Cr. Graham Hackett, Mayor of Macedon Ranges Shire Council, has just had a solar system installed through the MASH community solar bulk-buy. This is his story…
“I bought a 2Kw system about eight years ago which cost around $20,000″, says Graham. “Our new MASH system cost just over $7,000 for 5Kw and features top quality European inverter and high performance panels. It is amazing how far solar prices have dropped and how the quality has improved.”
“Our electricity bills are around $3,200 annually. With the MASH installation, they are estimated to reduce by around $1,450 each year. That’s a payback of about 5 years, a decent return I reckon.”
“Our bills are high because we use electricity to power pretty much everything in our home and on the farm, apart from the cooker hot plate which is on bottled gas. Electricity also runs the fridges, freezers, water pumps, plus all our welding equipment and workshop tools.
“Another reason was because the original 2kw system may not have been designed properly as it did not take into account that we ran on two phase power – not single phase as the original inverters were designed for. This meant that the panels didn’t power the home properly or maximise the benefit of the high 68c feed-in-tariff.
“I’m delighted that the MASH people worked out that this was a problem and installed our new system to maximize output for 2-phase supply. It just goes to show how important good, professionally designed arrays are!
“Our system is designed to allow battery storage, for when the prices come down and no more high feed-in-tariff is available. It would be nice in time to be self-sufficient and with the produced excess power, to be able to store it rather than export it back to the grid for less than it costs to buy”.
“Overall, I am really pleased we chose to go with MASH. We now have a system that’s designed for 2-phase power supply and can see how much CO2 we are saving from going to atmosphere each day.
“It really is amazing to watch how much electricity is produced by the panels and how self sufficient we have become in just a few months. We are now well positioned to install battery technology, reducing our dependence on main stream supply and ever increasing costs, in the near future.”
Graham Hackett has a MASH2 Premium System which comprises of a Fronius 2-phase inverter and 260 watt Trina Honey Panels.