[VIC] Best Money for Value Solar Power System - Recommendations

yacman on 10/10/2024 - 14:58
Last edited 19/10/2024 - 20:26 by 1 other user

Can I get some savvy OzBargainers advice, the way I worded the original post was misleading.

What is the best money for value solar set-up at the moment?

What are the go to brands and set-ups these days?

Is there a go to installer ozBargainers love & trust?

House is under construction in VIC, south facing, three phase power, currently at frame stage.

I was thinking of going for something around 10kW with no battery.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

Note: I do not need to know about the pros & cons of installing solar while building.

Original post:

Things seem to change constantly, can I get some savvy OzBargainers advice on what a good system is these days?

House is under construction in VIC, south facing, three phase power. Currently at frame stage, want to take advantage of being able to run all cables before plaster. Not sure what the STC off-set is but it seems like the main way to reduce cost. From what I understand batteries still aren’t cost effective so better to get a bigger system and use the power during the day as it comes but happy to take any advice?

Will being under construction affect any rebates or interest free loan eligibility?

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

• 

  pegaxs on 10/10/2024 - 15:04

  +1

  *Advice (x2)

  And first check your supplier and your network what it can support. No use suggesting 30kW system if you can only support 5kW. Roof space is also going to be a limiting factor, your roof will only support so many panels. You may want 250kW, but you only have space for 6kW.

  You will also need to get an idea of your usage. There is no real point to making 500MWh of electricity if you use 30kWh. You will need to cover what you typically use during the day, so work out what your house uses on average from about 9am till 5pm. And give yourself an overage.

  Also check your pricing on FiT. You may find you’re only going to get $0.05/kWh or less to sell it back to them. So building a “massive” system to sell power back isn’t really a thing, especially with talks of network operators turning inverters off OR charging customers for feeding back to the grid.

  You are right that a battery at this point is expensive when you can consider an EV would be a much better way to store and use your excess solar exports and you get much better $/kWh storage with the added benefit that you can drive your battery to work or shopping.

  Comment Level 6b: Correcting spelling ✅
  Comment Level 9a: Request for more information ✅
  Comment Level 12d: Helpful alternative suggestion ✅

  • 

    yacman on 11/10/2024 - 21:51

    Thanks for the detailed reply.

    30kW sounds fairly extream, was thinking more along the lines of 10kW (plus the 15% or what ever it is recommend (please clarify)).

    I don’t think number of panels vs. location will be as much of an issue for a system this size.

    How does the STC ratio actually work?

    My current use-case is hard to know, its a new house under construction, will have differnt daily usage but I’ll do my best to form an idea based off current daily usage.

    Not really going in with the idea to “sell power back” the return is negliagble these days, more the idea to generate enough during most days that I’m not using teh grid at all when at home or minimal grid use on overcast days due to more panels.

    Not interested in an EV, the tech isn’t there to justify the use but I agree the combination of solar and an EV is the most cost beneficial use case.

• 

  SBOB on 10/10/2024 - 15:24

  +2

  Being under construction won't really change any of your rebates

  Wether it makes the overall price significant cheaper would depend on the location you want to put the inverter, and wether single or double story. Paying for two electrician site visits might cancel out the slightly easier wiring access.

  For a double story just running a dedicated conduit from roof down to ground level/garage/inverter location would be the extent of the pre-work and beneficial. For a single story there's likely minimal benefit.

  The majority of cabling is roof space and external wall to meter box so 'pre gyprock' is mostly irrelevant.

  • 

    yacman on 11/10/2024 - 21:53

    You could be right but why go outside when you can keep it neat inside walls, plus I can run panels and pre-wire while scaffold is up, saving high risk install.

    • 

      SBOB on 11/10/2024 - 22:06

      Running cabling inside external walls is trivial on a single story house for an electrician

      As I said, two story, definitely run conduit. The rest of the wiring for a solar install is trivial. It's a single DC run per string back to the inverter.

      Getting approval by your builder to have an external contractor install solar panels or prewiring during the build stage, pre lockup (if you have scaffolding up for build then I'll assume two story), well, that would be a rather generous building contractor as most volume builders won't give you sign off for that.

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  apple2016 on 10/10/2024 - 16:49

  +2

  From what I understand batteries still aren’t cost effective

  This is true, but feed in tariff might soon be negative as well. Ideally having a battery does have its benefits if you are using more during evening / night when solar production is zero.

  • 

    yacman on 11/10/2024 - 21:54

    It’s one thing for the feed in Tarif to be virtually nothing but I was unaware it will go negative, are you saying they will charge us to pump excess power into the grid, that can’t be right, even for existing systems?

    • 

      apple2016 on 18/10/2024 - 15:16

      Its happening right now with Amber (whole sale pricing). not sure when other retailers are going to follow.

• 

  yacman on 18/10/2024 - 17:30

  Merged from [VIC] Best Money for Value Solar Panel System?

  Can I get some savvy OzBargainers advice.

  What is the best money for value solar set-up at the moment?

  What are the go to brands and set-ups these days?

  Is there a go to installer ozBargainers love & trust?

  House is under construction in VIC, south facing, three phase power, currently at frame stage.

  I was thinking of going for something around 10kW with no battery.

  Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

  Note: I had a similar post but the advise was not what I was after which was my fault due to the any I posted, I do not need to know about the pros & cons of installing solar while building.