Are Solar Panels Worth It Without a Battery? Why 3c Exports Kill the Payback

Solar panels on their own are not the full answer. Some homeowners get sold a panel package, get it installed, and then wonder why their power bill is still there. The panels are generating electricity, but without the right system design behind them, a huge chunk of that energy is going straight back to the grid for almost nothing.

I’m Jason. I’m Cam. We’re the owners of Source Energy Group, where we’ve designed and installed countless solar and battery systems for Australian homeowners. In this episode, we’re going to show you exactly what needs to go alongside your solar panels to make the system actually work for your home, your usage, and your bill.

Got a guest on today. Who we got? We got Samantha Delphin. She’s our PR manager. Part of the fantastic support team that everyone raves about in the reviews. Yeah, 100%. You’ll probably see the names popping up there somewhere. You probably listen to our reviews.

So many people these days are starting to receive letters in the mail. You actually got one of them, didn’t you, Cam? Yeah, mate. The supply charge increasing. Yeah. My daily supply charge got increased 20 to 30 cents, I think mine was. And even my usage charge, that went up 1 cent as well. We’re hearing that a lot as well, like these charges are going up. And we’ve actually spoke about it, you know, the very first episode was all about that 3 hours of free power and how this is going to happen. And yes, it’s going up, but people still think solar’s not worth it. 100% unless you get a battery. Definitely.

Well, everything’s all about batteries these days, and everyone’s talking about it. Big thing that we’re starting to see is people saying they got ripped off when they got solar, solar never worked for them. They don’t want to get ripped off with the battery as well. I think it’s just more awareness around it, and how all that works, I suppose. Yeah, I think so too. I think people need to be more aware of what the battery can actually do.

Yeah, 100%. Well, the biggest benefit, and the supply charge is going up as we said. Usage charges are going up. But the one that’s why everyone thinks it’s not worth it these days is the feed-in tariff where they used to get paid. You used to get paid quite well for what you sent back to the grid. That’s just getting smaller and smaller and disappearing. Right now, on average they only get about 3 cents for everything they send back to the grid, isn’t it? It’s everything, yeah. So if all you have is solar panels, well then solar is just not worth it, is it?

Yeah. Well, you do the grid applications and whatnot for us, so we’ve got to put in an export limit on a single phase property. And what size inverter is a single phase property 90% of the time? What are they getting? 10 kilowatts. 10 kilowatts. And how much can they export? Five. Yeah. So they can’t even export the full amount. So you can understand why it’s a rip-off. It’s actually quite the opposite.

Well, the kicker is, they’re paying you 3 cents in the middle of the day and at night time when you’re cooking dinner, using all your power, everyone’s finished a hard day’s work, now with the increase, it used to be around 35 cents, but now they’re charging you 40 cents, 50 cents plus depending on what area you’re in. 100%. Having a battery on, it’s the exact opposite of being a rip-off. If they’re storing that power to be able to use at night time, their feed-in is actually around the 44 cents. Like it’s averaging out. They’re storing that 44 cents inside their battery before their night time usage, rather than feeding it back to the grid.

Yeah, so like back in the day everybody didn’t want to lose their 44 cent tariff. It’s almost like they’ve got it back. It’s basically equal to the old 44 cent feed-in tariff, isn’t it? If you store it. Yeah. Because you’re saving the 44 cents instead of paying it. 100%. Those hot summer nights running the air con all night. Yeah. It’s been freezing lately, yeah, I’m cranking the heater all night. And you can see the sparks in the chart where it’s getting freezing cold in the morning because the heater kicks in a little bit more.

We have seen obviously that supply charge go up. It used to be around anywhere between a dollar 30, dollar 50. Now people are paying like dollar 80, dollar 90, some people $2. Well, yeah, I think his is going up around a dollar 95, two bucks or something similar. Yeah. Mine’s up around a dollar 60 or something like that. I can’t remember. Have you seen, I mean it’s after the 1st of July now, what are we on? July 15? Yeah. Well, it’s a bit early to see because you probably haven’t had a bill yet, but the 3 hours of free power, it’s going to be interesting to see if that actually does anything for anyone.

Yeah. Well, it is going to do something for certain people though, isn’t it? Well, it’ll definitely do something for the energy retailer. They’re going to see a massive profit increase, all right. Absolutely. Yeah, but they’re everyone consuming their 44 cents plus at peak time. Yeah, 100%. But is it going to balance out? Is it going to weigh up? That’s the frightening bit. Like, well, someone like myself, like I’ve got the 42 kW of battery and 13 kW of solar on the roof. My battery is charged every day. And this is winter time. I’ve got a 50% south facing system. So there’s no real benefit to the 3 hours of free power for me. However, I’m paying a bigger supply charge now. So. Yeah, that’s wild.

Yeah. So Braden, you had a go, it was doing the 3 hours of free power before the 1st of July. Yeah, but they were giving you something back for it. Yeah. But I guess if you do have a battery you could use that 3 hours of free power to your advantage, couldn’t you? Yeah. And then not get stung by the 44 cents at dinner time. Yeah, that’s exactly right. Utilise it while you can during that 3 hours of free power. Save your battery. Less usage at night. Cool your house down beforehand. Warm your house up beforehand. Get a fireplace, not solar. Don’t edit that in.

I guess there’s plenty of other reasons why solar panels are not worth it as far as everyone’s concerned. Look, reality is solar panels by themselves are still going to be worth it, aren’t they? Yeah. You’re just going to get more benefit with the battery. With the battery, yeah, definitely. It just comes back to everything we talk about all the time. If people are still in the mindset thinking solar panels aren’t worth it, they’ve obviously heard some story about something happening to someone. And it usually stems from those things like we talked about in the episode about the five common mistakes. Things like that. Getting sold a system in a forest. Brand ambassadors, TV ads. Yeah, absolutely.

So if you have been sold a system in a forest or someone’s designing one in a forest, the battery’s not going to help you there, is it? No, no. It’s never going to get any charge. Even with the 3 hours of free power. It’s not going to be enough time to charge it. Yeah. Panels still are definitely worth it. Just everything needs to be designed correctly. Nothing to do with solar can possibly be a rip-off if it’s a correctly sized and designed system. Then it’s knocking your power bill out even if you are still getting a daily supply charge. There’s absolutely no way that solar is not worth it or batteries aren’t worth it.

Yeah. End of the day, as long as it’s designed to your household, look, things like your roof, your usage, everything like that. And some people might have a high usage, and you just can’t put a big enough system to wipe it all out, but they can save 50% 60% with whatever they can fit on the roof, it’s still going to be beneficial, isn’t it? Yeah, definitely right. So they might still end up with a bill, and that portion of the bill is going to increase with the power rises. But the portion that they’re saving, the savings are actually going to increase every year when the price goes up, isn’t it? Yeah, definitely.

There are a few horror stories about that from customers. Yeah, look, I definitely have. I think being in the industry for as long as I have and working for different companies as well, you get a lot of customers and they all discuss with each other, they discuss with their friends and I think the biggest thing that we’re missing here is the education behind how a battery is beneficial with the solar. So I think we just need to break that stigma. Oh, definitely. Instead of all they’re getting is just a big jumbled mess of Facebook advertising. Exactly. And the biggest one is everyone says, “Oh, I’m just paying for my power up front.” Yeah, I’ve heard that many times before, too. Pay for it up front, there’s still a benefit because in the next 10 years that’s just cash flow in your back pocket, you know. I pay for me cartons of beer up front. $0 up front for your piss. Yeah, that’s it.

Yeah, if we break the stigma, there’s got to be a way to do it, obviously. Like having just a massive Facebook marketing and ads and stuff just smashed in your face all the time probably doesn’t help. Yeah, like sleazy salesman sort of stigma as well. There’s a lot of that out there, that’s for sure. Yeah. The ones that don’t even wear pants. Don’t look under the table. Dress from the waist up. Everyone knows we wear footy shorts.

Yeah, I think our reviews come into play a lot with that as well, you know? Even when I’m calling customers asking them if they would be nice enough to give us a review. The reviews speak for themselves. 100%. And the benefits that they’re getting from the systems that we’ve designed specifically for their needs. It’s another stigma part, too. How many people buy their reviews? Oh, yes, I’ve seen it. That’s quite funny, actually. What have we seen recently? Yeah, sent a screenshot. I’m not going to say who, but I got sent a screenshot of some marketing, and they’ve got, apparently, they got 17,000 reviews. 17,000? Yeah, when did they start operating?

Yeah, I don’t know. A lot of reviews. A lot of installs. And you’re quite good friends with someone that’s actually done like 30,000, 40,000 over the last 10, 15 years. How many can they fit? Like their company has. They wouldn’t even have 17,000 reviews. No. And not for not doing a good job, because they do. It’s just 17,000 reviews, it’s just taking the piss. You reckon Google’s got 17,000 reviews? I don’t think so, no. Not at all. That’s all that garbage that’s out there that does lead to everyone just saying it’s all not worth it. Yeah, definitely. But yeah, it’s all about being able to look into the reviews, I guess. I’ll go back to it over and over and over, and we’ve spoken about it in other episodes.

I guess a lot in the industry, and a lot of them still good ones out there doing all the right thing, but a lot of the industry have just gone past that. They are actually designing a power generation unit. 100%. It’s all heavily focused around the power bill, because that’s the whole benefit of it, why you’re going to go solar or battery in the first place. But at the end of the day, when you cut that back, you’re installing a power generation unit on your home. That comes with risks. If it’s not designed properly, can go wrong. Bang on. Bang on, literally. If it’s done wrong, it goes bang.

And that’s the shiny shoe salesman traits that’s killing it, I reckon. That’s my thought. JB Hi-Fi salesman just getting around the houses, untrustworthy sort of atmosphere about them. Just chasing a sale. Yeah, just chasing a sale, chasing a commission or something like that, which we do it a bit differently, which I think that’ll work in our favour. But the way we do it isn’t essentially commission-based.

Yeah, well, it’s because we’re not doing what they do, actually designing a system. A lot of companies are on commission base. So, the larger the system you go, the more money you make. We don’t do that. We’ve just got one set marketing and sales budget in the business. And a company that doesn’t have that in there is not going to be around down the track to answer the phone. So, everyone’s got to allow for that, obviously. But ours doesn’t grow with the bigger system, so if we’re offering someone a large system, it’s purely because they need a large system. It’s got nothing to do with a sales rep or us or anyone making more money. Yeah. That is just purely that’s what they need because it’s designed for their household.

Yeah. What do we call it? Not cookie-cutter spec. Yeah, 100%. And the tailor-made systems. It’s about their home. Yeah. It’s about the customer. Not our bank account. A little bit our bank account. Enough to keep the doors open down the track. Exactly. I’ll keep paying. Oh, is it to keep paying a bill on this podcast? Who’s answering the phones right now? Joe’s here. Oh, love you, Joe. Love you, Mum.

All right, so essentially, solar is not exactly a scam. Solar is not not worth it. The solar on the roof. But yeah, I feel personally in all parts of it, you need to be able to capitalise on the government rebate that’s out there. Yeah. So, if you want to get solar panels on your roof, that government rebate drops 12 and 1/2% every year, but it’s important to get the most up-to-date, newest technology while you can. And obviously, yeah, the battery rebate dropping every 6 months. You need to pair those two things together.

Yeah. You actually, you got two things working against you. Okay? So, just like you said, the rebate continually drops until it disappears. While that’s happening, the power price keeps increasing. So, one goes up, one goes down means the longer you wait, the more it’s going to cost you to get that savings and benefit. It’s the biggest thing right here. And if anyone knows about the property market or getting into property, you got people saying I’m going to wait and hold until the price drops till I buy. Waiting for the solar price to go down or the power prices go down, it’s the exact same scenario. It’s just the longer you wait, you’re just behind the eight ball. Exactly.

End of the day, it’s not a scam if it’s done right. Okay? Couldn’t agree more. A waste of time. Yeah, 100%. When it’s done right, like anything, do it right and you get the benefit. Yeah, solar panels are worth it. Battery’s worth it. Just stay away from the shiny shoe salesman, I guess. Get in. Do it now. Do it now. Yeah. Do it now. Do it. Do it. Let’s go.