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Electric enthusiast Gavin Shoebridge had solar installed last year and, as part of his content series with Ecotricity, he pored over his bills to figure out whether it stacks up.
As he says:
Because I'm recharging electric cars every day, I tend to use more electricity than the average New Zealand household, so I wondered if installing solar panels would cut down my power bills. To find out, I contacted some solar panel installers, they looked at my monthly power bill and then recommended some solar systems that would be ideal for my circumstances. I ended up using an installer called Endless Energy, who installed a 9.7 kW system (22 x Longi 440W panels) and a Solax 7.5 kW inverter.
As you can see in the above video, even though my power consumption was twice the New Zealand average in the first month, my power bill was the lowest I'd ever seen. And wait until you see the second month!I
When Mike Casey bought his house near Cromwell, it came with gas bottles on the side of the home for water and an expensive diesel system for the underfloor heating. He replaced both of them with a Steibel Eltron system and it's been saving him money ever since. As technical manager Bhawesh Singh told him at the Electrify Queenstown conference, there has been a big influx in enquiries from homes looking to get off the molecules and onto electrons.
Read moreDownloadConfidence that cutting regulations to make solar power more accessible - won't jeopardise people's safety. A new Regulation Ministry reports laid out a potential blueprint to legalise plug-in solar and reduce the time and cost of panel installation. Rewiring Aotearoa CEO Mike Casey shares his thoughts with Andrew Dickens.
The burgeoning demand for solar was also a chance to address a mismatch between the numbers of training opportunities available and young people searching for work, Casey said. "The mums of New Zealand are telling me that there's not enough apprenticeships for their kids and the solar installers of New Zealand are telling me there's not enough trained people."
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