Day 237 - May 21st (Day 93)

This week we had the solar panels installed by FreeSolar. When we purchased the unit in April it cost $6995 for the 3kW unit. Today it costs $9550. I'm sure glad we did it back then!

They came by last Wednesday, and installed the panels on the roof. Our home faces the wrong direction, and I didn't really want 16 solar panels sitting on the front of the house, so I opted to put them on either side of the main roof. It sort of  keeps them hidden. I really didn't realise however, just how many panels we could get on this roof. I reckon we could have 4-5 times the number of panels that we have now, and still have space.

They added the inverter to the side of the wall with the powerbox, and added two switches so you are able to turn off one of the solar banks if needed. This then goes onto the inverter, where the voltage is converted up to 240V. This then comes out and travels to the mains, where it is then fed into the power on the street.

The lady at FreeSolar pointed out, that with the way things are set up, it is best if you try not to run any powered devices during the day, but instead run them at night. You see, your solar panels generate power (obviously) during the day and export this power to the grid at a cost to the grid of 44 - 52 cents per kilowatt hour of power. The difference is that you may be paying 16 -20 cents for your power, hence it makes sense not to use your power during the day, otherwise you won't have any power to export out to the grid during the day as you will be using it and won't make any money from your system.....  Not sure how the clothes will manage though being wet at night ? :->

Using a 3KW system, you could hope to have it generate 12.6kWh per day. Using the minimum feed in tarriff of 44 cents, your system would generate $5.54 per day ($6.55 if you managed to get 52 cents!). this would generate an annual savings of $2022.10 per year on the 44cent feed in tarriff ($2390.75 on the 42 cent tarriff) meaning it should take around 3 and a half years minimum before it pays itself off. Over 20 years it would generate $40,442 (assuming that the feed in tarriff stays the same? I have know idea whether this might happen though..!)

Another way to look at it is that it also would increase the value of a house. I mean, if you had the same house, side by side, one with and another without solar panels, I'd pay a little extra for the one with the panels knowing the long term savings I'll make.

We are now waiting for Energex to get back to us, to arrange a module they have to add to the power box, which counts the power exported to the grid. Then the system will be switched on.

Off to the photos...

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