Marcia's Family Home in Raglan - Upgrading the Bach Kit

"We purchased a Bach Kit for our whare back before Christmas 2019. It was great over the summer months and kept up with what we needed it to do. When we purchased it, we always knew that by March 2020 we would have the funds to upgrade to the Freedom Kit.

With that plan in mind we talked to the team at GridFree who helped us put our plan in place. As scheduled we upgraded to the Freedom Kit in March. Both my husband and I were able to install the solar kit, and upgrade, on our own (with me reading the instructions, of course).

From March to now we have had no issues whatsoever. We have 2 teenagers and run all that's necessary for a functioning home. We don't have a generator for back up. Of course, we all have to be mindful of how and when we use the electricity but, in my mind, that's how we should be anyway. I've taught EVERYONE in the house to read that controller and think about what they're using as we don't want a freezer full of meat to go to waste.

What is our functioning home?

• We have a rechargeable Dyson stick vacuum cleaner. This is charged during the day when required.
• We have a gas hob (for cooking and for our hot water kettle) and run a gas infinity hot water heater - the ignitor of which is 240 volts.
• We have inverter appliances:
• Double door fridge freezer that runs 24/7
• 10kg washing machine that I use on timer to wash, hot and cold, during the day while I'm at work
• 7 KG dryer that I use occasionally and during the day (I have a wooden, roof space, clothes airer that I've been using during the winter months)
• Inverter microwave - used very occasionally, but no issues when it's used
• 32 inch (50W) smart TV that we use every night to watch Netflix on
• A 4G modem from 2 degrees
• My kitchen light
• At times, I run my Phillips breadmaker
• Upright, run of the mill, Fisher and Paykel freezer
• 4-slice toaster - but we make sure nothing else of heavy power use is running.

All of the above 240W appliances run off our Freedom Kit, straight from the inverter, but soon will be wired into the switchboard. We don't have lights hooked up, yet (our whare is a work in progress) but we use DeWalt and Stanley lights that we charge during the day through our Freedom kit. Our water pump is a 12V pump that is left over from our pre 240V days so it's being run by our lesser 12V system. For heating we have our freestanding fire and if I want to bake or roast I use my camp oven over an open fire or my Weber BBQ.

We don't live for convenience, we live to LIVE. If we were to hook up to the grid, it would have cost us over $50k (just to the gate!) plus monthly power bills. I'm not interested in building right next to the gravel road. With Gridfree it's cost us just over $10k, no power bills, and we've learned to really think about how we're using the resources available to us.

And when we have any queries, the team at Gridfree are ALWAYS available to help us.
Thanks guys."