Solar Power for IP

C

crc_error

Hi All, has anyone investigated getting solar power installed for your IP?

What are the deprecation benefits, and do you still get the $8000 rebate?

If the solar install is worth $13,000 before rebate, and you deprecate it over 10 years, that could be a $390 tax refund each year. Plus you could charge $5 per week extra for the saved energy on the tenants electricity bill.

Plus your doing something for the environment.

Has anyone done this?
 

Attachments

  • Solar payoff schedule comparison 2.xls
    33.5 KB · Views: 104
wow, this has been my secret hope for a while. I finally took the plunge late last year and installed 6 panels, total cost $15k, with a total of $8,700 rebate. $8k from the government and $700 from the maker in return for the offsets. I spoke to the guy about doing an IP, and unfortunately the grant is only for owner occupied homes. Also he said the power companies would have trouble splitting yours and the tenants account, and if they could do that, they would likely only pay the going wholesale rate for the electricity (which is less than the retail consumers pay) This would obviously make it a great tax break haha.
Seriously though I would love to set up a company that could bring together consumers/ investors, power companies and solar panel makers and installers, making it as easy to install solar panels as it is to swap your car over to gas. It benifits the consumer, feel good wise and tax benifits, the solar companies who do more business, and banks who could organise either an equiptment lease or home lending for the instalation.
 
This is the response I got from Origin

This is how the buyback system works;

Your system produces electricity during the day, if it is not used in your home the electricity will be fed into the grid instantly as there is no battery system to store it. When you get a solar system you need to get a bi-directional meter installed, this enables the meter reader to see how much has been fed into the grid.
The government sets the rates for electricity which each retailer must charge unless the customer accepts a "market offer" of a small discount. So the amount you pay for your electricity remains the same, at the moment you pay 14.6cents per kWh. We calculate your usage and your supply (or service) charge, add the GST and then we take off the 20cents for each kWh of metered solar generation.
So if the government increase of 60 cents is applied your solar generation is worth 4 times the amount you pay. You could look at it like this.. If you create 4kWhs a day and use 1kWh of that creation in your home leaving 3kWhs to be fed into the grid you could affectively use 12kWhs at night and your bill would come out even.
If you are in credit on your bill you can request a cheque to be sent after you have accumulated $50.

As for the rental property unfortunately it must be your primary place of residence to receive the rebate (according to the electoral role). I am not sure if I have mentioned to you that when Federal Budget came out on Tuesday night it was announced that the rebate of $8000 would be means tested effective immediately. The households (person on deed and spouse) taxable income must be under $100,000 per annum.


Sounds like an excellent deal for PPOR. I'm going to look into this for our PPOR.
 
crc_error said:
I am not sure if I have mentioned to you that when Federal Budget came out on Tuesday night it was announced that the rebate of $8000 would be means tested effective immediately. The households (person on deed and spouse) taxable income must be under $100,000 per annum.


Sounds like an excellent deal for PPOR. I'm going to look into this for our PPOR.
Click to expand...


wow this beggars belief.. so now "working families" are more deserving of green energy than working families who work harder than other working families?

somebody stop this madness please!

ps - I'll just keep burning coal thanks KR. Your green credentials bite.
 
Ausprop said:
wow this beggars belief.. so now "working families" are more deserving of green energy than working families who work harder than other working families?

somebody stop this madness please!

ps - I'll just keep burning coal thanks KR. Your green credentials bite.
Click to expand...

KR is just smoke and mirrors... he was happy to parade around making out he was serious about solar, even visiting a manufacturing plant in china, and once he is in, first he takes away howard policy on green energy!! way to go Rudd... but Australians voted him in, so now they will pay...
 
Im not sure of the exact way the vic government will pay for surplus fed into the grid. there doesnt seem to be very much information at all on the subject. Following the articles in the AGE, it seems everyone is a little cheesed off. My reading of the way it is calculated is any surplus over the billing cycle will be paid at 60 cents, not over each day. So it is really only economilcal for people with holiday houses. I am with AGL and they are still estimating my account as a normal user. They only read the actual meter every 3 months, so it seems every 3 months I get a free bill. There was some talk of the whole state getting an upgrade to live feed electronic meters, but Im not sure this is still going ahead. Like investing in a hybrid car, I think in future, as the electricity price rises, the solar system will become more economical. But at the moment like the prius, its for people who want to make the commitment to the environment, not necessarily an economic decision.
Also, in doing the sums with this, I have noticed about 30% of my account is made up of connection charges. I also found that because its connected to the grid, it gets shut down in a black out too, which is really annoying, I was all ready to gloat next summer heatwave....
 
Ausprop said:
wow this beggars belief.. so now "working families" are more deserving of green energy than working families who work harder than other working families?

somebody stop this madness please!

ps - I'll just keep burning coal thanks KR. Your green credentials bite.
Click to expand...


I found this to be one of the most ludicrous parts of the budget.

The fact of the matter is that a 1Kw system will still set you back about $4000-$5000 out of pocket after rebates (in WA anyhow). And this would realistically only save you max of about $400 per year (at todays rates).

I'm just wondering how many <$100k households are going to be able to put down the $4k-5k with a break even of about 10 years in the future. Im guessing very few.

I believe the PV industry needs more volume to bring the prices down. By excluding those who could best afford it, the Labour Government. has effectively sunk Solar PV with its 'Green Initiatives'.

Then there's the issue of the Feed in Tariffs. They need to have a look at Germany for an example of how its CAN work.

We have mixed views from State to State (I think WA is probably the worst and is yet to even acknowledge that a feed in tariff is needed).

Feed in Tariffs are supposed to reward adopters to their efforts.

In the first instance you should be rewarded for reducing the burden on the power system infrastructure. In the second instance you should be rewarded for producing clean energy. With the government committing to carbon emissions targets, you'd think they'd be falling over backwards to get home owners to small scale clean energy production.
 
BruceW said:
I found this to be one of the most ludicrous parts of the budget.

The fact of the matter is that a 1Kw system will still set you back about $4000-$5000 out of pocket after rebates (in WA anyhow). And this would realistically only save you max of about $400 per year (at todays rates).

I'm just wondering how many <$100k households are going to be able to put down the $4k-5k with a break even of about 10 years in the future. Im guessing very few.

I believe the PV industry needs more volume to bring the prices down. By excluding those who could best afford it, the Labour Government. has effectively sunk Solar PV with its 'Green Initiatives'.

Then there's the issue of the Feed in Tariffs. They need to have a look at Germany for an example of how its CAN work.

We have mixed views from State to State (I think WA is probably the worst and is yet to even acknowledge that a feed in tariff is needed).

Feed in Tariffs are supposed to reward adopters to their efforts.

In the first instance you should be rewarded for reducing the burden on the power system infrastructure. In the second instance you should be rewarded for producing clean energy. With the government committing to carbon emissions targets, you'd think they'd be falling over backwards to get home owners to small scale clean energy production.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more. The means testing of this policy shows a tentative and wobbly step of a newly elected government. The policy is pitched so tightly that there may be too few takers to make it worthwhile for the cost of the policy change. It may be difficult for the government to spend its budget and then they will need to loosen it. :rolleyes:
 
yeh I saw that, does that mean we can install solar on a IP?

I wonder how this would work, you could charge a extra $10 per week for 'energy savings' and claim deprication as well. Although I can't see this as been much of a incentive for a landlord to install.

A 1.5kw system should generate about $1000 worth of credit onto a electricity bill each year and will cost about $10k to install.. sums dont really ad up.. plus trying to get a extra $20 a week from the tenant just because of the solar is a big ask.
 
that is fantastic news.

the only way to drop the prices is increase demand. increased demand will lead to innovation and invention and bulk buying will also lead to reduced price.

thanks goodness they saw common sense.
 
I agree Lizzie... I would certainly support solar on my IP if its made attractive to me.. we have it on our PPOR, and it works great..
 
tobe, I wouldn't be looking at income, i would look at saying to my tenant, you will save $20 per week on electricity, so I will increase your rent by say $15 per week.

The news article indicates the government rebate will apply to business and community groups, so I would assume a land lord could install the panels and get the rebate of $7500 from middle of next year.

So if I could get deprication, increased rent and government rebate, then it could be worth while.
 
I asked for a private ruling for my o/o panels, which was denied, as the income, a one off payment in return for the carbon offset was deemed not to be income.
With this new change, Im thinking I could get my body corporate to install solar poser to charge the shared lights and security systems, with the rsurplus shared with the other unit holders....
 
I think all the Councils will only get greener and greener with their planning requirements. Solar I believe will be in more developments.

I'm gradually going to rollover all my IP power systems to the new alternatives such as solar.

Speaking of Green, my last development had to have all the plumbed in water tanks and rain water diverters and I used this watersaving feature in the rental ads for tennants.

More people called about my IP's and saw the benefits of cheaper water rates. I think the same will apply with the Solar power.
 
Hmm, have to look at the fine print for the rebate, if its anything like the first home owners grant, where you can only claim it once, it may prove dificult to get the rebate for an IP if you already have it on your o/o.
Certainly, the new rebate would make it much more attractive to instal on an IP, even without any extra direct income, perhaps an increase in rent.
In future I'm almost certain the australian government will bring in something like a gross feed in tarrif, in which case early adopters will be even better off.
Alternatevly they may come up with solar panel nano technology paint, which might make existing solar panels redundant.....
 
Can I get a rebate for panels and batteries and maybe a wind generator as well please Mr Rudd, can I huh huh ??

I'll need heaps on the boat, probably 6x125 watt panels and 800AH of batteries at least.

It'll be my PPOR, I wont use any more coal, surely I'm deserving as well.

Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

wombat777
Solar for increasing cashflow and attracting tenant?
2
Replies
31
Views
4K
Paul@PFI
Paul@PFI
L
Want to install Solar - where do I start?
2 3
Replies
51
Views
8K
HiEquity
H
A
solar powered common body corporate lights
Replies
7
Views
1K
The Y-man
The Y-man
K
Turning PPOR into IP rented out at non commercial rates
Replies
5
Views
2K
KJB
K
B
Hot Water System
Replies
5
Views
1K
rambada1
R
Back
Top