Is Solar still worth it?

I looked at it back in 2010, tariffs to sell back to the grid were much higher but electricity was also much cheaper and install costs were way north of 10K, couldn't see the point of it given the tech back then was way less developed than what it is today and secondly, they weren't that reliable.

We're in sunny (LOL) SE Melbourne, seems like a 6.6kw system is around about $4,500 out of pocket these days? My sister was telling me her ROI was around 3.5 years, we're in the same suburb? I believe max cap for gov rebates is about $1,400?

I'm concerned about how tariffs is going to be around the 3.3c per kwh mark effectively making this investment longer to return? Still worth it in the long run? My friend reckons I should do partial feed into the grid and partial to a battery system from BYD or LG Chem to use as a sort of generator?

Thanks.

 

I'm in Perth and have a 6.6KW system (no battery) which was installed about 3 years ago. Payback (ie ROI) was approximately 2.5 years.

Batteries are still not (financially) viable. The buyback is minimal (2.5c per KWh offpeak and 10c peak) and not even something I consider.

 

Not sure about Melbourne, but in Qld it's definitely worth it, especially if you go fully electric with the house.
We have a 10kW system with 13.3kW worth of panels depending on our usage some days end up net zero cost wise, or just a portion of supply charge left. One of our cars is also an EV programmed to only charge only during daylight hours to reduce exports even further.

And then it comes down to shifting as much usage as possible to those hours.

 

Yes, absolutely worth it!

 

Yup, even with 0 tariffs it's worth it for us - we are in Perth land of the sunny sun

I agree with others that batteries are currently not worth it unless you are on a Time of Use plan and get dead cheap power during the day and use the battery to offset expensive peak/evening power chargers.
Vic has deregulated power from recollection so there is more competitive power plans than we have in Perth with only one single provider.

As @strannik also mentions you can ramp up your savings by having a fully electric house so that you aren't paying double infrastructure/service fees for gas as well as electricity.

 

As stated home batteries are yet financially viable, but if your system is large enough and you have an EV, then this is one way to make additional gains. ie. Charge the EV rather than accept minimal buyback rates.

 

Hopefully one day Australia will allow V2L and use the EV car as the house battery source.

 

Not true at all if you use Amber and a smart discharge profile!

 

Yes - but really need a battery to go with it ... or a car that can be used as a battery

Did the annual "check the opposition" on my electricity - went to switch only to be offer substantially better rate from current provider (ffs offer loyal customers the good rates instead of waiting until they threaten to switch!!) ... doing the latest bill figures, I realised we produce substantially more electricity than we use, but don't have a battery ... the $2-400/qtr doesn't make a battery sense as we reckon we got one more house build in it

Next house - solar - battery - solar hot water (builder talked us out of it with current home - damn - why did I listen to him?) - 3 phase charger in the garage

 

This is what my friend told me too. Said do 3/4 panels feeding back to the grid and 1/4 into battery.

 

Why solar hot water and not a heat pump?

 

'cause solar hot water tank heats for free during the day, retains it heat for days (despite showers) and, rarely, heats off the battery overnight ... I had both inline before

 

We would like to install solar on a house in the Western 'burbs of Brisbane. However, after getting quotes from small businesses suggested by one of the comparison sites, we are more confused than ever. So, take this opinion as being from a layperson.

It was explained to us that hot water storage was in effect a 'Clayton's' (my word) battery where it is being heated by energy from the solar panels. That assumes the water storage is sufficient for need and there is no switch to mains electric to top up for usage in the dark hours.

To recover investment in solar, one really needs to reverse some of our existing mains supply 'electric house' behaviour from a past where energy was cheap.

So, the big users like cooking, hot water, dishwashers, pool pumps and airconditioning incl heating need to be done when the solar panels are producing. Locking up windows and heating or cooling the house during daylight hours is also seen as a 'Clayton's battery' for night hours when these systems need to be switched off or on econ mode.

We are now focussing on finding a few reputable installers, any suggestions , to quote for a smaller Goldilocks system, and where the installer is most likely to be around in 10 years and more to live up to its warranty.

 

you will recover the investment regardless. the question is how fast. to do it faster, it helps to adjust usage patterns. or you can do what we do and simply run the aircon 24/7, knowing that most of the heavy usage is covered by solar as when the sun goes down, so do the cooling needs. i can't be bothered doing math, but my gut feel is that if you were to run an aircon all summer long, that would probably recoup most costs within one summer, compared to running aircon 24/7 with no solar. maybe two summers.

here's a breakdown of our usage for the past week:



so if you really want to get serious, the trick would be to pump those yellow bars after 5 pm into the green area instead.

 

I've been down this path in the last 6 or so months after moving into a new home.
Everyone's situation is different, and return on costs will vary.
We are a fairly high energy user. Family of 6.
We installed a 8kw inverter, 10.6kw of panels and a 13.6kw battery. The other significant part of the install was a solar diverter, which diverts excess solar produced to our electric hot water. So it heats with any excess solar energy, and I've kept the off peak supply to our, and will see if it is needed over winter. Hot water is a necessity in our house.
Or electric tank is 400 litres, and that is around 22kw of energy, so it acts as a battery, but in the form of heat.
It's been a pretty good financial return for us.
We are in credit for about $100 a month, and I estimate our bill would have been around$3-4000 a year. Hard to predict because we changed retailer and costs when we moved in. So let's say $4000 a year return on a total cost of $22000.

 

Yep - so paid for itself in 5 years and everything after is profit ... I'm curious - do you get paid the "credit" at any stage?

 

Yeah, I have credit in my origin account that I can withdraw.
I've currently got $700 credit, since I got the government assistance of $400 or $500 as well

 

I have $130 credit showing in my account atm for the property we no longer live in, but when I tried to get it refunded it told me that that type of credit isn't eligible for refund. So you probably won't be able to get that assistance part refunded.

On a related note, I wonder if you need to declare profits from solar system on your tax return as income, and can use that to claim depreciation on the solar installation.

 

If you factor in capitalisation (or lost opportunity on those upfront funds), more like a 7-8 year payback.

I'm not knocking the system or justification just wanting it to be clear.

Sunshine-wise, Sydney is a little like Perth. Solar HWS are fantastic and pay for themselves. Even though we have solar panels our solar HWS (totally separate) doesn't draw any power except on the coldest wettest days when we need to put the electric booster on. I agree it sort of acts like a battery for energy supply, but I fail to see how feeding excess solar generated electricity into the HWS benefits anything? It is a bit like keeping an electric urn bubbling over cause there is free electricity.

Happy to be corrected, I just don't see the benefit (financially) in home battery systems yet.