Like others in our community, Tony and Carlene Lawler recognise that there is a part for us all to play in making the world a better place, starting at home. “We always planned to install solar panels and purchase an EV at some stage.”
“In 2023 we were doing a renovation and looking at a heat pump for our pool. That was the prompt to install solar. Despite being surrounded by some big trees, we still have a reasonable amount of sunlight. We opted for Solar Edge panels, 31 in total, which came with an app to monitor our energy consumption. Not being particularly tech savvy, we were a bit slow to identify that lots of our panels were in fact not working. Some months of frustration followed. Eventually, the manufacturer replaced them but we were still faced with some unknowns, although we did notice a slight reduction in our power bill.”
Feeling a little scarred by this initial experience, Tony and Carlene deferred the purchase of an EV until their driving needs changed earlier this year, 2025. “We hadn’t got our heads around the best charging options and mentioned this to Joe Harvey from SEA Solutions whilst attending the Electrify Bouddi Open Day.” Joe has subsequently resolved their previous panel issues, installed an EV charger, two 10kw batteries and “is often on our speed dial to answer all of our questions” says Tony.
“We had planned to install one battery but given our timing coincided with the government rebates, we opted to go with two and take advantage of the one-off Virtual Power Plant (VPP) rebate. We went with a SolarEdge charger and batteries, so if something goes wrong, we don’t get different suppliers telling us that it is another business’s responsibility.”
Tony and Carlene have also recently switched to Amber who provide direct access to the wholesale energy market. “Whilst it has been a big learning curve, the Amber app is a game changer in helping us save energy and make savings and requires little input from us. It’s also been really enlightening to see how the time of day makes a such difference to the energy consumption of appliances.
After such an investment, they have been pretty excited to receive a credit balance on their last two power bills, a saving of around $450.
Their energy and money saving journey will continue as the couple now want to replace their gas cooktop with induction. “Our biggest take home, as complete novices in this space, is that Electrify Bouddi has helped provide a lot of answers and many helpful people to talk to. We wish we had used this wonderful community resource right from the start.”
Find information about rooftop solar and home battery systems.