Are solar pannels worth it?

[benders]

The battery systems that are coming into vogue now will be the game changer in this situation. As they get cheaper and you can store the power for your own use in the evening. some examples are the enphase batteries or the tesla power wall. Their payback time is still not worth it at the moment but we also are all aware that the price of electricity is not going down, only up so if you use the panel power through the day you will still do ok.
And as ducky says, this seems a bit expensive for the unit unless it is top of the line. Try contacting your local council as some do a bulk buy and you will get a better system for the same or less money.
Also worth a look at sustainability victoria website.

[purple5ive]

Victorians with rooftop solar are being ripped off. The state Labor government recently ended the Transitional Feed-in Tariff (TFiT) scheme and the Standard Feed-in Tariff scheme (SFiT). Over the past five years, these schemes had ensured solar owners were paid at least 25¢ per kilowatt hour for energy they fed back into the grid.

But since January 1, these households are now paid between 5 and 7¢ – even though electricity companies can on-sell that very same electricity for up to 29¢ per kilowatt hour. This means your power company can now pay you 5¢ for solar energy you produce, and then charge your neighbour 29¢ per kilowatt hour for using it, even though the electrons have only travelled next door.

correct.
we used to get the 25 plus another 6 cents from the energy provider making that 31cents per kw.
few weeks ago we got a letter in the mail stating the obvious and now will only get 7c or something like that.
with the new rates i wouldnt bother unless its a realy big system that will cover your needs twice, this way you can make sure you cover your usage and have some credits left over taking into account solar panel efficiency drop (eventually), shitty overcast days, shade from nearby trees/dwellings etc.
also 4kw is quite a number of panels on the roof, make sure you have enough room in the right orientation to make the most out of it. this will be the most important factor in governing how much energy you produce.

[matt1991]

I use to work for origin energy and solar panels from a making money point of view is just not worth it. About 5 years back that is when everyone should have made the investment as the gov was offering a rebate of up to 55cents per kw you put back into the grid. These days the offer like you said is 6c.

Although it is a great initiative from an environmental point of view but in reality it would take you approximately 6.5 years to recoup your funds. For example if you're putting 20kw a day into the grid and only using 12kw, essentially you should never receive an elec bill. If you elec bill is an average of $350 per quarter then that is money you're saving on top of the extra 6c.

My view if you have the extra cash go for it.

[Bayrock]

Ripoff at present.
Wait a few years for battery technology to mature and become cheaper.
I looked into it recently and with the recent changes it is not even close to worth it.

[coln72]

We are also lucky enough to qualify for the old 65c payback system (dont ask me about the fights with the electricity company though to get on the scheme....). We generate up to 30 kw per day over summer. If we don't touch the account - the electricity company will allow us to claim back money if we are in credit - we wont pay a power or gas bill at all over the year. Not bad for a family with 5 kids. We used to pay up to $600 a quarter.

With the current scheme, you need to consider what return you would get if you invested the money. Would the interest that you earn on the investment be more or less than the money you save on your power bills?

Also, unless the solar panel supplier has actually visited your house and checked for any issues like trees, orientation, area available, roof mounted air con etc, walk away. Heard a few stories of companies just using google maps the look at a house and guessing from that. Even to the point of making there calculations off the wrong house.....

[Stewy]

These days your not getting good cash for the kw your selling back to the company.( and your not using any electricity that you make)
To turn that around and get maximum savings I would be looking at batteries for your system and use the electricity that you make.
There for you are using your own power during day and night and only buy power when you require it. And sell back when you do not require or you have to much.
Cheers Stewy

[ingeer]

it's not worth getting at the moment IMHO, wait till price of battery walls reduced and you are good to cut off grid which could really save you heaps. As long as you are connected to grid, you cannot avoid the miserable fate of paying outraged energy bill...

[kahlua_khan]

We looked into solar but decided against it. We use most of our power at night as we're out of the house in the day time and the feed in tariffs were not enough to justify the costs. Depending on your energy retailer you might be able to access data from your smart meter which shows when you're using your electricity which might help make your decision. The Jemena one is at https://electricityoutlook.jemena.com.au/.

[re-tyred]

Ok some big errors in some of the above.... Firstly you need to know how much power you use during the day.. If no one is home on most days and you do not have heavy consumption appliances running during the day then you will not use much power. If this is the case save your money and move on.
However solar is economic for people that are in the position to use their power during daylight hours. For example us. We are both semi retired and can make sure we do most of the heavy power using during the day.
Another thing is it is not the total you generate that counts. It is the peak load situations. E.G. If I am generating 3kw and I am using 3kw then I import nothing and earn 30c x 3kw per hour off my bill. If I use 4kw at time but only generate 3kw then I will be importing 1kw and paying for it..
If a cloud goes over and the solar drops to 1kw then I would be importing 3kw and paying for it. this is all done second by second. You might make 20kwhr for the day but if you only use 5kwhr then you will only save yourself 5kwhrs x 30c or less if you happen to use it when it is cloudy.

A bit difficult to get your head around. So I will give you our situation and savings
First of all we are all electric except for wood heating. We do not have gas. We have electric storage hot water and a Spa. electric stove, fridges lights etc. We purchased a 4.5kw system 3 years ago. We do not claim any feed in tariff. Our average use was 22kwhrs per day imported from the grid before we installed solar.
With our solar we installed a sunnymate electric hot water switch. This is an electronic device that skims off any excess solar and sends it to heat the hot water, so it stores the excess power as hot water. Our spa has a timer on it so that it heats in the afternoon when our hot water is hot. So it too stores power as warm water. We are home so we can put on dishwashers and washing machines when the sun is shining. I have a power monitor software setup so that I can see exactly how much the solar produces in real time. I can also see how much power is imported or exported in real time. I have the AGL software to monitor power imported in half hour block.
So here are the results.
Three years ago 22kwhrs per day average, that is 8 Mwt/hrs per annum. Approx 2Mwt/hrs of this was hot water. @15c = $330 the remaining 6mwt/hrs @0.30c =$1800 this does not include the daily connection charge. We get some discount for early payment and pension card holders so our total power bill was in the order of $2400 per annum.
So now with a $10000 investment. $8000 for the solar system and $2000 for the sunny mate and a new switchboard.(sunny mate is $1000).
We import just 7kw per day on average. 7 x 0.30c $2.10 per day plus $1.25 per day connection charge. $3.35 x 365 =$1222 less our discounts.
So we save $1000-$1200 per annum at current prices. As they go up we are not as effected as we only have a small import from the grid. Return on our money is 8-10 years approx. All this without claiming anything for the power we export.
Oh and for those that have followed the maths and say "hang on you are counting the 7kwhrs at 0.30c what about the hot water rate".. Well since fitting it we have used almost no grid power to heat hot water.
We in fact use most of the power we generate hence not bothered to claim for exported power.

[ducky]

Nice one re-tyred. Solar isn't a one size fits all proposition. As per my first post if you change your ways and run electrical equipment during the day instead of at night you are effectively saving a lot more money than the alternative.

As for battery tech like the tesla battery wall. Eventually this will become very common and I can see auto transfer switches and the like coming in where you can charge up during the day and use the power as you wish at any stage of the day and night. This tech is getting better and better every year. Not so much the case with Solar panels though. When I was installing at the peak when everyone was getting on board we were putting in 150 watt panels. This rose to 175 watt panels in 6 months. Now, most panels are around the 250 watt mark. Some are higher but they are also physically bigger. Not a huge change in the 5-6 years it's been.

I'd personally be looking at putting on the largest size I can afford now. Then looking at battery tech in the future as it gets better. More efficient. Smaller and ultimately cheaper.