Solar options for home in 2022

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232 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 102

#3460456 11-Feb-2026 09:41

In Palmy Nth, 9.6Kw system, 22 panels, 10Kw bty, was with Genesis, changed to PowerEdge, fixed for 3 years, only been 5 months and now $600 in credit. Should be enough to see us through winter to turn on the underfloor heating. Gas hot water, hobs and fire .

timmmay

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#3460462 11-Feb-2026 10:03

Lot of people seem to have similar sized systems to us but use less power and get more feed in tarrifs. I guess with it's because we like a warm house in winter, a cool house in summer, insulation is ok in the old house, and we use the clothes drier regularly

In Jan we generated 1300kWh but used 862kWh, exported 700kWh. In June it was 450kWh generated and 1300kWh used, 132kWh exported.

HarmLessSolutions

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#3460469 11-Feb-2026 10:20

timmmay:

Lot of people seem to have similar sized systems to us but use less power and get more feed in tarrifs. I guess with it's because we like a warm house in winter, a cool house in summer, insulation is ok in the old house, and we use the clothes drier regularly

In Jan we generated 1300kWh but used 862kWh, exported 700kWh. In June it was 450kWh generated and 1300kWh used, 132kWh exported.

The primary strategy for maximising ROI is to consume as much as your own generation as you can combined with minimising import. It looks like your import amounts to ~10 kWh/day. Also searching out the best FIT is helpful if you're exporting significantly. Our stat's for the last few months which include comparative scenarios between suppliers may be of help in this. Note that negative values are credits and all rates both FIT and import are GST inclusive where applicable.

https://www.harmlesssolutions.co.nz/

dukezoid

74 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 15

#3460491 11-Feb-2026 11:15

richrdh18:

In Palmy Nth, 9.6Kw system, 22 panels, 10Kw bty, was with Genesis, changed to PowerEdge, fixed for 3 years, only been 5 months and now $600 in credit. Should be enough to see us through winter to turn on the underfloor heating. Gas hot water, hobs and fire .

PowerEdge have a compelling offering (low daily, decent import rates, good export rate, GST calc benefit, VPP / export credit sharing option) - less so now however as they dropped joining credit to $100 (from $300) and fixed term to 2 years (from 3).

I have reservations re their business ethics through how they handled the change - I had been in comms for a few months and had an open offer (Secured Signing contract) to sign. They pulled the offer over a weekend with contradictory comms implying we had until Monday noon to sign, howevre they withdrew the contract from Secured without notice on the weekend. Were hard to get a hold of. Not a great start to relationship! Would still rather support small innovative player over monopo-gen-tailers.

timmmay

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#3460559 11-Feb-2026 12:04

HarmLessSolutions:

timmmay:

Lot of people seem to have similar sized systems to us but use less power and get more feed in tarrifs. I guess with it's because we like a warm house in winter, a cool house in summer, insulation is ok in the old house, and we use the clothes drier regularly

In Jan we generated 1300kWh but used 862kWh, exported 700kWh. In June it was 450kWh generated and 1300kWh used, 132kWh exported.

The primary strategy for maximising ROI is to consume as much as your own generation as you can combined with minimising import. It looks like your import amounts to ~10 kWh/day. Also searching out the best FIT is helpful if you're exporting significantly. Our stat's for the last few months which include comparative scenarios between suppliers may be of help in this. Note that negative values are credits and all rates both FIT and import are GST inclusive where applicable.

I think we do pretty good with self consumption and minimizing import, we're just a higher user. Most summer days import is 4 to 8kwh, much higher in winter of course.

Sinuation

151 posts

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#3460566 11-Feb-2026 12:23

dukezoid:

richrdh18:

In Palmy Nth, 9.6Kw system, 22 panels, 10Kw bty, was with Genesis, changed to PowerEdge, fixed for 3 years, only been 5 months and now $600 in credit. Should be enough to see us through winter to turn on the underfloor heating. Gas hot water, hobs and fire .

PowerEdge have a compelling offering (low daily, decent import rates, good export rate, GST calc benefit, VPP / export credit sharing option) - less so now however as they dropped joining credit to $100 (from $300) and fixed term to 2 years (from 3).

I have reservations re their business ethics through how they handled the change - I had been in comms for a few months and had an open offer (Secured Signing contract) to sign. They pulled the offer over a weekend with contradictory comms implying we had until Monday noon to sign, howevre they withdrew the contract from Secured without notice on the weekend. Were hard to get a hold of. Not a great start to relationship! Would still rather support small innovative player over monopo-gen-tailers.

We just got in for 3 years and 150nzd sign up. What rates did you get?

Kraven

738 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 190

#3460607 11-Feb-2026 13:06

Seems PowerEdge are all over the show with their offering, I guess that's the advantage/disadvantage in dealing with a smaller player. They are tiny - 167 ICP count as at 31 Dec 2025.

We just signed with them at the end of last month, 2 years and no joining credit. The numbers still stack up though compared to anything the big four offered.

Sinuation

151 posts

Master Geek
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#3460623 11-Feb-2026 13:43

Kraven:

Seems PowerEdge are all over the show with their offering, I guess that's the advantage/disadvantage in dealing with a smaller player. They are tiny - 167 ICP count as at 31 Dec 2025.

We just signed with them at the end of last month, 2 years and no joining credit. The numbers still stack up though compared to anything the big four offered.

Agreed. Checked with every possible power company and only power shop is close (with special rates). We signed with them near end of December, though. Also got a free meter.

For posterity here's what I got (Standard plan).

Daily 285c
Night Import: 17.1c
Day Import: 22.4c
Export (24/7) 17.39c.
EA Levy $0.0015 per imported kwh.

guyl

126 posts

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#3460628 11-Feb-2026 13:49

Kraven:

Seems PowerEdge are all over the show with their offering, I guess that's the advantage/disadvantage in dealing with a smaller player. They are tiny - 167 ICP count as at 31 Dec 2025.

We just signed with them at the end of last month, 2 years and no joining credit. The numbers still stack up though compared to anything the big four offered.

I went with them too (last year). Was on the standard plan, but ended up changing to low user. This was becuase my solar install was new, and I had no idea how much I would be buying or sending back to grid.

My rates:

Fixed for 3 years, no signup fee and $300 credit.

Fixed daily fee: 120c per day

Night Import rate: 24c per kWh

Day Import rate: 29.3c per kWh

Export rate: 17.39c per kWh

Electricity Authority Levy: $0.0015 per import kWh

WolfmanNZ

148 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 41

#3460636 11-Feb-2026 14:01

guyl:

Kraven:

Seems PowerEdge are all over the show with their offering, I guess that's the advantage/disadvantage in dealing with a smaller player. They are tiny - 167 ICP count as at 31 Dec 2025.

We just signed with them at the end of last month, 2 years and no joining credit. The numbers still stack up though compared to anything the big four offered.

I went with them too (last year). Was on the standard plan, but ended up changing to low user. This was becuase my solar install was new, and I had no idea how much I would be buying or sending back to grid.

My rates:

Fixed for 3 years, no signup fee and $300 credit.

Fixed daily fee: 120c per day

Night Import rate: 24c per kWh

Day Import rate: 29.3c per kWh

Export rate: 17.39c per kWh

Electricity Authority Levy: $0.0015 per import kWh

Do you still have what the Standard user plans were? We chew through a lot of power so even with solar just tip over into standard user usage pattern.

We went like this. he went like that. I say "Where'd he go?" Hollywood says "Where'd WHO go?!"

guyl

126 posts

Master Geek
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#3460744 11-Feb-2026 16:59

WolfmanNZ:

guyl:

Kraven:

Seems PowerEdge are all over the show with their offering, I guess that's the advantage/disadvantage in dealing with a smaller player. They are tiny - 167 ICP count as at 31 Dec 2025.

We just signed with them at the end of last month, 2 years and no joining credit. The numbers still stack up though compared to anything the big four offered.

I went with them too (last year). Was on the standard plan, but ended up changing to low user. This was becuase my solar install was new, and I had no idea how much I would be buying or sending back to grid.

My rates:

Fixed for 3 years, no signup fee and $300 credit.

Fixed daily fee: 120c per day

Night Import rate: 24c per kWh

Day Import rate: 29.3c per kWh

Export rate: 17.39c per kWh

Electricity Authority Levy: $0.0015 per import kWh

Do you still have what the Standard user plans were? We chew through a lot of power so even with solar just tip over into standard user usage pattern.

Fixed daily fee: 285c per day

Night Import rate: 16.8c per kWh

Day Import rate: 22.2c per kWh

Export rate: 17.39c per kWh

Electricity Authority Levy: $0.0015 per import kWh

fastbike

458 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 336

#3460752 11-Feb-2026 17:26

timmmay:

It's normal to overprovision panels to inverters by 1/3 - mine's more, 6kw inverter (bit more at peak) with 9kw panels. If you get say 10.5kw of panels an 8kw inverter should be plenty especially with the panels in split directions.

My advice is to size the inverter for your normal power usage and then oversize the panels - extra panels can be added later. An inverter with 3 or more (independent) strings is handy on a larger or more complex roof.

Otautahi Christchurch

Paul1977

5171 posts

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#3460778 11-Feb-2026 18:49

fastbike:

My advice is to size the inverter for your normal power usage and then oversize the panels - extra panels can be added later. An inverter with 3 or more (independent) strings is handy on a larger or more complex roof.

Wouldn’t it be the other way around then?

fastbike

458 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 336

#3460785 11-Feb-2026 19:10

Paul1977:

fastbike:

My advice is to size the inverter for your normal power usage and then oversize the panels - extra panels can be added later. An inverter with 3 or more (independent) strings is handy on a larger or more complex roof.

Wouldn’t it be the other way around then?

By sizing the inverter to cover most of your power you can self consume the peak output. Oversizing allows you to cover self consumption for more of the year (panels are cheap) and export any surplus during the summer.

My setup is a little different as I have 3 phase power but have a double oven (one per phase) heatpump on the third phase. I also have two immersion elements in the HWC but rarely use the lower, the upper is on a triac controller so can be feathered according to water temp and surplus power.

I also added batteries 11 months ago which completely changed the dynamics of how the system works - i.e. the battery removes the need for any peak time imports so we no longer need to schedule loads around cheap tariffs. In the two colder winter months I top the battery up in the middle of the night on a cheap tariff. Which is good for us and also avoids drawing power from the grid when it is heavily loaded.

Edited (to add tariffs)
Daily Charge 102c
Night Rate 18.16c (9pm to 7am)
Day/Peak rate 30.34c
FIT 17c

Otautahi Christchurch

WolfmanNZ

148 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 41

#3460807 11-Feb-2026 22:57

guyl:

Fixed daily fee: 285c per day

Night Import rate: 16.8c per kWh

Day Import rate: 22.2c per kWh

Export rate: 17.39c per kWh

Electricity Authority Levy: $0.0015 per import kWh

For standard? Daaaaaaaaaaaamn. Interest piqued.

We went like this. he went like that. I say "Where'd he go?" Hollywood says "Where'd WHO go?!"

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