Charlie & Mish, Elanora Heights
2022, 2023
Installers
Initial installation June 2022 (20 Solar Panels):
EFS Solar - Cost $9,600
Upgrade Sept 2023 (Battery & EV chargers):
RenewCo - Cost $17,950
What was installed?
EPS Solar
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Solar Panels: Canadian-Hiku 370w 7.4kW power rating for array
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GW8500-MS Goodwe 8.5kw Single Phase Inverter)
RenewCo
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Tesla Powerwall II 13.5 kWh
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Tesla Inverter/Controller (COM-TL Energy Gateway 2)
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Tesla EV Charger 3P (Tesla Wall Connector - 32A max)
Selection Process
The plan was to get 3 quotes, but after the first one, we were impressed enough to go with it!
This was before the 2022 election, so the market was not swamped with companies trying to flog their services, so maybe the risk of scammers was lower. We made our initial selection of companies to quote via recommendations and reviews on the ‘Solar Quotes’ website.
After having solar for a year, we went to the NetZero Expo in Mona Vale, and there we chatted to Norman Kozlowski & Matthew Summerville from RenewCo Solar about the option of installing a battery and EV charger as we were about to replace our old ICE cars with EVs.
Reason for Selection
After contacting EFS Solar based on their reviews, they provided us more details about the process, products used and funding options. They then requested copies of our last 2-4 electricity bills, and used this information to prepare a detailed recommendation, which the representative went through with us on the evening he visited our home.
Based on this, they recommended a setup of 20 panels, which would provide us with more than enough power to meet our needs based on our previous year’s bills. They used aerial photo’s at different times of the day to suggest an ideal placement of the panels. It was a bit of information overload, but in the end, we felt they did a good job of explaining the options and cost and decided to go ahead after just one quote. To be honest, I really did not want to be pressured by other installers and have to explain reasons why we selected one over the other.
After meeting with RenewCo at the NetZero Expo in Mona Vale, we arranged a site inspection and discussion about our options to install a battery and EV charger. We also discussed the benefits of switching electricity providers and potential future plans to replace gas hot water and cooktops with an electric heatpump and induction cook top. In all respects, RenewCo was awesome to deal with and managed a very smooth installation.
Outcome
After a year of having solar, we definitely noticed that our electricity bill (through Energy Australia) had reduced by about 40% compared to the previous year, but the main saving was in the summer months, when we were using aircon during the day. In winter months, there was not a massive difference as we tended to use heating at night (whilst also generating less solar).
As we were both working, much of our energy usage was in the evening, especially in winter, so we decided to look into a battery that could at least store some of the energy generated during the day for later use. At this time, we were also looking to replace our old ICE cars with EV’s, so in in Sept 2023, we took the plunge to invest in a battery and EV charger. We also took the opportunity to switch to Amber as our provider allowing us to take advantage of their SmartShift battery management system that allowed us store energy when it was cheap and sell it back to the grid during price spikes.
The effect was almost immediate, with our electricity bills further dropping to between $150-$250 per quarter in addition to longer paying about $500 a month for petrol for 2 ICE cars. We replaced both cars with Tesla’s that we mainly charge at home, thus our current electricity bill includes the cost of EV charging, and our winter bills remain low as we are able to use stored energy from the battery for night time heating.
With petrol and electricity costs combined, our annual cost before solar was about $8,000 pa, now reduced to about $800, or a cost saving of $7.2k pa. Based on this, we anticipate a return of investment costs in about 4 years.
What I would do differently
Not much – We’re very happy with the system and the significant savings in energy costs which we feel will cover the costs of installation. Perhaps the only thing was that I was unaware of was the difference between systems based on a string inverter or individual microinverters. As our panels are in series, when one becomes shaded in the late afternoon, our output drops significantly. I don’t recall this being discussed during our initial consultation with EFS (maybe it was and I don’t remember, as this was all very new to us at the time), however in retrospect, I think installing a system with microinverters would have given us an extra hour or two of energy production each day.
For our first year with just solar panels, we had the Goodwe phone app to monitor solar production and output, and it was actually pretty basic and clunky. After we installed the battery and EV chargers we were able to switch to the Tesla app, which along with the Amber app as the energy provider is so, so much better at monitoring the system and making information available.
