We got quotation from Brighte on 0% interest free payment plan (basically $8,500 over 2 years). There is 3-4K grant from government. Installing on roof of the house.
They are installing 320W panels (BLade series), i think with around 3W output. Basically, they said that our bill would be halves? We pay around $300 very quarter.
Just seeing anyone has had any experience recently? It seems we found a company who does best SEO.
Yeah. looks like it. I think the government grant would be there. Still would take >7years to recover.
I think you need to do some research before you spend thousands of dollars.
https://www.energymatters.com.au/ or solar quotes are reasonable places to start.
FWIW, I don't see how solar could save half a $300/qtr bill, as $90 of that will be service charge, and a typical house uses about half their power in the evening.
Even without the details, nothing you have posted suggests it is a particularly good deal (actually the opposite).
The solar industry is full of scammers.
I googled and the company you’re dealing with are just solar finance.
Everything about this rings alarm bells.
Thanks a lot. Really helpful.
Scamming aside, you gotta look at your usage pattern, and where the panels will be orientated to understand impact on your bill. Your choice of energy provider affects the cost saving. You could be on a plan that has high supply rate, so solar may not save you that much.
You may not be going to self consume much of the solar power to half your bill. Expect performance difference with summer and winter. For example, my 3.5kw peaks at 2kw and generates 11kwh a day in winter, but goes max chicken and generates 26kwh a day in summer.
Also look at what inverter (size and model) they are providing.
My 3.5kw costed me $5500 two years ago to install on a two storey building.
Go to Solar Quotes and they'll put you in touch with 3 reputable companies to get quotes.
It is about $1k per kilowatt installed in metro. $1.2k for regional areas. Before subsidies and interest free loans. So it would be like $6k for a 6kw system.
Generally people don't upgrade by adding more panels because the panels may not be made anymore, you will need to rip out your inverter and put in a new one (which means you might as well replace your old panels).
Thanks a lot
Thanks a lot everyone. This was very helpful.
As suspected, brighter just do the SEO really well and hence show up on top in Google.
Everyone's feedback was really helpful.
Brighte on 0% interest free payment plan (basically $8,500 over 2 years).
For a 3kw system this isn't 0 percent interest…it's closer to about 100 percent for what the system should cost
There is 3-4K grant from government.
This is nothing new. Recs have been around for ages and all installers will utilise them selling them in the total cost of a solar system installation
They are installing 320W panels (BLade series), i think with around 3W output
A 3kw system is kind of pointless these days and those panels are pretty low end (likely the inverter is even lower end based on that company reputation and what they are trying to offer.) They are praying on people being uninformed and the sales guy likely makes a huge commission on every deal sold.
Spent about 6k for a relatively middle of the road 6kw panel/5kw inverter system and you'll likely offset the majority of your bills over the entire year (export in credit over summer offsetting higher bills in winter) with a decent fit (feed in tariff ) rate.
Go to solarquotes and do some reading , rewquet a quote from 3 installers in your area and see what they offer. It's likely to be massively better value than what you've posted above.
Thanks a lot. Makes perfect sense
I don't quite understand what you have written which probably means you don't quite understand what the salesman told you. (fair enough).
$8500 sounds a lot unless it is an absolute premium 6.6kw system with micro-inverters.
Have a good read of Finn Peacock's SolarQuotes site.
6.6kw of panels with a 5kw inverter was the sweet spot in 2018. Possibly it's a bit bigger now.
Our 6.4kw panels with 5kw inverter was $3900 in Sep 2018 from Captain Green (who gets quite variable reviews but we are happy). It was a mid-range system. It will have paid for itself by June 2021 (33months). Our bill was $300-$600/qtr but that's been wiped out.
At the same time we changed a lot of 50w downlight to 10w LEDs under the NSW government scheme. The biggest saving on electricity is the electricity that you never use.
I think you can do much better
Thanks. Actually you right. I got confused. My quote was for 6.6w. but it seems Brighte are charging extra 3-4k compared to what everyone paid.
Also from what they said was that bill will be halved.
We cancelled with brighte.
Which company did you use to install?
Thanks. Actually you right. I got confused. My quote was for 6.6w. but it seems Brighte are charging extra 3-4k compared to what everyone paid.
Also from what they said was that bill will be halved. Not sure why they said that. So only saving $150 per quarter.
We cancelled with brighte.
Which company did you use to install?
Hi All.
I spoke to Brighte again.I put incorrect information.
This is their pitch:
They installing close to 10W. They reckon our $300 per quarter bill (we currently have 3W) will go down to zero. This is by zero consuption during daytime and the credit back from the grid (aparently AGL give back highest credit).
To someone's point earlier, $90 is service charge. So, can't go to zero.
To someone's point earlier, $90 is service charge. So, can't go to zero.
yes it can.. FIT offsets entire bill
My 6kw system gives me a bill in credit from about Sept->April
Still incredibly low quality gear from a sales company, not a solar company
You can easily do better if you can be bothered doing some research and getting quotes from reputable installers (and ignore the 0% interest 'scam', its built into the price..its not 0%)
Yeah i agree. How much did you pay for your setup?
As I said earlier, there is a lot of factor affecting your return of investment.
Assume you will upgrade your inverter to be 10kW.
Assume your extra 6.6kW panels will be north facing.
Assume your new panels will perform like my neighbours one which generated 6470kWh from his 3.6kW systems last year.
Then your new 6.6kw might generate 11860kWh in first year.
Assume you don't self consume any of that, and your FiT rate is 8c/kWh. You will gross 11860x$0.08=$950pa or $237pq.
So the sale pitch is not far from truth. You need to know the assumptions made.
Thanks a lot. I'll go through solar quotes and go through the process. As bare minimum doesn't make sense to take any interest free deals. Surely there has to be savings on that side.
You save $600 a year and you pay $8,500 so you need more than 14 years to break even.
Not too sound for me