Solar Panel Advice

• 

  brendanm on 27/08/2020 - 10:19

  +5

  Batteries are not worth it at the moment.

  • 

    JimmyF on 27/08/2020 - 11:25

    -4

    says who? You…..

    There are many reasons to have a battery installed, more than 'saving' money.

    • 

      Quantumcat on 27/08/2020 - 11:43

      As tshow said if you are wanting blackout protection it would be more economical to have a diesel generator. What other reason are you thinking of, besides saving money (compared to exporting excess power during the day) and blackout protection?

    • 

      brendanm on 27/08/2020 - 13:38

      Says any calculation you do, unless you make the battery packs yourself. Even then it's a fair amount of time to pay for them. What are the other reasons?

  • 

    nephilim on 27/08/2020 - 13:25

    Totally sucks and not worth it, we have solar and battery, yesterday we made $3 from .18FIT after daily charge and its middle of winter.
    We will break even on our system in 3 1/2 years…..

    For OP, I suggest looking at the Varta hybrid inverter with battery included, its only like 4Kw but its non subsidized price is like 6k.

  • 

    ChrisLevo on 27/08/2020 - 15:22

    +1

    Wrong!

    We are in Adelaide and paid $129.37 (AGL) for the whole of the last financial year.

    $132.75 for the previous financial year - yes, I keep spreadsheets!.

    5kW PVA and Tesla 13.5kWh Powerwall battery.

    We are both pushing 70 years old so don't skimp on the air-con for heating and cooling.

    Our ROI (took 4 years on the PVA and 4 years on the battery) just clutched into 100% complete so now what I have quoted is all that we pay for power.

    We have had a couple of blackouts lately and don't notice them as the battery keeps us going.
    We chose what circuits we wanted powered during blackouts and all works fine.

    • 

      brad1-8tsi on 27/08/2020 - 15:35

      +3

      The 4 year ROI on the Rooftop PV makes sense but how did you manage the 4 years on the powerwall?

      Did you get both at once or a staggered installation.

      Genuinely interested because every time I do the figures it's 8 years+ for batteries

    • 

      brendanm on 27/08/2020 - 16:19

      My last year's power bills would have been $300 or under, have 6.6kw or panels and 5kw inverter, no battery. Electric stove, oven, hot water. Wife constantly has the AC on. Mine was payed off in under 2 years.

      Oh, I see you get massive subsidies and paid basically nothing for the Powerwall.

    • 

      shills on 27/08/2020 - 16:29

      @ChrisLevo How much was your system cost all up if you don’t mind me asking?

      • 

        ChrisLevo on 27/08/2020 - 22:33

        PVA was nearly 9 years ago, so the price will be probably half what we paid then.

        The battery was around $4,500 in mid-2017 through the AGL (SA) Virtual Power Plant scheme.

        Ignore anyone who says that I received "massive subsidies" that meant I "paid basically nothing" for the battery.

        I used to teach electrical apprentices at TAFE, so probably know more it than them :-)

• 

  [Deactivated] on 27/08/2020 - 10:20

  +10

  Having do this feasibility exercise a few times a year, the conclusion for the battery has always been the same - it's still too expensive to justify.

  However, that's not to say it has no value. This exercise is done with a few of my neighbours/mates in a cyclonic area. Our power gets disrupted regularly so a few of us has already pulled the trigger on a battery (various brands).

  Personally, I think I would first rig up a diesel generator as the price and technology for these things have plateaued.

  In future, when the price of batteries drop or some silly subsidy is issued, the diesel generator is still useful as a battery top up.

• 

  Quantumcat on 27/08/2020 - 10:43

  +2

  Solarquotes.com.au if you want to get more quotes from some reputable installers.

  Agree with above posters, battery not worth it at the moment. Batteries won't supply power during blackouts on their own, it is an optional extra. And will only supply power to certain circuits eg fridge and lights (whatever you choose). Won't keep your house running as normal. Maybe have a read of https://www.solarquotes.com.au/good-solar-guide/batteries-in…

  • 

    Archi on 27/08/2020 - 11:01

    +3

    even if you have only solar panels… they will be useless in a blackout as well. most people do not know this. for safety reasons a solar system will likely be rendered useless unless you have a battery system that is configured to protect against blackouts

• 

  shills on 27/08/2020 - 13:18

  This is the response I received from the company I got my quote from when I questioned about getting solar only without a battery..

  As a majority of your consumption is after work hours, Solar wouldn’t offset any of that consumption. With the feed in tariffs sitting at 5c/kWh, you need to be exporting 10 times to what you use.

  For an 8kW System, you will be looking at roughly around $7-8k. The battery itself is roughly around $10k after all the subsidies, so basically with this deal, you are getting the Solar System for virtually $1k.
  Also being on Single Phase, you will be limited to exporting only 5kW at a time so basically if you are not using any power during the day, you are wasting the additional 3kW worth of power generation. However, if you had a battery, you’d be able to store that power and use it at night time. There is an article in today’s paper that SAPN would shut down the solar system when they feel the grid is unstable. Adding the battery will stop them from doing that.

  • 

    brad1-8tsi on 27/08/2020 - 13:43

    +1

    There's some real BS in there.

    feed in tariffs sitting at 5c/kWh

    Is 5c all you can get in SA? We are on 20c with AGL (Sydney 2065). They currently offer 18c.

    /searches: Origin will give you 18c; Click 17c; AGL 16c. Worst case is 10c so your dude is being selective with the truth to sell you a battery. I wouldn't trust him.

    8kW System, you will be looking at roughly around $7-8k. The battery itself is roughly around $10k after all the subsidies, so basically with this deal, you are getting the Solar System for virtually $1k.

    $7k-$8k sounds at the top of the price range unless it's micro-inverters. Our Mid-range 6.4kw system was $3900. It sounds like he's trying to bamboozle you with figures.

    Single Phase, you will be limited to exporting only 5kW at a time so basically if you are not using any power during the day, you are wasting the additional 3kW worth of power generation

    I'm not aware of the export limitation of 5kw but assuming that is fact then why are they under-powering the inverter? 8.0kw of panels requires a 6.2kw inverter if you run the standard 30% over-panel. So you might waste 1kw export. Depending on how the panels are facing you may never see 6kw. Our 5kw system hasn't gone higher than 4.5kw because we have 12 panels east and 8 west on 2 strings. The sun doesn't come up and immediately produce maximum output - it's a bell curve.

    Recommend you look at solarquotes.com.au. Finn Peacock gets a commission but he's an honest operator.

    Also look at wattever.com.au for retailers. It's a solar friendly site.

    • 

      JimmyF on 27/08/2020 - 14:36

      I'm not aware of the export limitation of 5kw

      Time to go do some reading then, as 5kw limit per phase is pretty common

      • 

        brad1-8tsi on 27/08/2020 - 15:30

        Hence why "I'm not aware" rather than "it's wrong"

    • 

      drew442 on 27/08/2020 - 14:38

      5kw is peak per phase you're allowed to export.

• 

  brad1-8tsi on 27/08/2020 - 13:27

  +2

  Why do you need the batteries?

  Is it to charge an EV overnight?
  Or are you home mainly when the sun has gone and want to run AC, etc?

  If you want a battery purely to save money then look again around 2023. My daughter has been doing research in the area (as her job) and her current estimate is 2023 as the sweet spot (about the same time as TCO of EVs will gain parity with TCO of IC vehicles).

  Solar by itself. Yes, worth every penny. I'm guessing the system you quoted would be $5k-$6k.

  electric water pump that I believe was the culprit for a lot of power consumption. We have since changed over to gas hot water.

  Do you mean electric hot water heater? Instantaneous gas HW is a bit expensive now. A heat pump HWS would have been a better choice if you had the room.

  • 

    shills on 27/08/2020 - 13:33

    We don’t necessarily have the need as such just doing initial research at the moment and going off of quotes. There is a Home Battery Scheme in SA which is currently offering $4,000 off a new Home Battery.

    But yes we are mainly home in the evenings and run ducted AC for heating and cooling.

    • 

      ChrisLevo on 27/08/2020 - 22:52

      +1

      Check my response up above.

      We are also in SA.

  • 

    lgacb08 on 28/08/2020 - 11:54

    Because SA is the only state with very large differences in import and export tarfiff (can be 30c/kwh) and very generous government subsidy for battery, together they bring down ROI to a reasonable period. There is a post in whirlpool where you can get solar and battery and pretty much going off grid for around $5000 so it makes sense to go for it.

• 

  drew442 on 27/08/2020 - 14:36

  AC coupled batteries don't need hybrid inverters do they?

• 

  Solarwiz1 on 11/09/2020 - 07:34

  SA. Government recently. announced new rules on inverters and there are only limited inverters are approved to connect . ensure you choose a right inverter before. you. purchase