We first reported on the Pfitzner family back in January when they became the first household in Australia to install a Tesla Powerwall. As one of the first in the world, the amount of money saved and the correlation to projections is an important result to check in on. 6 months after installation, the first full quarterly power bill has arrived and the benefits are better than expected.
Pfitzner says technically this isn’t the first bill. Due to some scheduling issues and meter changeover (issues all solar owners will be familiar with, there was an earlier bill, but only covered 35 days.
Previously the family seen a pretty staggering $660 bill from summer, and now their bill from Natural Solar is just $50.39, of which $40.46 was from energy charges. This was made up of $47.21 in energy usage, $58.88 credit for solar generation and a further $52.13 in Metering and other charges. The total of $40.46 looks impressive, but naturally attracts GST, so the final payable figure for the quarter is $50.39.
Perhaps a closer comparison is one from Autumn last year that was $531.92 (or $490.38 if paid on time), still, that’s a staggering reduction in price and a saving of that volume will help decrease the duration to pay off the purchase price.
When you break down the cost of power per day, the year on year comparison is perhaps the most stark evidence of the green-tech solution hard at work. While most of us spend a $3-5 per day, the Pfitzner family was able to reduce their cost of living in relation to power, to just the cost of an ice cream cone at McDonalds.
| Year | Days | Cost | $ / Day |
| 2015 | 99 | $490.38 | $4.9533 |
| 2016 | 86 | $50.39 | $0.5859 |
Service charges for consuming and supplying electricity from the grid is something we’ve seen on the increase. As more and more households join the 1.5 Million Aussie roofs already using solar to reduce their demand on the power grid, these are likely to head north quickly. Unless you can add a couple more Powerwall batteries to store days of energy in reserve, its unlikely most households could realistically be off the grid.
Managing Director of Natural Solar, Chris Williams says,
“Australian homeowners are used to power bills surging year on year with an average increase of 120% nationally in electricity prices over the last 10 years.
It’s extraordinary to see such a significant decrease for the Pfitzner family and clearly demonstrates why we are experiencing such strong demand for our home and commercial battery storage solutions.”
The Pfitzner’s live in a 4 bedroom home that has all the standard power-hungry appliances like a fridge, dishwasher, washing machine, TVs and combined with heating/cooling and a pool pump, their energy consumption is considerable. This high usage meant the Pfitzner’s were a prime candidate to take advantage of the saving potential of a solar array and battery storage.
The system consists of 20x 250w solar panels, connected to a SolarEdge SE5000 inverter and which sends the power to the 6.4kWh daily cycle Tesla Powerwall and allows the house to draw from the battery before the grid. There’s also fully integrated, bi-directional cloud-based monitoring to enable remote access to power consumption.
Based on current calculations, the Pfitzner family expect to see a complete payback period of between 6-7 years. Depending on your objective, the positive impact on the environment will either be an important aspect of the installation, or a happy side effect. Personally I look forward to a future where we can use electronics as we want, without constantly thinking about the dollars ticking away.
According to Natural Solar, sales of Tesla Powerwalls in Australia have seen ‘an unprecedented volume of enquiries’ due to Australia being one of the first regions in the world to receive the devices.
For a setup like this, you’re looking at a starting price of $13,590 which is certainly a lot to face up front. As a method to enable more Aussie households to get into solar, there’s a number of payment plans available. Something first available in the US has now arrived in Australia, where solar providers will allow you to get into solar for almost no money down, but like your phone plan, repay for the hardware over the live of a contract. Given the higher price of the panels, its typically a lot longer than a 2 year contract.
To find out more about how a Tesla Powerwall, make sure you go read Nick’s blog, http://unleashthepowerwall.com and if you like what you hear about Natural Solar, hit them up at http://www.naturalsolar.com.au/
