Every week, someone tells us they’ve found a retailer paying a big feed-in tariff and they’re about to switch. As a Solar Expert in Canberra, we always ask the same question first: “How many kilowatt-hours are you still buying from the grid?”
Most people haven’t checked. And that number matters far more than the export rate.
A feed-in tariff (FiT) is the credit you get for each kWh of surplus solar your home sends to the grid. It’s real money, but it’s the smallest thing your panels do for you. The biggest is displacing electricity you’d otherwise buy at full retail price. Every kWh you use at home is worth the retail rate. Every kWh you export is worth only the FiT. Your goal isn’t to export more, it’s to import less. That principle is where our approach to quality solar systems in Canberra starts.
The gap that explains everything
Take a typical (illustrative) set of rates:
| Rate | Per kWh |
|---|
| Buying from the grid | 33c |
| Exporting to the grid | 6c |
| Gap | 27c |
Each kWh your home uses directly is worth 5.5 times as much as the same kWh exported. A system that sends 80% of its output to the grid isn’t “working hard”. It’s selling cheap and leaving expensive purchases untouched.
This is also why a bill can stay stubbornly above zero even when you export more than you import. Selling 5.5 kWh at 6c earns 33c, and buying just 1 kWh at 33c wipes that out. Export volume doesn’t win the bill. The import line does.
Same panels, different household
Picture two neighbours with identical 24 kWh/day systems.
Household A is out all day and uses 8 kWh of solar directly, exporting 16 kWh.
- Avoided purchases: 8 × 33c = $2.64
- Export credit: 16 × 6c = $0.96
- Total: $3.60/day, about $1,314/year
Household B shifts its dishwasher, laundry and pool pump into daylight. It uses 14 kWh directly and exports 10 kWh.
- Avoided purchases: 14 × 33c = $4.62
- Export credit: 10 × 6c = $0.60
- Total: $5.22/day, about $1,905/year
Same hardware, same weather, same roof. B comes out around $591 a year ahead, purely from when it uses power. Nothing was installed and nothing extra was bought.
(Illustrative figures. Your tariffs, season and consumption will change the result.)
Where we'd start: the daytime shift
You don’t need to use less power, only to move it. In order of ease:
- Set timers. Dishwashers, washing machines and many dryers have delay-start functions.
- Move the pool pump to the strongest sun hours.
- Heat water at midday. Heat-pump and electric systems can be scheduled or diverted to surplus solar.
- Pre-cool or pre-heat before the evening peak.
- Charge the EV on sunny days if it’s home. This is the biggest flexible load most households have.
- Add automation (smart plugs, solar diverters, energy-management systems) if you don’t want to think about it.
This is also the first practical step of Home Electrification in Canberra. Once your hot water, heating and car run on electricity, your daytime solar has far more to do, and each of those loads can be timed to the sun.
One caution: stagger your loads. On a 4 kW system, a dishwasher (1 kW) and pool pump (1.2 kW) are easy. Add an air conditioner, dryer and EV charger at once and you’ll import from the grid in full sun. Spread them across the day.
And a caution on the other side: self-consumption doesn’t mean wasting power. Running a load you don’t need to “use up” solar loses money.
Reading your numbers properly
Most people only look at the credit on their bill. That shows exports and nothing else. To judge your system you need four figures, from your bill and your inverter app:
- Generation: what the panels produced
- Self-consumption: what your home used directly
- Exports: what went to the grid
- Imports: what you still bought
Then use two simple formulas:
Export value = average daily exports × FiT × 365
Self-use value = average daily self-consumption × retail rate × 365
For example, 12 kWh exported at 6c is about $263/year. 10 kWh self-used at 33c is about $1,205/year. Self-use is the bigger line item by a wide margin.
If a bill is lower than you expected, don’t assume the system is faulty. Heavy daytime use means fewer exports, which means a smaller credit, which is a good thing. Genuine causes worth checking include shading, an expired introductory rate, an export limit, metering errors or an inverter fault.
The "highest FiT" trap
Retailers know solar owners shop on export rate, so a headline FiT often comes with strings:
- Higher usage or supply charges
- A premium rate on only the first few kWh exported per day
- Eligibility tied to system size or installer
- Time-limited rates that later drop
- Worse rates in the evening, when you’re buying
Try this. You export 10 kWh/day, and a new plan lifts your FiT from 6c to 9c. That’s an extra 30c a day, or $109.50/year. But the plan also adds 40c to your daily supply charge, costing $146/year. You’re $36.50 worse off with the “better” tariff.
When we review plans as a Solar Expert in Canberra, we compare the whole plan, not the headline. We also check whether the FiT is flat or time-varying, because midday exports are often paid less when so many solar homes are exporting at once.
Why is the FiT so much lower than the retail rate?
It can feel unfair, but the two rates pay for different things. The retail price covers the network (poles and wires), metering, billing, wholesale costs, environmental schemes and retailer costs. The FiT reflects what exported midday energy is worth to the market, and when rooftops are all pumping at once, that’s not much. This is one reason FiTs have fallen in many areas.
Export limits change the design brief
Some networks cap how much a property can send out at once. A 10 kW system on a 5 kW export limit can still power your home, but anything beyond the cap may be curtailed. If you can’t use, store or export the surplus, the extra panels aren’t earning their keep. That’s why quality solar systems in Canberra are sized around your load and your local network rules, not just your roof space.
Where batteries fit
A battery moves surplus from the middle of the day to the evening. Suppose 10 kWh would otherwise be exported:
- Exported: 10 × 6c = $0.60
- Stored, then used instead of grid power: 10 × 33c = $3.30
- Gross gain: about $2.70/day, or roughly $985/year before losses
“Before losses” is doing real work in that sentence. A Solar Expert in Canberra should model your actual evenings, not a brochure average. Real-world savings depend on:
- Usable capacity and round-trip efficiency
- How much surplus you actually have to store
- How much power you use after sunset
- Seasonal swings in solar output
- Purchase and installation cost, warranty and lifespan
- Rebates, loans or incentives
- Backup-power needs
- Any virtual power plant conditions
A low FiT makes storage more attractive, but it doesn’t make it automatic. A household that’s quiet after dark may never fill and drain a large battery, which stretches the payback. A home with evening cooking, cooling and EV demand will use it every day. The best battery is the one matched to your surplus and your evenings, not the biggest one on the price list.
Can solar get you to a zero bill?
Rarely. Even strong exporters still pay supply charges, night-time imports, cloudy-day imports and metering fees, and imports cost far more than exports earn.
Before you install anything: our checklist
- Annual usage and the daytime/evening split
- Electric hot water, pool pump and air conditioning habits
- Planned EV or gas-to-electric switches (the core of Home Electrification in Canberra)
- Roof space, orientation and shading
- Local export limits
- Current retail rates and FiTs
- Whether to leave room for a battery later
The bottom line
A good solar system is measured by how much grid electricity it lets you stop buying, not by how much it sends away. That’s what quality solar systems in Canberra should deliver, and it’s the foundation that Home Electrification in Canberra builds on. Use your solar first, export what’s left, compare plans on the full picture, and add storage only when the numbers from your own household support it.
Quick FAQ
Is it better to use solar or export it?
Almost always use it. Retail rates are typically several times the FiT.
Should I pick the plan with the highest FiT?
Not on that basis alone. Check usage rates, supply charges and conditions.
Can a battery boost my savings?
Often, but only if it’s sized to your real surplus and evening use.
Who can help me work all this out?
A Solar Expert in Canberra can review your usage, your plan and your roof, and tell you honestly whether you need more panels, better timing or storage.
Is electrification worth it alongside solar?
For many households, yes. Home Electrification in Canberra works best when the loads you’re adding can run on your own daytime generation.
At Polygon Energy, we design quality solar systems in Canberra around how you actually live, so every unit of solar works harder for your household.
