Hi, I don't think it will give you any benefit financially. Not anytime soon, anyhow. Unless our electricity tariffs increase, or that the government decide to restart the FiT scheme again (in which they pay you in cash for excess electricity). Currently, what you can expect is that you are only paying GSparx for leasing the panels, and instead of paying TNB the same amount (RM250-350) you are paying for the lease while getting electricity. Once the lease is up, then only you will see the benefits.

Generally speaking, unless your electricity bills are in the region of RM300-400, there is no substantial benefit. Just that you are doing something good for the environment. Or if you are using that solar power to generate income (BitCoin, as someone is doing on this thread). GSparx is coming over to review my house this weekend, if you are interested, send me a PM.

You can check your electricity bill, it will state there. Even the solar companies will ask for a copy of your bill. If you are not staying there, just use your current bill and guesstimate.

Not so easy to add all your appliances, because of a few factors:

1) hours of usage may vary day to day, season to season
2) you might also change your appliances over the years
3) you might add new appliances too

As for following your bill, it is far from perfect too, as it also depends on your usage that month, but you could get, say maybe 6 backdated bills and average out the usage. To estimate the solar power, you cannot buy the exact amount as shown on your bill, as the solar panels do not charge at 100%, I would say you need to add another 25% on top of the monthly bill. And solar panels will depreciate its power over the years, so your 5kw system could be only 3kw after 10 years.

Are you planning on an off-grid system? If yes, you still need to find a big enough battery to store all this power.

If you are comfortable with it then I guess it's okay to do so. I'm going to stay in the same house so I rather make sure there is someone who knows what they are doing to have a look at it. Someone like an electrician. I'm not sure also whether will your house insurance cover all these DIY stuff. I saw on his latest video, his example setup is for 2 solar panels only. When you need like 16 of it, there is a lot of work to be done.

This post has been edited by Two5Kid: Jun 27 2019, 06:20 PM

1. Yes. Here in Malaysia it is so.
2. Don't see it as an investment unless your usage is super high, like if your electricity bills around RM600-700 and above.

I'm not sure what the general public thinks about solar. For me, I have a 12kwh battery at home for daily usage and for emergency usage (which haven't happened so far) but during the MCO, my bills for 4 months in total was only RM200/month. Compared to what I have seen from social media, I think I wasn't being cheated by TNB. I stay in a 5000sqft house with 4 adults and 2 children. All fully WFH with the inclusion of additional baking/cooking. And because of the MCO, the TNB NET Metering couldn't install their system, but they will do so next month. And for that, I'm not sure what will be the additional saving but according to my calculations, unless the electricity tariff increase, basically installing a solar system is not really worth it.

Your mileage may vary but I think it all comes down to what do you intend to use it for? Mine is for disasters and emergencies, my area is prone to flooding during the monsoon season. Other than that, I really hope that one of the elected government in the future will start to give rebate or restart the FiT system again. 50k I think yes, you can install quite a big system already, maybe enough to make sure you don't have to pay your bills. Say if your bills are RM400/month, a year will be RM4800, need 10 years before you get your money's worth. By then the system already depreciated.

That's a good question, haven't tried it but for me during a disaster most likely daytime I do not need to use any power, unless for boiling water or cooking (gas stove). Say just turn on some fans and make sure the refrigerator stays on. Then night time some lights, maybe charge the phone. I think can last for a while. And don't forget, next day the sun rises and the solar battery is being recharged again. So I think I'm pretty much covered, unless the disaster is the sun goes out.

I agree with the fact that this is a hobby (because this is Malaysia), in an ideal world, I hope that the government can give us a tax rebate for having solar, or that we get the FiT system back but there you go, that's the ideal situation. Actually the NET Metering isn't that bad, you can even lease the solar panels, so they aren't yours but they are actually helping you save on your electricity bills.

Alright, I just had a long chat with the solar contractor. This is what I learned. Actually, placing solar panels here in Malaysia for residential isn't really a green move. What it allows you to do is to actually use more electricity than what you are paying for per month. Yes, you do pay upfront of around RM10-20k, but your electricity bills will be either 0 or maybe some small amounts per month. And that is how you achieve a "return" on your initial "investment".

This is also provided that you intend to stay that long at your property (better if it's a newly built one in which you intend to stay more than 20+ years) and also that your roof is big enough and the location is good for solar (north-facing).

The only sure win situation is if your electricity bills are in upwards of RM800 to more than RM1k, or perhaps even higher, then you will see a faster ROI.

So in short, it actually promotes more energy usage if you notice that you are producing more solar than you are using, hence you would be using more (aircons, heating, etc) to make sure you don't generate extra solar power (since extra power is not going to give you any bonuses).

True. Those are limiting factors in the situation. I have two systems (one just installed), the first one I installed for 18 months already, (surprise surprise) I have it like you said, one on the North and the other on the South facing, apparently, the North side is generating twice the amount as compared to the South. So for this new installation, I put it on the North side. Fingers crossed it will work.

I'm not from the Klang Valley, but I doubt there is much difference in the sunlight average so that can't be helped. One of the limiting factors.

The heat will cause the solar panel to lose efficiency is also one of the unfortunate limiting factors. But the contractor said, there are now panels going upwards of 400w. Mine is only at 355w, the other is at 295w. So maybe with a better panel, you can offset these a bit.

Yeah, this is mainly for those who have a huge electricity bill as seen during the MCO period. What we can hope for (small hope) is that the government changes its policy on solar power harvesting.