Expanding an existing solar system with more panels and/or batteries? Know your options

By Jeff Sykes on

There are nearly 2 million Australian households with solar panels installed on their roofs. Many of these households would like to add more solar and/or batteries to their systems, but the best path to accomplishing this is unclear, as there are a number of technical approaches that they could potentially take. If you’re in this situation, it may be difficult for you to sort through various sales pitches and conflicting pieces of information/advice to determine exactly what your options are for you.

We get questions about this sort of thing all the time, and depending on the customer’s circumstances, the answers are different. Through these conversations, however, we’ve managed to hone in on the three main variables that influence the options available to a given customer. Namely:

  • a) the age of the existing system;
  • b) the size of the existing system; and
  • c) the goals of the household (i.e. whether they want to add more solar, add batteries, or add both).

Also see: Solar Choice’s 8-point Guide to Solar & Batteries (plus FAQs)

Check out our Home Solar & Battery Guide

Expanding an existing solar system: Decision-making helper tool

This is a complicated topic, so we decided to put together a tool to assist you in knowing your range of options – and being better-positioned to make a decision.

By selecting different options in the tool below, the results (‘Your options’) will change accordingly, providing guidelines appropriate to the most common situations. While everyone’s circumstances are unique, we hope that this tool will help you to narrow down your choices to a manageable number of approaches (2-4).

Got feedback on this tool? Shoot us an email at communications@solarchoice.net.au.

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© 2019 Solar Choice Pty Ltd

Jeff Sykes
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Comments

  2. Thanks for a very helpful tool.

    Don’t forget though, that some jurisdictions in Australia apply limits as to how much solar generation is allowed on domestic premises, before planning permission and an engineering report is required. Also, if you’re feeding into the grid, your grid network provider might consider you a commercial system if you start adding panels to an already decent sized system. That can get VERY complicated… if they find out!

    So although the tool above is helpful, there are surrounding issues which haven’t been mentioned, and which might screw things up for you!

    Oh and please say hi to Tonto for me. And a hello from Kye, the Aussie Cattle Dog!
    Chris.

    1. Hi Chris,

      That’s a good point. We have explained the grid network limits in this article and how they vary around Australia!

      Regards,
      SC Staff

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