Choose an instant estimate, or the most accurate estimate – it’s up to you
In less than two minutes, SunSPOT can quickly and simply deliver householders an estimate of the cost and savings to be made from installing solar or batteries.
However, to get the most tailored and accurate estimates, users should add information from their bill and answer questions about electricity use in the home, or they can provide meter data if there is a smart meter at the property.
Get an instant estimate (1-2 minutes)
Users can get an instant estimate by simply inputting:
the address
number of people living at the property
if there is gas, air conditioning, underfloor heating or a pool at the property.
Instant estimates are based upon an indicative electricity usage ‘profile’ that SunSPOT creates for your home through machine learning. It draws on the information you provided, electricity usage data from a sample of approximately 4000 homes, historical local weather data and average electricity tariffs for your region.
Using this profile SunSPOT can then estimate:
a range of costs for the installed system
a suggested system size
the annual electricity bill,
annual savings from solar, and
the payback period.
ABOVE: An instant estimate example.
Get a more tailored estimate by adding information from your electricity bill (5-15 minutes)
Through the Energy usage and Electricity plan tabs, SunSPOT users should add further information to improve the accuracy of the synthetic electricity usage profile and the bill estimation.
Some of the questions SunSPOT asks under Energy usage are about the appliance use in your home such as, “How many fridges and/or freezers do you have?” and “How many rooms in your property are heated?”
Having a recent electricity bill on hand will help you answer these questions:
Does your bill show separate peak and off-peak usage?
How much electricity do you use per day, on average, in kWh?
Do you have a controlled load?
Under Electricity plan you have the option to adjust the charges (tariffs) you pay for electricity. These can be found on your electricity bill.
You can leave the solar feed-in tariff that is already there as it is because it should automatically reflect the usual pricing in your area. The feed-in tariff is the amount you get paid per kWh of solar electricity that you don’t use at home and is instead exported into the grid.
Alternatively, if you have used Energy Made Easy or Victorian Energy Compare to find a competitive solar electricity retail plan, you can input the tariffs from it in.
Find out more: Understanding your electricity bill
Get the MOST accurate estimate – using smart meter data (15+ minutes)
The benefits of solar depend on when you use electricity, as well as how much you use. If there is a smart meter at the property, it has logged your electricity use every 15 or 30 minutes across every day and across every season. This interval meter data is the clearest picture of your energy use available and by uploading this to SunSPOT you will get the most accurate estimates.
To access this data you need to contact your distribution network service provider (DNSP) and ask for “12 months of detailed interval meter data in NEM12 format”.
If you have less than 12 months of data you can still upload this but it will not be quite as accurate.
You can find your DNSP named on your electricity bill under ‘Faults and Emergencies’.
We have compiled the links to request NEM12 interval meter data for all the DNSPs here.
Find out more: How to get your meter data
It’s best to use smart meter data for commercial properties
When using SunSPOT on commercial properties, we strongly suggest that you source and upload the NEM12 smart meter data, if available. This will give the most accurate estimate of solar and battery sizing and savings.
Commercial sites can be assessed by SunSPOT using the average daily consumption from the bill, an estimation of the available roof area and selecting a business type from the drop-down menu. However, businesses have diverse patterns of energy use and these estimates may not reflect the electricity use at the site very accurately.
The most useful estimate will always come from uploading 12 months of NEM12 smart meter data which accurately plots electricity use at the site for the past year.
(We have compiled the links to request NEM12 interval meter data for all the DNSPs here.)
