2 Comments

  1. Gus

    I am about to install a 1.5kw system in NSW. I am still a little confused about nett and Gross feed in. Will I be credited for any electricity produced on a net system. Since I will be using most electricity at night I am not sure which to choose.

    • @Gus: Gross metering means you are paid for everything your solar panels generate (e.g. with 5 hrs of effective ideal sunshine, a 1.5 kW system will generate 7.5 kWh of energy per day, and that’s what you’ll be paid for). Net metering means you are only paid for the electricity you produce over and above what you consume – I believe this is calculated in realtime, not totalled up over the day. So if you have net metering and use 5 kWh during the daylight hours, you would get paid just for the 2.5 kWh you exported to the grid. Obviously under this setup it’s best to try to shift your electricity consumption to night-time as much as possible (e.g. don’t run your dishwasher, clothes washer, column heater, etc during the day, only at night).

      Note that under a net system, you would not be paying for the 5 kWh you consumed in the above example – you generated it yourself. So in the end, it all comes down to the price you are paid for what you generate, the price you are charged for what you use (which may vary depending upon the time of day, making it even more complicated!), and your usage pattern throughout the day. Usage patterns and generation patterns will vary with the seasons, too! You’d need to run the numbers and figure out which system will work best for your personal situation.

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