if you design a system based around what the consumption in the home is on average it doesn't matter as much when you use your power [Music] hello and welcome to another episode of the fully charred show I've come to a beautiful sunny corner of Queensland today to find out a little bit more about domestic solar in Australia but also this affects the whole globe it's not just an Australian specific thing but the penetration of solar in Australia is remarkable there's an enormous amount of houses here roughly a third of all households have solar on the roof that makes a really big impact and we're now looking at the next step and it's represented by that and look at that beautiful neat installation I want to tell you there's a reason behind that that we're going to find out about but this roof of this building has a lot of solar on it and I want to find out a little bit more foreign charred show then you will love our six live shows being held around the world in 2023 starting with Sydney Australia on March the 11th and 12th I always remember Landing in Sydney and see I what I remember is Red Roofs and swimming pools as you come into Sydney and under the most recent time I flew it flew in there a few years ago what I noticed was Black Rose because it was all solar panels and swimming pools I mean so much more solar installed in Australia than would have been in the UK at the time the company that I represent Rea solar we're doing um residential systems pretty much four times a day all right at the moment all right so it's it's a very big uptake there's been a lot of innovation and Technology over the last 10 15 years and they're starting to be a shift in the way of designs of solar systems as well for homeowners because as you know people are starting to move to things like EVs and battery storage and even further down the track on how these systems can actually interact with the uh with the grid providers right because that's what's the one of the things I noticed about about the system you've got here I don't know if that's what's on this house is the inverted I just think of an inverter as the big box you have in the garage or in the in the cupboard somewhere but you've got inverters with the panels on the roof is that correct yeah that is correct so the difference of this system is that every panel essentially is its own solar system so each panel has its own inverter and there's a lot of different advantages to to this technology this house is uh one of my customers houses who we've done an in-store for about four years ago and we've done an add-on just recently and also my parents so there's a connection there is a connection yes in phase is a unique technology in that it sits in a group of products called micro inverters so a little conversion device sitting on every single panel and that just gives you a lot more information on what's going on with the system you can understand behavior of every panel you can map and see how any shading might occur during the day and most importantly because you're effectively installing lots of little systems expanding is quite easy because you just put a bunch more little systems on top of that when you look at how ubiquitous solar has become in Australia over the years you're now looking at you know over a third of houses in Australia have got solar on them you know know that's now getting close to three million systems are actually out there on houses and now they're of course going to start getting bigger because a lot of those early assistants were quite small they were based around rebate programs and other things now what's happened is when people want to have electric vehicle they want a electric uh you know hot water heat pump up water they want to Electrify their home you can't get by with a three or four kilowatt system you need eight nine ten eleven and so now we're talking expansion you're right because that because it must have had an effect on the the well I know it has had an effect on the energy system because if you think three million even if it's three million four kilowatt in stores I can't do the math but if you add all that up that's a that's a couple of big Power stations basically so that's what you're taking out of the demand system isn't it yeah it's the largest generation Source um in Australia in terms of in terms of output now is it what rooftop domestic rooftop is the biggest kind of category of generations so it's quite interesting to see from a political point of view and how that transition is happening and what we're seeing is as solar gets bigger and bigger and as you know companies like Rea are getting out there and installing more and more systems there is an impact on the grid The Regulators and other people are having to Think Through what this does right yeah and what they how they need to proactively engage and they're used to they're used to regulating power stations right which you know you have years and years and years to think about it here we're switching on a new power station by according to you every four and a day you know if nothing else so so the whole system has to adapt itself to that speed well then I mean presumably once people start putting batteries as well I know from experience of having that at my house in the UK where you know there's no arguing I always argue there's plenty of solar in the UK you shouldn't worry about it solar does work and it does but when you're here there you go okay it works better I'll admit that yes yes in the I guess to go back and sort of look at the design aspect so this is one of the things I love about the end face product is that you've got the scalability but at the same time frame it gives you the flexibility from a design perspective so everything in my designs are always based around kilowatt hours which is a metric of energy compared to a kilowatt rated size which is just an instantaneous measure of power and there's usually a lot of confusion around these metrics that get thrown in the marketplace so kilowatt hours is the most important because that's what a homeowner is consuming that's what they're buying from their retailer and that's ultimately what a solar system is going to produce so when I first sat down and sort of explained this to to my old man and as we all know as sons getting our dads to do things can be very difficult at times all right but the things that we looked at was basically what they were doing in consumption habits and at the time they'll sit in around about 20 six killed hours a day's average average consumption habits so we've added now another eight panels the panels are now a 465 watt panel that we've got up there for the extra eight and we added a Tesla power Ward 2 that has 13 and a half kilo hours of storage so this system now would be averaging somewhere around about the mid 40 killed hours a day with 13 and a half killed hours of storage which also gives them grid backup if there's a failure yeah yeah I think the uh interesting thing when we talk about uh customers and how they use energy is what time of the day they're using it and I think you know self-funded retirees are fantastic candidates for for solar because they're at home a lot of the time when the sun's out and they're centering energy so that's when they're using it um and you know I think in markets like Australia and increasingly around the world feeding tariffs are a thing of the past when you export to the grid you get either nothing or a pittance so you want to use every bit of solar you generate so you either want to put in a battery you want to pre-cool your house you want to do something to make sure that you adapt and I kind of like the idea of of people adapting their their patterns to when the sun's available you know it almost harks you back to a an older time when you know I was like oh it's a good day to put the washing out you know yeah versus sitting in your apartment and putting it in the dryer you know they're not big modifications and if they can enable you to live more efficiently and more carbon free then why not right yeah so if we have a home like you know mum and dad originally say rounded up 30 hours a day and they are retired and they can get you know 20 killed hours to 25 quid hours of that may happen throughout the day for example compared to you know someone in my situation I'm about to turn 40 I've got three kids yo I'm always at work um you know my consumption habits if they were 30 might be that I'm doing 15 through the day does that then constitute that I should get a smaller system or or should we look at well what is it that I'm using and develop a relationship in around that so that's what I try to create for customers is that it doesn't matter what the price point of power is it doesn't matter what the price point of export is what matters is how many killed hours are you consuming now if you're consuming 30 you need a system that's going to produce 30 to 35 if you want to prepare for the future when you're adding an electric vehicle you know we might you know design it around that so there's there's always an answer towards this notion of when we're using power and at the price point that we're at we're not the cheapest up front all right but there is something going on behind the scenes and what's actually going on is is that the end face product coupled with Rea creates efficiencies so when you have more efficiencies in your product you don't need the 13 14 panels to do the same thing as the five kilowatt output you need like eight to nine so the actual overall cost point for the system to get the kilowatt hours is actually pretty relative yeah and then when you sit down with homeowners the things that I've noticed is that subconsciously homeowners have already worked out about a five-year payback period whether they know it or not right so for example if someone's spending go three thousand dollars a year in electricity they probably got somewhere around about like an eight to ten thousand dollar budget if they're spending a thousand dollars in electricity they're not going to be looking at a six kilowatt system for Seven Grand they're looking at one for three four but we can always provide a solution for where they're at in their consumption by the flexibility of the product that actually ends up relating to the kilowatt hours [Music] well that's what we've got time for it's been an amazing experience to hear about this stuff how how much is going on in Australia at the moment it is really exciting to see but I'm not going to go on and on a lot now because the temperature outside this house is currently about 37 degrees so it's not a nice place to stand for a long time my tan has slightly increased even at the time I've been here please do subscribe to the fully charred show please tell your friends to subscribe to the fully charged show have a look at the patreon link all the notes and the links about the companies I've been talking to today are in the show notes beneath this video but that's it as always if you have been thank you for watching quick shade