Thank you to everyone who attended the MASH Solar and Battery Bulk-Buy Information Meeting in Maryborough last Thursday (4/03).
It was great to see so much interest in the Central Goldfields community. Around 30 people attended and there was a huge amount of interest with lots of questions at the end. Some of the questions – and the answers provided by the speakers – are recorded below for general interest.
If you weren’t able to be there you can still find out more, and request a quote, by visiting mash.org.au/central-goldfields or call 1300 466 274.
Q&A topics – covered at recent MASH Information evenings in Maryborough and Beaufort:
Q: If Powercor says we can’t feed our excess solar power back into the grid, where does the extra power go?
A: The power that can’t be exported goes into a heat sink – so it is lost. The ways around this are: to get a smaller system so use as much as possible of the solar power you generate in your home and have hardly any excess power to export. Another way is to get battery storage but this is pricey.
Q: Can we put solar on our woolshed?
A :That depends on the size and capacity of the cabling from your shed to the meter. This is something we assess with a site inspection.
Q; What incentive does a landlord have to put solar on for their tenant?
A There is a Victorian Government rebate available through the Solar Homes Program where you can get a rebate – worth up to $1,850 – for your own home and also for your investment property, providing your meet the eligibility criteria. See solar.vic.gov.au .
Q: I’m on the 66c feed in tariff. Would I qualify for the State Government Solar Panels rebate?
A: Yes as long as the solar was installed prior to 1 November 2009 and you meet the other eligibility criteria. However you would lose the 66c per kilowatt hour feed-in tariff and go back down to the single rate minimum feed-in tariff which is 10.2c per kilowatt hour.
Q; Has the quality of inverters improved over the last 10 years?
A: Absolutely! 10 years ago it was common to see inverters with just 3 years warranty, now many have 10 or 15 years warranty. They are much more efficient and most of them today have solar generation monitoring via an app.
Q: If the switchboard needs an upgrade, can you do it or do we need to get an electrician to do it?
A: We would do this as part of the installation process with a price ranging from around $300 to $1500.
Q; Can I oversize my solar system by say having 8kW of panels with a 5kW inverter?
A: Powercor, the network distributor for our region, allows you to have 33% more panels than the capacity of your inverter. So with a 5kW inverter, you can have 6.66kW of solar panels installed.