Solar deals

[DiscoMick]

There are some good solar deals around. For example, a son has just landed 6.6kw of solar for $6500, with a 20cents per kw/h feed in rate, so that should eliminate their power bill.
Warranty is 12 on the panels and 10 on the inverter. That's with Origin Energy. I believe AGL is also offering 20 cents rebate.
So it's a good time to go solar.

[John_D4]

Thinking about solar reminds me. We have 6.6kw of panels split over 2 roof faces. 1 faces west at about 22 degrees. I asked my solar installer if it’s make sense to face the panels more northerly, he didn’t think so. So while I was installing a 110w panel on my D2 I was playing around with different panel angles and monitoring the panel output on the Bluetooth solar controller. I mimicked (by eye) the angle of the western panels and got a readout if about 40w. Then I faced the panel (by eye) to north 30 degrees and got about 70w.

I think I’ll go to the effort of changing my panel angles

[DiscoMick]

It depends on when you want to charge. North facing panels work well during the day, but drop off in the late afternoon, when west facing panels would do their best.
I have seen houses with panels spread, east, north and west to keep the charge coming in for as long as possible.

[Slunnie]

Thats exactly it, you may benefit more by having the panels provide power when you actually use it, rather than providing the maximum output with a north facing direction because of the difference in buy/sell rates.

[Slunnie]

There are some good solar deals around. For example, a son has just landed 6.6kw of solar for $6500, with a 20cents per kw/h feed in rate, so that should eliminate their power bill.
Warranty is 12 on the panels and 10 on the inverter. That's with Origin Energy. I believe AGL is also offering 20 cents rebate.
So it's a good time to go solar.

bloody hell! 20c is a game changer compared to their typical 8c!

[DiscoMick]

Yes it is. Good rate.

[theelms66]

I had solar fitted 2 months ago 6kw system but inverter is 5kw max. Thats the law (apparently ). Paid $4700 and getting the gov rebate so out of pocket 2500 ish . crazy I know. Half my panels face north and half face west . 6 kw of panels into a 5kw inverter should give me power of some sort for most of the day.
My retailer will give me 29c per kw , but only between 5 and 7 pm . Yeh right ,and 11c all other times. But not in it for the feed in ,in it to use power when solar is producing.

[DiscoMick]

There are certainly some good deals around.
Best Solar Panels Australia | Solar System | Arise Solar (https://arisesolar.com.au/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInv6krsai4gIVxworCh307AylEAAYASA AEgL4zvD_BwE)

[DiscoMick]

The Qld government is also offering interest free loans.

[DiscoMick]

Interest-free loans for solar and storage | Community support | Queensland Government (https://www.qld.gov.au/community/cost-of-living-support/concessions/energy-concessions/solar-battery-rebate)

[Slunnie]

There are certainly some good deals around.
Best Solar Panels Australia | Solar System | Arise Solar (https://arisesolar.com.au/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInv6krsai4gIVxworCh307AylEAAYASA AEgL4zvD_BwE)

Some interesting feedback on Arise Solar.
Arise Solar Reviews | 38,702 Solar Installer Reviews | SolarQuotes (https://www.solarquotes.com.au/installer-review/arise-solar/)

[Arapiles]

bloody hell! 20c is a game changer compared to their typical 8c!

We're on the premium feed in tariff so usually have about $1,000 in credit at the end of summer, so haven't paid a electricity or gas bill for 8 years.

[goingbush]

We have 2kw N eastish and 3kw N westish .

Im still getting $0.713 FIT , & paying $0.29 don't know how , a 2kw system was installed by the prev owner & I had it upgraded to 5Kw & re-inspected , the inspector said the FIT would drop back to about 12c , that was 2 years ago. If any sprukers come knocking one the door to switch providers I send them away pronto.

Obviously I charge the Landy at night .

[Homestar]

I’ll be looking at solar quite soon once I finish with the garage and my bank account recovers a bit. I’ll have 3 phase on shortly, so that improves my options somewhat. I have large North and West facing roof areas, so may split the system between them. A battery storage system will be part of this and with the power I use, it should put me at being a net exporter overall if it works how I want it to. Exceptions will be the spa when I use it, and hot nights when I run the AC all night, but that was only 2 nights last Summer.

I’ll be doing the whole installation myself and sourcing the panels and inverter that I find has the best reviews/performance. Batteries will likely be AGM or even lead acid - because I can get a great deal on these straight from a supplier and I can use works bulk buying power here to save a bundle (we buy thousands of batteries a year).

Haven’t crunched the numbers yet though.

[DiscoMick]

Some interesting feedback on Arise Solar.
Arise Solar Reviews | 38,702 Solar Installer Reviews | SolarQuotes (https://www.solarquotes.com.au/installer-review/arise-solar/)Yes, I have heard some stories too. The son looked at them but decided to pay more and go with Origin because they are a big company and he thought they would honour their warranty.

[Slunnie]

I’ll be doing the whole installation myself
I didn’t think you could get the rebate if you did it yourself??

[Slunnie]

Yes, I have heard some stories too. The son looked at them but decided to pay more and go with Origin because they are a big company and he thought they would honour their warranty.
I’m in the same boat. Power is already with Origin and was thinking about access to warranty, ease of everything as they are my supplier and also as I’ve just learnt today they increase their FIT for their systems to 20c for 1 year or 25c for 2 years.

[John_D4]

This is yesterday’s graph when it was mostly sunny/partial cloudy. We have 6.6kw panels with a 5kw inverter. Our panels are approx 60/40 west/north facing. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190518/de72fe1fd508b1b110a1527eabede319.jpg

In summer the graph is the same profile, except we don’t produce much electricity at all until about 1pm when it goes off the scale until about 4pm when the production starts to taper off again.
Here’s a typical summer profile
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20190518/f82f9c23b50185b355516a3af7396a3f.jpg

[DiscoMick]

Interesting. Maybe a few panels could be turned east to get more morning sun?

[John_D4]

Interesting. Maybe a few panels could be turned east to get more morning sun?

Agreed, but I’d need an inverter that will take 3 runs of panels instead of the 2 that my inverter accepts

[Homestar]

I didn’t think you could get the rebate if you did it yourself??

Can’t see why I couldn’t given I’m a qualified Electrician and the guys who’s REC I work under when doing the odd job is a qualified Solar and Battery Installer so all the paperwork will be correct.

The rebate is a joke anyway - they only accept a certain number of claims a year so anyone putting solar in right now won’t get it anyway - wait until after the 1st July for it to reset. I think they stopped paying out late January on that as the budget had been exceeded.

Add to that, paying someone for the instal burns up more than the rebate is worth anyway, so even if I can’t I won’t be any worse off.

[wayneD]

I figured I was getting 1% having my money in the Bank and could get a 10%-20% return by having Solar and not paying high electricity bills.

[Don 130]

Thinking about solar reminds me. We have 6.6kw of panels split over 2 roof faces. 1 faces west at about 22 degrees. I asked my solar installer if it’s make sense to face the panels more northerly, he didn’t think so. So while I was installing a 110w panel on my D2 I was playing around with different panel angles and monitoring the panel output on the Bluetooth solar controller. I mimicked (by eye) the angle of the western panels and got a readout if about 40w. Then I faced the panel (by eye) to north 30 degrees and got about 70w.

I think I’ll go to the effort of changing my panel angles

If you've got an iPhone, there's a compass on there to help align to any bearing.
Don.

[DiscoMick]

I downloaded a compass ap for my Android too.