Which Electricity Company pays the most for your solar electricity?

October 25, 2010 2017-05-03T13:51:26 by 1 Comment

Update: Feb 27 2015: Please note the date on this blog post is October 2010 – so the information is out of date.

The best way to find good electricity tariff deals for solar owners in 2015 is the surprisingly good government website:

www.energymadeeasy.gov.au

Go to that website, click on the red ‘residential’ button, enter your postcode, check the ‘offers available to solar owners’ box and follow the prompts.

A company offering very good Feed In rates ($0.12 in some areas) is “Click Energy”.

———————

 

Those nice folk at the Alternative Energy Association have just released a really useful survey.

They paid someone to go round every electricity company in Australia to find out which company will give you the best deal if you have a solar energy system on your home.

My advice: read the survey for each state and switch to the company that:

a) pays the most

and

b) has the most solar friendly terms.

For example some companies may offer a great rate per kWh, but only give you it as a credit on your bill. Others may make you fill out a zillion forms before you actually receive it.

The one thing that people can get stung on is if their electricity company forces you onto a higher “peak” rate for your electricity once your panels are installed. The survey asks about this – so read the answers carefully before deciding to switch!

The good news is that there are electricity companies out there that will give you a good rate but not force you onto a higher rate for the electricity that you do buy. You can have your cake and eat it Hooray!

The links to the survey for each state are here

Here are the questions they asked of each electricity company:

  • What is your Premium feed‐in tariff rate offered (c/kWh) ?
  • Is any excess credit paid out at the end of 12 months?
  • Is this an automatic process, or is the customer required to apply to have this paid out?
  • Is there a time limit within which the customer must apply?
  • Is the customer paid the entire value of any outstanding credit or is there a minimum credit balance a customer must exceed before being eligible to be paid?
  • Is there any fee levied for being paid out any excess credit?
  • What happens to any remaining credit not paid out?
  • Does the customer retain ownership of all outstanding Renewable Energy Certificates, GreenPower Rights and/or any other present or future environmental rights created by their system?
  • Is the premium feed‐in tariff linked to any specific retail offer(s), or is the customer free to choose from all of the retail offers and tariffs they would be eligible for if they weren’t receiving the premium feed‐in tariff?
  • By entering into a contract for your premium feed‐in tariff, are the retail service charges affected / adjusted in anyway?
  • Is the customer able to retain any existing dedicated off‐peak supply meters when converting to solar PV, small wind or any other form of micro‐ generation?
  • Is the customer eligible for dedicated off‐peak hot water / heating supply tariffs once accessing your premium feed‐in tariff?
  • Is the customer still eligible to purchase GreenPower for their electricity consumption?
  • Are all classes of customers (e.g. residential, business) eligible to receive your Premium Feed‐in Tariff offer, providing they are a qualifying customer under the relevant feed‐in tariff legislation?
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Solar Installer Reviews now live

September 11, 2010 2014-01-05T18:53:31 by 31 Comments

Because you asked for it – we’ve done it.

Over the last 4 years we’ve collected over 11,000 (and growing) reviews – mostly good, but a few bad and or ugly – of solar installers all over Australia, whether they are clients of ours or not.

My experience over the last few years is that most installers are honest, hardworking and passionate about doing the right thing by the customer and the environment. But there are always a few bad eggs in any fast growing industry. Now those guys have nowhere to hide. You gotta love this internet thingy!

You can now see these solar installer reviews online – just click the solar installer menu above, then use the search box when you get to the “solar installers” page.

If there are any installers you *really* want to see reviews for that aren’t there – let me know.

And if you would like any features adding to the review pages – let me know through the comments…

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How to build a giant Solar Powered Oven

August 20, 2010 2014-01-05T21:07:29 by Leave a Comment

Does your house feell like a forced fan convection oven in summer?

Here’s how to build a highly efficient, giant solar powered oven.

Eight steps to making sure your oven gets as hot as possible in summer: powered by nothing other than the sun!

1. Erect a wooden frame about the size of an average house.

2. Build bricks around the outside of the frame. Bricks have a good thermal mass, which means that as the sun shines on them in the day, the bricks will store the heat and radiate it back into the oven long after the sun has gone down.

3. Fix a very low thermal mass material (like plasterboard) to the inside of the timber frame so that if any cool air gets in the oven (heaven forbid), the coolness won’t be stored in the inner walls.

4. Put lots of glass in the walls (avoid double glazing at all costs), especially the north facing one. Make sure these windows have minimal awnings.

5. Put black colorbond (ideally) or dark tiles on the top of the timber frame to maximize the heat absorbed by the ‘roof’ of the oven.

6. Add a fan that blows air down from the top of the oven. This way, as the hot air inside the oven rises, you can blow it back down to floor level to makes sure that anything on ground level gets suitably cooked through. To keep things simple, we’ll refer to this ventilation system as the ‘Ducted Air System’

7. If you are worried about cool air getting into the Ducted Air System, then simply add an insulated ceiling to create a roof space.  Ensure all the ducted air system’s pipes are kept inside this ferociously hot roofspace.  This will  minimize the chance of any air in the pipes actually getting cold.

8. If the meat in the oven needs a little more grilling, then add dozens of high powered halogen heaters liberally recessed into the ceiling. As well as producing enormous amounts of heat these little halogen bulbs will produce a small amount of light as an added bonus.

If your house was built like this and resembles an oven in summer,  the two most cost effective things you can probably do are:

a)   Fit mains or solar powered fans into the roof to remove the hot air from the roofspace. These will remove 7-10 times as much air as a passive ‘whirlybird’.

b)   Fit external awnings on all N, E and W facing windows.

If you do those and your cooling bills don’t halve, I’ll eat my cancer-council approved wide brimmed hat.

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Do you trust your electricity supplier?

June 20, 2009 2017-05-03T14:07:08 by 2 Comments

Before you invest in solar power, be sure that you know exactly what your local electricity company will pay you for any exported energy.  The good utilities will pay you the Feed In Tariff rate (if your state has one) PLUS the standard rate per kwh. The meanie ones will just pay you the FIT rate.

[Read more…]

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New Ways To Finance Residential Solar Power Systems

June 3, 2009 2023-07-17T16:27:24 by 1 Comment

How can Massachusetts residents afford solar power? The same way they get cable television. Though a long term lease on solar panels Massachusetts residents can now have solar panels atop their homes for a fraction of the cost of buying them outright.

Plus they begin to reap the savings on their electric bills immediately.
The state of Massachusetts wants to go green. Yet unlike California and Arizona the vast areas of sun drenched land is not available for giant solar parks. In an effort to convince residents to place solar panels on their rooftops Massachusetts has a state subsidy program, Commonwealth Solar.

[Read more…]

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Don’t Get Fleeced by the Solar Cowboys

March 23, 2009 2017-05-03T14:44:55 by 1 Comment

In the 1970’s some Australian companies started to research solar energy for use in the home but unfortunately the technology just wasn’t there.  At about the same time in China they were also researching solar energy and managed to produce some electricity producing solar panels.

A few Australian companies, believing in the future of solar energy, persisted in their research.  Eventually one of the most successful was bought out by the Chinese, and is now the biggest producer of panels in China! How short sighted could Australian investors be?

Now with the dramatically revived interest in solar energy and the Government’s renewable energy plan offering grants and rebates many companies are jumping on the bandwagon to proclaim loudly “Green is Good”. Some of these companies are fleecing customers for the best part of $20,000 for a 1kw Grid Tie system, simply because the poor consumer can’t find another solar installer who has the time or resources to give him a competive quote!

[Read more…]

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