If you are building your new home and are considering adding solar you have the perfect opportunity to optimise your home to get the most out of your solar system. There are some potential pitfalls which will reduce the effectiveness of your solar system that you must avoid. Here are 5 tips you can use to ensure your new home will maximise its solar energy potential.
1. Pre-wire
While mostly aesthetic, when building your new home you have the potential to hide the cables for your solar installation within the walls. This needs to be completed before your internal walls are sheeted.
Solar cables in a home are wired differently from the other wiring in your home. They cannot be protected by installing a safety-switch or circuit breaker. Instead the only time the cable is not live is when the sun isn’t shining, or the switch mounted beside you solar panel is off. Because of this there are strict regulations which must be followed regarding the installation of solar wiring in order to prevent future damage.
Because of this, it is best to have your preferred solar installer, not the builder, perform the prewiring so that it can be done correctly the first time. This way the writing will be hidden within the walls of your home.
2. Solar panel considerations
If you plan on staying in your new home for more than 10 years it is a good idea to get solar panels which have a low degradation rate. Spending slightly more on a solar panel with a lower degradation rate, such as solar panels from REA Solar, could save you a significant amount of money in the long term. At 10 years you could see an $800 difference in energy savings versus a conventional panel, and after 25 years you could see a $4200 difference in power savings due to degradation, depending on your energy usage.
Superior panel brands will maintain their value further into the future, giving you a higher energy yield and higher savings. This does take time to come into effect, so if you don’t plan on living in the home for long then a cheaper brand may be more valuable. However, if you are building your forever home you should consider a high-quality panel with the lowest degradation rate possible.
3. Solar inverter location
A benefit of building a new home is the control you have over where some of your services are located within the home. This includes your switchboard and meterbox. Placing your solar inverter closer to the switchboard is a great opportunity to improve efficiency, minimise voltage rise, and minimise costs. You should mention this to the builder when they are planning your wiring so you can have the most efficient set up possible.
The ideal location for your inverter is on the southern wall of your home or inside your garage. Discuss this with your builder to ensure you have the most efficient set-up available, saving you money.
4. Roof design
While you probably won’t design your house around your solar panels, there are some design considerations you should make to ensure your home’s design still has the potential to create an efficient solar system. When designing your house, you should consider the following:
Design the northern orientation of your roof as one clean roofline where possible. This allows for a long straight row of panels.
Plan to put your antennas, satellite dishes, etc. on your southern roof, away from the location of future solar panels.
Reduce the number of skylights and ventilation pipes in prime solar panel locations.
Look at potential shading and discuss with your builder for ways to reduce this.
5. Single or three phase power supply
It is important to consider whether your home should have single or three phase power. Single, being one live wore to the grid, can only have 10k@ of inverter capacity, and only 5kW of solar exports to the grid. On the other hand, three phase can have up to 15kW export to the grid. As you can still make some money from exporting your solar power to the grid it makes sense to install three phase power in order to make the most from your solar system.
The vast majority of houses are installed with single phase by default, if you want to upgrade, consult your builder.
Conclusion
Building your own home gives you many great opportunities to design a place perfect for your needs. This extends to solar, where you can consider optimal positioning and obstructions in order to have the perfect system for your power consumption. If you are building a new home, reach out to your preferred solar installer and they will advise you on what you can do to further prepare your new home for solar.