We’ve got a pretty big house and live in a fairly cold climate and our power bills in the winter were massive. It felt like we were being forced to rent our power from a landlord that seemed likely to just keep putting up the rent, so we decided to invest in solar and own our power instead. 

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We put up 19 panels and added a 15kwh battery and it’s more than halved our bills in winter and we produce far more electricity than we need in summer - and that’s with the addition of an EV. The solar and EV combo feels like a cheat code, like some kind of hack to get around the continually increasing prices of petrol and grid electricity and while there were obviously significant upfront costs involved, it feels like you get to drive and power your house for free. 

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Once you get a power plant on your roof, you start to think about electricity a bit differently and I love trying to optimise the system. As we’re on a time of use plan, we charge the battery through the day with solar and then use it for the nighttime peak and we charge it again at low rates overnight for the morning peak. Even on cloudy days, the solar still often produces enough to keep the house running through the day.

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Just because we live close to New Zealand’s main hydro generation, it doesn’t mean we get a free pass at peak time. We’re all part of the system, so using more electricity when everyone else needs it can lead to the burning of coal and gas up north. It’s nice to know that our battery, our smart charger and the hot water timers we have put in basically remove us from that peak demand. 

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Solar seems to be contagious, too: since we’ve had our panels put on, two of our neighbours have also followed suit. 

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