Page 25 - Australasian Paint & Panel May-June 2021

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Stuart Gordon is a solar professional based in Sydney with over ten years of solar experience working on major commercial projects as well as residential solar. He is a Director of IQ Solar Pty Ltd www.iqsolar.com.au
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
and you’re paying off a system as you go. You are already spending money on power, you might as well get the benefit of the asset as well (buy the milk and you’ll own the cow too). People are put- ting on larger systems because they re- alise the savings they are getting.
A COUPLE OF POINTERS
Systems up to 100kW will have the best return on investment. Over 100kW, and the upfront rebate (worth almost $50,000 on a 100kW project) is lost.
Don’t get hung up on batteries yet. The price, and therefore their attractive- ness, is still not quite there.
You’re never dependent on solar power. It decreases your demand on the grid, but you still have all the amps you need from your grid connection. Your system size will be worked out as a factor of three things: your power usage, your roof size, and your budget. At some point, one of these will become the upper limit for you.
Don’t get hung up on equipment choices at the start. Work out the busi-
ness case for solar power first, then eval- uate the range of equipment and the im- pact on pricing second. It’s easy to get pushed into equipment discussions but ignore the context, which is: Does this work for me and is it the right decision?
Work out the business
case for solar power first, then evaluate the
range of equipment and impact on pricing second.”
Get a few quotes. Of course you would do that anyway, but the differ- ences between companies can be huge. A system can still be a large decision, so don’t go in blind. Hint: IQ Solar has dozens of explanatory videos.
Beware of the cheapest quotes. There are a lot of companies that are trying to win commercial projects, and they un- derquote by accident because they don’t know the difference between a big resi-
dential project and a commercial pro- ject. Differences include: Additional equipment handling costs, the need to have a building assessed for structural integrity, monitoring costs, and more substantial cabling, just for starters.
Deal with someone who can do an ac- curate cost /savings analysis. For any- one that has not yet looked at what solar can do for them, we suggest talking to a reputable company and having some fi- nancial modelling done.
If you’ve looked at solar before, and dis- carded it because it didn’t meet your ex- pectation, I’d suggest looking again. A lot has changed. Prices have come down and there’s great ‘no cash upfront’ options.
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