How Solar Saves You Money
The next step in our journey of understanding solar in Australia is to learn the fundamentals of how...
The media is buzzing about renewable energy. Pete Overton’s teleprompter going mad with, “following Australia’s recent electricity boom, Australians face the harsh climate of steep cost of living. With the highest electricity prices Australians have seen, homeowners are looking for clever ways to avoid the slippery slope of grid energy. Now is a time better than any to consider solar for your home. We go to our Sydney correspondent RenewCo, to share the news,”
Despite Australia’s recent electricity boom, the default market offer for NSW increasing around twenty percent, nationwide increasing ten percent through thirty percent as of July 1, 2023, our solar customers are still paying less than or close to zero month to month on their bills.
The default market offer is the pricing cap for cents per kilowatt hour of energy purchased from the grid through the chosen electricity provider. In the best words, the default market offer is the maximum price allowed for purchasing electricity from the grid.
Most homeowners pay less than the default market offer on their home electricity bills. The difference however of non-solar home electricity bills versus solar home electricity bills is overwhelming to say the least.
RenewCo Solar’s customers’ quarterly electricity bills average around $30 in the Sydney area. This compares to the same customers’ quarterly electricity bills prior to installing solar averaging around $600. Factoring in the July 1, 2023, changes to the default market offer, these customers’ bills could very truly be around $700 per quarter if not for having installed solar.
Solar goes beyond saving money, by choosing a renewable source of energy, the everyday heroes of the world can help preserve the natural order of our planet.
Sustainability is us making choices to meet our needs that don’t stop future generations meeting their needs.
Renewable energy is sustainability. Good and honest sustainability. Not the sort that says a cappuccino is sustainable and an oak milk cappuccino is not sustainable.
This is to say, an oat milk cappuccino is three times a cappuccino’s maximum sustainable carbon emission.
Renewable energy helps save our environment from the terror of carbon emission released from fossil fuels. Renewable energy is sustainability for planet Earth.
Renewable energy is the same sustainability as moving trees. Sustainability that looks toward the future of our green Earth. To keep life living and breathing, to keep our planet moving forward to the development of life and natural habitats for animals. For all life in the biosphere.
Recently housing developments will dig trees from their roots and move them and replant the trees to preserve the production of natural gases in the way that nature intended.
Nature is everything that brought us to this point, from the pinnacle point of something from nothing, nicknamed the “Big Bang”. Nature is many billions of years of forming everything, and a few billion years of life.
Considering too religion, science is the guideline for why we must look to the future. If not for our scientific understanding of the world, we would not look toward the future.
The blessing of our primate cognition, our ability to think abstractly, share ideas, and conceptualise a better reality.
Thousands of years of philosophy that became thousands of years of science, all to lead us to this main point, looking toward the future, to save our planet.
Wave goodbye to carbon emissions, decreasing ozone layer, fossil fuels, and dying planet.
Say hello to saving good money to suit your needs. Solar is the best choice for everyone’s now and humanities future.
Wake from your slumber of indolence and hark the call of the future. Renewable energy is now, and now it is in your hands. To make the decisions that will allow your future generations to live in this world. To save on your own present electricity bills and prosper.
Back to you Pete.
How to tell quality in a solar company?
Choosing solar for your home, don’t play limbo, play high jump. Don’t set the bar too low, and certainly never bend over backwards for a company just to have solar shabbily placed on your otherwise neat roof.
High expectations are perfectly acceptable. After all, you’re paying not just for the quality installed solar system that brings solid return on investment, that requires no time on your hands beyond receiving a call or a WhatsApp message from your solar company that says,
“Hi there, we noticed a small error on the monitoring side of your solar production, we can stop by in the morning and have this fixed ASAP?”
You’re paying for a solar company who from first encounter through lifetime of your system are there for every solar need. Who will handle the hassle of problem solving, and will watch over your system with a birds eye. Who provide an after sales experience that guarantees all the benefits of your solar system for the lifetime of your solar system.
Within a few seconds of meeting someone, a strong grasp is made of that person, their intentions and agreeability. Their realness and trueness. Their values even peak through early into their talking. A simple thought is, “is this a person I relate to?”
First impressions are everything, and the same goes when finding a good solar company. Consider also the company’s standing within the community. A strong community standing can mean a trustworthy installer.
Next consider their reviews. A couple average reviews should not hold you back from a company if the bulk of their reviews show five stars. A heavily reviewed local company with mainly top scored ratings, words of compliment in the writing, and especially when the team members are named and thanked in the reviews.
For the bonus, the detail focused, look at the documentation provided from the company. Look further at the quality of their communication and how well they answer your questions. Quality is a positive sign. Quality early on and moving forward shows that the company pays attention to detail.
Quality in the documentation, in the quote documents provided, require the following:
The final consideration is, ask the company if their installs are completed by an internal team. Outsourcing jobs can be okay; however the company loses liability when installs aren’t completed by an internal team. This is simply due to them not watching over the install, and not having their own team to go over and fix any problems that may pop up.
Outsourcing jobs is a major red flag for any solar company, with some slight exceptions.
However, to put this in the best words, if a company lacks an internal team, and does not effectively communicate their choices and why, and if a company opts to outsource a job, it is likely they are not the best choice for your quality solar installation.
To conclude this brief outline of telling quality in a solar company, let’s match RenewCo Solar to our criteria.
RenewCo Solar is a family-owned solar installation company local to Sydney, NSW. With fifteen years’ experience in the solar trade, expertise is brought to every moment from greeting to install to lifetime of the system.
RenewCo Solar won the REC Solar award for Media Representative of the Year. RenewCo Solar was a finalist in the 2023 Telstra Best of Business Awards Promoting Sustainability Award category. RenewCo Solar was also a featured company in BuildIt magazine.
RenewCo Solar has a strong community standing, working with council, and installing for council, and having installed over 400 systems since their founding in 2021.
RenewCo Solar is networked amongst NSW with a strong clientele and works with politicians and council at renewables industry events.
RenewCo Solar installed the solar system for Mosman Bowling Club (Warringah Bowls Mosman), which is council run.
RenewCo Solar, via SolarQuotes, has received 61+ reviews averaging a 4.9+ star rating. Reviews specifically name Matthew and Mark, the two founders who are also the primary communicators to customers. Reviews also name specific install team members and thank the team for graceful and efficient work.
RenewCo Solar is passionate about the environment. RenewCo Solar is passionate about the details.
Much like an artisan baker who makes a sourdough loaf from scratch and moves with the day to guarantee the quality of their bread. RenewCo Solar is artisan solar.
RenewCo Solar’s quote documents meet all named criteria and go further to cater to a customer’s every need. RenewCo Solar goes the extra mile for any and all customers.
The only question would be, what is your first impression?
Understanding Product Choices
When it comes to choosing quality components for your solar system, a strange image develops in your mind.
Do not think much of this image of never-ending brand names. A much nicer idea exists.
It may sound odd to say being told very specific advice on exact brands to choose is not useful in the early stages, however the best advice is simple.
Find the right company and the right products will come. Not only will such products come, but you will understand why they were the right choice.
A quality solar company chooses to educate their customers. A quality solar company chooses to educate all.
Solar for the great sellers is about sustainability, not about business. Solar for the greatest sellers is about leaving an impression, not to say, “come purchase our solar,” but rather to say, “now you are informed to make the correct decisions for your home and for the environment.”
However, some general pieces of advice will be given in order to:
The two main components of a solar system are the solar panels and the solar inverter.
The solar panels are made up of photovoltaic cells that essentially take in sunlight and put out direct current (DC) electricity.
A solar inverter is a device that converts DC electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity. To power your home.
For a more in-depth explanation of these two main components of a solar system, check out these other blogs! (How are solar panels made?) (How your solar system works)
The system’s racking or mounting equipment is another consideration.
A quality solar company will always use top quality racking and mounting equipment.
For the tech savvy, the main suggestion for highest quality racking and mounting equipment is klenergy. This however is not a necessary decision for your system.
Titan or Antai are common brand names you might see floating around in the solar sphere for racking and mounting. Most choices are perfectly adequate if they are being suggested by a quality solar company.
To put all these parts in their place, the inverter sits on a wall, preferably in a place that is shaded, otherwise a shade cover will be placed over the inverter to protect the inverter’s long-term integrity.
The solar panels are mounted on the roof with the racking equipment, a set of nuts, bolts and rails. On flat roofs tilts may be included also, which essentially angle the solar panel around 10 or 15 degrees. Aesthetically, tilts are not necessary. However, the perk of tilts comes in around maintenance as flat panels will become dirty due to poor weather.
The panels are connected in series with wiring that leads to the inverter. Finally, the inverter hooks into your switchboard and electricity meter. Now it is only waiting for the sun to sit in the sky.
North facing panels produce the most electricity and south facing panels can still produce as much as 70% as much as the north panels.
Another common setup is a split of the total panels across the east and west faces to gain the benefit of morning as well as evening sunlight. As in the morning, the east facing panels will thrive, and in the evening, the west panels will thrive. Both sides will perform adequately all day.
Two other components that may be included in a solar system are optimisers and batteries.
Optimisers sit underneath each individual panel. Their purpose is for monitoring individual panels production, and the added benefit is they allow more production by distinguishing each panel from the next, and by allowing shaded sections to not limit the production of the rest of the panels.
Batteries store energy for later use. This is particularly helpful for covering nighttime costs.
With provider options such as Amber Energy’s virtual power plant (VPP) plan which offers wholesale prices on grid energy and uses stored energy to its maximum capability, the potential for battery savings is great.
A VPP allows the energy stored in individual batteries to be aggregated and used to support the grid during high-demand periods, while also providing benefits to the homeowners in terms of lower energy costs. A VPP creates a network, for sharing, selling and buying energy, between battery systems in the area. With different settings on the Amber VPP interface, your energy can be used for your needs, by choosing exactly how and when it’s used.
One more term thrown in the bunch is micro-inverters. A micro-inverter acts in a similar manner to an optimiser, except that a micro-inverter system lacks an inverter on a wall. A micro-inverter system is entirely localised on the roof.
To understand the difference between an optimiser-based system versus a micro-inverter system, check out this blog! Optimisers vs micro-inverters: which to choose this year.
With this simple outline of the products that go into a solar system, check out this blog on RenewCo’s product choices RenewCo Solar’s Product Choices and Why.
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