Charlie & Kirsten's Story - OFFGRID NOW in Ridgewood, QLD.

Customer Stories

2 Aug

Mark and I were visiting Charlie and Kirsten at their home in Ridgewood, QLD (a rural locality in the Shire of Noosa) as a courtesy check-in to see how their experience has been with OFFGRID NOW power system installed 6 months ago.

Charlie chuckled as we approach . "You know how to time it, don't you?". He gestured to the diesel generator humming along beside the OFFGRID NOW, 'Robusta' power system. "We have had about 6 months of uninterrupted power supply, it was only yesterday afternoon that the generator has kicked in".

The 3 of us had a laugh.

Timing, right?

Charlie and Kirsten have lived on their property for more than 40 years. They had a grid connected solar system installed that had served them well initially, but had become increasingly inefficient over time. "We were on the feed-in tariff and for a long time were getting a credit with no power bill. The credit went lower and lower and lower, until finally we started getting a bill, and I thought, what's going on here?". Charlie engaged the services of a professional solar panel cleaning company to come out and take a look. "Those trees down there.." Charlie said, pointing at the towering Eucalypt tree overshadowing his home, "..don't ever plant them. 40 years ago, they were very fashionable, and being a Eucalypt they grow very fast. Well, they also have an aphid type creature that lives in the trees and sucks the juice out of the leaves. Their excrement is pretty well impossible to clean off solar panels!".

Mark shows Charlie how to shut down the OFFGRID NOW power system.

If the waning effectiveness of the solar panels was a problem, another even more painful problem was about to surface. "We have a 400m overhead power line that connected us to the grid, and some silly guy planted trees all through the paddock beneath them, didn't he?. The trees I planted decades ago were now threatening to take out the overhead line". As the power connection was Charlie and Kirsten's responsibility, the couple figured they would install an underground power line to replace the overhead line. Charlie eyes widened. "The quote's were in the 10's of thousands!".

Charlie had been dreaming about going off-grid altogether for some time and connected with Mark from OFFGRID NOW to discuss their options. Mark recommended the 'Robusta' system with a Back-up diesel generator and the new system was installed in January 2024.

Charlie and Kirsten’s OFFGRID NOW ‘Robusta’ power system with back-up generator.

The grid in Ridgewood, QLD, (West of Eumundi, QLD) has long been unreliable. "We used to get heaps of blackouts here..." Charlie explained, "..and forever you would have to race in to get multiple extension leads, and get the generators on to get power to the fridges. Sometimes it would be hours, and even more than a day!". By the look on Charlie's face, this had clearly been a pain point for many years. "Now, our neighbours ring us and say, Is your power off?" and I say, "Ahhhh no!". There was a big, long laugh from Charlie, No doubt one of relief and thankfulness for the Reliable Power now supplied by the OFFGRID NOW 'Robusta' power system.

One unexpected outcome of the installation of their OFFGRID NOW 'Robusta' power system was that the couple are now comfortable using more power than they used to. "We actually use more electrical gadgets than we did before". Charlie chuckles, proudly relating how his wife Kirsten discovered that it's now free to use the electric kettle and save on the cost of gas, where in the past it had been the other way around.

"So how is the electric kettle?", I ask Kirsten. "The electric kettle is so much quicker to boil, and it now saves us money on the gas!" Kirsten exclaims. "Is that our cue for a cuppa?", I suggest with a smile, and then after a pause, "That might have been a leading question!".

We all had a good laugh. And a good cuppa.

Kirsten smiles whilst filling up the electric kettle for a cuppa - no more long waits for the gas stove to do the job!

It was so great to meet with Charlie and Kirsten and hear how the OFFGRID NOW system has positively transformed their lives for the better. For us it really is about being "Mate's For Life" and making sure that we produce and install a product that delivers what we promise: Reliable Power.

On a closing note, in the last 6 months Charlie and Kirsten's daughter has project managed the design and installation of her very own Tiny Home, also on the property in Ridgewood, QLD. She was so impressed with her parent's OFFGRID NOW power system that the the Tiny Home now has been kitted out with it's very own OFFGRID NOW 'Piccolo' power system.

Maybe we will hear her story in the future.