I am interested in getting solar, have a north facing roof space, we don't use a lot of electricity so I think 1.5kw would probably be OK. I am in Melbourne, how much out of pocket would I end up being?

Thanks for your help!

We were out of pocket $7500 for 2.8kw system. We were using about 12 kwh per day and we now get a cheque every quarter from our electricity company instead of a bill. Last one was $200. We are in QLD and have a feed in tarrif where we get paid for what we dont use in the day. Not as generous as the one in NSW though. I am not sure what the go is in Vic. We chose a system that would be big enough cover our usage, rather than just offset some of it. We are very happy with not having to pay $1200 per year in electicity bills and getting credits of about $800-$1000 per year. Means it will have paid for itself in under four years.

I thought that you had to have an excess of stored electricity over four billing periods to score the rebate/reimbursement?

Hi there have a look at origin energy's website. we have had installed by them and all we had to pay is just under $3000 and with that you have the choice if paying in full or pay over 24 months interest free which is a great idea. We are still waiting for our 1st bill since we have had the solar to see how in compares. FWIW my parents have had it for about 3 weeks now and we worked it out the other day with what they have used off the grid and what they have fed back into the grid and they are easily making money from day dot. they both work full time so it really works for them more so than us as we have 4 kids and I am a SAHM

We are in Ballarat area and my husband did a thorough maths on this one recently ...

he went through our yearly electricity consumption .... looked at the costs etc. He said it is a yearly 10-11% return on the investment (about $2000-2500) considering the four seasons and amount of electricity used throughout the year ... but that is with the 2.8kw system ...

the solar would repay itself in about 4-6years

so if there is the money we find it a good way to invest (better than fix term in the bank which brings no more than 6% right now)

We have a 1.5kw system, cost $3500.

Our first bill that we got after having the new meter installed (so getting the Feed in tariff) we have $97 credit and that was for september - december.

For us it is definitely worth it. We only use about 6kwh per day in our house and at the moment we are making far more than that.

We are in southwest Victioria too, so if pretty lousy weather compared to some places. Oh and we don't even have north facing roof, ours is on the west, so would get better results again with the north facing.

We got this one

http://www.sunsavers.com.au/our-solar-packages

they gave us a $1000 discount for having flybuys (apparently they have some kind of affiliation with them)

We ordered in january this year and it was that price but in the middle of winter it was only about $3000 so maybe look into when would be the cheapest time of year to buy it too.

Hi Daisychains

We are in ballarat too and looking at putting solar on our next house (plan to build sometime this year) can you recommend people/companies to get in touch with in the local area.

Thanks

I've just had a quote for a 1.44kw system at $5650 ($1413 deposit) or a 2.82w system for $12,700 with $3175 deposit then 40 months of $51 or $112 fortnightly repayments from Solagex. I'm guessing the higher cost for the larger system is because of government subsidies...

It seems like a good deal, but I was a bit concerned that the sales rep was TOTALLY focussed on the $$$ rather than the eco factors...

Has anybody used Solagex or heard anything good or bad about them? Or got any advice as to other places we should contact for quotes before signing on the dotted line?

So sorry to butt in on your thread OP. But has anyone here put solar on a new house?

Depending on where you are, you could get it much cheaper than that

Thanks, Ladidadida . I checked the Sunsavers site - their inverter has 5 years less warranty but otherwise it looks very similar! And I like the no-commissioned salespeople approach!

I think we'll definitely check a few more quotes out before going ahead!

Also, we ordered ours in January last year and I noticed that a few months later it was a heap cheaper and now it has gone back up again so I think they jack the price up a bit during the summer when there is a bit more demand for it. Also sunsavers gave us a $1000 discount for having FlyBuys so if they do it in your area and you get a quote from them ask them about that too.

Not at all related directly but one of the girls from playgroups husband does it and he said some of the big companies are selling the EXACT same thing for almost 10G extra! He has 2 main options and the cheaper one is $2000 for the 1.5kw set up. We are in WA though so of course that may/may not make a difference. It may be worth checking with some local people or your council. I posted a similar question on the state forum for WA to get some rec's for companies to ask for quotes. Sent 2 emails, only got one reply from a larger group yet to follow up with a quote as I find getting on the phone (and being able to hear!) almost impossible.

I know I'm posting this ages after the original post, but thought it's the kind of subject people might be interested in in the future...

We just had a 3.05kw system installed. It cost $10,700. We're in Victoria. The RECS rebate is dropping after 1 July so we did it now to avoid paying an extra $1500 - $2000.

We paid slightly more than some of the quotes we got, but we wanted to go with a company that's been around for a while (10 years) for warranty purposes. There's a lot of fly by night companies in the mix who I think will disappear as soon as you see the Feed in tariff drop or disappear.

The best place to get info on this stuff is the Whirlpool Green Tech forums

We use a lot of electricity so we're just hoping to put a dent in our bills. Will be better next year when DD goes to school and we're all out of the house during the day

Blish, what company did you use?

We put a 3kW system on our (Melbourne) house in March this year. We were out of pocket $8K. Very pleased to see the meter running backwards on sunny days, but have been waiting 3 months for the installation of our smart meter so we can actually start to get paid for what we are making. Hopefully that will go in this month and then we can start to really see what we are getting from it. So far though we have been really pleased with the output we are getting, even on short winter days.

The rebate will fall by 20% after June 30 and I was under the impression that it had to be installed by then, not just ordered so you will need to start factoring in a bit extra.

i, we have just had solar installed in vic , with red energy (68.20per kw feed in tarriff ) can someone explain to me in simple terms how the buy back works. we use appr 30kw in summer and up to 50kw in winter so our bills are huge- that is why we have gone solar.

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