Im better of purchasing a electric car in the future rather than a solar powered roof setup.
For my instance anyways the saving alone in petrol for me would be a far better investment..

hey is there isolation issues ?Do you have to get an electrician to change a lightbulb?
Can you flick a button and isloate to change a socket etc?

fireprone area the solar power is turned off once the powerlines burn down.
on a rural property a 3 phase diesel generator is a better investment. Cause solar power dont work if the powers out.

teatrea said...

Im in the solar indusrty 13 years , solar can be a great investment if done correctly. One word of caution dont rely on a 25 year guarantee in most cases its not worth the paper its written on. Factor in the cost of a new inverter after 10 years , if its a high quality one , 5 years if cheap , or in some cases less.Solar panels are not maintenece free! Solar panels should be chosen for their particular perfromance characteristics , that suit your local climate. Ie some work better than others in hot weather , cold weather , low light ect. Number one rule buy cheap get cheap

There was some noise a while back about a technical leap in solar panel design that worked 30-40% better then current market options.
Nothing heard since. Was it a furphy or legit?

mineral1 said...

teatrea said...

Im in the solar indusrty 13 years , solar can be a great investment if done correctly. One word of caution dont rely on a 25 year guarantee in most cases its not worth the paper its written on. Factor in the cost of a new inverter after 10 years , if its a high quality one , 5 years if cheap , or in some cases less.Solar panels are not maintenece free! Solar panels should be chosen for their particular perfromance characteristics , that suit your local climate. Ie some work better than others in hot weather , cold weather , low light ect. Number one rule buy cheap get cheap

There was some noise a while back about a technical leap in solar panel design that worked 30-40% better then current market options.
Nothing heard since. Was it a furphy or legit?

Ive have been hearing about the latest greatest solar panel coming out for 13 years , the highest perfroming panel right know is Sunpower , followed by Sanyo and if you have a whopping big roof and live north of sysdney thin film panels are great in hot climates.I think it will be a long time before we see panels 40 to 50%.Best is only 18.5% at present. Solar thermal is where the future lies for big production.1000w meter squared daily hits the earth , thats a lot of power iwhen it can be harnessed.Solar thermal plants are popping up everywhere as usual Australia is way behind the eightball , we have to much stuff to dig up and cut down!

busterwa said...

Im better of purchasing a electric car in the future rather than a solar powered roof setup.
For my instance anyways the saving alone in petrol for me would be a far better investment..

I am with you on that! I saw a report on the Cheery electric car already in production in china, its sells for less than $25000-00 and is capable of 120 km/h has a range of 150 km, 5 doors, full charge in 6 hours or 80% charge in 1/2 hour. No hybrid gimmick, I would buy one now if it was available here! Would be perfect to commute daily, the bonus is electric motor do not require extensive servicing. The Chinese seems to be able to produce lithium batteries at very low cost. The actual cost is close to $ 1000-00 per KW and to have an efficient car you would need between 40 and 50 KW battery pack. I am very curious to see if the car will be imported here, we do not want to upset BP and Shell do we?
you can check it here
http://www.cheryinternational.com/en/engine_technology

Before installing solar in anywhere with a net feed-in tariff, you MUST reduce your energy use as low as it can go first.

Example:

Average Aussie house with 500W on standby when no-one is at home / everyone's asleep (could be far higher - I see houses with 1000W standby loads occasionally).

Assume that a system will be generating 500W or more for ten hours a day.
500W x 10 hours = 5kWh that's getting soaked up by your standby and not going back to the grid.

5kWh x 0.60c (VIC Feed-in tariff) = $3.00 per day you're missing out on = maybe $1000 a year you're missing out on.

That's going to affect your payback time dramatically.

Look at my profile for who I work for if you want to the tools to see how to reduce that standby load.

Once you've sorted that power use out, then go get your solar panels.

My 2 bed apartment uses an average of 4kWh per day here in VIC. Shame I can't put panels on it.

So FlickySpinny here is a hypothetical... how many panels, what area would it take up and what would be an approx $ investment to make a reasonable income from a solar farm? (say $1000 per day) [just a ballpark not a quote]

Just thinking as a retirement life style.

Gizmo said...

So just a question to solar power owners, actually how many Kw does each system or panel generate in an average day, not what the system is rated at but some real life figures. And are some panels more efficient than others?

I would rate our system at 70% of the possible 3kw.
we do have rather a lot of sun , its biggest downfall is that 1 row of panels is too flat for my liking. BUT if you tilt the panels on a frame , rather than flat on the roof, it becomes a Structure that need building approval.
In late afternoon we get a shadow across 3 panels from a neighbours pencil pine. which reduces the voltage 1/2 hr earlier

choco said...
If you pay 20c for a unit of power and recieve 47 cents from pushing power back into the grid why did you even bother getting solar panels?
Why not just re - route and push the nromal power back into the grid and make 27 cents?

Genius - then all you gotta do is re route the up stream feed to every other house is the street so its their down stream feed and you're making loadsa money!

There you go Gizmo [}:)] retire in style.

Gizmo said...

This is getting better and better... perpetual motion [and they said it didn't exist]and make $$ as well

... just a little fun story: when I was young(er) my parents used to grow strawberries at their vegiepatch. All the surplus strawberries I was allowed to sell for pocket money. So I went to the local (government owned) supermarket and sold them for $5.00/kg. But if was in the mood for some strawberries myself I could go back in and buy the very same strawberries for $2.50/kg

Where did I grow up?

rod_bunny said...
Looking to push the button on getting some panels... but curious as to where I can cut down use first. ie exactly what does the AC use and can I just turn off all the lights and TV and be cool for the same cost

Generally speaking (every house / system / set up is different)...
Your AC is usually a massive culprit in your power bills.

For example - my north/west facing apartment with lots of glass and no shading usually uses approx 4 kWh per day. Approx half of that is used by the fridge, plus a bit for the electric hob, and the remainder is the lights (energy saving), internet router, laptop charger, TV, etc.

HOWEVER, on a stinking hot day when I need to run my AC all day, I can use 45 kWh! Ideally I would like to shade the windows, install double-glazing, etc, but I rent. Seeing as the place is freezing in winter as well, we're solving the issue by moving.

I believe the latest statistics are that approx 50% of an Australian home's typical power use is for heating and cooling, so my first port of call would be to insulate / shade / draught exclude / double-glaze your home to within an inch of it's life.

That should be a starting point for you. The main point is that most people have no idea what an appliance costs to run - whether the electric heater or a light globe costs more money to run.... the answer is that a heater (typically) uses approx 200 x more than an energy efficient light globe. Our equipment shows you the cost of your actions.

Gizmo said...

So FlickySpinny here is a hypothetical... how many panels, what area would it take up and what would be an approx $ investment to make a reasonable income from a solar farm? (say $1000 per day) [just a ballpark not a quote]

Just thinking as a retirement life style.

Doesn't quite work like that... there's a maximum size for systems that qualify for the feed-in tariffs in most states of 5 kW. However, ACT have just increased things so (I think) 5 - 30 kW systems can be put on commercial buildings. I'd expect to see the rest of the states follow over the next couple of years.

rod_bunny said...
Intrigued Any chance of a Seabreeze discount or group buy?
When are the IAMs due out?

IAMs due out in the next couple of months. Going through safety testing at the moment.
If anyone wants a Seabreeze discount then please PM me and I'll sort you out!

FlickySpinny said...

Gizmo said...

So FlickySpinny here is a hypothetical... how many panels, what area would it take up and what would be an approx $ investment to make a reasonable income from a solar farm? (say $1000 per day) [just a ballpark not a quote]

Just thinking as a retirement life style.

Doesn't quite work like that... there's a maximum size for systems that qualify for the feed-in tariffs in most states of 5 kW. However, ACT have just increased things so (I think) 5 - 30 kW systems can be put on commercial buildings. I'd expect to see the rest of the states follow over the next couple of years.

I would have thought if governments were serious "Green Power" there would be no maximum limit, this would then drive lower costs of PV manufacture and other green power development.
I'm always amazed flying into a city how much roof space on buildings that could be used for power generation.

What is an IAM

Pweedas actually has a point once you start getting into the economic modelling and the pyramid fraud that is RECs.... however this is a complex topic and I'm not going to go into it here.

The point is that from an individual point of view it makes a lot of sense to put solar panels on your roof and benefit from the feed-in tariff, and I'm recommending that friends of mine do it.

Unfortunately, it's actually a relatively ineffective way of replacing power generation capacity / reducing CO2 emissions in terms of bang for your buck, but that's the government's fault, not the individuals'.

I won't go into the details here, but for anyone seriously interested in this topic here's a great link:

http://energy.unimelb.edu.au/ozsebtn/ - the PDF download is free.

Mobydisc said...

Mecky said...

Gizmo said...

This is getting better and better... perpetual motion [and they said it didn't exist]and make $$ as well

... just a little fun story: when I was young(er) my parents used to grow strawberries at their vegiepatch. All the surplus strawberries I was allowed to sell for pocket money. So I went to the local (government owned) supermarket and sold them for $5.00/kg. But if was in the mood for some strawberries myself I could go back in and buy the very same strawberries for $2.50/kg

Where did I grow up?

East Germany?

Yep, you are right, East Germany Bist Du denn auch ein Ossie? How many more are there in Aussie Land?

Why not just take an extension cord from your power point and feed the power back in after the inverter and prior to the meter.
That way the electricity company can buy their own power back

Just remember to turn it off at night or they will smell something dodgy