How to love your energy bills

We live in one of the sunniest countries in the world but pay some of the highest prices for energy, here’s how to finally love your energy bills and start spending your money on things that matter most. 

Install solar

By installing solar, you will be generating energy for your house to use, rather than importing all your energy from the grid. When generating your own energy, you are not charged for the energy you generate and then use – it’s free! Solar continues to help you save long after it has paid for itself in savings.  

1. Solar panels capture the sun’s rays on your rooftop
2. Energy is sent to your inverter to convert the energy to alternating current (AC) energy. 
3. The AC energy is powering your home. If your system is generating more energy than you need, it will send excess energy to the grid or charge your battery (if installed).
4. When energy is sent to the grid, you are paid a feed-in tariff. This feed-in tariff appears as a credit on your energy bill and is deducted from your energy charges.
5. When you have a battery, the excess energy is sent to charge the battery. At sunset when the system finishes generating solar for the day, the home will be powered by the energy stored in the battery, additional energy can always be drawn from the grid as a backup.

Use your energy management software

Energy management software is an essential element of saving on your energy bills – this will tell you in real-time when you are using energy and how much. In a clear and easy-to-understand format, you will be able to track when you’re using the most energy and when you’re saving the most too.

With this data, you can make behavioural changes to your energy use to better use your solar and use less energy from the grid.

Diagram (above) shows energy produced by solar in blue, energy consumed by the household in orange and energy imported from the grid in grey. 

Michael from Berwick, Victoria installed his 5kW solar system and is reaping the fantastic rewards of using the sun to power the home.

On January 14 2019, his solar system generated enough solar to power the home during the day and in the evening only imported 3kWh from the grid. If Michael didn’t have solar, he could have been charged up to $15.35* for the day’s usage.

Because Michael had solar, he was only charged $1.39* for the day’s usage. The rest is free.  

With his energy management software, Michael can monitor the system throughout the day, to give him the information he needs to minimise energy bills, and you can too.

Protect yourself from surge pricing

Unfortunately, energy retailers have implemented surge pricing to discourage households and businesses from using more energy during high-demand periods. This means, if you use energy during peak times (usually 3 – 9pm) you’re charged more for the energy use than during off-peak or shoulder periods. Sometimes, energy use during peak periods is just unavoidable.

Solar battery storage helps protect your household from surge pricing by using the energy your solar system has generated throughout the day in a battery to use when the sun goes down. Instead of paying peak rates for using your appliances, you can use the free energy you’ve generated at zero cost to you!

Here at Sunbank Solar, we want to help all Australians learn to love their energy bills with solar.

 

*Based on a rate of $0.4650c/kWh when importing energy from the grid. Used only as indicator, individual rates may vary depending on energy provider. Name has been changed for privacy reasons.