Residential case study: Stephanie W.

Doing ‘our bit’ to cut emissions

Stephanie’s Solar Story

We believe that every household has to do something to contribute towards cutting CO2 emissions. Every little bit helps. Using clean energy from the sun makes sense to us.

Whilst the environmental benefits of solar are our main motivation for getting solar, we also had a practical reason. We have an all-electric house and we’d noticed that our electricity bills were rising steadily. Saving money by getting a system that would provide our 4-person household with most of our daytime electricity seemed like a good financial move.

What happened

I heard about the MASH Community Solar Bulk-Buy through the Pyrenees Shire Council’s Facebook page. The fact it is a council-supported program appealed to us as it meant that we didn’t have to do the research – someone else had done it for us.

I went to the MASH information meeting in Maryborough earlier this year. I learned a lot about solar and liked what I found out about the bulk-buy.

I put in my request for a quote and Specialized Solar & Electrical, the solar retailer for the bulk-buy, got in touch. They were great and made the whole process really easy.

The information they provided was very detailed and professional. They used satellite pictures of our roof to work out the dimensions and to see whether there would be any shading at any times of the year. They also looked at our electricity bill to understand our usage.

They recommended a 6.66kW system and an east/west orientation for the panels. That’s because we use more power in the early morning and late afternoon than we do in the middle of the day. Having the panels split into two arrays, one facing east and the other west, optimises our power generation during those busy times in our home when we are using more electricity.

I applied for the solar panels rebate from the Solar Homes program. That was an easy process and didn’t take long. It all went through fine.

Specialized Solar’s installer – Matt – was professional and friendly. He and his team arrived early, as planned, and got the job done in one day. The handover was good. They showed me how the system works, set up the monitoring app and gave me a demo of it.

Results

The solar panels look great. We have a black roof and the panels are black too so they blend in well.

The inverter is tucked away in the garage so it’s well-protected and unobtrusive.

I find it fun watching the app that comes with our Sungrow inverter. It’s got a lot of information like how much solar power is being generated at any time of day. It helps me feel more in control of our electricity usage as, for the first time, I can see what’s happening with power in our home.

We haven’t had a full quarter yet, but I can see on our retailer’s website that we are spending less.

I’m actually looking forward to seeing our next electricity bill so we can see how much we are saving with solar.