How do your peak energy use times effect the design of a solar power system?

The design of a solar power system is based on the individual needs of the customer. By analyzing their electricity accounts, we determine when peak energy usage times occur and what size system is required to meet their needs. Our design is flexible to ensure that customers get exactly what they want, whether it's sending power back to the grid or not.

Investing in higher quality solar systems offers longer life and generates more power over a longer period of time. Cheaper products tend to drop off in power generation rapidly. For customers staying in their homes long-term, investing in a high-quality product is essential to ensure the system is still performing in 10 or more years. Most systems pay for themselves in six years or more, making it a worthwhile investment for those looking for long-term savings.

Look the design of the system really comes down to what the customer's needs are. Generally we will look at their electricity accounts in depth. We'll work out, you know on a basic sort of scale, as to where they're using their power. No one flat lines with their power through the day, they don't use two kilowatts straight out through the day, there's peaks and troughs. We talk about the peaks and troughs with the customers. We look at what the peak energy usage times are and what they're using in those times, and that's where we base the size of the system. We try and make the system so that we're not sending a lot of power back to the grid. But then you'll get the customer that will say, I want to send X amount of power back to the grid. So again we're not rigid with our design. We will, we have to be flexible to make sure that the customer gets at the end of the day exactly what they want.

The higher quality systems will give you a longer life that will generate more power. And they'll generate better power over a longer period of time. Whereas the cheaper product is fine when it's first put in. Again the power generated by the cheaper panels tends to drop off fairly rapidly compared to the higher quality products. If they're going to be staying in the house for 10, 15, 20 years, they want a product that's going to be there when they're ready to move out. That's why again I deal with the quality products, because I've got the confidence that the product is going to be there in 10 years. It's still going to be performing in 10 years. Most systems are about six years plus to pay for themselves. So in terms of the investment, the system if it's here in 10 years, their investments paid for itself and it's starting to bring good money for them. So that's what we look for and that's what they're looking for.