This forum is dedicated to connecting hosts with other hosts. Sign up to get the latest updates and news just for AirBnb hosts! Note that we are not affiliated with Airbnb - we are just passionate hosts!
That was actually my goal. We had several really long power outages due to fires. I wanted the backup power without having to feed gas to a loud and smelly generator.
By doing the combination system and tying to the grid, It pretty much paid for itself over time. The different tax incentives and rebates for green energy paid for almost 50% of the entire system. If I had done it as a backup power only, it wouldn’t have qualified. Then, the power savings paid for the rest of it over about 10 years.
In USA, there are lots of companies making chargers which have a QR code. Guest scans code and pays on phone. The charger communicates to the system charging the guest. They pay at a set rate only for what they use. Chargelab
is one example.
Grizzl-E chargers in canada support this and there is a whole list of charges on ChargeLab
This seems like a great option.
I also had a company email me they will handle everything for $18/month (install and manage equipment and handle guest support) and reimburse electricity used. So it is more of a service to the lodge. They make money on guest and lodge owner. Could be good for hosts that don’t want to deal with it but want to offer the service.
we don’t have that option in Australia. the power we don’t use is sold back into the grid, like 5c/kw (average we pay here is 25c/kw), and then the night time power I use I pay for, at a much higher rate because Peak power is all day to 9pm. I try to use the dw and wm during the day but if I need to do more I put them on a timer to operate after midnight. If I could somehow bank “2 hours” of power that would be much better for me, but the energy companies don’t offer that. They still profit nicely off the power I sell them - it’s funny how I don’t get to set the price of something I am selling!
That sounds like a really raw deal, gillian, having to buy back the electricity they took. Seems like they’re punishing you for generating your own power.
There aren’t any time-of-day rate differences here. What there are, are higher rates the more you use. So there is a basic rate, which I usually manage to stay in, and then the rate goes up a tier if you use more than a certain number of KWHs in a billing period, and another tier if you are a high consumer. And if you stay in the high consumer rate for something like 6 months, it stays at that rate for another 6 months, even if you use less.
That is a really interesting chart. Looks like Aussies and Mexicans are the shower kings and queens of the planet.
One thing, though- hot water tanks in Mexico almost all run on propane, not electric. Same for cooking stoves.
Chinese probably don’t have time to shower every day- after they’ve been working in the sweatshop for 18 hours a day, then go buy some food and have dinner, there’d be little time left for anything but falling into bed exhausted.
I’d say that’s more true for Melbourne and Sydney, where the gas is piped in to the street.
Not even sure why China is included, how on earth can we trust any stats for that nation? (do they still claim they only had 4K covid deaths?) I’d posit also that there’s 100xmillions living rurally who don’t have a shower, only a bath. and the UK is doing better than the jokes suggest… there’s a long standing joke here in aussieland that poms only shower once a week.
