Solar Bonus Scheme Cost Savings
Get payed $0.44 / kWh for excess power that you feed to the grid.
That's over 2 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 as well as the output of your PV generator.
Note - Changes to the QLD Solar Bonus Scheme - from 7 June 2011, the QLD Solar Bonus Scheme ($0.44/kWh NET feed in tariff) is only available to one new grid connected PV system per property for systems up to a maximum inverter output of 5kW.
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 $0.19 and $0.25 / kWh depending on your tariff), 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.
Simplified Net Feed in tariff 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 at $0.18/kWh (your normal electricity cost) for the other 4 kWh that didn't feed to the grid.
Detailed Net Feed in tariff Example -
The Simplified example above gives a good explanation of how the Net feed in tariff works, however there are other factors that influence the cost savings that you make.
Our Payback period / Cost savings charts also take into account the knee point in solar irradiance close to sunrise / sunset.
8am & 4pm are a very good knee point in the irradiance curve (i.e. where the irradiance changes rapidly from very low irradiance to very high irradiance).
Before 8am and after 4pm the average solar irradiance is quite low, low enough that we do not use it in our cost saving calculations for feeding to the grid, because the power generated at this time of the day in most cases is not going to exceed your own power usage and therefore will not feed to the grid (unless you have a large enough system with suitable orientation and no shading to make use of the available light); however this low level power will still make cost savings at the rate you pay for electricity.
On the Sunshine Coast QLD, an annual average of 11% of the total daily irradiance occurs before 8am and after 4pm, for this reason we only use 89% of the average daily system output for calculating kWh that can feed to the grid,
e.g. if your solar generator makes 10 kWh of electricity in a day and you only use 4 kWh in that "daytime" period,
we take 89% of 10 kWH = 8.9kWh and subtract your 4kWh usage = 4.9kWh which feeds to the grid, for which you'll be credited $0.44/kWh for that 4.9 kWh,
and you will also make a cost saving at $0.18/kWh (your normal electricity cost) for the other 5.1 kWh that didn't feed to the grid (10kWh minus 4.9kWh).
This approach may be conservative in some instances, however it provides more realistic data for the majority of situations.
"Daytime Electricity Usage"
Not everyone uses electricity in the same way or at the same time of the day, some customers are quite unwilling to reduce their power consumption and think that a solar power system will fix it - its not until their "daytime electricity usage" (between 8am & 4pm) is measured that the realistic effect of a solar power system can be calculated.
Typical "Daytime electricity usage" for domestic situations varies from 1 kWh for some customers up to 14kWh for other customers that I have dealt with, yet all of them "don't use much power".
Due to the $0.44 / kWh feed in tariff, the difference in cost savings for a given output is VERY dependant on your own "daytime electricity usage", taking meter readings of your electricity meter is really not that hard to do, and could make the difference between a good financial choice and a bad one.
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 Payback period 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 link below are for optimum orientation, unshaded systems - an accurate site survey is always required for your specific site in order to calculate the reduction in performance from shading and non optimum orientation.
Domestic Pricing / Cost Savings / Payback times - more info
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