You’ve installed solar, and for the first time ever, you’re actually excited to receive your electricity bill. You open the envelope (or the email), and you’re surprised to see that you’re still in debt to your energy retailer. So why isn’t your solar covering your electricity bill immediately? 

Common solar system production questions we hear

Owning your own personal plant is a big investment, and just like with a new car, you’re probably wondering about the best way to get maximum usage and savings from it. We hear a lot of questions from new solar system owners, including:

• Is my solar system too small?
• Is my solar system in the wrong location?
• Should I buy a battery?
• Why isn’t my system producing a lot? 
• Why do I still have an electricity bill?

The good news is that your solar system is probably working exactly as it should. The biggest problem we see is that people haven’t given their solar production time to average out throughout the year. Here are some of the top reasons your electricity bill hasn’t been wiped away, straight away.

1. Your Energy Retailer hasn’t completed your grid connection. 

After the solar installation, your solar installer will lodge an Electrical Work Request (EWR) with your solar retailer. After this is lodged, you’ll need to wait between two and six weeks for your retailer to complete any metering work and changes to your account. 

2. Your bill doesn’t cover a complete billing cycle. 

Standard electricity bills cover a three month period. Your bill will change to a one month cycle after your solar is installed. Your solar probably hasn’t been active for the entire billing cycle, even if your grid connection has been completed.  

3. Your solar was installed in winter time.

With shorter days and less sun, winter is a time when you’ll see lower solar production. It will average out over the year as your system produces higher amounts in the sunnier months. 

4. There’s been a lot of rainy or cloudy weather.

Solar produces best on sunny days, and cloudy or rainy weather can severely limit production. Although this means short term losses, your savings will increase over time, as sunny days average out higher than rainy days in our sunny country. 

5. Your Feed in Tariff (FiT) hasn’t had time to accrue. 

Although today’s FiT isn’t as high as it was when solar first came to Australia, it still has an ongoing impact on your electricity bill’s bottom line. When you’re not home during the day, your solar system is still producing electricity, which will begin to add up as you sell it back to the grid. The amount of solar you feed back into the grid and earn from will vary throughout the year based on seasons, weekends, and holidays, and will take some time to average out. 

6. Your usage has increased. 

One thing we notice when customers get solar is that they stop watching their usage as closely. Sometimes this means leaving lights on, but it may also mean using more air conditioning or using the dryer every day. Your solar system designer would’ve requested twelve months of electricity bills, and built your solar system to meet the needs of your power usage at the time you installed it. You’ll still save money off your bill, but extra usage is extra cash. 

7. Your usage is primarily at night. 

Unless you have a battery, your solar system won’t produce during the night. Although you’ll receive a low FiT during the day, this won’t be enough to cover heavy nighttime use. We generally recommend adjusting your energy usage using timers or looking at how you can transition your energy usage to the daytime. 

8. The energy you purchase from the grid increased in price. 

With energy retailers increasing prices by up to 50% over the last few years, simply minimising your energy usage from the grid won’t guarantee the same low rate. Even if you only draw a small percentage of your energy needs from the grid (for instance at night), the price of that energy will still continue to increase. Just as we’ve seen with rising petrol prices, you’ll still get the same amount of petrol, but see a much higher price on your receipt.   

Real issues that may impact your solar savings

In that 1% of cases where there is a genuine issue impacting your solar savings, there are a few things you’ll need to get checked out. 

1. Your energy retailer has made a mistake. 

It’s very rare, but it does happen; your electricity company didn’t correctly connect your system to the grid, and there are export issues. Although this won’t impact your self-consumption, it will impact your FiT. If you’re not seeing any FiT on your bill, it might be time to give them a call. Give your installer a call first though; they will be able to show you how to discover some common problems. 

2. There is a genuine system problem.

 Although uncommon (for our customers at least), a good-quality install may still have production issues. If you’re not sure, the best option is to talk to your installer. If there is a problem straight away, it will nearly always be early on. 

If your solar isn’t producing as much energy as you’d hoped, the best advice is to wait for a full billing cycle before being concerned about your solar production. In the meantime, if you think there may be a real issue with your system (such as it not producing at all) you can get in touch with us for more support.