

The person also mentioned they could have put the money into their mortgage for an interest saving of $750, which people often forget is also tax free. Put the same money into the mortgage over 14.5 years and the benefit would be around $31,000 tax free.

The problem here is not unusual. People only think about reducing usage after they've made a large investment. I nearly did the same. Instead I worked on reducing my usage first. My normal electricity usage was around 13-14kWh per day. It's now 5-6kWh per day. No solar. No large outlay. With discounts, once you're using the level of electricity grid connected solar no longer makes financial sense.

If you have mortgage or other debt, it really may be worth considering paying down the debt before making purchases like this that have payback periods that are near or longer than the life expectancy of the equipment. With electricity usage, first reduce your usage as best you can and only then look at the payback on investing.

The article in the newspaper really made me interested again in the Tesla Powerwall, but once I go through the numbers and research further, what's being said simply doesn't add up. Good unbiased knowledge can only help you make better and more informed decisions.

Kelvin Eldridge
Electricity Cost Calculator

Share My Location web app is now live.

Hot off the press the Share My Location web app is now live. Those of you who know me, know I write web apps for myself and make them available for others. I figure if they help me then perhaps they'll help others as well.

Share My Location enables you to share your location with someone else. Not just your current location, but your location as you're moving. You may in a car, on public transport, or just walking, but now you can share your location with someone else.

Yes there are apps that do this, but most only work for one device. Share My Location doesn't need to be installed and works across multiple platforms. Now obviously if you're sharing your location it's best if you have a GPS enabled device, but the person you're sharing with can be on any computer or mobile device.

No identifying information is requested. No sign up. You just visit the site, www.ShareMyLocation.com.au, click the Share On button, click on the link to send an email and you and the other person (or people) can see your location and follow your journey. Great for letting people know where you are. Great for meeting up with people. Great for helping people.

I write the web apps because over time it's what I wanted on a number of occasions. Now I have what I want and I'd be fairly sure others have probably been in the same situation.

Enjoy,

Kelvin Eldridge
www.ShareMyLocation.com.au

Petrol prices in Melbourne spiking at the moment.

It's been interesting watching the latest petrol price hike in Melbourne. There's usually up to 4 days before the new higher price moves across the market. Normally I see the price hike on the second of the four days and alert everyone using the Petrol Price Melbourne site www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au.  This time I noticed the price hike very early since I'm now recording prices in the area.

Two things became apparent. The trend on the site can go in any direction on the first day. Whilst some prices are spiking, others are still going down. It is really weird to watch part of the market going down whilst another part is having a massive price hike of around thirty cents per litre.

The second was I felt the colour coding for the markers on the maps which help people locate lower priced petrol wasn't particularly good. My initial approach was 21 coloured markers at set price intervals, but unfortunately this approach didn't make it easy to distinguish the cheaper prices as the prices move down. This is because the market has a small spread of prices (4-6 cents) so the markers all look very similar.

I decided to change the markers to indicate one cent differences. This is very good when prices are going down. When prices are going down the range of prices is usually between 6-10 cents, so the coloured markers can be easily distinguished. When the price spikes the average moves towards the middle so is everything lumped into red (expensive) and green (cheap). When this occurs you may need to check individual markers or use the cheapest page to find the cheapest petrol. When the price peaks the new peak becomes the average which will show as yellow. As prices drop the range increases and the range of coloured markers again increases.

I hope this new colour coding scheme makes it easier for people to find cheaper petrol and save money on their petrol purchases.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Petrol Prices Melbourne - Now showing average, maximum, minimum and trend.

The main page of Petrol Prices Melbourne now shows the average, maximum, minimum unleaded submitted petrol prices, along with the trend from yesterday. This is a good way to know roughly the price petrol will cost. Petrol Prices Melbourne 

Kelvin Eldridge

TPG home phone and telephone not working. "Number you have dialled is not valid. Please check the number and call again."

A couple of days ago our home phone with TPG wasn't working for a few days. A Telstra technician was required and fixed the problem. Now just a couple of days later the home phone and internet are not working again.

I called TPG support and they informed me the problem was Telstra was having problems and the problem should be solved by 7:30 pm. On the TPG site they only refer to a third party and the outage for the home phone being from 1:42 pm to 7:30 pm and internet being 1:42 pm to 11:30 pm.

From the TPG site, the "exchanges Belgrave, Melton, Scoresby, Sunbury and Templestowe may experience Internet and home phone connection difficulties".

Hopefully this may assist others who are in a similar situation.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Petrol Price Melbourne has been rewritten based on feedback.

One of the best things about developing software is watching others use the software. The responses and feedback are invaluable to help improve the software.

I initially wrote Petrol Prices Melbourne as a simple single page alert. An alert so people could share when they spotted petrol prices hiking. Given that's only around every 3-4 weeks, for much of the time the web app didn't have much use.

Now whilst buying petrol before the price hike can save a considerable amount of money each year, knowing where to buy better priced petrol at other times can also save a considerable amount of money. I decided to make Petrol Prices Melbourne even more useful.

Petrol Prices Melbourne now shows maps of prices submitted by the public. You can see the prices for all petrol stations or just those around you. There's even a handy comparison helping people to work out the cost of buying at a cheaper place that is further away.

Based on feedback, I changed my initial approach for the maps to show only today's submitted prices, to also show petrol stations from the previous day. The date and time the price was submitted is provided. Prices from the previous day are obvious as the marker is faded. Seeing the information for a petrol station is even easier with the information provided by pressing or clicking on a marker.

Submitting petrol prices is now even easier allowing people to press or click on a marker in the submit section. All Shell, Coles Express and BP service stations within approximately 100 km of Melbourne are present, as are all the petrol stations around Templestowe. More petrol stations will be set up in future. If there's a petrol station you'd like to submit prices for, drop me an email and I'll set it up.

A new feature I added today shows the cheapest petrol stations around Melbourne from the prices submitted.

Thank you to everyone for your support and feedback. Whilst I save money using Petrol Prices Melbourne, it is even more pleasing when I hear others are saving money as well.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au

Facebook forcing messenger app on users.

Today a person said they could no longer use messages on Facebook using the website on their mobile phone. The person was only given the option to install the Facebook Messenger app which they did not want to do.

From what I've read and seen, there's people who do not wish to use the Facebook Messenger app. I decided to see if an earlier trick I used with Facebook might work and it did.

The technique is to use the link https://www.facebook.com/messages/.

Whilst not ideal as it gives you the desktop version of messages, it does allow you to get around Facebook trying to force you to install Facebook Messenger app. The person was quite happy with the technique even though they needed to zoom in.

If you're not a fan of installing the Facebook Messenger app, then perhaps give the above link a go.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Useful maps added to Petrol Prices Melbourne

New features added to the Petrol Prices Melbourne web app.

Since the web app was designed to log submitted prices, the prices are now shown on two maps. A map showing nearby petrol stations and a map showing all submitted petrol stations.

The reason the maps have been made available is if you know a petrol station has a better price, and it is conveniently located to you, then you can save money on your petrol purchases.

Markers for petrol stations on the maps are coloured coded to make it easy to find the best prices. The map showing nearby petrol stations shows details for up to 10 petrol stations. Included is a handy calculation showing the cost for 50 litres of petrol plus the estimated cost of petrol for a return trip. Obviously it's even better if the cheaper petrol station is already on your way.

Petrol prices are entered by the crowd which means you and me. If we enter prices the maps become useful resources and that will help show the maps useful.

Often we buy petrol from the same petrol stations. I was quite surprised recently to find Shell/Coles Express prices, even with the discount voucher was more expensive than other nearby service stations offering better prices with no discount.

The Petrol Prices Melbourne web app is located at www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au. The maps are available via the menu, but can be found at www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au/map/mobile for the nearby petrol stations and www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au/map/, for the map of all petrol stations submitted.

Kelvin Eldridge

Cheapest petrol prices in Melbourne.

Today I topped up my tank. Prices for petrol are currently around the 130 mark, but I saved $6.36 by purchasing petrol at 107.9.

I've decided to create a MyAnswers solution which shares the techniques I now use which could potentially save $300-$500 a year or more for us on petrol. The solution is available at http://www.onlineconnections.com.au/myanswers/mapurchase.php?solution=2509.

I've received good feedback that my posts to social media using the web app www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au on petrol price hikes have helped others, which is very pleasing. Sometimes you wonder whether or not what you do makes a difference, but then when you hear it does, it really makes it worthwhile.

Kelvin Eldridge

kJ to cal often searched, but isn't what people really want.

A while ago I wrote a kilojoules to Calories converter. I notice many people searching for kj to cal, which I don't think is what people really want.

The problem is the difference between using a small c as opposed to a capital C at the start of the word calorie or Calorie. It is very unusual for the use of a lower case or upper case letter to make such a difference, but in this case it makes a huge difference. In fact a difference is a factor of 1,000.

It is important to note that 1,000 calories equals 1 Calorie.

What people are really searching for is kJ to Cal. Most people are probably trying to convert kilojoules in food to Calories. Calories is the unit of measure often used for food and often referred to by those dieting. The lower case calorie is one thousandth of a Calorie.

Not realising the difference between calorie and Calorie is very common. If you search the internet the two terms are often used as the same, and more often than not, the correct term should be Calorie.

Now you know there's a difference between using an upper case or lower case c, you'll easily spot when people are using the wrong capitalisation.

I've made notes on the kilojoules to Calories calculator which hopefully will assist people. You can find the kilojoules to Calories calculator at www.ConvertkilojoulestoCalories.com.au. Domain names aren't case sensitive so you can use upper case or lower case. But when we're talking about food and energy,  the use of upper case or lower case when referring to Calorie or calorie really does matter.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.ConvertkilojoulestoCalories.com.au

Petrol prices in Melbourne jumped to 134.9 cents per litre yesterday. May still be some lower priced petrol around.

Yesterday I sent an alert to Facebook and Twitter on the petrol prices price hike. I use the web app I wrote Petrol Prices Melbourne which can be found at www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au to alert family friends. You're welcome to use the web app as well to help those you know.

When prices go up what I find is the first day only a few go up and we don't quite notice. The next day which in this case was yesterday, perhaps around 20-30% will have gone up. Today it's probably around 80%, but that does mean there's still pockets of petrol at the lower prices of around 107.

At the moment I still see pockets of lower prices fuel at some petrol stations in or near Templestowe, Ringwood, Glen Waverly, Hallam, Falkner, Hoppers Crossing, Frankston, but there's no telling for how long.

As the time from when the petrol price hikes there is a period of up to four days where there are still petrol stations around with lower prices, but they become harder to find and it may not be worthwhile trying to detour to get the cheaper petrol. In the Petrol Prices Melbourne web app I've provided a tool which helps you work out the cost of petrol, for the extra distance you need to drive to get the cheaper petrol. Factor in your time, wear and tear on your car and it may not be worth it.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Melbourne Airport pickup parking - Ring & Ride

The other night we picked up family at Melbourne Airport. A handy feature at the airport is the Ring & Ride parking. This is a car park close to the airport where you can park for 20 minutes for free and when called, you can drive to the pickup point, which is only a minute or so away (plus the delay in the pickup traffic).

I thought I'd use the Where Did I Park My Car web app I wrote to record the location of the car park to make it easier for others to find the car park. There's two exists as you approach Melbourne Airport. One for terminal 4 which is the first exit, and the other exit for terminals 1, 2 and 3, which is the second exit. Every time I visit the airport things seem to change and this time was really the first time I'd used the exit for terminal 4.

The location of the Ring & Ride car park you can find using the link http://maps.apple.com/maps?q=-37.681654304397526,144.8650513606828.

The car park rates are:

20 minutes free
21-40 minutes $2
41-60 minutes $4

If you need to pick up someone at Melbourne Airport, knowing about the free Ring & Ride parking can certainly be useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Telstra bill payment leaves customer overdrawn by $2 million, a lesson for all us to be careful with online systems.

I read the following article on how a person went to pay their $225 Telstra bill and ended up making a payment of $2,250,623.00.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/mobile-phones/telstra-bill-payment-leaves-customer-with-bank-account-overdrawn-by-more-than-2-million/news-story/89b3399dea33e6bbecb02ba5b181d826

The customer was understandably irate and subsequently had to deal with a stressful couple of days.

In the article the person said they went to pay 225, I thought that was interesting because my experience is you would also need enter .00 for the amount. I then decided to check the number 062300 which appeared in the payment amount. My thought is this was most likely the banks BSB number. It turns out this is a branch of the Commonwealth Bank in NSW (Carlingford in Pennant Hills). Whilst it is possible this may be a system error, given the person said they entered only 225, does use the Commonwealth Bank, if this is their bank BSB, it may mean they didn't move onto the next field to enter the BSB.

It's hard to imagine an online banking system allowing a transaction that would allow an account to go into such a negative amount. You would think such a transaction would immediately be flagged as invalid and the person would then know to enter the correct amount.

This is a good warning to all of us to keep in mind the online systems of the major companies in Australia, may not be as foolproof as we think they should be. A warning that we need to double check what we are entering before hitting the submit button and then double checking before completing the transaction.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Office 365 subscription cost can be reduced.

If you're using Office 365 your subscription will come up for renewal. A while ago I shared with Windows you can delay the renewal for up to 30 days and continue to use Office. That gives you an extra month. Mac users however have their subscription expire on the anniversary.

Another way to save money is not to pay using the link provided by Microsoft for your Office 365 subscription renewal. For example, for Office 365 Home users the renewal cost is $119. When you get the renewal you can shop around and purchase a new licence for Office 365 and save some money. For example Officeworks are selling Office 365 Home for $96 at the moment. You do need enter a new licence but that doesn't cause any problem. Now you can potentially saved $23.

But wait, as they say there's more. At the moment some retailers are advertising a Microsoft cash back of $20. Keep in mind the promotion is by Microsoft and not from the retailer, so what you pay at the retailer doesn't change the offer. That means if you purchase a copy at Officeworks (or an even cheaper retailer), you get the cheaper price plus you can currently get another $20 off. That's potentially a total saving of $43 or 36%, or more if you find a cheaper price.

The Microsoft offer can be found at https://officecashback.azurewebsites.net. The cash back offer is for purchases from the 20th of May to the 30th of June 2016. The offer is for a range of Office software and not just Office 365 Home.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Where Did I Park My Car web app

Ever parked your car and couldn't quite remember where?

Last weekend we visited the Children's Farm in Collingwood. The car park said full so I dropped everyone off and went to park the car. There's lots of parking restrictions in the area. I parked in one spot and said high to a local as I left the car. She alerted me to the fact there was a sign for Permit Parking. I thought I'd read the sign right which had parking restrictions on Monday to Friday so thought I was OK. Luckily the person helped me. So back in the car driving down backs streets and found a parking spot. It really wasn't that far, but thought, would I remember the location after a couple of hours. Luckily I did as well because I saw the parking officers a couple of times that day.

After I'd parked I pulled out my smartphone, took a screen capture of the map, but couldn't help feeling it would be better if I could see where I was and where the car was. I tried to find a way to record the GPS coordinates but wasn't able to.

Over the years there's been times where I've wanted to record where my car was located. I've taken pictures of street signs, screen captures and tried numerous approaches, but none seem to work well for me. Then there's been times when a family member's car broke down and the time it takes to let me know where they were was frustratingly long. Or, the "can you pick me up" only to again spend time trying to work out where they were.

I thought it was time to write a web app to help myself, my family and friends. All I really needed was the ability to record the current GPS coordinates and then to be able to send the GPS coordinates to myself or someone else via email.

The result is the Where Did I Park My Car web app.

Open the Where Did I Park My Car at www.JustLocal.net.au/wheredidiparkmycar/, click on Get current location until you get an accurate location and then send the location as a link via email. Using the email, when I click on the link the mapping application opens showing where the car/location is and if I'm close, where I am. If I'm further away, I can even use the mapping application to give me the route. As a bonus the time stamp for when the email was sent lets me know how long I've been parked and that can help avoid those parking fines.

Now recording the GPS coordinates and sharing the location simple and easy.

Kelvin Eldridge

Cheapest petrol in Melbourne today.

Finding the cheapest petrol station in Melbourne can be a bit tricky. The websites don't exactly scream, here's the cheapest petrol price in Melbourne today. One lets you know the cheapest price, but then somehow you have to work out where it could be. With a bit of online detective work I found the cheapest petrol price in Melbourne today and I thought the result was very interesting.

Today the cheapest price as I write this blog is currently 103.7 at Costco in Moorabbin. What is interesting is the next best price appears to be at the Caltex/Woolworths in Braeside at 107.7.

I couldn't help think why is that?

My thought is Costco is a membership based retailer so only members can take advantage of the petrol price. However, Braeside is right next door to Moorabbin, so perhaps Caltex/Woolworths don't want to lose business to Costco. If you take the 107.7 offered by Caltex/Woolworths and then throw in a shopping discount of 4 cents per litre, Caltex/Woolworths have matched Costco and largely neutralised the competitive threat to their business.

If you're passing through the Braeside area today it may be useful to keep in mind this current anomaly where the petrol price is around 20 cents a litre cheaper than the average around Melbourne.

For those who have been following my work/interests, you'll know I'm now raising an alert when petrol prices around Melbourne take a swift hike. This helps my family and friends. I make this information public via Facebook, Twitter and my blog. I provide a link for where I spotted the price increase once I've confirmed the market is now trending up. I've written a web app located at www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au which I use to let others know. You're welcome to use the web app to let your family and friends know as well.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Update: 11:57pm
The Caltex/Woolworths price has now increased to 119.9. Whilst I can't confirm the Costco price, I'd guess then it may have also increased.

Bank of Queensland not currently able to accept BPAY for VicRoads

I thought this was interesting today. As an IT person I see lot of systems not work as they should. Today it was the Bank Of Queensland's online service. I went to pay the car registration for VicRoads and received the following pop-up message.

Now the question becomes, is this a Bank of Queensland issue or a VicRoads issue?

To test I signed on using another bank's account and entered the VicRoads' BPay biller code and VicRoads was shown as the biller. This shows the problem is not with VicRoads, but with Bank of Queensland.

If you find yourself in this situation I'd suggest paying using another payment method. In this case I used a credit card and paid on the VicRoads site. At least now you know it isn't you if you see the same error message.

Kelvin Eldridge
Online Connections
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Postal vote application form received in the mail

As a heads up, I'd like to remind people if you receive a postal vote application form from a local member or political party, keep in mind it's a technique used to collect your information. Information such as your secret security question and answer is included in the form and that should be a concern if you're not aware of who is seeing or collecting the information. The envelope provided is not for the address of the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission).

Yes it is a postal vote application form, but what I've read in the media is the envelope provided means it doesn't go direct to the Electoral Commission. It goes somewhere else for the information to first be collected by someone other than Electoral Commission and the form is then forwarded on to the Electoral Commission.

If you really want a postal vote application form you know where it has come from, you can visit the AEC site and print your own postal vote application form. (http://www.aec.gov.au/election/pva/files/pva-180316.pdf)

If you do wish to use the form provided by your local member or political party, you can also discard the envelope and use your own envelope. The address for where to return your form is on the reverse of the form. The address is currently Australian Electoral Commission, Reply Paid 9867, [Your capital city], where you enter your capital city. No postage is required if you post from within Australia.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

7 Eleven fuel app saves $8.05 on petrol.

Recently I created the Petrol Prices Melbourne Alert web app. This is a simple app which allows me to let family and friends know when petrol prices in Melbourne are taking a hike. We now see prices jump 20 to 30 cents a litre, which means since I usually fill up 50 litres each time, a potential saving of up to $10-$15. Really it is about getting the timing right. Miss the price hike and if you're near empty you end up wishing you'd just filled up.

On Friday I noticed the price hike so I filled up my car and let others know. Our second car needed filling up but this time I wasn't in such a hurry. I had a trick up my sleeve. The previous week I locked in 99.9 cents using the 7 Eleven Fuel app. So today we filled up the second car. Pump price was 124.9 so we saved 25 cents per litre saving $8.05.

Of course this is a great saving, but what is the 7 Eleven Fuel app really worth in terms of saving money. This answer isn't quite as simple. First the Shell around the corner with a discount voucher had a price of 122.9, so our saving compared to Shell needs to be reduced by around 64 cents.

Secondly the car still had around 30% left, so we could have run the car for another week without too much problem. I've found petrol prices drop around half to one cent per day during the cycle. In a week the price is likely to be 3.5-7 cents cheaper and that means our saving could be less if we simply waited. Around $1-$2 less.

The bottom line however is even if you reduced the saving by $2-$3 by using a shopping voucher and waiting, we still saved at least $5 and on petrol, that's the pretty good saving.

I've found 7 Eleven isn't the cheapest fuel around. However now with the ability to lock in the fuel price, if you get the timing right, the 7 Eleven fuel app gives you the chance to soften the price hike that occurs about once a month.

Since the price hikes occur roughly once a month in Melbourne, this means by being more aware of the price hikes and using the 7 Eleven fuel app and locking in a price, I can probably save  a few hundred dollars a year on petrol. That's not a bad saving.

I've now developed an approach which enables me to better identify the petrol price hike. I use the Petrol Prices Melbourne web app (www.PetrolPricesMelbourne.com.au) to let family and friends know. I also post a public alert on Facebook and Twitter, so if others want to help their family and friends to know about the petrol price hike they can as well.

Kelvin Eldridge

Cheapest Petrol Prices Melbourne versus Closest Petrol Station web app now available.

Cheapest Petrol Prices Melbourne versus Closest Petrol Station web app is now available. If you've ever wondered how much you can save (or lose) by driving your car further to a cheaper petrol station versus using the nearest petrol station, this web app will help you.

Kelvin Eldridge