Evan Child and his family have had a $0 net annual electricity charge for the past 12 months.
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Mr Child, an electrician and Clean Energy Council accredited solar system designer and installer, has put a system on his Moss Vale home that has produced enough energy to run a five bedroom house.
“We use the heater when its cold. We use the aircon when its hot. We use dishwashers and clothes driers all the time. The kids take long showers,” he said.
“Over the 12 months the system has been installed we imported 5359 kWh from the grid but exported 21677 kWh. This equates to us exporting 4 times the amount of power we imported."
This achievement was made possible by the installation of 51 oversize 310W solar panels on the east (10), north (32) and west (9) roofs.
The house consumes on average 20kWh daily in summer and 40 kWh in winter.
Mr Child said they generated on average 100kWh daily in summer and 60kWh in winter.
The house has also been built to maximise its solar potential.
All living areas face north for natural light and warmth.
The house is oriented east/west to maximise winter sunlight and minimise summer sunlight.
Mr Child said he upgraded the standard roof insulation and went for an increased 26 degree pitch colourbond roof for easier and more output solar install.
Timber look vinyl plank flooring on the concrete slab was chosen to act like a heat bank in the sunlight yet insulate enough from the cold slab in winter. Curtains and blinds cover the windows at night.
A heat pump hot water unit was chosen as the most efficient and can run in the middle of the day when generating solar power.
“My solar design is a combination of east, north and west facing solar panels to generate power for the longest period possible,” Mr Child said.
“I oriented the panels in an offset stagger landscape array to maximise the amount of solar panels able to be installed. I used slightly larger than normal solar cables to also reduce system losses.”
Three 5kW rated solar inverters were installed on the western shade side of the house.
Each inverter is connected to a phase of the three phase house supply.
The system is designed to feed solar power to the house and if it is not used, the power goes out to the grid.
“Our system has been operating now for 12 months and the figures are in. Zero net annual electricity charge. We only paid for service availability charge of approximately $300.”
Mr Child said with the feed in tariff increase to 12 cents per kWh, the system would make money over the next year and they would not have to pay for electricity or service availability.
“Zero net total utility house bills are possible.”
Mr Child said quality solar panels should last about 30 years and quality inverters about 15 years.
Anyone who wishes to view the home and its solar installation can attend the open house conducted by One Agency Bowral on October 28 between 12 and 12.30pm.
