Did you use the Mono cells? A well designed system is unlikely to export much energy - to be economic the system needs to be sized so you use most of the energy generated - for this reason buy back rates do not matter much. Assuming I put $5,000 on a 20 year mortgage at 7% Western Europe, Japan, and increasingly China). says 15 years to pay back ( “payback” under graph on the right). If you have enough to make a purchase in cash, you’ll save more than with any other option – but even with a $0-down solar loan, your savings could still be in the tens of thousands.. We're with Meridian and have solar. We're designing a new house in Chch and are keen to know if anyone has done any comparisons between the cost of purchase of and installation of PV panels onto ordinary long run corrugated iron compared with the cost of purchase of and installation of Calder Stewart's Solar-rib (http://www.roofer.co.nz/index.php?category-solar-rib) panels, AND efficacy, reliability, maintenance costs, and longevity of the same products? Ditch the economists and their irrelevant theories. Hi who was the provider/ installer of your solar? The invoice includes a bar graph of monthly consumption over the last 2 years. Sustainable … For a Christchurch household with high energy consumption, at 20% self-consumption, the first-year savings are $811 with a 16.8 -year payback period. Changing to low-energy light bulbs and recycling your waste doesn't make it OK to fly or to drive a petrol-driven car. Here are a few helpful examples of what you can save with efficient solar power usage (assuming the NZ average export rate of 8 cents/kWh, as of … How long it takes me to pay it off is very speculative and does not interest me. Thanks for that very interesting analysis – you’ve certainly shown that hybrid (battery + grid-tie) systems are quite a way from reaching grid-parity, even with the latest technology and some pretty generous assumptions about electricity inflation and in-home consumption. that the Kapiti coast is sunnier and warmer than Wellington, or has that been an invalid assumption for most of us? In winter, the generated power runs up to about 8 kWh on a sunny day, whereas in summer, it can reach 22 kWh. There was variation in recommended panel array sizes across the board. I would be hesitant if considering solar power in a domestic setting, owing to the patterns of use, but if the hot water heating is electric, perhaps it could work out. WARNING. I take issue with your payback calculations. The SEANZ Solar Optimiser will help you understand more about solar electricity and how you can maximise your savings. * Shining a light on solar power - customers told to make sure it's worth it * Solar systems will put heat on prices, Vector boss says ... New Zealand Solar Systems, went into … This means that over the next 15 years, each power unit fixed cost is 2.7c. You also need to make best use of the power produced. Conclusion: Parity it ain't. Has Consumer caught up with the SolarCity scheme, 'SolarZero' and does it have any comment on that scheme? Rather, it’s a measure of the size and financial vitality of the manufacturer. There are online tools you can use to assess the viability of your home for solar: In both you can input details about your home, current energy usage, and behaviours to find out if solar is right for you – we recommend trying both tools and comparing the results you get, as each uses different assumptions. ), solar generates its maximum power at a time when the energy companies demand is weakest; during the day, and peak demand is late afternoon/early evening; in summer and peak demand is in winter. Note that while demand has allegedly flattened you couldnt prove that by the year on year retail power price increases ( as your own powerswitch price graphs show)... Having a full electric car will probably a "driver" for PV also, ideally one would have a PV setup at work too. They, (HazMAt) have a service to replace specific tiles or secure appropriate mountings in a secure and safe way, It cost a modest amount and nothing like taking the rood away. How solar energy in NZ pays for itself. I had a grid tied system installed 3185 days ago (8.7 years -(these are real stats). do the job properly. Our roof is optimal for solar, 35 degrees pitch, north facing, no shading. That could be because your home is occupied all day, you heat a spa pool, run a swimming pool pump, or have an electric car charging. Don’t be put off by theory the practical reality is different. There are many people now using recycled Nissan Leaf (see Williamgerr on YouTube) and other EV batteries in a home Solar set up. The installers all did a good job of assessing our three households. They will be able provide an assessment and advise you on the technicalities of installing panels on that type of roof. While your utility might pay you 7 to 8c/kWh for exported energy, the real savings come from using nearly all your generated power. Cheers, But it’s a long way off being consumer-ready. We paid cash for our system. Consumer NZ is non-profit. In another 13 years, if I haven't already sold the house (for an increased capital gain of at least $17000 to recoup the costs of both investments), I will have to repaint the inside of the house again. While the rest of the roof may need painting a few times, the area under the panels will not get any direct sun , rain or snow - so the roof/paint underneath should last considerably longer than the rest of the roof. In all the examples water heating was by gas. Two person household, with one of us home during the day; standard 180 l HW cylinder and a very low flow shower head. The maths I use shows saving 11 Kwh/day x 365 = 4 015 Kwh/ year x 36 cents unit (yes thats Northland for you) = $1 445.40 year or 11% return on our investment and it is tax free, We have also added capital value to our house. That’s a great saving that the solar calculators don’t allow for. Most suppliers will not supply a PV installation at night rates if you also export - if they do the night rate discount is trivial. Brian and Libby Richardson wanted a single energy source to … The buy back rates changed then to summer 8c and winter 11c rates - but it has since changed toa flat rate all year about 2 years ago. Vector took this approach in north Auckland, putting in 1000 batteries on houses in new developments. While you talk about batteries you don't talk about the energy storage system in all houses. But as you’ve shown, if people are willing to change their consumption patterns and combine PV with LED lights etc., it can be a good option. Better than money in a bank! When I challenged the price, they said that the price on the website is for single story, corrugated roofing. The low fixed charge for homes is currently under review, and is likely to be abolished in the near future. A 3kW system needs a minimum of 10 panels – for reference, 3kW is about how much power you’d use to run a clothes dryer and an electric cooktop simultaneously. (It blew a fuse when we turned it on the first time, but our installer fixed it immediately.) The added bonus is that it also makes you feel good. For panels, you want a guarantee of minimum power production levels for at least 20 years. Power optimisers can improve shaded performance, but they add extra cost to the system. That's nett consumption (imported kWh minus exported kWh), but the price calculation treats them separately. We are still charged our monthly fee and in October we had a $1800 true up bill. Solar panel prices hit five year low, so are they now worth the investment? What happened to this supplement you mentioned in November last year? Damage may occur to the panels and/or fixtures. After that we will be saving for holidays. This information isn't on the website, and I was pretty disappointed to find out that they couldn't do the full install for the price on their website. Over the 20+ year life of the system, there are likely to be changes to interest rates, electricity prices and buy-back rates, and household electricity use that could reduce or increase the actual return provided. If you install a solar system - when you can afford to, makes sense to me. Whether you choose to buy or lease your solar panels will have a major impact on your system’s long-term value. At the moment the Hydrogen is used directly for heating, but given the rapid advances in fuel cells for automotive use, any thoughts on when it might turn in to a viable system for residential power storage? My unit cost is 30c import and 10c export . The freezer doesn't defrost and we still have hot water for a shower in the morning. However, we think the payback time for the battery is far longer than its lifespan. Another is switching electric water heating to come on during the day. 1.8kwh capacity (that was big then). So batteries need to be about 1/4 or less the price before they are cost effective. I think your solar guy over simplified things - or is very out of date with his info. You might have a better argument if power generators paid grid distribution costs but they dont - its all consumers. They’re a great way to store solar energy generated during the day for use at night. You can expect to see this online by next week. You will pay more than three times as much to buy power from the grid as you’ll get for the power you sell. For a quick snapshot of what sort of savings you can expect, check out the World Solar calculator — simply indicate your utility costs and where you live to see the results. We’ll use your contribution to investigate consumer issues and work for positive change. We still need the heat pumps in the evening to stay warm, but it's not difficult to wrap up. Solar panels, are they worth it? This equates to 12% return. We only run our dishwasher and washing machine off solar unless it's an emergency. As for the fixings, everything that went through the roof was stainless steel, had rubber grommets or watertight seals - so should be no issues there either. New Zealand's total installed solar capacity rose fivefold over the three years to 2017, and Auckland Council has a goal of 970MW installed capacity of solar photovoltaics by 2040. You can fit a PV system that isn’t grid-tied, but it needs to be connected to specific circuits with no direct link to the grid, rather than the entire house. This whereby your hot water cylinder is controller by paladin and it maximises your own solar consumption pushing excess power that you would have sent to the grid to your hwc. Like that we got a quote for 10 panels from Harrisons about 5 months ago around. Uses 7880 kWh per year before solar and thus was in the house uses fly or drive! 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