Solar Bonus Cost Savings - Sunshine Coast

Solar Bonus Scheme Cost Savings

Get payed $0.44 / kWh for excess power that you feed to the grid.
That's over 2.5 times the amount that you pay for your normal domestic electricity!

Get the right sized system for you!

Cost Savings depend on your "daytime electricity usage" between 8am & 4pm.

To put cost savings in a different but more familiar perspective - imagine investing in a vehicle that costs $22,000 which pays itself off in around 7 years and then continues to save you around $3000 each year after that.

After 15 years it could generate a profit of around $10,000 and save over 108 tonnes of CO2 emissions - now that would be some vehicle! Even a bank can't offer that return on investment.

You may not be able to drive a Solar Power System around, but it's always working for you when the sun is shining.

(Based on a 5.16 kW system's cost and performance with a "daytime electricity usage" of 3kWh).

Returns from the Solar Bonus Scheme ($0.44 / kWh feed in tariff) are accrued when you generate more power than you use at any instant.

Where you constantly use more power than you generate such that you never feed to the grid, you still make cost savings at the rate you pay for electricity (between $0.18 and $0.21 / kWh), however your pay back period will be longer due to lower annual cost savings.

Queensland has a NET feed in tariff, so unless you know how much electricity you use during the daytime when the solar generator can potentially feed to the grid (8am to 4pm), any cost saving advice is a guess without merit.

Simply looking at your power bill will not give any idea of your daytime usage because your power bill measures all usage including the night time when the majority of power is used.

Guessing what proportion of power is fed to the grid might help other companies sell solar power systems, but I would be very hesitant to invest in an expensive asset such as solar power based on a guess.

We recommend to measure your actual "daytime electricity usage" between 8am & 4pm to provide an estimate of realistic cost savings.

To do this, take the difference of two meter readings (of your general supply tariff kWh meter) - one in the morning around 8am and one in the afternoon around 4pm.

For information on reading kWh meters and reducing your energy demand, please see our FAQ page.

Example -

e.g. if your solar generator makes 10 kWh of electricity in a day and you only use 4 kWh in that "daytime" period,

you will feed 6 kWH to the grid for which you'll be credited $0.44/kWh for that 6 kWh,

and you will also make a cost saving of $0.18/kWh (your normal electricity cost) for the other 4 kWh that didn't feed to the grid.

"Daytime Electricity Usage"

I am able to use 1.5kWh of electricity at my house between 8am and 4pm whilst using an efficient home office with laptop computer, fax/printer (on standby), power supplies for various equipment, 1 x23W CFL light and an old fridge/freezer running. The TV, stereo and playstation were also on standby.

I would consider 1.5kWh per day an achievable daily electricity usage, providing your hot water is not on your general power tariff, and you are not using other electric appliances during that "daytime" 8am - 4pm period.

Lower daily usages are possible if you are power wise and have an efficient fridge, people who go to work all day and only have an efficient fridge running can do quite well with Grid Connect Solar.

Based on pricing under the "Solar Credits Scheme @ $39/REC", larger systems will provide greater annual cost savings and have faster payback times when your "daytime electricity usage" increases.

In general, a Solar Power Generator is a long term budget consideration, however any renewable energy system is an asset that provides tangible value to your home or business and will increase its resale value.

Once you know your "daytime electricity usage" between 8am & 4pm, you can compare your own "daytime usage" with that in our charts to get a realistic idea of Pay back times and Cost Savings for each of our standard systems.

(Note - the cost savings / payback times on the links below are for an optimum orientation, unshaded system, an accurate site survey is always required for your specific site, Contact Us to book a site inspection).