this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2026
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It's not quite that simple, if by near zero you mean after paying ~$25000 for a solar and battery combo. With feed in tarrifs being near 0cents now, I haven't crunched the numbers recently... But its really killed the payoff period for straight solar
Your pricing information is a bit out of date; with current Government incentives a 10kW array and 50KWh batteries can be gotten for less than $10K.
True, general feed-in rates have tanked due to a glut in solar panels, but certainly providers do still offer generous rates for shoulder periods (around dawn and dusk) where you could potentially discharge part of your battery into the network (I think?).
But the real savings from having the batteries will eliminate your need to use power during evening peak times, eliminating the need for buying petrol if/when switching to an EV and having the ability to buffer energy from a rare sunny day in winter into free energy for the next 2-3 overcast days.
Depending on how aggressively you monitor and take advantage of market offers, and electrify your home - the pay-down period can be as low as a few years.
Fwiw a 50 kWh system is insanely excessive for most people. I have 10 kWh and have used grid electricity 3 days in 9 months. Granted, I live alone, but usage does not scale linearly with number of people. I'd hazard a guess than even a family of 4 would be unlikely to need more than 25 or 30 kWh, with some basic attention to how they use it (like run the dishwasher and washing machines during the day, and preferring rugging up to running the heater—which is reverse cycle AC and not the far less efficient resistive heaters of course—where possible, and having good insulation).
Nah, the 50kWh is borderline the smallest any family of 2+ should go. My household uses about 15-20kWh minimum between sun down and sun up, and we do all our washing etc during the day. We've got a 42kWh battery and it's not even close to being enough for 2 days with no solar generation. Unless the battery is over 50% by sun down I'm not confident in it lasting until solar kicks in the next day without being careful with our usage.
10kWh can be less than an hour of ducted AC. It can be cooking dinner on the stove/oven for an hour with the tv and fans on. 10kWh isn't close to enough for a family, and it would be hard to make it financially worth it. Would take 10 years to pay itself off, then it's out of warranty with diminished capacity before it starts to provide any return on investment.