longway Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 A Chinese Solar panel manufacturer posted an article today in the PhilStar Global pushing the sale of Residential Solar Panels in the Philippines. The article states: "While the initial investment for a basic solar home installation is around P100,000, the company said the savings accumulated through the years makes the initial investment worth it. It said a homeowner is likely to break even in three to five years, and the system will work for at least 25 years." Does anyone here have or maybe considering solar panels and care to Share their thoughts on this subject? I am skeptical of the 3 to 5 year pay back figures and whether a basic system will be enough to do the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hk blues Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 2 hours ago, longway said: A Chinese Solar panel manufacturer posted an article today in the PhilStar Global pushing the sale of Residential Solar Panels in the Philippines. The article states: "While the initial investment for a basic solar home installation is around P100,000, the company said the savings accumulated through the years makes the initial investment worth it. It said a homeowner is likely to break even in three to five years, and the system will work for at least 25 years." Does anyone here have or maybe considering solar panels and care to Share their thoughts on this subject? I am skeptical of the 3 to 5 year pay back figures and whether a basic system will be enough to do the job. At a cost of 100k, with my monthly bill of approx 3k it would take just over 3 years assuming the panels supplied 100% of my needs - I very, very much doubt they would unless battery storage was added for times when there was no sunlight. The 100k seems without battery storage based on a quote I got 5 years ago for 125k with no batteries. So, I'd imagine even 5 years would be optimistic. I don't recall the specifics but calculated it would take me 10 years to break even back then. A lot may have changed in those 5 years though, including the FIT system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possum Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 (edited) 2 hours ago, longway said: A Chinese Solar panel manufacturer posted an article today in the PhilStar Global pushing the sale of Residential Solar Panels in the Philippines. The article states: "While the initial investment for a basic solar home installation is around P100,000, the company said the savings accumulated through the years makes the initial investment worth it. It said a homeowner is likely to break even in three to five years, and the system will work for at least 25 years." Does anyone here have or maybe considering solar panels and care to Share their thoughts on this subject? I am skeptical of the 3 to 5 year pay back figures and whether a basic system will be enough to do the job. The Chinese may be right for a typical home with only lights, refrigerator and a couple of fans. One guy showed me his bills for such a house and he owed 0 most months. However for a house with AC and more appliances the pay back period will be a little longer. Below is my 5.5 KW net metering system over a two year period. We could lower our external demand a little by timing when we run certain appliances but we don't. The big advantage for me is being able to live comfortably without dreading the Meralco bill. For the year 2022 our monthly electrical bill was less than our PLDT internet/TV monthly bill. One thing for sure there is no pay back on a normal electrical meter as it is guaranteed to cost more as time passes by Below is a 5500W system over a two year period Edited January 1, 2023 by Greglm Couldn't read photo. submited another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hk blues Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 11 minutes ago, Greglm said: The Chinese may be right for a typical home with only lights, refrigerator and a couple of fans. One guy showed me his bills for such a house and he owed 0 most months. However for a house with AC and more appliances the pay back period will be a little longer. Below is my 5.5 KW net metering system over a two year period. We could lower our external demand a little by timing when we run certain appliances but we don't. The big advantage for me is being able to live comfortably without dreading the Meralco bill. For the year 2022 our monthly electrical bill was less than our PLDT internet/TV monthly bill. One thing for sure there is no pay back on a normal electrical meter as it is guaranteed to cost more as time passes by Below is a 5500W system over a two year period Do you have battery storage as part of your system for cloudy days (and night)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possum Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 13 minutes ago, hk blues said: Do you have battery storage as part of your system for cloudy days (and night)? No. I couldn't justify batteries. They just were not cost efficient with a reliable electrical utility. The inverter cost would have been higher also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hk blues Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 1 hour ago, Greglm said: No. I couldn't justify batteries. They just were not cost efficient with a reliable electrical utility. The inverter cost would have been higher also. That was my conclusion too. So, how about cloudy days and at night - how do you get power during those times? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possum Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 13 minutes ago, hk blues said: That was my conclusion too. So, how about cloudy days and at night - how do you get power during those times? Even on cloudy days the system produces some power. Dec. 24 was cloudy but still made 10KWH total consumption was 17.4. 5KWH was fed back for credit. At night power is 100% Meralco. With net metering any excess is fed back to Meralco for credit. Any shortage is fed from Meralco. I have a cheap diesel generator for backup for the occasional outage, it's used rarely. Less than 50 hours over 2 years. Much cheaper than batteries. 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fillipino_wannabe Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 Local suppliers charge 40-50k per KW installed. Each KW will produce about 4 kWh per day so you'll save 30-40 pesos per day depending on when you use the electric as the electric company will only credit you the generation charge if you send excess back to the grid. 3-5 years ROI is about right, the inverter will probably only last 5-10 years though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Possum Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 16 minutes ago, fillipino_wannabe said: Local suppliers charge 40-50k per KW installed. Each KW will produce about 4 kWh per day so you'll save 30-40 pesos per day depending on when you use the electric as the electric company will only credit you the generation charge if you send excess back to the grid. 3-5 years ROI is about right, the inverter will probably only last 5-10 years though. I have a +15 [think it's close to 20] year extended warranty on the SMA inverter. In our best month March this year we fed back 407KWH, in the worst month December 287KWH which is the excess above our own use. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kingpin Posted January 1, 2023 Posted January 1, 2023 13 hours ago, longway said: It said a homeowner is likely to break even in three to five years Battery tech will advance by the time that happens, invest then, not now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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