Looking at Solar for my new house.
I need to convince my wife to go ahead with it and looking at doing some calculations on how much it'll save its.
Looking to see how much people generate and the size of the system.
I am looking at 6kw or so system. I am in VIC too.
Wow. I should've added more poll options.
Nope just bigger ones. A basic system these days is 6.6kw
Yeah, I don't think the poll options make much sense. We have a 6.93Kw system, a sunny day in winter in Melbourne will generate about 18Kw at least. Lowest we have ever generated was about 2.5 on a miserable overcast day in winter, other than that it's very rate to be under 12Kw.
At this time of year it's anywhere from 24-48Kw per day. (Today was 18.7Kw and it was overcast/raining most of the day).
It would need to be a tiny or very old/inefficient solar system go generate anything under 10kw on average.
Jumping in on the top answer to explain the units:
kW - kilowatt, 1000 watts. A watt is a unit of power, equivalent to (among others) electricity of 1 volt flowing at a current of 1 amp.
kWh - kilowatt-hours - one kilowatt delivered for one hour, a unit of energy.
e.g. A 7kW (power) system might generate 28kWh (energy) in a given day - equivalent to full rated capacity for 4 hours, but more likely a result of a lower level of power over a longer time frame.
It's all very confusing, it would probably be more clear if energy bills were in Joules instead.
RADelaide
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Awesome, thanks. Hope you aren't going too bad in lock down.
I was happy they made the call early, even though it turns out that the info the decision was based on was incorrect. Feel sorry for businesses that had to shut, particularly those with perishables.
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I only got mine installed last month. Best day so far generated 67kWh (10kW system).
Thats amazing. IAre you in VIC?
NSW
Great, thanks.
Hello Pecan, Would you mind recommending the name /website of the installer you worked with as I'm contemplating 10k system but too many dodgy installers making my selection job difficult.
Regards
Gritty
I used solar quotes to help recommend 3 installers, interesting thing is I've had friends quoted systems with similar brand inverters get quoted almost half the price so I'm still in the process of looking around. Solar quotes have some good info on what to look out for.
Still keen to hear of any other companies people have used.
Hi ,
I used solar quotes too but unable to zero on in. I would rather like to hear from word of mouth & appreciate if you can at least name the MAKE & MODEL of panel , inverter & other accessories that's resulting in amplifying performance.
Regards Gritty
Hi gritty, can you turn on your PMs please? I’ll message you.
Sorry I was away & thanks for replying. I joined this forum newly & think I have turned on the PM settings now. Would you please be so kind & guide? Regards Gritty
@Gritty: Still can’t pm you, possibly because you’re new. I was going to suggest the Solar Quotes site too as that’s what we did. We settled on one of the quotes from there with a mob called Soltek Energy in Silverwater.
@Pecan: Thanks for the help. Is this a good deal ?
Option 1: System: 9.9 kW Premium Solar Package
Package price: $4651 Incl. GST
Includes:
30 x Astronergy Astrosemi 330W Black Frame 120 Half-Cut Cells Mono
1 x Solis 5G 8 kW 1 Phase 2 MPPT Grid Connect
1 x Inbuilt Wi-Fi
Installation by CEC Accredited Installer
Got a feeling the poll scale could do with shifting the decimal point to the right one digit.
We have a 6.92kw system and can generate 42kwh on a good sunny day but usually somewhere between 30-40kwh.
Our recent power bill was $110 for the quarter. This is in a 7br 4 bath house with two hot water systems, ducted AC and a heated pool/spa. Very happy with our set up so far.
edit: I'm in NSW
Fantastic, thanks!
We have bought a 3br, 2 bath, 2 living with an office (WFH) with a heated spa. I WFH full time and I am in IT. We use about 20kw per day (day & night). Just my wife and I with a 1 year old daughter.
I think I'll be in credit most bills by some rough calculations.
If you use 20kw per day, I doubt you will be in credit with a 6kw system. Maybe in peak summer for a month or two. Also, are you sure you will get FiT?
About same situation as us. We use 20kw a day. Half of that is hot water. We get a measley 13c fit. System is 8.64kw and produces about 20 to 50kw a day now depending. In winter was anywhere from 5 to 20kw a day. If you don't heat/cool then honestly the roi on solar is a long time. Even the solar company said we didn't need solar. They were honest and that's why we went with them.
However, we heat with a wood heater. In winter it was burning anywhere from 10 to 40kw a day, usually 40kw a day as we run it non stop. We had 2 new heat pumps installed. The plan now is to use them most of the time. This is where we'll save. In winter, if we include the wood heater, we use anywhere from 30 to 60kw a day. So with solar to get your monies worth change your habits.
Our hot water only heats in the day around noon. All washing, dishwasher is used in the day. Push as much of your consumption to day time. Find an energy company that will give you a good fit rate but obviously you need to see what their normal power prices are.
Get as many kw as you can, provided you can feed back into the grid. Don't get a cheap system. Solar is a long term game. Make sure whoever offers you a quote cones to your house for an inspection. I wouldn't go with any company that just used aerial shots without physically visiting. And definitely go with a local company that has been in operation for several years.
Definitely do it. You won't regret it.
Good advice.
Thanks.
I will add too, get proper quotes from the solar companies,
where they can give you a diagram of where they will place the panels on your roof.
Everyone will offer a theoretical solar output,
but the way the sun falls on your roof and the way your roof is angle,
will determine the number of panels that can be place optimally.
The companies should be able to give a picture-based quote,
but like tessel says, a physical visit is still a must
Similar here, but 20kw system on a 8br 5 bath house with 3 hot water systems, ducted ac and Olympic size pool. In credit every month.
May I ask what system hv you got? Thats pretty solid production
Your poll options are way low. I'm in the 30-40 range basically year round, topped out at about 50.
Yeah, realise that now. Cannot edit it unfortunately.
You either have to change it to Kwh unit. For example, my 5kW system generated 28 kWh yesterday.
Or use "efficiency" kWh/kW. so my solar panel efficiency yesterday was 5.6 kWh/kW.
The later one is better as you can scale it to what ever solar panel size you want.
Great, thanks. I have found a few, but nothing like that one.
Mate he's trying to fix a common mistake you're making which is mixing up kW and kWh. kW = kilowatts = the rate at which energy is being collected. kWh = kilowatt hours = the amount of energy that has been collected over a period of time. Go back and read the article.
Yup OP, your poll question and results will confuse you and your wife more than benefit you, I reckon. Get a free quote from solar installer. They will estimate the output for you given your house and your system configuration.
For example, a 6kw system won't give you 6kw the whole day evenly on a sunny day. A 6kw north facing will generate may 40kwh on the longest day and maybe 20wh on the shortest day. If you split your panels with half facing west and half facing east, you will generate less energy per day but you will have a more even power generation, which brings different set of benefits.
Get a free quote and get the installer to explain their return of investment calculation.
yep - that sounds like what I'd heard - Sydney might produce an average of 4kWh per kW of installed solar panels per day over the year - I'm reading here Qld might average 5kWh/day per kW of panels
which roughly agree with your figures suggesting a minimum of 3 in winter to a maximum of 7'ish in summer.
from my readings with shrinking feed-in-tariffs, that's no longer so attractive, and the optimum cost-benefit may be to plan to cover your own usage
which depends on batteries - which were not cost-effective last I looked - so for that I'm still waiting
in my residential strata complex I looked at solar for our common area (mostly carpark 24x365) lighting - but have since dropped that for LED motion-sensor lighting which I estimate should payback in about 1 year compared to solar panels which were at least 3 year payback and with batteries more like 8 years or never …
but hey we're in the city - if I lived on a farm I'd totally be with solar panels on the barn, and probably get a load of old car batteries for cheap-as to supply our night-time needs
We are surrounded by tall Gum trees, and still manage to get 22kW per day in the summer - from a 5kW system. Winter we get about 10kW, but even so, it covers our electricity bill and we even make $500 pa out of it (we're on the old Feed In Tariff and get 56c per kWh)
Fantastic, that gives me some confidence that a 6kw or so will generate a decent amount. We are in a open area with good North and East facing sides on top of a hill as well.
Same here, the solar company said it wasn't worth it for us to have solar due to trees but we pushed ahead, getting up to 30kw at the moment, winter is more like 13
But our usage is very low so it's covering it for us
What inverted did you shaded guys use?
I used Solaredge. I was told my two prominent large companies its not worth it but i hv been doing 45kwh on a good day n 6.6kw / 5kw inverter..average around 35-40..only few weeks old so not sure how winter will be but for now it feels fantastic
You was told Solaredge wasn't worth the extra vs string inverter? Or the whole viability of a system wasn't worth it?
I am going to be partially shaded ~4-6 months of the year, and am wondering wether its worthwhile paying extra for the Solaredge. FiT is only 3c so max output isn't too big of a deal, rather enough to cover own usage.
We are in VIC too…got solar installed (5kw system) 4 odd months ago…monthly it has been 600 - 900Kw so far.
Thats not bad. 600kw as a min is around 20kw a day. That is pretty good.
If you don't mind me asking, who did you get to do the install?
Will PM you…
Thanks.
Can I get on this pm too. Doing some research of my own.
T.I.A
@RM: Thank you, if you dont mind me asking.
How much did you paid and what did you installed?
Upon googling the company, the name Sean Kelly came up… when a director appears on the news, its usually not a good thing…
Hey mate. Any chance I can get that PM as well? Sorry about troubling you!
QLD, averaging between 30 and 40 kWh/day from a 15 panel / 5.5kW system.
5kw System. The average daily generation for this calendar year is 24 kWh.
Highest was 41 kWh in a day.
I have a 6.6kw system, split East/West facing, so not optimal. Max out at 45kw/day in summer, bad winter days as low as 10kw. Jan is my best month @ 1100kwh (avg 35kw/day). June is my worst at 370kwh (avg 12.3kw/day). Clearly East/West hurts me in winter, but summer is still great. Winter bill is still ~$100/qtr, and largely offset by previous credits. SA.
East/West split is great… The system starts producing power earlier and continues longer in the evening.
All solar systems 'hurt' in winter fullstop.
With a standard roof pitch of 22.5 degrees, north facing will generate almost 50% more power on 20th June (winter solstice), and 10-15% more over the year.
With a standard roof pitch of 22.5 degrees, north facing will generate almost 50% more power on 20th June (winter solstice)
Than what? You haven't said what you are comparing it to. All EAST, all WEST, or split 50/50 EAST/WEST?
But sure North may produce MORE power over the entire year but only slightly, but its not always about the amount produced but sometimes more about WHEN its produced.
North power is all made in the middle of the day, normally when the house is empty so sure you are making more but most likely just exporting it for 10c or less. Unless you have a battery to shift the power.
Now EAST/WEST produces less, but starts creating power earlier than NORTH, so in the morning when you are home getting ready to leave you are using solar instead of 30+c/kwh power. Then in the later afternoon, the same applies.
So yeah less power, but at more usable times. Sounds like a win to me!
@JimmyF: All of the above. None of those configurations have any northward tilt.
You produce the least amount of power during winter. A 50% increase then is massive.
I have east-west. But my original comment was addressed at the comment that implied north offered little benefit in winter.
@JimmyF: E/W split is better for grid stability too, but sadly they don't pay people to do things for the greater good
East/west gives optimal ROI if you spend most of your day home. It just doesn't generate the most energy per day compare to purely north facing system.
Also varies with the season. Depending on which part of VIC you are in. Melbourne would get less than say Wodonga or Mildura.
Installer should give you a quote with a chart that gives you average daily production by month estimate.
Go have a look over on pvoutput and find people in your area to compare to.
Remember shade has a big impact and the shape/angle of your roof.
But as general rule during summer you should see 5kwh made per KW installed. ie 5kw solar system will make around 25kw during the summer months (its normally more, but lets go on the safe side).
During winter its closer to 1-2kwh per KW installed.
Again it depends on lots of things, your location, trees etc, output varies with the season etc etc
I'm in Vic 4kw system yesterday was 28.430kWh for the day. Have a look on https://pvoutput.org you can see other systems around you if they are exporting their data.
I've been passing 80kWh for the last four days in a row thanks to heaps of clear skies in Adelaide.
You do need context to your system size though. 80kwh for a 5kw system is amazing, but 80kwh on a 20kw system is pretty meh
3.2kwh system, average 18/22kwh per day
is that good? how much were u using per day b4 u got solar? i currently use about 33-38kwh per day, my house is a townhouse just got quoted could only get a 3.5kw system only…im thinking of building a carport to get more roof area to get bigger system…
its a small system, wouldn't mind adding another panel or 2 to it in future, my current daily elec usage is only 4.17kWh, so it covers my bills, so its good enough for me.
because it is a small system, if i ever get the cash in future i wouldnt mind using the other side of the roof to add another 3.2 system to get the afternoon sun
You can’t afford not to have solar.
Keep in mind that the production is uneven throughout the year, in winter it can produce only a few kw per day but in summer expect at least 30kw per day. Clouds have a massive impact on generation. Even a lightly clouded sky will halve the production.
My 5kw system produces around 1000kwh a month in summer but only 150kwh a month in winter. This means I don't get a bill from about September to March and then pay for usage in winter once the credit I've saved up runs out
my power bill went from $1900 - $2100 per quarter to $98 per quarter with my solar/ storage combo.
Rule of thumb is about 4kWh per kW of panels, average over the year.
If you look at the BOM average sunshine hours map, you can see that most cities are looking at 7-8 hours on average.
That means for a 6.6kW system you are looking at 49.5kWh, with 37.5kW potentially fed back into the system - assuming a north facing, correctly angled aspect.
If you were unlucky enough to live in Port Hedland, that might be 66kWh and 50kWh, or if you were really unlucky and lived in western Tassie, 33kWh and 25kWh.
That means for a 6.6kW system you are looking at 49.5kWh, with 37.5kW potentially fed back into the system - assuming a north facing, correctly angled aspect.
And if the panels track the sun position.
With fixed panels you don't just multiple the time between sunrise and sunset with the system size to get energy generation. This is like saying the sky goes extremely bright to extremely dark in matter of minutes at a flick of a switch.
In reality, a typical winter day will generate about 3-4 times of the system size despite having about 8 hours of light.
I really suggest OPs get a solar installer to explain the calculation before speaking to the wife.
Firstly, this isn't sunrise/sunset - its the average sunshine hours during the day.
And second, the point of having a 6.6kW system when you can only feed 5kW back into the system is that much of the time you are overproducing and being clipped. Therefore the times you can produce at full rate are extended and thus the amount produced tends towards the theoretical limit.
And lastly, the average is over the entire year - less in winter, more in summer.
Can you share your pvoutput figure with us please? Hard evidence is easier to discuss. Cheers
I found one for discussion https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=11350&sid=9342&dt=20121…
This one is based in Victoria, and its stats is one of the top on pvoutput Victoria region. It has a 4kw inverter size larger than their panel size of 3.8kw, so output is unclipped. This day is one of their best performing day.
Whether we are talking about visible hours or sunshine hours, the solar system don't just output the rated power throughout the day. See the example. The elevation of the sun relative to the fixed panels will mean the output energy will NOT be total 6.6kw X 7-8hr.. not even theoretical. It is a good guide nonetheless.
Clipping happens only during the peak hours of the day, not like your calculation when you just calculate 5kw X 7-8hr. IIRC from a solarquote example, it may be 10% less energy output by inverter. (Edit: nope, less than 1% in the 6kw panel, 4.6kw inverter example at https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/oversizing-solar-arrays/)
Let's give OP the right information for him to make informed decisions
Here is my live output data since 2014 for a 4kW system.
Based in Melbourne.
https://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=34125&sid=31264
You can use this as reference for the different seasons.
In Perth, 6.6kw panels with 5kw inverter, 8 panels on NE, 10 panels on NW
We will get 40-45kwh per day on a mostly clear day.
So I currently use on average around 23kwh per day without solar. So from the above is everyone saying that if I install a 5kW system for $3381 from someone like suboost https://www.sunboost.com.au/nsw/ then I will no longer have to pay for electricity?
How much do you use at night? You will cover daytime usage and if you can you should move all the consumption you can to the daytime.
It's probably a close to even mix of using power in the daytime and night. Although I could move a few things from night to day but some are unavoidable like aircon at night for a couple of hours on the really hot/cold days, laptops and devices, fans on the hot nights etc.
If you generate exactly as much as you consume in a day, without a battery, you will still have to pay because a) daily supply charge and b) you buy at higher price than you sell electricity.
Winter? FA
My 5kw inverter is constantly close to 4.5kw from 9am-7pm.
Panel placement is very close ideal.
What the total size of your solar panel?
Can't remember. Just remember it is LG panels, Fronius inverter.
What convincing does your wife need? It's a no-brainer.
My (ex) wife used to object to everything and want proof. I'd turn it round and ask her to prove I'm wrong.
Since installing a 6.4kW system in a "sub-optimal" position in Oct 2018 we have been in credit.
Daily output can be as low as 500watts and as high as 35kW.
Monthly output as high as 700kW in January and as low as 300kW in June
6.6kW, split east-west in Perth. Generates 10mWh per year, averaging 27kW per day. Max day last summer was 45.0kW.
My inverter is 5kw, best I’ve seen is 45-46kwh generated a day. In Melbourne the last 3 days was 44.5, 43.8 and 43.7.
Sept totals 774.80kwh
October totals 786.11kwh
November up til 20th 684.28kwh
in Gosford, NSW (just north of Sydney) - 4kW system, average across the year is about 17.5kWh - lowest has been basically zero (lots of cloud / rain) and highest around 30kWh.
see https://pvoutput.org/aggregate.jsp?id=52369&sid=47611&t=y for the details.
p.s. (edit) check Finn's page at https://www.solarquotes.com.au/ - esp. https://www.solarquotes.com.au/location/ for some calculations / charts (and note - the bars on the chart stay much 'the same', the scale on the side changes)
Where in vic are you located?
I am in Bendigo Central Victoria .
I have solar data going back 10 years.
Winter ver summer solar out put= because of less daylight hours during winter solar daily energy output is about 50% less than summer months .
Ie if summemr solar is 10kw then winter would be 5 kw.
Txt me you want my solar data 0434 550 678
It also pays to keep solar panels clean off dust and bird droppings.
When I brought my tesla I installed a 6.5kw panels and 5kw inverter the charge my car and power a sewing room ( house has its own solar
System)
Our 6.6kw (5kw inverter) system in VIC has cut our costs to about a third. Used to be about $2k per year, now more like $700.
During the Apr-Sep avg bill is $100, Oct-Mar is $0 or pretty close to.
We use roughly max 20kwh per day as a household.
Currently generating 110ish kw per day. 15kw system. I’m glad I didn’t go smaller.
Last month generated 2.3MWh
Impressive, it’s like a mini power station!
Average of 24kwh per day from 6kw system
we are about a week away from 8 years, 69845 generated so far
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