I'm going to chime in and highly advise against installing solar at this time. About 8 months ago I designed a system for my friends home which took into account winters minimum solar insolation values and was capable of fully powering his house. His cost was around $45000 with a 40 year return on investment. The one big assumption (to my knowledge) that people are making is that as electricity costs go up, the refund pricing from enmax will as well.
I do not believe (I am not certain however) that enmax has any obligation to raise their buy back rate with increased electricity costs. The next thing to be weary of is the expected lifetime of your solar panels, here's a hint, it's closer to 20 years at 80% rated output. At 40 years this should be drastically reduced, prolonging the ROI period.
Battery storage systems come with their own headaches too. Life expectancy issues, battery maintenance schedules and controller issues would highly dissuade me from doing that.
Would I install PV cells in a remote location such as a cabin where usage is minimal? You bet. At my primary residence while viewing it as an investment and expecting a return? Not a chance. If your reasoning is more holistic and to lessen your usage, well go knock your socks off, but the odds are you won't be making or saving a whole bunch (especially if you take out a loan to do it).
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Originally Posted by puckhog
Everyone who disagrees with you is stupid
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