Dropping $30,000 on a solar power system and forking out for an electric vehicle while the cost of living continues to soar might seem counterintuitive.
But those who have made the switch, including Christchurch technical consultant Mike Walker, say the investment is worth it in the long run.
When petrol prices began to rise last year, Walker decided to crunch the numbers to see if buying an EV and going solar would stack up financially.
“We had a Toyota Highlander and a Subaru Impreza, and I was having heart palpitations every time I filled them up.
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“We’ve got two very sporty kids and we spend a lot of time running them around, so we were spending about $140 a week on petrol. That’s a lot of money.”
The Walkers decided to sell both cars, replacing them with a Subaru Outback and a 2016 Nissan Leaf, which has a range of 160 kilometres on a full charge. All up, the car swap required a $6000 spend.
Last October, 18 solar panels were installed on the roof of the Walkers’ house in Christchurch, and an 18kwh battery system was installed inside.
Of the $30,000 added to their mortgage to pay for the installation, $10,000 was interest free for five years as part of Westpac’s Warm Up scheme.
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“Our fuel bill went from $140 per week down to about $20 per week,” Walker said.
That’s a saving of more than $6000 a year on petrol, but Walker said he was also saving between $1800 and $2000 a year in electricity with solar, despite now charging an electric car.
Excess electricity generated by the solar panels can be sent back to the grid and Walker has so far been paid $100 for his exports.
For Walker, the decision to get an EV and solar was largely a financial one, with the bonus of being more environmentally friendly.
“It just makes so much sense. The solar and battery on its own is fantastic but if you get an EV and pick the right power plan, it’s nuts how much you can save. What’s better than driving around for ‘free’ all day?
“You do feel smug and righteous when you drive past the petrol station. And I’m more conscious when I smell exhaust fumes now. It’s like cigarette smoke. In the old days, you didn’t think much about it, but now it smells terrible.”
Luke Nutting, chief executive of solar power provider Lightforce, said while just 3% of New Zealand’s vehicles were electric, about 30% of Lightforce customers owned an electric car.
“If you’re investing in an EV, it also makes sense to invest in solar. The bulk of EV charging happens at home, so there will obviously be more electricity consumption, but most EV owners with solar become pretty savvy and try to use any excess generation to charge their car or their battery, rather than sell it back to the grid at low rates.”
Nutting said the price of solar panels has dropped significantly in the last few years and, in most cases, the savings on electricity alone mean a system can be paid off in five to eight years.
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Luke Nutting, chief executive of Auckland-based solar energy provider Lightforce, says about 30% of its customers have combined solar power with an electric vehicle.
“After that, whatever you generate from solar is free electricity. Batteries make solar even more efficient as they can store energy generated throughout the day to be used when electricity is at its most expensive in the peak hours.”
For Aucklander Elke Chilwell and her family, buying an EV was the catalyst for converting to solar power at home.
“We bought a 2011 Nissan Leaf in 2018. That was when petrol was $2 a litre. We immediately started saving a lot of money and that’s what catapulted us into solar.
“We’d wanted to do it for a long time, but we had a horrible old roof, and we always thought we’d get a new roof first, which we did. It was wanting to get solar that made us get the roof done.”
In 2019, they had 21 panels and a battery installed at their Grey Lynn house. They bought another EV in 2020 and added an extra battery and eight more panels.
In total, their 29 solar panels and two batteries cost $31,000 and have provided 82% of the family’s electricity in the last year.
Ninety-nine per cent of their driving, “most of which is ferrying the kids around and driving short distances”, is now electric. An old petrol car kept for towing a trailer “basically just sits there gathering dust.”
Chilwell said she “obsessively” tracks her household’s savings in a spreadsheet and, at current prices, they’re saving $3400 a year on petrol. The solar panels and batteries save them another $2200 each year.
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Elke Chilwell says the combination of a solar power system and an electric vehicle saves her family $5600 a year.
That’s a combined saving of $5600 per year, or $470 per month. Not including the upfront costs of the cars, that means the solar system will be paid off in about 5½ years.
“I think solar makes sense anytime, I wish we’d done it 10 years ago,” Chilwell said.
“If anyone is looking at the numbers, it’s a no-brainer. If you have the cash, the savings you make exceed the returns you might be able to get elsewhere. And if you have to borrow money to pay for it, the savings you make will well exceed any interest payments you’ll be making.”
As well as the financial benefits, self-sufficiency was another goal for Chilwell who didn’t want to play a role in burning more coal by relying on the national grid at peak times.
Another motivation was being a good role model for her kids, both for financial and environmental literacy.
“They are growing up with a smallish carbon footprint, and I’m hoping when they are adults this will be normal for them. Their high school also has solar panels, and a sustainability ethos.”