Solar power options/opinions 2021

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Blurtie

468 posts

Ultimate Geek

#280955 21-Jan-2021 16:24

Hey All,

I've searched and read through a few of the past forums on here, but couldn't see anything recent (also didn't want to hijack another post) so thought I've put up a new post on the solar landscape in 2021.

I understand installation costs have come down, but batteries are still pretty expensive? Is this still the case?

We're a family of 4 (a 5 and 1 year old) based in Christchurch. We've got a decent north facing roof angle/slope. My partner works part time and is home for 2-3 days during the working week, although this might change later in the year. We're currently on Low user power rates (27.2c/kWh), use a heat pump for heating and have gas hot water (which we do use a fair bit of..). I think I would probably be looking at a 3-4kW system for our place but I haven't spoken to any solar installers yet as I wanted to get a feel for the current landscape before doing so.

I recently found out that my bank (Kiwibank) offers a sustainable energy loan where they give you $2k (over 4 years) if you borrow at least $5k for a minimum 7 year term from them... I've not looked into the nitty gritty too much, but based on current interest rates being so low (and I assume will be for at least the next few years), at worst I think you would still end up in the black? Am I missing something here?

In terms of ROI, I'm not overly concerned, I seen various calculations that place it anywhere from 6-10 years for our situation. I think we'll stay at our place for at least the next 5 years, then either sell or rent it out. Do you think having a solar set up already in place would add value to the house?

Would like to know thoughts/opinions from people who have recently crunched the sums or had systems installed. A ball park figure for installation (and roughly when) would be nice to know too. Happy to hear any suggestions/modifications you would make in our situation, i.e. get rid of gas water heating?

Cheers!

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#2639813 21-Jan-2021 17:27

Batteries are only really useful if you are concerned about grid outages or connecting to the grid is very difficult, or if you're on a plan with very high differences in cost depending on time of use.

Unless the above applies to you, get a standard grid-tie system with no batteries.

jonb

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#2639853 21-Jan-2021 20:31

I'm in Oamaru with a 4KW Mitsubishi/Enphase system that's about ten years old, 2-3 person household working from home. Ignoring initial cost the solar buyback is basically equal as my bill between October to April, approx $40 for both. In the winter bill is about $80 and buyback about $20.
Class myself as a stingy electric user but not so organised to do my cooking only in daylight hours, but water is heated solely by solar (either by solar hot water system or electric manual switch when it's sunny) and no electric heating only wood burner. Dishwasher and washing machine in the middle of the day. As others said on different thread, getting a system working for water heating is important for recuping investment, but might be tricky already having gas HW.
When I bought the house a year ago, it didn't feel like the solar system added 10k to the price of the house but did make the house stand out to me as a buyer. The official valuation I had to get barely mentioned it.

Blurtie

468 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2639998 22-Jan-2021 09:25

No, not sold on going off grid, so happy to go without a battery. More of a nice to have I guess - but not a $10k+ nice to have.

Thanks @jonb - yes I have considered switching to electric H/W, but I'm not sure this we'll look into at present - just need to have a think about added costs and where to put the cylinder.. I might look into getting a diverter put in place (if possible/cheap enough to do) should I decide to head down this track later.

But it's good to hear that having panels made the house stand out to you when you were purchasing.. That can only be a good thing right?

rogercruse

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#2640001 22-Jan-2021 09:55

We had solar panels installed on our Auckland home in 2015 with a Tesla Powerwall (version 1) a couple of years later.

As the sun shines during the day then the panels are typically used to generate electricity to heat water and store in your cylinder. We installed a larger 300 litre cylinder to ensure that we always had plenty. Any 'spare' power was pumped into the national grid for a 8c per unit. We were saving about $1000 each year on our electricity bill.

The Tesla system was supplied by Genesis and only stored enough power to keep the lights running for 6-8 hours.

We sold this house last year and while it probably helped the house sale, it didn't make much real difference to the selling price.

We did consider adding solar panels & batteries to our new home during the build phase but the high cost of batteries scuppered that. We instead opted for a combined heat pump HVAC system and utilising the Hour-of-Power feature from Electric Kiwi. We now have the same benefits of solar without the installation cost.

Quinny

889 posts

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#2640042 22-Jan-2021 10:47

I spent $36k for a Rolls Royce system in Chch last year and I love it. House usage is about 20-25kWH a day. We have been effectively off grid since about September. All bills a small credit. I went for the top end panels so that in 10 years the system is as good as it is now. I also got the Tesla Powerwall 2. While people talk return don't forget you can add the amount to your rateable value and also that when you come to sell this is considered a nice greenie positive when you can hand over zero/credit power bills. I expect to only pay for power in May a bit, June probably, July a bit. And the credits from the rest of the year will cover most of that. I have a 6.4k system, 5k inverter and Battery that can cover 7k peak load and 5k sustained. It stores 12KWH. Westpac had a 10k zero loan which is $77 a fortnight and I easily save that so in 5 years that part is gone. Rest is at 2% atm and I am nibbling it off. Waiting on QV still but friend with a 15k system they added the full value last year.

This is the Solar edge public sites so you can see what a similar system near you may do. Mine is "quinny"

https://monitoringpublic.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/p/home

CYaBro

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#2640059 22-Jan-2021 11:26

jonb: I'm in Oamaru with a 4KW Mitsubishi/Enphase system that's about ten years old, 2-3 person household working from home. Ignoring initial cost the solar buyback is basically equal as my bill between October to April, approx $40 for both. In the winter bill is about $80 and buyback about $20.
Class myself as a stingy electric user but not so organised to do my cooking only in daylight hours, but water is heated solely by solar (either by solar hot water system or electric manual switch when it's sunny) and no electric heating only wood burner. Dishwasher and washing machine in the middle of the day. As others said on different thread, getting a system working for water heating is important for recuping investment, but might be tricky already having gas HW.
When I bought the house a year ago, it didn't feel like the solar system added 10k to the price of the house but did make the house stand out to me as a buyer. The official valuation I had to get barely mentioned it.

Sorry thread hijack but when's our IRL for Oamaru? :)

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Blurtie

468 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2640087 22-Jan-2021 12:32

Quinny:

I spent $36k for a Rolls Royce system in Chch last year and I love it. House usage is about 20-25kWH a day. We have been effectively off grid since about September. All bills a small credit. I went for the top end panels so that in 10 years the system is as good as it is now. I also got the Tesla Powerwall 2. While people talk return don't forget you can add the amount to your rateable value and also that when you come to sell this is considered a nice greenie positive when you can hand over zero/credit power bills. I expect to only pay for power in May a bit, June probably, July a bit. And the credits from the rest of the year will cover most of that. I have a 6.4k system, 5k inverter and Battery that can cover 7k peak load and 5k sustained. It stores 12KWH. Westpac had a 10k zero loan which is $77 a fortnight and I easily save that so in 5 years that part is gone. Rest is at 2% atm and I am nibbling it off. Waiting on QV still but friend with a 15k system they added the full value last year.

This is the Solar edge public sites so you can see what a similar system near you may do. Mine is "quinny"

https://monitoringpublic.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/p/home

Wow, thanks for the link. That's some good info right there. I'm not so sure we'd go for a Rolls Royce system ourselves, but good to hear about your situation and see your stats. Very impressive.

Adding the cost of the system to the RV is interesting.. Is this commonly done? Is it as simple as getting the guys from QV to come round and look at the system to get the value added onto the house? In the current housing market, I would assume that it's a safe bet that you would get the cost of the system covered if/when the time comes to sell the house (i.e. house would sell for at least RV).

Combined with the 'free' money from bank, it seems pretty compelling to get say a 10-15k system installed and chucking that value on the the RV of our property... Am I missing something here (apart from the fact you'll pay higher rates)? Can someone give me some comments/opinions against this line of thinking?

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Blurtie

468 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2640090 22-Jan-2021 12:35

rogercruse:

We did consider adding solar panels & batteries to our new home during the build phase but the high cost of batteries scuppered that. We instead opted for a combined heat pump HVAC system and utilising the Hour-of-Power feature from Electric Kiwi. We now have the same benefits of solar without the installation cost.

Thanks Roger, I assume that as you're in a new build now that your house is a lot more energy efficient compared to your older home (i.e. using less electricity in general anyway)? Or was that a new build too?

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#2640109 22-Jan-2021 12:59

Don't know if you saw my Topic: Solar Power Energy Solutions

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

Quinny

889 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#2640110 22-Jan-2021 13:10

Blurtie:

Quinny:

I spent $36k for a Rolls Royce system in Chch last year and I love it. House usage is about 20-25kWH a day. We have been effectively off grid since about September. All bills a small credit. I went for the top end panels so that in 10 years the system is as good as it is now. I also got the Tesla Powerwall 2. While people talk return don't forget you can add the amount to your rateable value and also that when you come to sell this is considered a nice greenie positive when you can hand over zero/credit power bills. I expect to only pay for power in May a bit, June probably, July a bit. And the credits from the rest of the year will cover most of that. I have a 6.4k system, 5k inverter and Battery that can cover 7k peak load and 5k sustained. It stores 12KWH. Westpac had a 10k zero loan which is $77 a fortnight and I easily save that so in 5 years that part is gone. Rest is at 2% atm and I am nibbling it off. Waiting on QV still but friend with a 15k system they added the full value last year.

This is the Solar edge public sites so you can see what a similar system near you may do. Mine is "quinny"

https://monitoringpublic.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/p/home

Wow, thanks for the link. That's some good info right there. I'm not so sure we'd go for a Rolls Royce system ourselves, but good to hear about your situation and see your stats. Very impressive.

Adding the cost of the system to the RV is interesting.. Is this commonly done? Is it as simple as getting the guys from QV to come round and look at the system to get the value added onto the house? In the current housing market, I would assume that it's a safe bet that you would get the cost of the system covered if/when the time comes to sell the house (i.e. house would sell for at least RV).

Combined with the 'free' money from bank, it seems pretty compelling to get say a 10-15k system installed and chucking that value on the RV of our property... Am I missing something here (apart from the fact you'll pay higher rates)? Can someone give me some comments/opinions against this line of thinking?

It was something like $300 if come right away and report in 3 days or free if wait 3-6 months until they are next in area. I went with free and wait. To me having been thru the earthquakes its a no brainer to add it. Also to your insurance (that call took ages as the underwriters have to approve it).

This is the link at QV https://www.updatemyproperty.co.nz/App/MyHome/MyHome.htm

RickW

298 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2640124 22-Jan-2021 13:37

Heya, I’m in Christchurch too and had a 9.7kw system installed on December the 23rd. I went for Harrison’s and have the more expensive top of the range lg panels with black frames because i went and informed our immediate neighbours that we would have people up and on our roof as a courtesy thing. We had a neighbour not happy with the idea of silver frames on the panels 🤦🏼‍♂️ and 2 5kw Fronius inverters. We chose not to get a battery after being told that a Tesla power wall 2 would add 17k to the price. I’d consider our house pretty high usage (1000-1400Kw/h a month depending on the time of year) as we have a big spa, a ducted heat pump system and electric hot water.

I use openHAB which is a home automation system that can connect with the fronius inverters and have configured it to turn on the hot water cylinder, spa heating and also the heat pumps depending on how much power is being sent to the grid.

We changed to meridian recently through the power switch promo and our rates are $0.24 including gst per kw for the day rate and $0.09 including gst for the night rate. We get paid $0.08 per unit that we sell to the grid and since most of our power usage at this time of the year is used at off peak times of 9pm to 7am and the fact there is only $0.01 difference in the sell/buy price I’d recommend using the grid as a battery. The system covers all of our power usage and is sending enough to the grid to cover the cost of anything that we are using without sun.

Our system was $27,000 but if we went for the cheaper panels it would of only cost $22,000

Hope this helps and if you want the sale guys details from Harrison’s I’d be happy to pass them on to you.

Blurtie

468 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2640136 22-Jan-2021 13:56

FineWine:

Don't know if you saw my Topic: Solar Power Energy Solutions

Thanks, Yes I did stumble across yours. Was one of the posts that I didn't want to hijack. :)

How are you finding it a week on from installation? Anything you weren't expecting or pleasantly surprised with? Do you mind disclosing what you paid for your system?

Blurtie

468 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2640140 22-Jan-2021 14:11

RickW:

Heya, I’m in Christchurch too and had a 9.7kw system installed on December the 23rd. I went for Harrison’s and have the more expensive top of the range lg panels with black frames because i went and informed our immediate neighbours that we would have people up and on our roof as a courtesy thing. We had a neighbour not happy with the idea of silver frames on the panels 🤦🏼‍♂️ and 2 5kw Fronius inverters. We chose not to get a battery after being told that a Tesla power wall 2 would add 17k to the price. I’d consider our house pretty high usage (1000-1400Kw/h a month depending on the time of year) as we have a big spa, a ducted heat pump system and electric hot water.

I use openHAB which is a home automation system that can connect with the fronius inverters and have configured it to turn on the hot water cylinder, spa heating and also the heat pumps depending on how much power is being sent to the grid.

We changed to meridian recently through the power switch promo and our rates are $0.24 including gst per kw for the day rate and $0.09 including gst for the night rate. We get paid $0.08 per unit that we sell to the grid and since most of our power usage at this time of the year is used at off peak times of 9pm to 7am and the fact there is only $0.01 difference in the sell/buy price I’d recommend using the grid as a battery. The system covers all of our power usage and is sending enough to the grid to cover the cost of anything that we are using without sun.

Our system was $27,000 but if we went for the cheaper panels it would of only cost $22,000

Hope this helps and if you want the sale guys details from Harrison’s I’d be happy to pass them on to you.

Thanks Rick. Yes very helpful! Neighbors huh.. Aside from keeping them happy with the move to black frames, could they actually do anything if you installed the silver frames?

It looks like you're definitely a higher power user than me. We just got our power bill for last month and we used just under 250 wKh.. Which peaks to over 1000 wKh in the winter.. So I don't think we'll get those rates you're getting..

Would be interested to know if you got quotes from other solar supplier's in Chch and why you ended up with Harrisons?

RickW

298 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2640145 22-Jan-2021 14:35

Yea, tell me about it. Nope they couldn’t do anything about it but they are the kind of people that winge about anything so it was easier to pay a little more and keep them quiet.

I wouldn’t be so sure, our latest bill was 3 weeks solar and one week before it was installed and we used -99 units. Check out Power Switch

Yup i got a quote from skysolar too.

I ultimately went with Harrison’s for 2 reasons. The first is that the sales guy is also the owner of the company and he bent over backwards and is extremely knowledgeable about the the equipment he sells and when he didn’t know the answer he wouldn’t bs about it he said straight up he wasn’t sure and found out the answers. Second, they weren’t pushy.

FineWine

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Nurse (R)

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#2640264 22-Jan-2021 19:21

No problems so far. At the moment all the solar generated power is going straight into the house mains as we are awaiting the eddi EcoSmart diverter. according to the Fronius data portal we have earnt $25.68 since startup last Friday @1430. We have also saved 16.87Kg of CO2 equivalent to 68Km in a petrol car. Our highest production peak was today of 4064w @ 1400.

Breakdown

Solar Panel - REC N-Peak 325w per panel x 12 = 3.9kW (25yr output and 25yr product build warranty)

Inverter system - Fronius Primo 4.0kW (10yr service & product warranty)

Energy Diverter - eddi EcoSmart Microgen Energy Diverter 3kw Eddi-16AP01, MyEnergi Current Transformer with 5m Cable: CT100-16-05 (100a 16mm) & MyEnergi Data Hub.

COST = $10,748.93
Incl: Installation, all wiring, conduiting, solar mount rails, all paper work with TrustPower & CCC. (note: there is a lot of safety signage which goes on the Fronius, switchboard and meter box. This includes the emergency shut down procedure)

We completed the paperwork for TrustPowers SolarBuddies and all has been approved.

Note: They also priced matched a competing quote from SkySolar. In the end it was the 16c per unit (max 500 u/m) buy back for 24 months with TrustPower and the software. Plus we were not too happy with SkySolar having to drill into the hotwater cylinder x 3 to mount their sensors.

We are very happy with the installation. It took 6 hours to install. All very neat and tidy. Included run through of the Fronius readout panel. Registration and Login to the Fronius data portal via browser and iDevice app. We have only paid 50% upfront so far as the eddi EcoSmart is in a container some where (port or off coast).

Happy Customer 😀🍷

Whilst the difficult we can do immediately, the impossible takes a bit longer. However, miracles you will have to wait for.

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