Complete Family Home System

The Challenge

Energy efficiency is a key consideration for any home owner. This was no different for a Christchurch family setting out to build a 345m² home featuring the latest in Mitsubishi Electric heating and air conditioning. As a stay-at-home family they needed a solution which would ensure their energy usage was kept to a minimum across the entire day.

The Solution

The family installed fourteen Mitsubishi Black Diamond Solar Panels, allowing a maximum system output of 3.64kWp. As an ‘on-grid’ system, the energy captured by the solar panels is supplied to an inverter, which converts it into power suitable for domestic use. This power is automatically directed to the household for use, and any surplus power is then exported to the grid and credited against the family’s electricity bill.

The family chose an Enasolar 3kW Grid-Tied Inverter due to travel commitments. With built-in Wi-Fi as standard, they can access their Mitsubishi Black Diamond Solar array from anywhere worldwide. The inverter also has a simple to use monitoring program to track generation.

To help fund their dream home the family chose to switch their home mortgage to Kiwibank, which means they qualified for the Sustainable Energy Loan. This saw Kiwibank contribute almost 20% towards the investment cost of their array.

The Result

Within a year the family have already experienced savings which far exceed their initial expectations:

• The total saving over the first year is $1,126.07
• Almost 5 megawatts of power produced (4993kWh)!
• 51.2% of power generated was self-consumed at time of generation.
• The payback rate is estimated to be just over 7 years, and future increases in electricity prices will see this reduced further!