DOES A SOLAR INSTALLATION ACTUALLY SAVE ME MONEY??

Good question, to answer it let’s look at a few different options:

→Grid Electricity (ZESA) vs Solar

• A typical household (high density),on average, uses about 340kWhs of electricity per month (excluding cooking which we don’t encourage to be on solar). Based on the last average ZESA US$ price of electricity (for ease of comparison) of US$0.12/kWh [2018], a typical installation for a household (including solar water heating) would take about 3,5 years to recover the money invested in the solar package (investment ranging from US$1500 to US$2300 INCLUDING solar water heating)… with the rest of the years being “free energy”!! Note that most panels have a 25 year life-span, batteries have lifespans of between 5 to 12 years, inverters have a lifespan of around 10 years. We will talk more in depth about these components and different types and options available in future posts.

• A typical Medium Density house uses about 520kWhs per month, with estimated payback period (time it takes to recover investment) of 3 years (investment ranging from US$2000 to US$2600 INCLUDING solar water heating)

• A typical low Density house uses about 1150kWhs per month, with estimated payback period of 2.5 years (investment ranging from US$3000 to US$4000 INCLUDING solar water heating)

So as can be seen above one will, on average, recover money invested in the Solar System well within the lifespan of the system :) :) System generally pays back faster with bigger installations

→Generator Back-Up vs Solar Back-Up

-Well one might ask if it is not cheaper to just use a generator during power outages rather than the “expensive” solar installation. To illustrate this take a look at an excerpt, attached below, of a Financial Model done by our sister company, Edloc Consulting Engineers, for one of our clients, a church (name withheld)

The Study revealed that generator costs (fuel, repairs, servicing) were more than 220% those of solar (with solar model including ALL costs including maintenance and battery replacement). As can be seen above this client would have used an equivalent of the money invested in their solar PV System by around the 3rd Year, just based on running and maintenance costs (cost of generator is not even included!!). Isn’t that amazing!!! So generator back-up costs more than double to run compared to solar!!... Choosing solar over generator is a “no-brainer” :) :)

For a similar Energy audit and Financial Model, which is FREE by the way, please inbox us and we will be willing to assist.

→ Cost of Unserved Energy- There is a term called “cost of unserved energy” which tries to capture the cost of not having electricity

(i) To Business and Economy: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Report [Financial Costs and Benefits of Renewables,2015] estimates that it costs business and economy about R87/kWh due to lost production, compared to a cost of electricity of around R0.9/kWh (in 2014). It means it costs the economy and business more than 50 times to lose power due to outages compared to the cost of electricity!!!... crazy

(ii) to Domestic Households

-Lost Entertainment and Leisure Time: those soapies for the women, sport and news bulletins for men L. We do not need any scientific research to tell us that power outages affect our “happiness” and mental well-being negatively …. but a study by the Technical University Eindhoven [Rautenberg, 2004] shows that lack of entertainment can affect mental health of adults and intellectual development of children

-Costs on Education: electricity is important to enable our children to learn in the evening using lighting and at times computers and other electronic gadgets.

So what are you waiting for?? Go Solar!!!

For products and services, quotations, audits, product catalogues or any other help you need please get in touch on any of the available platforms (FB inbox, whatsapp, website, phone)

---

About Author:

Lovewell Chitiyo is a Mechanical Engineer with 15 years experience in the building services Engineering consultancy, renewable energy systems and sustainable design fields. He is currently studying Masters in Renewable Energy at Stellenbosch University in South Africa

Lovewell is an Accredited Professional with the Green Building Council of South Africa for Existing Buildings Performance and New Buildings; Interiors, holding several qualifications and certification in Renewable Energy and Sustainability.

Lovewell also has vast experience in design, supervision, installation and commissioning of several projects locally and regionally in the last 15 years.