SA Footy

I saw an interesting show on SBS about some Ozzie inventions that may make solar cells much more efficient.
One is a technique for making Gallium Arsenide chips much more affordable and making use of their much greater efficiency.
Another involved two techniques - one splitting light into colours and distributing it to chips that work best with each colour, and the other involved using a compact hydrostat to focus the light more intensely onto the more compact and heat tolerant Gallium Arsenide chips and using a more efficient cooling system to maximise their output.

Wasn't that how the flux capacitor worked?

Ok so I have decided to get solar.
Don't care about feed in necessarily just want to be self sufficient.
Any suggestions on where to go, who to avoid?
True Value are advertising 22 250w panels and 5kW inverter for $3999

The Ash Man wrote:Ok so I have decided to get solar.
Don't care about feed in necessarily just want to be self sufficient.
Any suggestions on where to go, who to avoid?
True Value are advertising 22 250w panels and 5kW inverter for $3999

you could do worse

Anyone else looked into or revisited this recently?
The cost of the systems is dirt cheap now and despite no feed-in tariffs(other than the retailer offer)..........does look like a good idea IF you consume alot of power during the day.

Any one else looked into this again recently?

amber_fluid wrote:Anyone else looked into or revisited this recently?
The cost of the systems is dirt cheap now and despite no feed-in tariffs(other than the retailer offer)..........does look like a good idea IF you consume alot of power during the day.

Any one else looked into this again recently?

Got mine installed in Dec.
Went through Adam Solar, a local company who didn't have the cheapest price but customer service was second to none.
Got SMA inverter and 20 x 260W Jinko panels for $5600 installed and he paid for the meter to be changed over.

Recommended him to a few people already.

The Ash Man wrote:

amber_fluid wrote:Anyone else looked into or revisited this recently?
The cost of the systems is dirt cheap now and despite no feed-in tariffs(other than the retailer offer)..........does look like a good idea IF you consume alot of power during the day.

Any one else looked into this again recently?

Got mine installed in Dec.
Went through Adam Solar, a local company who didn't have the cheapest price but customer service was second to none.
Got SMA inverter and 20 x 260W Jinko panels for $5600 installed and he paid for the meter to be changed over.

Recommended him to a few people already.

That's 5KW?
What made you get a 5KW?
Are you, missus or kids home during the day much?
With bugger all feed in tariffs now isn't it best too consume most of your consumption during the day......as opposed to evening/night??

With a shit feed in tariff the equation is simple. Use it while you're making it, when the sun is up.

But, set your dishwasher, washing machine to run while you're at work, don't go using them at night and you're already saving money.

amber_fluid wrote:

The Ash Man wrote:

amber_fluid wrote:Anyone else looked into or revisited this recently?
The cost of the systems is dirt cheap now and despite no feed-in tariffs(other than the retailer offer)..........does look like a good idea IF you consume alot of power during the day.

Any one else looked into this again recently?

Got mine installed in Dec.
Went through Adam Solar, a local company who didn't have the cheapest price but customer service was second to none.
Got SMA inverter and 20 x 260W Jinko panels for $5600 installed and he paid for the meter to be changed over.

Recommended him to a few people already.

That's 5KW?
What made you get a 5KW?
Are you, missus or kids home during the day much?
With bugger all feed in tariffs now isn't it best too consume most of your consumption during the day......as opposed to evening/night??

I have reptiles that have lights, heaters,etc on all day as well as 2 aquariums.
I also work from home a lot so do all my washing, drying, dishwasher, etc during the day.

put solar on a few years back and got in before the feed ins changed so we are benefiting now. Average bill before was about $650/quarter now we are around $250-$300. Best part for us was when it went on we didnt get a power bill for 18 months. When it finally came it was around $3K!! Looked into it and found out that they could only back charge 9 months so was halved straight away. Then we argued that we pay on time everytime and should have been given a 10% discount - the guy I spoke too gave me the 10% off the total $3K instead of the reduced $1.5K which brought what we owed down to $1200. Then we worked out they gave us the wrong tarrif and was reduced a further $400.00 so we paid $800 for 18 months power.

Now that its all working well we see a massive benefit but wouldnt unless we were getting the $0.60/kw buy back approx.

so starting to look at some Solar, it appears the horse may have bolted in relation to the feed in tariffs etc, however its all about covering as much as the household use, rather than making money out of it.
also looking at getting some battery storage backup as well.

have only really had a brief look. the Customer service from a few of these providers is a little underwhelming, as they aren't providing any info at all...

looks like my first stop from here is to check out ADAM....

Whats the verdict on Solar storage batteries ?

Jack wrote:Whats the verdict on Solar storage batteries ?

Cumbersome and expensive at the moment, probably 5 years from being a realistic option for the average home owner.

South Australia has one of the highest electricity rates in the world
Logic suggests in this part of the world you must consider Solar panels

These are rough and perhaps inaccurate calculations
From what I gather , by having solar there is a potential to save something like 50-75 % on electricity bills
For someone who has quarterly bills of about $500 that equals $2000 per annum , so the savings might be about $1000 to $1300 per year
A system of about $5,000 would pay itself off an average of perhaps about 4 years [ this is an estimation , but need to consider all the variables]

So in theory if panels shave off a bill from $2000 a year to say $1000 [that being a 50% reduction] how much more can a battery save the consumer per year ?

Jack wrote:South Australia has one of the highest electricity rates in the world
Logic suggests in this part of the world you must consider Solar panels

These are rough and perhaps inaccurate calculations
From what I gather , by having solar there is a potential to save something like 50-75 % on electricity bills
For someone who has quarterly bills of about $500 that equals $2000 per annum , so the savings might be about $1000 to $1300 per year
A system of about $5,000 would pay itself off an average of perhaps about 4 years [ this is an estimation , but need to consider all the variables]

So in theory if panels shave off a bill from $2000 a year to say $1000 [that being a 50% reduction] how much more can a battery save the consumer per year ?

You're not going to save that much unless you use all your electricity while the suns up and turn everything off when the sun goes down.

Jack wrote:South Australia has one of the highest electricity rates in the world
Logic suggests in this part of the world you must consider Solar panels

These are rough and perhaps inaccurate calculations
From what I gather , by having solar there is a potential to save something like 50-75 % on electricity bills
For someone who has quarterly bills of about $500 that equals $2000 per annum , so the savings might be about $1000 to $1300 per year
A system of about $5,000 would pay itself off an average of perhaps about 4 years [ this is an estimation , but need to consider all the variables]

So in theory if panels shave off a bill from $2000 a year to say $1000 [that being a 50% reduction] how much more can a battery save the consumer per year ?

As amber fluid said, without a battery the savings have a ceiling unless you shut all the power down when the sun goes down. We have had solar since January and so far based on two bills the savings are 30-40%, not 50-75%. But it might depend on your own situation, maybe you can get more.

With a power bill of "only" $500 a quarter you may not need a $5,000 system though.

They say a payback period of about 4 years and for us so far that is how it looks. So for you to save $700 per year ($2,000 x say 35%) that would suggest to me using the back of a pasty bag that you only need a ~ $3,000 system.

Whoever you ring for a quote will do all this maths for you but in my experience they may embellish the possible savings.

With a battery however based on my tracking of what we send off to the grid unused during the day from the panels versus what we then use at night I am hopeful we can get the bill down to almost nothing with a battery. I say hopeful because we signed up for a battery that will be installed in the next few months (via AGL's suburban battery farm concept with a discounted battery).

It is currently really frustrating to see us use the same amount of power when the sun goes down that we export during an average day unused.

I got a quote last week for a solar power system, late last week.....I didn't get a chance to speak to the guy as I was at work (my wife was home when the guy came around).

As I didn't get a chance to speak to the bloke, I'm having some difficulty knowing whether the quote was reasonable or not.

All up, its about $7,000 out of pocket expense.

What are the main things I should be looking at on the quote to determine whether I'm getting a good deal?

System size is 5.4KW.

GWW wrote:I got a quote last week for a solar power system, late last week.....I didn't get a chance to speak to the guy as I was at work (my wife was home when the guy came around).

As I didn't get a chance to speak to the bloke, I'm having some difficulty knowing whether the quote was reasonable or not.

All up, its about $7,000 out of pocket expense.

What are the main things I should be looking at on the quote to determine whether I'm getting a good deal?

System size is 5.4KW.

Feed in tarrif? Brand of inverter & panel would be a start.

GWW wrote:I got a quote last week for a solar power system, late last week.....I didn't get a chance to speak to the guy as I was at work (my wife was home when the guy came around).

As I didn't get a chance to speak to the bloke, I'm having some difficulty knowing whether the quote was reasonable or not.

All up, its about $7,000 out of pocket expense.

What are the main things I should be looking at on the quote to determine whether I'm getting a good deal?

System size is 5.4KW.

Feed in tariff and inverter. All the panels in that price range are made in China anyway, even Canadian Solar!

Jump on solarquotes.com.au awesome site for research, if you put your details in people will also bid for your job.

I used Adam Solar and was very happy, local company

Thanks for info, heater & Ash.

Ive looked at the quote, but cant find anything mentioning "Feed In Tariff" (is that known by any other name?)....Inverter listed in quote is "Fronius".

Im planning on contacting Adam Solar soon, to see whether they can offer a better quote.