Solar & Battery Calculator:

Estimate what your bills would be

Discover what your next 4 electricity bills could be with solar power (and optionally batteries). See how your savings vary by season, based on local weather data. Calculate your overall payback, but also how savings are affected by a battery and solar panels separately – helping you decide if installing batteries is worth it for you.

How it works

Solar power reduces your bills in two ways:

  • Self Consumption

    When your home is using solar energy instead of the grid.

  • Exporting surplus solar

    for a 'feed-in tariff'

  • Total savings

    This calculator adds these to find your total savings

  • Add a battery

    Adding a battery increases self-consumption by using stored solar energy at night, reducing your power bills even further. But batteries will also extend your payback time.

Change calculator

The advanced version is coming soon, please bear with us.

Solar Savings Calculator

How To Use This Calculator

Watch this video to learn

At a minimum, simply enter your postcode and the solar system size you are considering into the calculator. Then enter your typical annual electricity bill (a guess is fine!).

You can leave all the other inputs as their default values and hit 'calculate'.

The calculator will provide a good estimate of your bills if you had that solar power system, along with the payback. You may be surprised at how low your bills can be with solar panels alone.

Next, experiment with different solar system sizes, and see if bigger is better for you. It usually is.

Then add a battery to the calculator to see how that affects your bills and the marginal payback of adding energy storage. Again, you may be surprised at how little a battery saves you compared to the solar panels – although it will depend on how generous your feed-in-tariff is.

View further information and a video on how to use this calculator here.

Why Your Postcode Matters

This calculator uses your postcode to:

1. Calculate an estimate of how much sunshine will hit your solar panels.

2. Change the default values for energy cost, solar feed in tariff and typical bill size.

3. Change the default electricity 'self-consumption' values based on median values for your state.

Please enter a valid postcode

Why your postcode matters

This calculator uses your postcode to:

1. Calculate an estimate of how much sunshine will hit your solar panels.

2. Change the default values for energy cost, solar feed in tariff and typical bill size.

3. Change the default electricity 'self-consumption' values based on median values for your state.

Solar Panels

kilowatts (kW) of panels

This calculator does not model export limits yet. If your system is heavily export limited exported energy will be lower than calculated.

Solar Panel Direction Explained

North offers the most energy – but other directions can work too. Learn More

Australian Roof Angles

Most Australian roofs are at either 22º or 15º from horizontal. If you are unsure, just leave it at 22º and you'll get good enough result from the solar calculator.

Australian Roof Angles

Most Australian roofs are at either 22º or 15º from horizontal. If you are unsure, just leave it at 22º and you'll get good enough result from the solar calculator.

Solar Panel Angles Explained

The optimum angle for your solar panels – to get maximum annual energy yield – is equal to the latitude of your location. But almost always, the best angle to install your panels at is the angle that your roof is built at.

It is usually simply not worth building a structure to get the 'perfect' angle, as it will only get you a few percent more energy over a year. Learn more

Shade effect explained

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What is degradation?

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How is this calculated?

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Your Electricity Costs

Inverter FAQ's

What the hell is an inverter?

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Selecting A Battery

If you are considering a solar battery and know what model you want, choose that from the calculator list.

If you are unsure what you want, then select 'Generic 10kWh' to get an idea of typical battery savings.

Selecting A Battery

If you are considering a solar battery and know what model you want, choose that from the calculator list.

If you are unsure what you want, then select 'Generic 10kWh' to get an idea of typical battery savings.

Should You Get A Solar Battery?

There are a lot of reasons to buy a solar battery: for backup, to be an 'early-adopter', for the warm, fuzzy feeling of using your own solar power at night.

But the main reason people consider a battery is simple: they want to save money.

The calculator lets you add a battery to your solar system and will show you the marginal battery payback. It's a fancy way of saying the calculator shows you the solar and battery savings and payback separately instead of blending the payback together. Learn more about blended battery payback.

That's why the calculator asks for the battery cost separately. The default values are the estimated cost of the battery + installation in Australia. If you can get a better deal – or use a state-level rebate, then simply change the solar battery cost and system cost to reflect your quote.

Your Electricity Costs

Fully installed after all rebates

Cost Of Electricity Usage

This is how much you pay for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity you use from the grid. The solar calculator uses typical electricity costs for you area – but you can see what you actually pay on your bill.

Your Electricity Bill

Cost Of Electricity Usage

This is how much you pay for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity you use from the grid. The solar calculator uses typical electricity costs for you area – but you can see what you actually pay on your bill.

Annual Electricity Cost

If you get quarterly bills – this is 4 bills. You may pay quite different amounts depending on the season – but a guesstimate here is fine. The calculator default is the average electricity bill for a home in your state.

Please enter this information

Annual Electricity Cost

If you get quarterly bills – this is 4 bills. You may pay quite different amounts depending on the season – but a guesstimate here is fine. The calculator default is the average electricity bill for a home in your state.

Feed In Tariff

This is how much you can receive for selling excess solar energy back to the grid. The solar calculator uses a realistic value for your area as a default.

Feed In Tariff

This is how much you can receive for selling excess solar energy back to the grid. The solar calculator uses a realistic value for your area as a default.

What is self consumption?

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Big Fat Disclaimer

These calculators are intended to provide illustrative examples based on stated assumptions and your inputs.

Although we've tried hard to get all the calculations correct - there is a possibility that we've made a mistake somewhere - we are only human.

Be aware that - although the default settings change by state/territory to reflect sensible values - the default settings of the solar calculator will most likely not be applicable to your situation, and you should ensure you change all the inputs to reflect your own circumstances.

You should also check that the Feed In Tariff settings are correct for your retailer (although don’t forget you can change retailers and the default setting is the best FiT available in your state at the time of writing).

Changing any of the inputs can have a large impact on the solar calculator's outputs. It is particularly difficult to estimate the % of energy you will self consume, so you should try the calculator with a range of scenarios, e.g. 10% self-consumption, 50% self-consumption, etc, to ensure you understand the consequences of exporting more or less electricity as your usage patterns change.

Also, no one knows what the feed in tariff rates will be in the years ahead. You should always model the effect of a 0c FiT as a worst case scenario.

Calculations are meant as estimates only and are not intended to be kept or used for any practical purpose. They are based on information from sources believed to be reliable and accurate and are not intended to be used as a substitute for professional advice.

The calculators are not intended to be solely relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a solar power product or finance deal.

Consumers should consider obtaining advice from an Australian Financial Services licensee before making any financial decision regarding mortgages, loans or solar financing.

Actual outcomes will depend on a range of factors outside the control of SolarQuotes.

A note about the seasonal bill estimates:

This calculator cannot provide an exact prediction of your quarterly post-solar-bills because it does not know:

a) the seasonal variation in your electricity bills - we ask you for your annual bill - then use typical seasonal variation (using thousands of data-sets kindly provided by Solar Analytics) to estimate how that bill will vary with each season.

b) your energy usage profile through each day. We would need to know this to know your self consumption ratio each day to five really exact predictions. To counter this - we allow you to change your self-consumption - then estimate how that would vary by seasonal, then use that to calculate the solar savings.

In WA you can not get a Feed in Tariff on systems larger than 6.6 kW (5 kW inverter). So the FiT has been set to zero.

Understood

In VIC you can not get a Feed in Tariff on systems larger than 100 kW. So the FiT has been set to zero.

Understood