Royal Australian Mint to be covered in 924 solar panels

[runway]

This is great!

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/solar-sheen-saves-royal-australian-mint-plenty-of-coins-20150625-ghxc52.html

[Goldseeker]

I got solar panels on my house years back when the local council advertised that they had done a deal with a supplier.

18 months later, the supplier goes belly up and no longer in existence.

Now, if anything goes wrong and the items are still under warranty, I must rely on another supplier to do the right thing.

Regardless, I still get a bill from my electricity supplier but I do get good rebates as a result.

[Nevol]

We initially put up 24 solar panels (in 2011, I think) and are locked into a very good contract with the power supplier. After a little while we added another 8 panels, but didn't get such a good deal from the power supplier on that lot.

We have not 'paid' for any electricity used since, as the supplier actually pays us for whatever excess we export to the grid.

Our largest quarterly refund a few years ago was over $600, but the most recent one was only $118 as the electricity prices keep going up.  It will be some time before we recoup what the panels cost, if we ever do. Total outlay was close to $20000.00.

We've also found that it pays whenever possible to use most of our electricity at night, when it's cheaper, eg washing clothes and dishes, but that only works for us because of the deal we got.

[Goldseeker]

Your lucky.   I went and paid for an additional four panels.   The next day, the firm phoned back and said because we already had panels, the additional panels and the original panels would only give us $0.12 per kilowatt hour generated.   In other words, our original panel refunds would drop from $0.68 to $0.12c.

No way hosey, cancelled the additional panels for a full refund as the company had not informed us when we signed up that we would lose the premium rate.

[purplepennyhunter]

We initially put up 24 solar panels (in 2011, I think) and are locked into a very good contract with the power supplier. After a little while we added another 8 panels, but didn't get such a good deal from the power supplier on that lot.

We have not 'paid' for any electricity used since, as the supplier actually pays us for whatever excess we export to the grid.

Our largest quarterly refund a few years ago was over $600, but the most recent one was only $118 as the electricity prices keep going up.  It will be some time before we recoup what the panels cost, if we ever do. Total outlay was close to $20000.00.

We've also found that it pays whenever possible to use most of our electricity at night, when it's cheaper, eg washing clothes and dishes, but that only works for us because of the deal we got.

We do exactly the same. Paid 12k nearly 4 years ago and haven't paid a bill since. The 12k bought us 22 panels, much more than you'd pay now. But our back to the grid price is something like 52c so it's much better to send the power to the grid during the day for that price and use it at night when we can use nearly twice as much power for that price. Washing machine runs the minute the sun goes down. We get a cheque every so often and given we don't get a bill I would think we've just about square now based on our original outlay.

[Nevol]

We do exactly the same. Paid 12k nearly 4 years ago and haven't paid a bill since. The 12k bought us 22 panels, much more than you'd pay now. But our back to the grid price is something like 52c so it's much better to send the power to the grid during the day for that price and use it at night when we can use nearly twice as much power for that price. Washing machine runs the minute the sun goes down. We get a cheque every so often and given we don't get a bill I would think we've just about square now based on our original outlay.

Yep, our deal is pretty much the same. Great minds must think alike, but I can't really claim the kudos for ours, my son did all the legwork, so to speak. :biggrin:

[runway]

Solar panels are all approx 180W each,I installed 2.2kW system 5 years ago which cost about $12k with 60c/kWh feedback tariff back into the grid
Haven't had an electricity bill since however it works out about square.The inverter size determines any expansion plans.

[JeffH]

The inverter size determines any expansion plans.

And, as Goldie pointed out, the affect on the buy back price depending on your contract. People here are getting 60¢ per kWh and my latest electricity bill shows 26.21¢ buy price per unit. So, the electricity suppliers are losing out on any solar feedback to the grid! In effect non solar customers are subsidising solar grid connect customers.

Twill be interesting to see what happens in the next few years with the recent major advances in battery technology* -to allow storage from day generation to supplement evening peak demand. It is already happening in Germany which has a much more developed grid/solar system than Australia even though we have much better solar energy availability.
*I haven't seen anything lately about large scale flywheel energy storage which was touted as a promising option a few years ago.

[trout]

How well do these panels cope with hail damage ?

[JeffH]

I am not sure about the current Chinese made ones but Solarex (American) used to quote a proof test of firing a 1" (25.4mm) steel ball  into the front of a module (not panel, which is a set of modules) at 50mph (80km/hr) and they had to withstand that without the covering glass breaking.
The glass is low iron, for increased light transmission, but no difference in strength compared to regular glass.

There, answered a question and did some pedantic nitpicking at the same time. :d_sunny: :grin:

[Nevol]

How well do these panels cope with hail damage ?

My 32 panels came through a massive storm in Nov 14, hail stones up to the size of tennis balls.  

I was home alone at the time and to say I was scared s**tless is putting it mildly.  It was the worst storm I have ever experienced.

The majority of houses in our area suffered nearly all windows on 2 sides broken, most metal roofs, garage doors, fences, awnings  were dented, any cars outdoors dented, outdoor tiles cracked & chipped etc.

Nearly all the people who had insurance are getting new roofs, as we did plus all the other items either repaired or replaced. As we drive around we can tell who's getting a new roof by the scaffolding that's mandatory to carry out the work.  

There's a section of Ipswich Road called the Moorooka Magic Mile because of the number of New/Used car yards there and a couple days after the storm there was not a single car to be seen in any of the  yards.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-27/photos-show-full-scale-of-destructive-brisbane-storm/5923606

[runway]

Solar panels are very robust fortunately
Energy companies are very scared of the new telsa battery technology
After reading this article http://www.businessinsider.com.au/this-is-what-teslas-home-battery-powerwall-will-cost-to-run-in-australia-2015-6 I'm not sure what to think?

[Goldseeker]

Interesting info there Runway.

Might look at it when we get from our cruise(s).

[JeffH]

If you have a grid feed solar setup now may be a good time to start shopping around electricity suppliers/buyers.
Households face steep hike in power charges as solar subsidies end
This is applicable to NSW but I suspect it may be similar story on other states.

[trout]

I don't have solar at home but I do use 120w and a 180w panels in conjunction with deep cycle batteries when we head out Bush.
These two panels produce enough power to run 2 fridges, lights, fans and various electronics without the need to run the genset.
I only need to run the genset if there is little or no sunlight or if we have been travelling for a couple of days without deploying the panels.
If the storage/batteries were more cost effective I would install a system at home and go off the grid altogether :ok: