Solar options for home in 2022

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#3464199 24-Feb-2026 20:31

timmmay:

Cars and holidays have particular functions, benefits or features, whereas solar panels just give you what you already have in a slightly different way.

Solar panels also give you functions, benefits, and features.

Horses for courses

fastbike

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#3464203 24-Feb-2026 20:42

timmmay:

Cars and holidays have particular functions, benefits or features, whereas solar panels just give you what you already have in a slightly different way.

A value laden statement?

As I said we all come to this from different places.

A colleague who is 72, installed 24 panels and a 6kW inverter last year. Realistically he will be lucky to see a ROI, but it is important for him.

A car, and an overseas holiday impose costs onto the commons, that are not reflected in any of the bean counter models.

A PV array pays for embedded energy within 2 years, so the functions benefits and features become free after that period has elapsed.

Otautahi Christchurch

EgorNZ

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#3464395 24-Feb-2026 21:46

fastbike:

Wrt the battery backup you need a hybrid inverter with a backup port, as well as the normal grid port. If you live in an area with a reliable supply, then ask your spark to wire it to a double outlet socket . In the event of an outage then plug your freezer etc in along with some lamps and the internet router. Or for a more permanent setup get a switch installed that can power essential circuits directly .

It shouldn't be that complicated with a proper backup power setup.

AC-coupled batteries power the whole house with none of that faffing about. I get a lot of outages here, and the only indication anything happened is the notification that pops up on my phone!

MadEngineer

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#3464410 24-Feb-2026 23:43

HarmLessSolutions:

kangaroo13:

cshwone:

All the banks are offering interest free loans for a solar install - paying back over five years so to me taking such a loan is a no brainer as I will be paying less than my electricity bill is reduced by.

I'm not sure where you get that from. While there are some favourable loans around for solar installs - by way of example, ASB offers 1% solar loans, up to a maximum of 3 yrs, and only for existing loan holders.

Hence my original comment - I'd consider adding to a house loan, but I wouldn't take out a loan just for solar. And I think banks have worked diligently for years to earn their distrust from prospective customers. I'm very suspicious of fish-hooks. I doubt I'm alone on this, and so sadly, I don't feel that financing deals are an effective way to significantly drive up residential solar uptake across NZ.

If your solar is returning 15% of its cost per year then paying 5% interest on a loan to finance it seems like a bargain. Basic maths.

Just to add to this, if you're installing solar and adding say $20,000 onto an existing $150,000 mortgage, over 10 years of remaining term the total interest increase will be 5 to $6k.

Every $ you spend against a mortgage will cost you twice in interest over 30 years.

Having an existing mortgage with your bank will make it easier to deal with them. The 0% interest loan for solar will be easy to apply for. There are also options for EV cars.

...... Hmm, that's interesting, I was chatting with a manager about this only two weeks ago and it seems that they've only recently added PHEV, before it was only EV

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

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#3464412 24-Feb-2026 23:55

EgorNZ:

It shouldn't be that complicated with a proper backup power setup.

AC-coupled batteries power the whole house with none of that faffing about. I get a lot of outages here, and the only indication anything happened is the notification that pops up on my phone!

Not seen a domestic one that can do a whole house, its usually a subset of it that you plan either with a sub panel or getting a bigger breaker box and separate out the rows into must haves and nice to haves. Perhaps when 10kW export becomes viable then there will be some oversized ones that can do a whole house for a while off battery, but till then its usually 3-6kW when off grid.

Richard rich.ms

EgorNZ

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#3464467 25-Feb-2026 09:41

richms:

Not seen a domestic one that can do a whole house, its usually a subset of it that you plan either with a sub panel or getting a bigger breaker box and separate out the rows into must haves and nice to haves. Perhaps when 10kW export becomes viable then there will be some oversized ones that can do a whole house for a while off battery, but till then its usually 3-6kW when off grid.

Powerwall provides up to 7kW (peak) output capacity, that's more than enough for most homes. Especially if you take a little care not to turn on high-draw appliances like heat pumps during an outage. I have a whole-house ducted heat pump system which can run off the battery, but of course it depletes it very quickly so that's best avoided.

There have been several occasions now where Vector has turned off our power the whole day for maintenance work and we've stretched out the battery's 13.5kWh capacity over that time with plenty to spare. That's with two people working from home on computers, leaving three fridges and two HWC's running, using the water pump normally, boiling the kettle, cooking food, etc - even on a rainy day with limited charging from the solar.

fastbike

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#3464672 25-Feb-2026 12:50

MadEngineer:

HarmLessSolutions:

If your solar is returning 15% of its cost per year then paying 5% interest on a loan to finance it seems like a bargain. Basic maths.

Just to add to this, if you're installing solar and adding say $20,000 onto an existing $150,000 mortgage, over 10 years of remaining term the total interest increase will be 5 to $6k.

Every $ you spend against a mortgage will cost you twice in interest over 30 years.

Having an existing mortgage with your bank will make it easier to deal with them. The 0% interest loan for solar will be easy to apply for. There are also options for EV cars.

...... Hmm, that's interesting, I was chatting with a manager about this only two weeks ago and it seems that they've only recently added PHEV, before it was only EV

Most of the bank loans are supplementary to your main house loan and have a fixed term of 3 or 5 years, so you will be making monthly payments. E.g. we pay a little bit less than $900 per month over 36 months for the ANZ 1% loan we took out. I'll leave it up to the boffins to figure out what the principal sum was .... Current interest is around $17 per month, so approx $600 over the 3 years.

Otautahi Christchurch

chimera

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#3464770 25-Feb-2026 14:53

Grrrr.... in other words "we have detected you are running solar and batteries, we are changing our rates to get more $$$ out of you"

wellygary

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#3464777 25-Feb-2026 15:16

fastbike:

Most of the bank loans are supplementary to your main house loan and have a fixed term of 3 or 5 years, so you will be making monthly payments. E.g. we pay a little bit less than $900 per month over 36 months for the ANZ 1% loan we took out. I'll leave it up to the boffins to figure out what the principal sum was .... Current interest is around $17 per month, so approx $600 over the 3 years.

The solar/green loans are basically a way to stop you churning your home loan,

With most loan terms around 2 years, this allows your bank to keep your business for at least another churn cycle.... ( all it costs is the lost interest on the value of the green part of the loan for the 3-5 year term of the loan,)

Jase2985

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#3464779 25-Feb-2026 15:19

chimera:

Grrrr.... in other words "we have detected you are running solar and batteries, we are changing our rates to get more $$$ out of you"

Not in the slightest, heaps of people got them, not just with octopus either.

chimera

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#3464780 25-Feb-2026 15:27

Jase2985:

chimera:

Grrrr.... in other words "we have detected you are running solar and batteries, we are changing our rates to get more $$$ out of you"

Not in the slightest, heaps of people got them, not just with octopus either.

Missed the sarcasm... EDIT: with a hint of irony.

Clearly it's not just a "to me" email.

Jase2985

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#3464781 25-Feb-2026 15:36

chimera:

Missed the sarcasm... EDIT: with a hint of irony.

Clearly it's not just a "to me" email.

no i got it, just didnt see the point in it.

chimera

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#3464786 25-Feb-2026 15:55

Jase2985:

chimera:

Missed the sarcasm... EDIT: with a hint of irony.

Clearly it's not just a "to me" email.

no i got it, just didnt see the point in it.

A roundabout way of sparking conversation about alternate energy providers who may be cheaper.

Or to vent. Or a bit of both :-)

HarmLessSolutions

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#3464788 25-Feb-2026 16:04

Jase2985:

chimera:

Grrrr.... in other words "we have detected you are running solar and batteries, we are changing our rates to get more $$$ out of you"

Not in the slightest, heaps of people got them, not just with octopus either.

The big issue for me would be the daily charge gobbling up the first 20-25 kWhs of export. Ouch!

In our case our first ~8 kWh cover our daily charge.

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

Jase2985

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#3464792 25-Feb-2026 16:13

chimera:

Jase2985:

chimera:

Missed the sarcasm... EDIT: with a hint of irony.

Clearly it's not just a "to me" email.

no i got it, just didnt see the point in it.

A roundabout way of sparking conversation about alternate energy providers who may be cheaper.

Or to vent. Or a bit of both :-)

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