Solar... who's clued in?

shiny said:
Anyone running batteries or looking to install with the new rebates? Any cons or things to watch out for?

Currently have a 5kw system - company that installed it in 2013 happy to add more panels to go to 10kw, new inverter choice of 16kw or 19kw battery for $420 extra and EV charger (Goodwe brand) but comes to $14k so going on current bills probably looking at 7-8 years ROI.

Solar feed ins are dwindling and talk of being charged to export solar seems nuts and better to send solar to a battery but initial investment is high - need to see how long the rebates are running for.
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We looked at a battery just before the election. And it didn't make sense. Now with the rebates...it still doesn't make sense. If we had an EV, it might make sense...but the battery in the EV might be five times the size of the house battery. And until there's more EVs that can do V2G then I'm not playing.

And we've still got to cough up $1.50 a day to be connected to the grid. Which is actually our biggest energy cost...

At this point, batteries are how someone else profits from you paying for them
 
Thanks @silentbutdeadly @indica does your current power plans have good feed ins? If I move to an Ev plan (8 cents a kw overnight) the feed in is 2cents a kw. Hard to calculate but moving to a bigger solar system I would produce more solar but if they start charging to export then seems better to drop excess into a battery and run off that at night? In my head during winter would charge an Ev overnight when we are producing less and try to charge off excess in Summer.
 
The smartest thing is to get the correct number of panels for your situation.
Feed in is worthless ,batteries cost a bit ,too many panels is stupid.
Best to do a house audit and estimate your realistic daily consumption having minimised hot water[ go solar ]and realistic reverse cycle heating/ cooling.
If you have too many panels then consider an EV to charge. V2H will slowly come.
 
shiny said:
does your current power plans have good feed ins?
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I'm with ergon, it has recently dropped from 12c back to 8c where it was a few years ago. I will charge the car from the excess during the day like I did at the last house we owned.

rowdyflat said:
Feed in is worthless
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I made $200 a month from a shite feed in tariff in my last house. 16.65kW facing north. Not worthless.
 
Feed in is worthless here < 1 cent per Kw hr ,there is too much from solar panels 10-3 pm. despite a large community battery.
Sure it use to be great but that was a while ago.
 
hence why I believe it is worthwhile trying to estimate the solar panel requirements carefully.
When feed in was 66 cents feed in for 10 years on a contract or 20+ cents casually it didnt matter how many panels
We would have maybe 60-70% solar panels in a sunny area and community battery is 274 kWhr, new one is another 200 and the nearby Dederang one is 500 ,although there are lots of nearby NIMBYs objecting.
typical of NIMBYs they have invented all sorts of fanciful reasons.
 
Thread bump. Commonwealth home batteries scheme is a thing. I got gobsmacked with a $150 for 10kWh battery quote last year, hoping some cheap chinese cowboys turn up the stakes. Whos clued in and what's a decent deal? (I got 8kW at the moment)

Cheaper Home Batteries Program - DCCEEW

The $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program is now available to help more people install batteries. Australia is a world leader in rooftop solar with more than 4 million rooftop solar PV systems, however only one in 40 households have installed batteries. The high upfront cost of batteries...
www.dcceew.gov.au www.dcceew.gov.au
 
Calvin27 said:
Thread bump. Commonwealth home batteries scheme is a thing. I got gobsmacked with a $150 for 10kWh battery quote last year, hoping some cheap chinese cowboys turn up the stakes. Whos clued in and what's a decent deal? (I got 8kW at the moment)

Cheaper Home Batteries Program - DCCEEW

The $2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program is now available to help more people install batteries. Australia is a world leader in rooftop solar with more than 4 million rooftop solar PV systems, however only one in 40 households have installed batteries. The high upfront cost of batteries...
www.dcceew.gov.au www.dcceew.gov.au
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I don't think that the costs have changed that much even with the updated scheme. I haven't checked but I can't imagine that it's got much better than the roughly $1,000 per kWh of battery that I was quoted.

I'd also be careful about the inverter etc that supports the battery in terms of quality and support. I have had a squiz at an EmPower system which is more than just a battery inverter. It also supports load shifting for hot water, bidirectional charging for EVs and a host of other monitoring features that would be useful. Still...until we have an EV with V2G capability (and a spare!!)...I don't think we are jumping on this.
 
silentbutdeadly said:
It also supports load shifting for hot water, bidirectional charging for EVs and a host of other monitoring features that would be useful. Still...until we have an EV with V2G capability (and a spare!!)...I don't think we are jumping on this.
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Yeah same here so far. I was told my 3 year old inverter was battery ready, turns out fronius decided to change their inverter compatibility for newer batteries so there goes that. Add to this they are all proprietory so batteries, and inverters only speak to their own brand which sucks. I can't imagine v2g compatibility would make that more seemless let alone integrating other stuff.

Seems like batteries reached enshitification real quick.
 
rowdyflat said:
We are still using Lead Acid batteries they work OK and work with anything.
At home , weight is not an issue ,they are cheaper and easily recycled.
Can even use a welder with them , Lithium are too fussy.
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I want to hear more about this setup.

Installed by an electrician?

Totally off-grid?

I feel like lead acid/agm style batteries are a safer option too.
 
Yes all properly installed off grid since about 2010.
Batteries are still going ,obviously you dont want to discharge them too far, so it cuts out at 50%.
Twice we got to 50% cos we charged our car and forgot about it.
About 6kW of panels ,40 kW hr batteries , small hydro turbine.
 
rowdyflat said:
Yes all properly installed off grid since about 2010.
Batteries are still going ,obviously you dont want to discharge them too far, so it cuts out at 50%.
Twice we got to 50% cos we charged our car and forgot about it.
About 6kW of panels ,40 kW hr batteries , small hydro turbine.
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How's the hydro turbine powered?

You got a creek running through your property?
 
Yes creek runs into dam which has a pipe under the wall drops about 12m into a turbine and back to the creek.
Has run for about 15 years x 24 hrs a day except in droughts or when a fish or yabbi was stuck.
Its suitable for hilly places with a reliable creek, which needs to be temporarily diverted ,it is good in winter when there is less solar.
Our house is 2km from the grid.
 
When we built back in the last ice age we contemplated staying off grid. House is 300m from reticulated overhead wires. Cost for a contractor was about 10% of the cost of the dirt. So I did it with the aid of a work sparky. Cable, swa 90mm2 4 core and earth, may have fallen off the back of a truck. Maybe $3k plus alcohol. Solar + wind + barreries was 3-4× the cost of others running the cables so not an option when you are squeezing every penny to build.
 
rowdyflat said:
We are still using Lead Acid batteries they work OK and work with anything.
At home , weight is not an issue ,they are cheaper and easily recycled.
Can even use a welder with them , Lithium are too fussy.
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Not going to disagree. If I were going off grid from scratch then I'd be going with lead-acid batteries...no question.

Unfortunately, the way our grid setup is on the property, we'd end up with a small battery shed right in our front yard if we used 15 kWh worth of lead acid batteries, especially if they were 2 volt units. Whereas 15 kWh worth of lithium battery and the inverter etc that goes with it fits into a small cupboard (or behind the existing power box in our front yard).
 
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