Not so much about your solar cost to install but how much has your bill dropped or not since your install. And your system size and house size etc. Just comparing how others are going.
5.4kw 20 panels here for just over 2 years, from before our bills were $900-$1100, 40 square home, pool, home office, ducted air, 3-4 people. No shading full sun all day. NTH Coast NSW.
Now $380-$400. $160 of that is supply charge.
How Is Your Electricity Bill after Solar Install
[Deactivated] on 16/10/2019 - 09:17
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I reckon about 2.5 years. I did 2 years Interest Free with Origin which was similar to what i was quoted locally anyway. Finished last month.
Installed this year. I think 5kw + system, something like 20 panels.
Similar size home, my wife works at home a lot during the day. 4 people. Home in Victoria.
Last couple of electricity bills have been about $60 - 70 (it appears we are billed monthly).
Ok i am not far off you, My wife is home mostly and my office is at home. We run ducted air or fans alot in summer, and winter although not too much this year wasn't that cold.
Pool averages about 4 hours a day over a year.
I found that my bills have gone slightly up. But that going over my solar data the system has paid for itself (going by what they charge me) in about 7 years. If I was to use feed in (11cents) that time would go up to 15-20 years, which is why batteries will probably not be a financially good decision for me.
I found that my bills have gone slightly up
Are you saying you spent $6,000, or whatever you spent on the solar install, and you lost money compared to paying Australia's absurd electricity prices?
Nope. Only spent a little on a small system 1.5kw back in 2010 days. Then bought a dryer, upgraded tiny air conditioner to a split system etc. My electrical usage went up past the small system benefit as well as the electricity prices.
If I had bought a 6kw system that could actually fit on my roof I probably wouldn't be paying $600 a quarter though.
As I said in the initial comment it still PAID FOR ITSELF, just that now it doesn't cover even 25% of what I use now. And that since I use so much electricity unless I went crazy big like 8-10kw I wouldn't get a benefit back from a battery system
So scrap the old system and put in a bigger one that will actually cover your energy usage ??
@Lichen6420: No government rebate means that costs double. Which in turn means ROI would be 14 years at a minimum
If you have the roof space you can fit a 2nd solar PV in parallel. No need for batteries. If you roof is small then you can fit micro-inverters to offset poor placement.
@brad1-8tsi: Yeah Im thinking about adding a few, but original installer has "closed" and I have cheap hanwha panels, so Im thinking how much to just replace the whole set with a better class. Basically I dont wanna call em up to get a bunch of quotes
@MilkDrinker: Your existing system isn't relevant except for the amount of roof space it is using. You fit another complete 5kw system with a seperate inverter that operates independently.
I was going to do it at my old house that had plenty of roof space that faced in the "wrong direction". The answer was micro-inverters. This was 5 years ago and it was a bit expensive. Price has come down a lot - around $6.5k for 5kw now.
Installed 6.6kW last November and haven't had to pay a bill since. Each quarter has been in credit except for the Winter months, which I already had enough credits to cover. Previously was paying about $400 a quarter. Coupled with a $500 cashback for having solar and my home loan with CBA payback should be about 2.5-3 years.
What system setup do you have and how much did it cost? I'm considering installing one (based in Inner west Sydney)
Fronius 5kW Inverter. 6.6kW of QCell panels. Cost $6300 including the web monitoring module in Adelaide.
How many phase is your house?
We want Fronius but they said Fronius don’t make 2 phase, only 1 and 3 phase models@scallywagmcgee3: How's that system going for you? Looking into a similar system (just tossing up between solaredge and fronius).
Do you also have the Fronius Smart Meter or something to measure consumption?
@frugalfinds: @frugalfinds see my comments here https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/489852#comment-7847693 … I have Fronius Smart Meter, AND Solar Analytics, AND IoTaWatt, and the latter is BY FAR the best monitoring… Here's my review of the IoTaWatt, too: https://stuff.iotawatt.com/product/aussie-bundle-230v/#revie…
Get a 6kW inverter and 7.98kW panels instead of 5kW/6.6kW… pay for itself in the same time and export up to the 5kW limit more often even while using aircon etc, and get more power when you need it in the morning/evening…
Its been awesome for us.
bills used to be $300-$400 per quarter. Since installed about 18 months ago, I am currently about $500 in creditDo you ask for a payout annually to your bank account for the excess credit amount?
Pay about $350 annually… Essentially the daily grid connection fee.
Our system suffers heavily from Morning Shade, doesn't kick into full production until after midday.Saving us around $1000/year, system is close to, if not fully paid down after 5 years.
I don't think we have paid a bill since.
6.5kw panels / 5kw inverter. sub-optimal panel orientation.
2 bedroom house. Radio left on all day to keep the dogs happy. Overhead fan left on when hot. AC heat/cool run whenever needed. We have changed dishwasher/laundry usage from overnight to daytime to suit solar.
Solar PV electricity fed to the grid varies with the season from 2000kWh/qtr in summer down to 750kWh/qtr in winter.
About 50% of the electricity used in the house now comes from the roof panels.
On the AGL SOlar Savers 20c FIT.
Bills were anywhere from $270-$550
Last 4 bills:
$187 - 11c FIT and only half the billing period on solar
Credit $276
Credit $118
$110So we've gone from an average $1300/yr to a credit of around $400/yr. Based on that the payback is around 2.5 years. ($4000/1700)
It would have been a lot easier to have voted Greens in the last election so that financial scam known as electricity privatisation can be dismantled by them because it's severely damaging Australia's economy.
There would have been an immediate 40% drop in electricity prices. And the economy would be "sustainable" again instead of "unsustainable" - or crashing as it is now - according to moronic Professor Rodney Sims, ACCC head.
But Australian's cannot lose enough of their money to work out that they are scam victims so they voted for the Party that created the scam.
The latest step in the privatisation scam is getting consumers to spend $6,000 on batteries because that's the next magic bullet that is going to reduce electricity prices.
Despite large numbers of solar installs not reducing electricity prices, rubes are believing the scam still. These are brainwashed people that replace reality with the failed predictions of an economic theory.
Did someone forget to install a kill switch when they installed your central processor…. it needs rebooting, stuck on the Green screen of death….
Nice to know someone out there knows the truth !
How would the greens have reduced electricity prices exactly? Would they have kept coal fired power?
Gas sets the marginal price of electricity, and it's run by a cartel who seek to maximise profits. This is done by shipping overseas a whole lot of gas (forward contracts), and creating a 'shortage' of gas in Australia, forcing an artificial price increase in the domestic price of gas.
It turns out that SA Senator Rex Patrick had this as a written guarantee when negotiating the income tax cuts that the coalition passed earlier in the year, but we're yet to see the impact (still 15 months away, apparently)
If the greens were in power we would probably be told to go back to horse and cart.
Non solar households are paying more due to higher voltages and appliances destroyed by this : https://stopthesethings.com/2018/12/07/volt-wars-why-your-ne…
That's been known about for a while. That's why when the shut off happens at the inverter, you add battery banks to take up what the network won't. Read what one of the commenters said, it's a problem for small towns not metropolitan areas.
I went into the service mode on my inverter and upped the upper voltage limit just to blow up my neighbours appliances. Somehow mine survived, weird.
Lucky I live in a state where I get : The program provides eligible Victorian households with a rebate of up to 50% of the purchase cost to install solar PV panels. The rebate is up to $2225, currently half the value of an average 4kW solar panel system.
And I can join your selfish party :)
So if i have a 5.4kw now with 20 panels and fronius 5kw inverter, i should be able to install another 1kw of panels? Would it be worth it? Now with a all sun day i am generating 33kw or so a day.
just installed 5kw system a few months ago.
a double story small unit, 2 adults and 2 kids.Last two month bills were $38 & $8.
Same month last year, the bills were $120 & $138.Even at 5.45pm tonight i am on 1300W.
Bills were $600ish+. Last one was just over $100 in winter, using reverse cycle heater and clothes dryer. In summer around $20. Fantastic investment.
Edit - 6.6kw panels, 5kw inverter, se Qld. Panels north facing.
Had an existing 1.25kw system that generated 6kw of which we self consumed 5kwh and earned $4.50 a month. Added a new 6kw system (7.25kw total). Also replaced old gas instantaneous hot water system with a heat pump at the same time. For gas and electricity we used to pay $600 a quarter. Now they pay us about $650 a quarter all up. Even though we are export limited to 5kw, the payback time on the bigger system was about the same and the bigger system produces more energy when we need it at 730am getting the kids ready. My wife and I both work at home. It's great being able to turn on the AC and have that usage be literally free (still easily maintaining a solid 5kw export all day).
What sort of Heat Pump HWS did you get @mrmachine? What did it cost?
@dan2k We got a Sanden 315L heat pump. Allegedly heat pumps have a bad reputation for reliability, but the Sanden is well regarded and has the longest warranty (6 years inverter, 15 years tank).
It runs for about 2.5 hours per day and consumes about 0.85kW of power while running. So just over 2kWh per day.
It's 100% powered by solar, and often the power it consumes is completely "free" (the excess we generate above our 5kW export limit).
We previously used about 1x 45kg bottle of LPG for the gas instantaneous every 2 months, which cost $135 each. So we're saving $810 per year on gas and even if its consumption was cutting into our FiT ($0.21) 100% of the time it would only cost $160 per year to run.
The heat pump cost $4320 installed. So the payback is somewhere between 5.3 years (100% usage "free" - above 5kW export limit) and 6.6 years (with 100% usage cutting into FiT).
Solar installers recommended running a conventional electric hot water system off the solar PV. The unit would have cost less than half up front, but it would have consumed 10kWh per day which is almost as much as we were paying for gas if consumption was 100% cutting into FiT. The payback would have been 40 years, and on cloudy days it would have cost even more.
Thanks @mrmachine, that's really interesting.
My Electric HWS burst 2 years ago and I replaced it with the same 400L model. (for about $1400)
But this year I've had solar installed, which has caused me to really look at energy consumption.
Even at off peak rates hot water costs ~$90 per month - at if heat pump models are really up to 5x more efficient, that's a great saving there. If you save $70 per month then you pay back $4320 in 61 months. Which is just inside the warranty period of 72 months.(I don't want to count the savings from heating water in the daytime consuming excess solar because my feed in rate is the same as my off peak rate - and I don't have export limits on my inverter like you.)
There is another saving I can think of too, which is that I could switch back to a flat rate of electricity. Currently having an off peak rate locks you into time of use charging which means you pay a lot more for evening use. It would only be 10% of my bill but its always better to have it in MY pocket!
@dan2k: @dan2k Our gas instantaneous system was technically still working fine, so I think if you can sell your existing system to someone who wants a second hand conventional electric system and get a new one that will pay for itself in 5 years, it's a good deal if you're going to be in that house for 5 years.
I don't know how big your solar system is, but if your off peak rate is the same as your FiT then it's irrelevant. Just run it on off peak overnight. It takes ~4 hours to heat the full tank from cold, and it runs for ~2.5 hours per day for us (wife takes 2 showers, and we have 2 small kids and wash the dishes). Your usage might be a little higher if you use all of that 400L tank, but we've not run out of hot water with 315L.
12x $90 is $1080, so more than we were paying for gas. If your off peak rate was 16c (guess) and usage is similar, your running costs would be ~$124 per year and a payback of 4.5 years assuming the same install cost.
Another great thing to do if you're looking closely at energy usage is install an IoTaWatt (https://iotawatt.com/). It can monitor 14 circuits (we monitor mains, 2x inverters, 2x AC, 2x power, 2x lights, HWS, oven). And export all that data to PVOutput for some pretty graphs and calculating your net cost for a given day/month/year/etc.
Here's an example PVOutput graph from yesterday: https://ibb.co/Tvv8L8w
PVOutput knows about your daily supply charge, TOU tariffs, FiT, etc. and gives the most comprehensive and close to real time (5 minute updates) view of solar production, grid and self consumption, and major appliance/circuit usage.
Those graphs can help you work out of flat rate is really better. Probably is if HWS is the only off peak thing you need to run and it only runs for 2.5 hours overnight, and you can run it for the same cost from solar PV during the day.
@mrmachine: @mrmachine I saw your review on the IoTaWatt site. I'm definitely looking more into that. I think I can install all the clamp meters on the leads under my switchbox - the only problem being the main cable which is a huge bundle (might not fit in the clamp). I'll check it out when I get home. If I can monitor all my circuits in real time for <$200 I'll be wrapt. More numbers to crunch!
I have to wait 6 months to change my tariffs anyway as I was changed with the solar install. You can only do that once a year.
I think there are state government rebates from changing over to energy-efficient HWS but you have to have a working existing HWS and hand that in to claim the rebate.
Does the IoTaWatt log the incoming Voltage from the Network? Voltage rise is my next thing to tackle - my voltage is 250V at 6am so there is not a lot of headroom to export power on a sunny day when all my neighbors solar systems are pushing out power too!
@dan2k: @dan2k yep, IoTaWatt monitors voltage. Ours is often hovering around 250 during the day.
Essential energy (in NSW) allows the inverter to be reconfigured to allow up to 255v before ramping down. The fronius inverter default settings are 250 so it was often hitting that limit until I asked the installer to reconfigure it after reading this blog post - https://mcelectrical.com.au/blog/solar-voltage-rise-explaine…
If yours is over 253 (I think) during the day then it might be up to your distributor to fix something on their end.
The price I quoted for the Sanden was after STCs (point of sale discount/rebate).
I paid $4800 for a 5kw Fronius inverter with smart meter and 6.6kw of Longi panels.
Because I have the smart meter I can input my import and export tarriffs and it tells me how much I've saved importing and exporting from the grid.
I installed in late June this year and have saved $358 to date.
Expect that number to rise over summer with more sun and more using AC during the day.
I'm in WA, 7c Feed in Tarriff.OP, and others, could you also share your current electricity rates? From grid c/kwh, and also the feed-in tariff? Its quite important context to how well your bills are going.
Just got a 7.5kw system installed although havent received my first bill yet.
I'm with AGL at 22c/kwh (after discount), and 11c/kwh feed-in tariff. Wondering if there's any better deals out there, but would need to see how my usage/feed-in behaviour goes before i decide. I'm with Ausgrid in Sydney btw.I am with Origin NSW, probably getting screwed lol.
Peak is 38c/kwh
Shoulder 37c
Off peak 21c
Feed in 8c
26% discountLast bill got $80 feed-in credit. Bill was $378 includes $158 supply charge.
Origin solar optimiser in NSW. 151.25c daily supply, 30.54 per kWh imported, 21c feed in tariff. This only lasts for 12 months then I'll probably switch to DC Power co or someone else for 15c feed in tariff.
i gotta do my numbers to see if switching to Origin Solar Optimiser is worth it for me. Uplift from 10c feed-in to 21c feed-in will be nice, but will also be going to 30c imported vs 22c imported, and my supply charge is 90c i think, which is also lower than origin's…
@dimitryp with a 7.5kW system it is almost certainly worth it. With my 7.25kW system I have produced 50kWh on its best day, exporting 40kWh. You only need to export 6kWh to make up the daily supply plus 1kWh export per 1kWh grid import to break even (vs current rates).
Installed 6kw system, cost $4700 in country Victoria. Fronius 5kw inverter, Sunpower P19 panels. Normal bills averaged $90 a month before solar, first 2 bills since getting solar have been $50 and $75 in credit.
With Amaysim, rates are not great, but the 20c FIT means I got $165.27 in Feed in Tarriff last month.
I have just swapped to the Origin 21c feed in plan, according to them would of save $40 off last bill if on it, so will see. Did export 999kwh.
Hi,
Mine in credit as most of the time during the day me and my wife working full time and we try to use whatever electric appliance during the day if needed. I am with click energy and have 21 panel Fronius Inverter 6.6 KW
How much did you pay for your system? Curious to see when it will have paid itself off for you.