However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
There are plenty of suppliers of cheap PV panels and inverters but very much a case of getting what you pay for. In a similar vein I'm not in the market for a Great Wall ute any time soon
Also due to the substantial government subsidies and subsequent abolition of same in many markets (e.g. Germany, Australia, California, etc) the PV industry grew rapidly and now has an international glut. This has been compounded by recessionary conditions in most markets and will probably see PV components selling very cheaply for some time. There are many wholesalers of such products stuck with unsold stock that they will struggle to sell at their cost price which will present bargain buying for those buyers able to capitalise on the situation.
Add to that the technological advances in PV manufacture that are predicted to deliver generation efficiencies of 25%+ (our BP panels are rated at 12.9% efficiency) in the future and you have the makings of a very volatile market. Like any technology however, this week's/month's/year's model will be outdated by the next and you can sit on your hands forever if you take that approach. The one sure thing is that electricity supply rates will keep heading up so the potential 'earning' capacity will continue to rise with them unless Meridian's parity export rate is reduced, in which case it is time to investigate going off-grid by adopting some form of storage capacity.
Bit of a thread dredge but in light of this info "New Zealand power prices have surged at twice the rate of nearly every other developed country over the past 30 years" I'm glad I've got a PV system on the way but sad I've been missing out on the huge amount of sunlight hours we've had lately.
Lid blown on power price rort
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=10863135
I didn't think!!! I experimented!!!
Do your sums carefully and check out your whole installation before you embark on such a project.
I did this when I retired and found that when you take into consideration initial and on going maintenance costs etc, if you have grid supply at your door, it is cheaper to buy off the grid and invest your capital elsewhere!
Our monthly electricity bill average has never been in excess of $50.00 and reliability factor is extremely high, we have diversification to cover various shortage scenario's and have an adequate standby generator, should it be required.
As SPman has mentioned, nearly every other country in the world will subsidise such an installation but NZ governments, especially Labour and their Green party sub set, will not have a bar of this, they were in power when I was doing my enquiries, they are full of BS!
Every grid connection is as capable of exporting as much power as it is importing so all you have to do is establish and install the acceptable safety measures and protections required by the line company that you deal with.
The pay back period will be long so the sooner you begin the better, if it works out for you .... there is no tangible accounting for the enjoyment you get out of having such a system, only you can calculate that! Good luck!
Have a read of this:http://solarenergyhouse.co.nz/
True! ... Quoted $50 is average and yes we have gas for cooking (water heating in summer months) and multi-fuel fire with wet back for winter heating and heat pumps for regulating temp in winter.
Have never used electricity for water heating except on test.
Gas is 9kg bottles on auto change over, use equals about 1 per month in summer, 1 only all through winter months for cooking.
Electricity bill is one of our smaller ones ... Telecom on the other hand ... sheesh!
Most people have no idea about how much electricity they are wasting in their homes!![]()
TOP QUOTE: “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
Our PV set-up had its 1st birthday in late February. The year's generation was 7,650kWh
The problem is that Meridian have now announced that as of April 8th they will be knee-capping all of their 'Distributed Generation' customers by reducing their buy-back rate for exported excess generation by effectively 2/3. Now looking at power storage systems including Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, as the Commodore is due for replacement in any case.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks