Solar Panels

Your rates are comparable to most of the rest of Europe MalSannie.
The size of house too is another matter. Note this is for new homes only.
This article from Aug 2011 paints a picture...
http://www.couriermail.com.au/life/home ... 6119251532

The average floor area of new homes built in the nine months to March, including houses and apartments, was 214.1sq m, data commissioned from the Australian Bureau of Statistics by CommSec showed.
Despite that, more smaller apartments have been built during the past two years, a trend likely to continue as Generation Y starts to buy more real estate.
"They have a preference for smaller apartments close to the CBD. It is very different to their parents and grandparents who were looking for a quarter-acre block of land," CommSec chief economist Craig James said.
"Generation Y does not want the huge house to look after. They are more inclined to maximise lifestyle."
Australian houses, though, are now about 10 per cent bigger than in the US and 9 per cent bigger than New Zealand.
The UK has the "cosiest" castles in Europe, with an average floor area of just 76sq m, according to figures from the UK Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
Home size has risen steadily in Australia in the past 25 years, with the 1985 average floor space around 150sq m.
Queensland residences were the third largest in the country, behind NSW and Victoria, with an average house size of 250.6sq m and an average apartment size of 137.4sq m. Tasmania has the smallest average homes in the country.
Mr James said it appeared the average house size had now peaked and was likely to plateau in the future, with rising energy prices making smaller dwellings more appealing.
Average house floor area in Australia (in sq m)
1. NSW 269.7
2. Queensland 250.6
3. Victoria 246.9
4. Western Australia 244.9
5. South Australia 185.4
6. Tasmania 188.7
7. Northern Territory 263.5
8. ACT 212.8
Australia 243.6
I'd like to see a comparison between new homes in these countries and also the block size these houses are built on.
Getting back on topic, I think anyone building a new house should seriously look at installing a decent size water tank, more than adequate insulation and solar panels given the way energy prices are going.

Stewie

Great info Stewie.

I just got my energy rating back and it was 6.4 and that didn't include my upgraded ceiling batts to R6 from 3.5.
Is there a general rule how much this would add?

If you mean in terms of cost I think there would be too many variables - climate, house size, orientation etc to accurately work it out. I think it comes down to the law of diminishing returns where to go from R3 to R4 in your ceilings might cost you an extra $1000 to install and lower your energy use by $100 per year but to go from R3 to R5 might cost you an extra $1500 but only lower your energy use by $140 per year. Long term it is effective and you would get your money back.
I remember reading somewhere recently that people living in Sydney should aim for R4 for ceilings. I'd imagine a colder climate like Melbourne you should probably aim at somewhere like R4.5. A standard 90mm stud wall you are limited anyway to R2.5 unless you start looking at cavity insulation etc.
I'm also unsure how the energy rating compares to R values across floor, walls and ceilings plus the other variables to work it out.
I also think the other major ingredient in all this is the comfort factor.

Stewie

CrazyK - there are no rules about how a certain insulation change will affect a house. Each design will react differently to different specifications. A home with high ceilings has more wall area to lose/gain heat - so the ceilings will have (proportionally) less of an impact. A home with raked ceilings has more ceiling area to lose/gain heat - so the ceilings will be (proportionally) more important. Depending on your climate zone and roof colour, the ceiling/roof may not be as important as your windows/walls/floors/etc. The only way to know is to run the calculation.

Shoot your assessor a quick email and ask them what the rating is like with R6 to the ceilings. It will take them five minutes, and they should be more than happy to let you know the result. If you want an updated certificate to reflect the change, though - they may charge you for this as this would take more time and possibly incur a certificate fee from their software provider/NatHERS.

Thanks Tristan.

And sorry for the thread hijack

hi everyone I am new here, I am just having a question about solar panel installer, I am located in Brisbane, I wonder is there any good installer in Brisbane, I've been hearing good things about these companies, Green Incentives QLD and Springers Solar. I appreciate for your helps

Never heard of them.

I previously had Infinity Solar install at my old house and was very happy with them, so happy I'm getting them to install a system on my new house.

thanks bpratt, I gave all of them a call and Green Incentives QLD gives me with a better quote, and I think I will go with them

Has anyone installed a hybrid system?

No, at least not yet.

I'm starting with pure grid feed, and as funds allow I'll be getting a Selectronics SP-pro, and then later on around a 800ah LiFePO2 battery bank.

Subject to how that goes, I might end up going totally offgrid.

Thanks bpratt.

I stumbled upon a solax hybrid inverter. From my research seems good.

You'll have to keep us posted.

I used these guys to fix mine recently, http://checksolar.com.au/, True Value job that needed a lot of repair. They also do quotes on new installs, really friendly and they did a great job.

The panels go up on Monday, so does the SHW too.

I'll be having a Kaco inverter installed as they can be fully controlled by the Selectronics SP-Pro as I move forward towards hybrid and then off grid, as you normally need to replace a grid feed with a off grid inverter, this way I keep the same inverter.

Another example as to why people should avoid companies with poor reputations such as TVS, modern, citisolar, and there are others, but those are the mainstream ones that people do have issues with.

Those mainstream guys build solely to a price, which gets "Joe Sixpack and Wanda Nailpolish" to buy from them thinking that because they are mainstream, they won't do the wrong thing... how wrong are they !

Don't know anything about checksolar, but if you've done your research then you know they should be okay.

Very Good advice. The balance is between price and quality, but more so customer service and after-sales service which many people do not think of. I've been to houses where everything is done on the cheap 6 Years after build and everything is falling apart and defective and its so annoying to work on things that aren't done right in the first place. Watch out for the whole "Cheap, Smiley and Cheerful" sales pitch.

Hey bpratt,

What PV panels did you go with? My head is spinning from the whirlpool forum, no pun intended, and I am having trouble figuring this one out. Any help would be awesome

I ended up with 26 x 250w Trina Honey panels on my roof. Looking at adding another two (1 per string) when I have some spare cash handy.

The inverter I have is a Kaco 6600.

Thank you!!
Back to the wash for Trina research haha