The cost of living is getting pretty crazy, but here in South Australia the cost of power is out of control. In a matter of a few years, our cost per kW (provider dependent) has gone from around 36c per kW to as high as 60c or more. I’m not sure about the rest of the workforce, but my salary hasn’t increased at the same rate…
To justify, even in my own head, the cost of replacing our current (almost 12 year old) solar system with a new one; there was plenty of research to be done. As a starting point, what capacity could our roof potentially take?
Advancements in technology
Our current system has 4.5kW of panels across a split array; North and West facing, with 9 x 250W panels in each string running through a 5kW inverter. Across its life, this has served us extremely well and not just made a dent in our bill; the system has paid itself off with plenty of change. But as with anything, the technology has advanced so much in the last 12 years that what we’re getting from this system isn’t near what a newer one could provide.
The standard these days is around 410W per panel, which alone would increase our capacity to 7.4kW but we still have some things to make decisions on. The layout of our house means that by the middle of the afternoon, the west facing string has a few panels shaded by our neighbors home, and the North facing has a couple of panels that have shade from trees in neighboring yards.
As a standard DC string, the whole group of panels loses voltage, which affects our solar production. The solution is adding (roughly $130 per panel at a retail level) optimisers to each panel. This results in them being independent of each other, so in an array of 20 panels, if 2 have shade on them, the other 18 will continue to run at peak efficiency and maximise the output.
The consultant from Tindo, Emma, was excellent about explaining the panel technology and available configurations, as well as providing some references that corroborated some of her comments about the performance of their panels.
The other main consideration was around inverters, but in the grand scheme; this wasn’t a major concern for me as I knew that there’s really only a few minor differences in the efficiency of the inverters. But ultimately, due to the capacity of panels I was looking at, I was going to need either a second inverter or a high capacity one.
Getting quotes: It’s a minefield
This was where things got a bit complex, and I understand why someone would either choose a cheap quote (the numbers are similar) or give up because there’s so much to understand.
As a “normal” process, I’ll always approach a local tradie, one big name and one well-reputed or recommended by someone I know. This gives me great market coverage and —- like the sparky and plumbers we currently use — often provides us with someone we’ll build a trusting relationship with over time.
Out of respect for the unsuccessful quotes, I won’t name the companies here because they did nothing wrong, but I will say that ultimately, we went with Tindo Solar. I feel like I should probably note at this point that this is not a sponsored post; in fact, Tindo isn’t even aware I’m writing it, at least until it’s published. I decided to publish this to share what has been an excellent customer experience.
What won out business
One of the companies we engaged with for quoting was good at responding to emails until I asked about an optimised array vs. the DC string that was quoted; it was then that communication died down. That’s fine because that company does basic DC array strings, which is fine for a lot of homes with clear and direct sun on the roon throughout the day.
The other company was recommended by a family member who recently installed a solar system with a battery. They were happy with the service and the price, but there were three critical differences between this and the Tindo quote.
Price, Power and Panels
The price alone wasn’t the main factor, at around $2,500 dearer than Tindo, that created a barrier though.
The other differences started to show when the quotes were compared side by side. The main one being the forecast — I know it’s not a guarantee… — amount of power produced for the year was less, giving me a lower initial return on investment, with that gap only working over the years.
This led me to investigate the panel efficiencies, which were not insignificant. Tindo’s panels are designed for Aussie weather and manufactured locally. This gave me confidence that they will stand up to the extremes that we are here in SA. With this considered, I believed that — based on research of panel efficiency and the inverters — with the system we were narrowing down on, we would end up with nearly three times the power output from just over twice the panel capacity.
The final result
Planning ahead for our future needs and forecasting market costs, we went with a 9.84kW system with optimised panels and two inverters to split the load.
This will:
- Hook into our existing battery – Charging it sooner in summer and charging it in lower production months
- Provide charging capacity for a second battery if we choose to install one in the future
- Provide excess power sufficient to charge an electric vehicle if we choose to buy one
- Feed more power back to the grid in the short term, earning us a bit more from the negligible feedback available
Tindo Solar: The customer experience
Something I’ve hated for years, but unfortunately can’t avoid in some instances, is the need to provide your contact details just to get a quote. Even more so, when you have to provide your contact details to have someone contact you, then come to your home to provide you with a quote. I feel like that’s often a waste of my time, and theirs, when I typically know what I want and have all the info – I just want a price!
When we originally engaged with Tindo, this was through their website and the next morning I received a phone call. This was to arrange a consultation a few days later. When the day came, Emma was smack on time and did a great job of reading the room, skipping some of the corporate presentations and getting straight to the technical side of the proposed installation and what we may like to discuss further.
She took that information away with her, and roughly a day later, we had the proposal in my inbox. Over the next two weeks, we had a bit of back-and-forth via email about the system specs and, of course, price. The contract was signed and the deposit was paid once we were happy with the final system proposal and cost. Within a couple of days, we had the install date agreed upon, and three weeks later (7th August), the system was installed.
Install day
Install day rolled around and, after a courtesy call the day before, although someone had to be at the house to greet the installers; there was no real need for any input other than that. Through the day, I popped outside to check in and see how the progress was, and it was fast!
The old system was decommissioned in seemingly no time at all, and by 2pm, the new system was online and producing power. Of course, there was quite a bit of noise as they removed the old system, put mountings in the roof for the new rails and installed the new inverters on the side of the house. That’s not a big deal, that was expected but I was impressed at the efficiency of the installation and just how clean the install was.
Even when the installers left the site, no rubbish was left behind—the job was done, and the site was left neat and tidy.
Early impressions: It was the right decision
After a few days, it’s clear that we’ve got significantly higher capacity from the new setup. On days that aren’t even peak production (early August – shorter days and not as much power from the sun), we’ve had several days that have resulted in higher production than our previous highest numbers. I’m also really pleased that my calculations were accurate and that we’ve seen roughly three times the power production from the new system compared to similar weather conditions only days apart.
It wasn’t the cheapest system around, nudging $14,000.00 but it has certainly been the right decision for us, in our home which we have every intent on staying in. If anyone has interest in speaking to Tindo, hit me up and I’ll put you in contact — Tell her I sent you — with Emma who I’m sure will look after you too.
