[NSW] Suggestion for Solar Panel, Inverter, Battery

• 

  brad1-8tsi on 04/08/2025 - 21:21

  +7

  solarquotes.com.au is always a good place to start.
  Lots of (fairly) non-biased information and reviews.

  When looking at installer reviews the poor reviews reveal a lot more than the good ones. My Installer got 4.8 stars and they were outright liars.

  Really hard to give more info because you haven't said where you live or given a budget

  • 

    joshjosh210 on 05/08/2025 - 07:16

    +2

    Solar Quotes was fantastic - but just be aware it was sold off to Origin Energy at the end of 2024. I did a quote request recently here in Melbourne and got connected with some interesting installers to say the least.

    • 

      jjjaar on 05/08/2025 - 07:30

      +1

      Agree - I’ve spoken about this before but solar quotes isn’t what it used to be.

      Good place to start your research, but I don’t trust the recommended installers anymore.

      • 

        furyou on 10/08/2025 - 16:30

        I agree solar quotes is kind of rigged because of the way it's set up most of the installers are going to get only good reviews.
        Any good installer can be bought out the next day and the new owners can claim they know nothing about your install

• 

  Hybroid on 04/08/2025 - 22:22

  +1

  Calculate the ROI for the setup. You're looking at $15-20,000 for that system. That's ~8 years to break even if your bill became $0. But it won't be because of supply charges & incidential usage etc., so maybe even longer. Still worth doing?

  P.S. Only $250 for an aircon running 24/7 all month is fantastic.

  • 

    Ocker on 05/08/2025 - 07:50

    Yeh, I wish ours was only $250. We have a ducted 7 outlet system and running it 18 hours a day costs around $18.00 - and thats with a 6Kw solar system

• 

  Gotchas on 05/08/2025 - 09:43

  +1

  Genuine question. Can someone tell me the need to run aircon 18-24 hours a day

  We run ours 18-24 mins a day on the coldest days during the winter months and maybe for 2-3 hours for the real stinky hot nights in peak summer set at 25/26 degrees

  • 

    JDMcarfan on 05/08/2025 - 10:09

    +3

    you have a properly insulated house. you don't have individuals with advanced needs living at home.
    you house is likely not very open plan/you and your house companions use one common living space most of the time
    if you still have regular jobs, the house is unoccupied for many hours a day. some homes are occupied 24/7 now.

  • 

    LFO on 05/08/2025 - 10:38

    The personal individual answer is "how conformable you want to be and what are your expectations".

    The meaning of a "warm room" is different for everyone. As well as the meaning of ann entire warm house.
    Lots of people love the "crisp" (aka COLD) feeling, others hate it with passion.

    Same with coldness.

    So personal and individual that is not funny …

  • 

    cloudy on 05/08/2025 - 12:04

    I know people who like to wear tee shirts and shorts all year long :S

    It seems crazy to me too, but oh well, the best thing we can do to discourage shorts-all-year-long behaviour is keep raising electricity prices to the point where we stop doing silly things with our power. We are certainly not at that point yet.

  • 

    furyou on 10/08/2025 - 16:32

    You realise it's not just about on and off right. When you run it for 2 hours from when it's really hot it's using a lot more energy than someone running an extra two hours when it's already cooled down.

    See absolutely can't just judge it on the hours

    • 

      tunzafun001 on 11/08/2025 - 10:38

      Not really sure what you are saying here. But an AC is never more efficient than the first 10 mins it runs (as the outside coils dissipate to ambient outside temps when resting - ie.you get the heat exchange with no input).

      Also, you are constantly fighting equilibrium with the outside temp. The longer you run it, the bigger the difference. Only way to use less, is to run it less frequently.

      Lastly, you can reduce the amount of energy your AC uses by changing the amps it draws. On our 2009 Fujitsu ducted unit, there is a jumper on the board. Some do it via the remote. Default is 22Amps. I set ours to 16Amps.

      What this does is slow the compressor spin speed and in our case keeps energy usage under our solar input (now never used more than 4.5kw). In terms of effect on the unit, it will just last longer (win/ win).. However, it may need to be put back to max if it doesn't keep up in a heat wave etc. We haven't needed to in 6 years. But I know there is more power if needed.

• 

  Bignudge on 05/08/2025 - 10:12

  +1

  My bedroom split system AC has a cooling capacity of 2.5KW and uses 0.5kWh when the compressor is running. Setting it at 23 degrees on a hot night…. it usually fires up for 5 mins every 15 mins (~33% duty). Running it overnight for 8 hours means it uses 1.32kWh of electricity. At $0.36/kWh…. that's $0.48 per night or $43.20 if I ran it for 90 nights straight, and that's for one room overnight.

  Not worth getting a $5000+ solar battery

• 

  LFO on 05/08/2025 - 10:29

  Apparently Bunnings have started to sell/offer "zero up-front" solar & batteries & inverter. So, perhaps, this might help.

  That all I know, available in NSW (as for now).

  • 

    furyou on 10/08/2025 - 16:33

    I've looked at the Bunnings offer their quote is very average. Around the price of solar quotes installs

• 

  mackyE on 05/08/2025 - 15:38

  Just got my system last week, single phase, Sigenergy 10KW invertor, 24KW battery, 18KW panels (2/3 N 1/3 E) in Brisbane. 5 of us in the house (3 teenagers). So far completly self sufficent, not using any power from the grid even on some cloudy days. Last bill was $250 per month, expecting around $30 a month profit but will be better when we check out a differnet plan. In short totally worth it but your limited roof space is an issue. From my calculations put as many panels as you can fit, even if they are not ideal. Panels are cheap! While we are not able to export a lot of the extra energy produced with the 5KW per hour limit the advantage is we get enough power early morning/late evening and when some cloud. Only time we will need the grid is when it is raining or 100% clouds for more that 2 days. On the plus side I think NSW gets some extra subsidies we dont get in QLD? ROI is going to be around 6.5 years without inflation effects.

  • 

    cjr on 05/08/2025 - 16:23

    Would you be able to share your installer and cost for the system? Looking for something similar in Brisbane.
    Thanks!

    • 

      mackyE on 06/08/2025 - 14:56

      We used UV Power . They were neither the cheapest of the most expensive. Still early to see if we ROI is going to be accurate, will see when we get a better FIT plan and longer days. We reused 13 of our old 315W panels and 30 new 440W but there is a limit to how many you can put on a string. The Sig 10KW invertor has 4 strings. Basically worth getting a few quotes once you know exactly what you want.

• 

  tenpercent on 05/08/2025 - 17:16

  we use aircon almost 7/24

  7 hours a day isn't too heavy considering you're at home the whole day

• 

  Frankensnore on 06/08/2025 - 04:33

  try ahe group for a quote, i recently have a great experience with them