What If Opening Your Electricity Bill Made You Feel Excited – Instead of Anxious?

How Solar Can Lower Your Electricity Bills – Even With a Crappy Feed-In Tariff 

Unlike many homeowners, I look forward to my quarterly electricity bills – my latest (winter) bill was roughly $200 for a 5 person household. And my summer bill was only $33! 

This is all thanks to the 6kW solar system that I have on my roof, which produces electricity during the daytime and offsets the energy usage of my home.

Does it make me a geek if I view each quarter as an opportunity to see how much money I can save off my electricity bills thanks to my solar system? On second thought, don’t answer that.

Both of those electricity bills were achieved with an 8c Feed-In Tariff (what you’re paid by your electricity retailer for feeding excess solar energy back into the grid), which is a far cry from the generous >50c Feed-In Tariffs that people signed up to some years ago!

Allow me clarify one thing: I’m not saying that if you put a solar power system on your roof tomorrow, your next electricity bill will be $33, like mine.

$33 bill or $3,300 bill, it doesn’t matter – because the real question is “what would my electricity bill be if I didn’t have a solar system to offset my daytime energy usage?”. In my case, it’d be a lot higher than $33, I can tell you that much!

So let me be blunt: If you either…

1) Use a lot of your electricity during the day,
2) Have a pool pump or like to keep your A/C running all day
or 3) Can set your appliances (like washing machines & dishwashers) to run on timers

… Then you’re crazy if you don’t get a solar system installed on your roof.

This is because solar power systems only generate electricity that you can use when the sun is up (duh!) – meaning that if your house can gobble up the electricity that a solar system produces during the day, you’re missing a great opportunity to generate and use your own electricity (and really give the middle finger to your electricity company!)

What if you’re not home during the day?

Do you use over 90% of your electricity after 6pm? If so, it used to be the case that it was highly unlikely solar panels would make financial sense for your home. However, a boost to feed-in tariff incentives in July 2017 changed this in South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.

If you don’t live in these states and aren’t home between 9-5 but still use a good amount of your electricity during the day, solar can still make a lot of sense for your home – especially if you’re someone who has a pool pump or likes to keep their home climate-controlled, like I mentioned above. 

Understand Solar And Pay A Fair Price For A Great System

“Wait!” I hear you say. “Solar is a complicated topic. It’s not like shopping for a new coffee table – you’d need a science degree just to be able to understand what you’re putting on your roof!

Those unscrupulous solar ‘cowboy’ salespeople are preying on people like me who don’t understand solar, just so they can sell us a crappy system at an inflated price, right?”

I hear these objections a lot! So let me clarify:

There are still a lot of shady solar installers out there (not as many as there used to be, thank God!) whose core business model seems to be ‘whack as much cheap crap onto people’s houses as we can, and then vanish into thin air with suitcases of money before the warranty claims start rolling in’.

In fact, nothing makes me more frustrated than when people use my website to get 3 quotes for solar from a list of companies I trust (that I’ve been building since 2009), get quoted great systems for a good price, and then tell me 

“Thanks for the quotes Finn, the companies who contacted me were very knowledgeable and took the time to understand my situation and needs, but this other mob offered me the same size system for half the price – so I’m going to go with them!”

(And then they send me an email complaining that their system has shorted out after 6 months!)

People can feel overwhelmed by solar power as a topic. It can get very technical if you’re into that sort of thing (like me!) – but 99% of Australians just want to understand the basics of solar and then sit back and reap the benefits of lowered electricity bills.

This is why I place a lot of emphasis on: 

a) Providing as much unbiased, independent information about solar power on my website as I can, and 

b) Making sure that, if you decide to trust me to arrange quotes for solar, the installers in my network who provide quotes are willing to answer any questions that a solar novice might have when they’re providing them with a quote…

…this is so you feel comfortable assessing a quote, comparing it to others, and realising that ‘you get what you pay for’.

5 Reasons To Install Solar This Year

There are numerous benefits to installing solar panels on your roof, including both federal and state-level subsidies, as well as large savings on your energy bills. Here are the top 5:

1) Save around $700 per kW of solar that you install on your roof. As an example, if you purchase a 3kW system you’ll save roughly $2,100 thanks to the solar rebate (figures as at April 2017).

2) When you self-consume the electricity that your panels are generating, it’s 100% free electricity.

3) Take control of your living expenses. Avoid being a victim of year-over-year increases in electricity costs.

4) Reduce your reliance on dirty coal-fired power plants by generating your own clean electricity.

5) Add value to your home – Real estate agents now see solar panels as a revenue generating asset.

Quotes Arranged For You – So You Don’t Have To Run Around And Get Them Yourself

There are thousands of solar panel installers in Australia. It is very important that they are Clean Energy Council (CEC) accredited in order for you to be eligible for the government solar rebate.

SolarQuotes provides you with 3 competing quotes from local, CEC accredited installers within our trusted network.

By comparing quotes from Australia’s leading CEC accredited solar installers in your area, you will be able to make sure that you qualify for the rebate. Our installers will also conduct a full electricity bill analysis to ensure that solar power makes sense for your household before you make a decision to buy.

We’ve been operating since 2009 and are Australia’s #1 Solar Panel Comparison site, with over 300,000 homes across Australia trusting us to organise their no-obligation solar quotes.