Seeking the forums opinion...
I have been looking at putting Solar PV on the small rental property that I own.
Has anybody here done something similar, what has your experience been?
I am more interested in being cost neutral for the owner and providing extra value [reduced electric bill] for the tenants. I want to install pv on my rental property in any case, cost neutral is what I'm aiming for.
There are a lot of split billing startup companies out there, but it seems complicated and expensive for a small installation. Hence my reluctance to use them at this stage.
Aim:
*Deliver more value to the tenants
*Simple as possible - no third parties being involved for billing etc.
*A simple upgrade path if it becomes attractive to add capacity ie solar farming
The best I can figure out at the moment is to go with:
*2kw Micro inverter system - easy upgrade path
*Tenant retains relationship with power retailer.
*Either no increase in rent or perhaps bump up $5 per week [at most] to match tenants savings.
The day time usage is likely to be fairly small as they are working couple.
So the above arrangements would be a great start? What do you think?
For the future:
The idea of solar farming on rental properties could be attractive. It seems that only a billing system change at the power retailer would be needed. Look at happens with water charges, owner pays fixed charges and tenants pay for the water used.
It might not be economic [yet] but it might look like this: Tenants benefit from pv self consumption and pays for any electricity used from the grid. Property owner receives the Feed in Tariff for excess generated. Surely existing smart meters and billing systems can cope with this easily? Does anybody know of any such arrangements already in place?
Thanks!