How Denise is saving $1,800 per year with her 6.5kW Instyle Solar system
Denise lives in eastern Brisbane, and she saves $1,800 per year thanks to an Instyle Solar system. Her solar panels were installed in September 2019, and her system has a total capacity of 6.5 kilowatts. Denise would get power bills of around $500 per quarter before going solar, but now she’s only paying around $50. In other words, solar panels have made her power bills 10 times smaller.
You can now find solar panels in 20% of Australian homes (one in every five), but in Queensland and South Australia, this number is more like 40%. Installing solar panels is one of the best investments available for Australian homeowners:
- Solar power has a typical payback period of less than five years, and many homeowners with favorable roof conditions achieve a payback period below three years.
- High-quality solar panels can last for decades, and many brands now come with a 25-year product warranty.
Each dollar invested in solar panels is recovered multiple times in power bill savings, thanks to their quick payback period and long warranty.
Which brands were used for Denise’s 6.5-kW solar system?
At Instyle Solar, we only work with high-quality solar brands that are approved by the Australian Clean Energy Council (CEC). When designing the home solar system used by Denise, our experts picked the following products:
- 20 Q.PEAK DUO monocrystalline panels from Q CELLS, each with 325W of capacity
- A 5-kW Sungrow inverter
Q CELLS and Sungrow are both leading brands in the solar power industry. Q CELLS solar panels use the Q.ANTUM technology, developed internally by the company to increase electricity production and power bill savings. Q CELLS has been in the Australian market since 2009, and they sold 10% of all solar panels installed nationwide in 2018.
Denise’s Instyle Solar system combines high-performance PV modules from Q CELLS with a 5-kW solar inverter from Sungrow. Founded in 1997, Sungrow has become a leading inverter brand around the world, with more than 182 gigawatts installed in over 150 countries. They produce traditional inverters for grid-tied solar panels and hybrid inverters for systems that also include batteries.
6.5kW Instyle Solar system: Electricity production and savings
Denise’s home is located in the eastern suburbs of Brisbane. The area gets plenty of sunshine around the year, which makes solar panels very productive. A 6.5-kW home solar system like the one Denise has can generate between 10,000 and 11,000 kilowatt-hours per year.
- The exact savings achieved by a 6.5-kW home solar system will depend on your energy consumption habits and electricity tariff.
- Denise has been saving $1,800 per year, which is around $450 per quarterly bill.
- She explained how she used to pay around $500 per quarter, but this has dropped to around $50 per quarter since she became an Instyle Solar customer.
Keep in mind you also get a government incentive when going solar in Australia, thanks to the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES). For every 1,000 kWh of estimated production by the end of 2030, you get one Small-Scale Technology Certificate or STC. For a 6.5-kW home solar system in Brisbane, you can expect the following STC amounts:
- 6.5-kW system installed before the end of 2021 = 89 STC
- 6-5-kW system installed in 2022 = 80 STC
STCs are purchased by electric companies, large-scale consumers and other organisations with a legal requirement to support renewable energy in Australia. Each STC sells for around $39, which means you get an incentive of around $3,120 for 80 of them and $3,471 for 89.
The Australian government decreases the incentive rate year by year, and the benefit will disappear completely after 2030. Keep this in mind if you’re considering solar panels for your home: you can get more STCs by installing them earlier. Since Denise’s solar panel system was installed in September 2019, her incentive was even larger. Back then, a 6.5-kW system in Brisbane was eligible for 107 STCs.
Instyle Solar uses CEC approved solar panels, inverters and battery systems. Also, our solar experts in charge of system design and installation are CEC Accredited. This means you will get a top-quality solar installation, which qualifies for STCs and other financial incentives.