In general, any photovoltaic self-consumption system in our country is profitable nowadays. For this reason, with the continued increase in the price of electricity, many households are opting to install solar panels for self-consumption.

The savings from installing solar photovoltaic panels are significant and can be as much as 40-60% of a household’s annual electricity costs. However, this amount will vary depending on various factors, such as the location of the home and the photovoltaic panels, the quality of the panels and their maintenance, etc.

The savings on the electricity bill that we will obtain, together with the numerous subsidies and bonuses that currently exist for installing solar panels for self-consumption, will mean that we can recover the total investment made in 4 years thanks to the Next Generation subsidies. 

Let’s look at the factors that directly affect the money we can save by installing solar panels.

Factors that affect savings when installing solar panels

As we have just mentioned, the savings we will make by installing solar panels in our home will depend on many factors, of which the following are the most important:

The quality of the technology used.

There is a wide variety of solar panels and photovoltaic inverters on the market, with different characteristics and levels of efficiency, which allow further savings to be obtained. For this reason, when deciding on one model or another, we must consider the price and aspects such as quality, efficiency and the specific characteristics of each device.

While using lower-quality equipment reduces the payback time and increases the risk of equipment failure much earlier than expected. In addition, their performance is often lower, and they tend to degrade more quickly. All this translates into lower savings at the end of the installation’s lifetime.

Planning consumption according to solar energy production

It is important to organise consumption according to the production curve of our photovoltaic system. In this way, the savings will be greater if our consumption is mainly centred on hours when the production of solar panels is also greater. This will depend on whether or not we have the possibility of programming our consumption.

The period of greatest photovoltaic generation is from 9:00 to 17:00 hours, so it is during these hours when we should consume the most. The use of consumption programmers can help us in this sense, allowing us to limit the operation of thermoelectrics, pumps and other equipment to this period. Interestingly, tier 1 solar panels may also save you more money.

Contracted electricity tariff

To achieve even greater savings, the part of the energy that cannot be supplied by photovoltaics must be as economical as possible. To do this, we can contract a tariff with time discrimination that allows us to pay less during the night hours since the consumption during the day will be covered almost entirely by the photovoltaic installation. This way, during the part of the day when we consume the least electricity, we will have to contract a lower power rate.

Furthermore, the hours of the day when electricity is most expensive coincide greatly with the hours when a photovoltaic installation produces electricity.

The characteristics of the house

We will have more or less peak solar hours depending on where our home is located. However, in our country, the differences between some territories and others are insignificant, so it is always profitable to install solar panels, regardless of the region in which we are located.

However, the following housing factors must be taken into account:

• The space available for the installation determines the number of solar panels installed.
• The orientation and it is generally recommended that the solar panels face south.

Preventive maintenance

One of the characteristics of photovoltaic self-consumption installations is that they require practically no maintenance, and when maintenance is required, it is very simple. But it is important to know that correct maintenance will make our installation more profitable. For example, if we clean the panels regularly, they will increase energy production by up to 10%.

Dimensioning the photovoltaic system

To save as much as possible, it is necessary to correctly calculate the number of solar panels required for the house. The installation must be sized based on many factors, such as the number of people living in the household and their consumption habits.

In summer, there is around twice as much photovoltaic production as in winter. Therefore, it is important to make calculations to stay within the winter requirements and not over-dimension the installation for the summer.

The type of PV system: off-grid or grid-connected

Savings will also depend on the type of PV system you have, whether it is grid-connected or off-grid.

• Savings with a stand-alone or off-grid installation. This installation is ideal for places with no possible connection to the grid, as it allows us to be self-sufficient as we do not need to be connected to the electricity grid. For this, we need solar batteries to accumulate the energy produced during the day and not consume it so we can use it when needed. This means that the initial investment increases substantially, mainly because of the solar batteries, one of the most expensive components of the installation. 

• Savings with grid-connected installations. These are solar panel installations for self-consumption that are still connected to the electricity grid, so they can be used when the solar panels do not produce enough electricity or when they do not produce electricity at all (at night or on very cloudy days). The extra savings we can obtain from our self-consumption installation is based on a compensation system for surplus photovoltaic self-consumption that allows us to maximise our savings with surplus solar energy.

Other factors that intervene in the savings: subsidies and tax rebates

The savings provided by solar panels can also be increased by other contributions such as subsidies or tax benefits. When looking for solar panels in Tasmania, please reach out for a free quote.