I have been wanting solar panels for the longest time. In 1985 we moved into a house with solar hot water and used it happily for many years. When we moved into our current home in 1997, we had solar hot water installed, along with our first water tank, two skylights and whirlybirds and we put in a vegetable and fruit garden and bought another flock of hens. We dived head first into green living then but the one thing I wanted to add when we had the money was more solar power. Finally, they're here. Seven panels were installed while I was staying at Tricia's. We are still connected to the grid and we're currently sending power we don't use to the grid that we are paid for. The current rate for that is 44 cents to sell to the grid and 19 cents to buy back.
I'm not sure how well our panels will work but I'm hopeful that we won't need to take any electricity from the grid from now on. Our electricity consumption is pretty low and we already have solar hot water, so I hope that by working with the patterns of daylight here and slight modifications on how we work with electricity, we'll reach our goal.
We did a lot of research before we decided on which company to buy from. There are a lot of advertisements by companies we'd never heard of before promoting cheap prices but on investigation, there were added costs. It was important to us that we deal with an established company that would be around to service the 25 year warranty. We also wanted to deal with an experienced green business, who knew their product and provided excellent service. We got that with Origin. The panels they installed are Sharp from Japan and they were installed on our roof in a few short hours. Hanno watched them like a hawk and he said they did very well.
The meter box in the garage.
The price quoted on our panels after the government rebate was $3,240 and we were going to pay that from our savings, however, when we signed up, we found they had an interest-free loan so we decided to go that way instead and leave our money in the bank longer, earning interest. We paid $180 on installation and pay the rest off over the next 12 months in $255 instalments. The government rebate will decrease on June 30 this year so I encourage you to act now if you're thinking of installing the panels on your roof. Our experience with Origin has been very good and we're happy to recommend them to you. The more of us doing this, the better.
Do you have solar panels? If so, I'd be very interested to know how well they've worked for you. Did you have to modify your housework to get the maximum efficiency? What difference did they make to your electricity costs? Whatever you can share with me about them, I'd love to know. I wonder if other countries have their government's support to buy solar technology.
ADDITION: Here is a booklet about the system we bought. And for Iris, here is info about the feed in tariffs. We sell our excess for 44 cents and buy it back if we need it at 19 cents. These prices change all the time and I'm sure will eventually go down.
ADDITION: Here is a booklet about the system we bought. And for Iris, here is info about the feed in tariffs. We sell our excess for 44 cents and buy it back if we need it at 19 cents. These prices change all the time and I'm sure will eventually go down.
