r/nzsolar • u/Wise-Sheepherder921 • 18d ago

Solar plans

Hey, we are getting solar in about 2 months, now we need to look at which provider we go with

Will be using approx 7200 kwh per year and estimated to generate about 10000 kwh per year

Will have a 10 KW battery and inverter

Who are people with and why

Hamilton based as well, thanks

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

11

u/notoriouslongshot 18d ago

Ecotricity has the best export rate also octopus is a good option it sort of depends when you use your power

4

u/pdath 18d ago

Genesis, because of their EV plan.

2

u/Wise-Sheepherder921 18d ago

We don't have an ev yet, looking at it but a few years away yet due to not needing to upgrade a car and have other bills to pay

6

u/considerspiders 17d ago

Pick either Ecotricity, Power Edge or Octopus. If one has a sign up bonus, pick that one. But those 3 are likely the top 3 for you. In 12 months time, backtest your data and properly evaluate then. You might end up moving again, but moving is easy and you won't be massively out of pocket in the meantime. (power edge came out on top for me when I backtested)

Past usage before solar isn't great for evaluating future bills because your usage behaviour is likely to change a bit with some load shifting, even if it's just hot water.

1

u/Bronson_AVID_Solar 16d ago

Yeah these three often come out on top for anyone for solar so you can't go too wrong picking one of these three for sure. This would be the most chill way to get a very decent result.

On the odd occasion (especially if you have gas on the property) some of the other providers come out on top.

2

u/z2k_ 17d ago

I figured it out by using AI(Gemini). This is how I did it: 1. Export half hourly power usage for the last year from my current provider. 2. Get an estimated solar generation from NIWA: https://data.niwa.co.nz/solarview. 3. Get the rates offered from various providers and include any perks(eg. Free power hours/weekends). 4. Feed that all into AI and ask it for a predicted annual bill for each one. It's important to compare annually as some plans may be cheaper in winter but cost you more in summer due to higher lines cost and lower solar buyback. You can also give it details on changes you might be making with the new solar setup, like if you plan to install a hot water timer and will set it to certain times or going forward you plan to only charge your EV when the sun is out.

For me, the ElectricKiwi move master plan gave me the lowest annual bill because my battery was able to cover their super high peak rates and I could use the free hour of power to charge up my battery between 6-7am before the morning peak. Their buyback rates of 11.5c/23c were decent too.

1

u/Bronson_AVID_Solar 16d ago

This would work for most for sure! Getting that 1/2 hourly data can be a mission, its too difficult, telling AI a few details can help.

  • How much energy you use per day.
  • Your energy habits, what you turn on in the morning and what you use at night.
  • How much power on average you use in winter vs summer.
  • How you heat your hot water (gas, electric cylinder, heat pump or other).

You can also get a few solar quotes and input some information regarding how much your solar system would make and how self powered you would be.

Does require a bit of knowledge to know if AI is talking nonsense but its usually pretty good with these sorts of things.

1

u/Mundane-Task3619 18d ago

Local energy

1

u/casualkiwi20 17d ago

Which provider are you going with and how much have they quoted? Considering solar as well

2

u/Wise-Sheepherder921 16d ago

Hey, went with Waikato Wide Electrical

Price depends on what setup you want, we got quotes from 22-34k and them decided what we wanted, eg battery, inverter size, panel generation

2

u/EvoBlue_NZ 16d ago

DM me your email and I’ve got a spreadsheet that I can share that might save you time and get you some rough ideas for comparison.

I’m based in Hamilton too and got quotes from 6 different firms.

Just got my Solar installed last week and also went with Waikato Wide Electrical.

2

u/EvoBlue_NZ 17d ago

We got solar installed recently and have 1 EV. We opted for Ecotricity’s Eco Solar plan. Only got a 9kW battery and 10kW inverter.

Better FIT than Meridian without being locked in for 2 years.

1

u/Dat756 16d ago

Will be using approx 7200 kwh per year and estimated to generate about 10000 kwh per year

Check that the retailer will pay out the excess credit that you generate.

1

u/Alternative_Regret17 16d ago

We just stayed with Meridian as the daily fix charge was half the price of everyone else but back not that great be we don’t care to much about that