last june we had a 3kw system installed on the roof in kalgoorlie, and weve just got our first bill
29/7/09-20/11/09 $63.80 CR.
the system is angled 35degrees to the west of north , so get best performance in the afternoon,. winter seems to get 8-10 kwh per day and summer gives 18-19kwh per day.
it get dusty here so a fortnightly wash is required.
our nxt bill should have the months when the evaporative Aircon gets used so it will be interesting to compare
Well you're ahead of us, our bill a few days ago was $30 credit, but ours is only a 1kw version, angled exactly North but only at 8 degrees, so we don't quite make optimum on the longest day.
At the moment it looks like on a yearly basis we'll end up very close to even. Won't know till June, (when ours was installed.)
Interestingly I hosed ours down after a few months, (get a lot of salt and dust here), but for some reason that seemed to make it worse?????
i get up with window cleaning gear, it makes a difference of 200w? when they are squeeky clean. did you manage to get onto the ' Household Renewable Energy Scheme" that the WA govt has going?
We got the fed's $8,000 rebate, didn't know the WA govt was doing anything.
I'll have to check, thanks for the tip.
your too late 
it was (will be ) a nice tidy sum.
have a look at www.energy.wa.gov.au as there may be future rebates
This is good feed back for me.
I just finished the approval process, to install Solar over here in NSW.
Damn! Looks like the gov. is on to you guys
They are planning to introduce a tariff on feeding power to the grid
http://www.clean.energy.wa.gov.au/pages/re_feed-in_tariff.asp
OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
W$%&K%S bloody F%^k*&G WAB&^%
Leave us alonne YOU GOVY AR5HOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Christ almighty we take charge of a situation and get re reemed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I AM SO FREAKING ANGRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Or buy more Air-cons/Fridges/Toasters/Things that go bing.....or anything else that'll soak up that excess!
good to read such positive comments (mostly haha mintoxGT..)
good to read such positive comments (mostly haha mintoxGT..)
Kn tops work LY!
I'm with Mr Cruise. Wassa startup costs like?
Would love to do this but the smallest area of our roof is that which faces Nth. Solahart has pride of place there too.
The whole setup (1.4kw system) cost us $7.5k...this was after the Vic gov 'chipped-in' $8k, and we bought in bulk with about 30 other locals, saving about $3k...so (maths) full price would be $18.5k. Not feasible in Vic, but makes me feel good that by spending some coin we basically won't get power bills, and I'm doing a (small) part for the environment.
There are cheaper systems about, but we went with the 'coastal' frames & inverter, living about 150m from sea. The inverter is also larger than needed to allow for expanding the system down the track. I also chose 'mono-crystalline' panels as opposed to 'Amorphous' (spelling?), that were being pushed at us. The latter are apparently more efficient, and cheaper, but take about 3 times the area that the mc panels take up...and I just can't see that as efficient. It would've also made it impossible to add to the system at a later date due to size of roof.
We paid about $2,700 for our 1kw system, plus $300 or something for a new power metre.
Signed the govt $8,000 rebate and the carbon credit sale rights over to the supply company.
But I heard that the price has dropped a bit since, one company was offering a $0 cost to the customer, as long as they had their govt aproval of course.
I owned a house in Bathurst with three kids in the family. It gets bloody cold there in winter but the solahart water heater the previous owner installed never failed. It always gave me a warm feeling that there was no middleman between the panels and the sun.
What a lot of people do not take into account as far as electricity is concerned is that what we use as individuals is microscopic in comparison to what is used by industry.
I worked in an aluminium plant that was drawing so much current that downtime caused so much inconvenience at the power plant that it attracted a $250k penalty. Likewise with water. I worked in a chicken abattoir in the Hunter that was slaughtering 130k birds a day. You could canoe down the sluice to the effluent plant.
You guys who have broached the wall may not recoup your investments but you are beating a path toward sustainability.
Noice work. Ta for the info.. would like to go down this road in the future too.
looking at your figures i beleive there are some flaws.
you haven't quoted the cost of electricity that we pay at the wall, there is no allowance for tarrifs etc.
i also don't think you have taken into account selling the power back to the grid.
also, 1kw system is not really recommended. it used to be 1.5-2kw and now houses are starting to use 4kw and some 8kw.
you also haven't taken into account the increase in cost of power over the time that the solar array is functioning.
it's a complex issue
then when that is all done,
take the cost of the array and stick it in the bank and see how much interest you get over the period.
Back to the Future.
A "flux Capacitor" maybe?
I will just look up my catalogue and see what they cost today.
Hmmm,,, strange. Thery don't seem to be listed.
Maybe they just sold out.
Why can't he simply use the excess electricity to fire up a laptop, post a thread like this and then harness the hot air generated during cloudy days/nights?
Fair play to the people having a go, it's not just about money.
