Yep, solar on residential doesn’t make much sense unless you can load match your generation.
If you have people home during the day and run your aircon anyway. Maybe heat your hot water during the sunniest period. Maybe charge your electric car (if you have one at home).
If the regulations change to incentivize feed in to the grid, this can make it make sense, but it needs to be at least 80% of what you pay per unit; there are grid matching solar inverters that will do the matching for you.
If the feed in rate was ok, then it would be a good idea. But then again, if the power price keeps increasing, the solar + storage option starts looking good.
Just to jump in here, residential solar makes a lot of sense for natural disaster resiliency. Your system would need to be sized to cover your bases in winter, but NZers should expect to experience days without power in a future where more Cyclone Gabrielle’s will occur. That’s why adding battery storage is a key part of it too.
Yep, solar on residential doesn’t make much sense unless you can load match your generation.
If you have people home during the day and run your aircon anyway. Maybe heat your hot water during the sunniest period. Maybe charge your electric car (if you have one at home).
If the regulations change to incentivize feed in to the grid, this can make it make sense, but it needs to be at least 80% of what you pay per unit; there are grid matching solar inverters that will do the matching for you.
Battery storage for residential solar is getting popular, though this of course comes with additional cost that you then need to offset.
I’d like solar, and I don’t really care if it has good payback so long as it’s roughly break even. I’m part of the problem 😆
I understand.
If the feed in rate was ok, then it would be a good idea. But then again, if the power price keeps increasing, the solar + storage option starts looking good.
Just to jump in here, residential solar makes a lot of sense for natural disaster resiliency. Your system would need to be sized to cover your bases in winter, but NZers should expect to experience days without power in a future where more Cyclone Gabrielle’s will occur. That’s why adding battery storage is a key part of it too.
This is a good point, but for disaster resistance, you need to be able to run your fridge/freezer and charge your phone and radio.
A fire place for heating is a good bet. If you can afford it, a system sized to run your air con also would be great.