Imagine choosing to build a new home and not having to worry about your power bills from day one! If you’re taking the step into home ownership and wanting to trim back your monthly or quarterly outgoings without impacting your lifestyle, or if you’re upsizing and wanting to ensure a bigger home doesn’t equate to a much bigger electricity expense, then solar energy is a no-brainer.

Choose any Icon Collection home design when building with Vantage Homes QLD and you receive a FREE 3kW solar power system to enable you to harness the sun’s energy.

Upgrades to larger solar power systems are also available, including heavily discounted packages that include a Tesla Powerwall 2 to provide a complete solar-plus-battery solution to enable you to store the sun’s energy for use at night – or on a rainy day – and therefore have potential to power your home completely independently of the grid!

With the 5kW SolarPack Lite system – one of the upgrades available through Vantage Homes QLD in partnership with Bradford Energy, the company powering The Block in 2019 – average electricity bill savings for the first two years of home ownership are calculated at about $3,200.

It’s just another way that Vantage Homes QLD helps ensure the building process is less stressful and expensive, not only upfront but in the long-term.

More than $3000 electricity savings within the first two years

While the actual system performance may vary due to a wide range of external factors and the actual payback may therefore also differ, the calculated savings of $3,200 over two years are based four people living in a detached Brisbane house, with average household consumption of 25kWh per day, no pool, no gas and an average electricity feed in tariff for Queensland assumed.

The simulation that led to the calculations – ran by Bradford Solar’s parent company, leading Australian building products company CSR – was on an average day, based on morning and night peak energy use modeling.

The same test calculated that the 5kW SolarPack Lite system will save on average 7 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, thereby providing considerable environmental benefits as well as being friendly on the hip pocket.

The free solar energy package

Consisting of carefully selected range of solar energy products that offer excellent performance, superior reliability and enhanced value, the free inclusion for Icon Collection and Urban Collection new build homes is the 3kW SolarPack Lite package. It features:

• 300 Watt KuPower Canadian solar panels, with innovative module design with latest GEN3 polycrystalline technology, higher power class than equivalent sized modules and excellent efficiency along with a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty.
• Zever Solar Wi-Fi inverter, which is extremely lightweight at only 7.3kg and delivers a higher power yield with 97.5% efficiency while being extremely quiet (only 15dB noise) and also comes with a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty.
• Simple integrated monitoring via ethernet or Wi-Fi, with detailed information and compatibility with all major web browsers.

The solar power upgrade options

Depending on the size of the home being built and what electricity savings you’re hoping to achieve, you may wish to consider an upgrade to either the 4kW SolarPack Lite or the 5kW SolarPack Lite.

To use the sun’s energy day and night, which is a smarter way to power your play, you can also elect to add a home battery: the Tesla Powerwall.

Doing so will save an estimated $32,600 over 10 years, with average 90% household solar self sufficiency, based on the same simulation and also factoring in a 3% annual increase in energy costs (CPI related).

The Tesla Powerwall consists of a rechargeable lithium ion battery with thermal temperature control and a 10-year manufacturer’s warranty, as well as app monitoring.

The process

Installation of your solar energy system occurs in two steps:

• Once the roof on your new home is completed, panels and pre-wiring is installed.
• Once the home build is close to lock-up stage, the inverter and battery (if selected) are then installed.

Bradford Energy commission the system and the Vantage Homes QLD handover process provides you with all the information required to maximise your electricity savings.

Which option is right for you?

For a recommendation of the perfect sized system for your new home, based on house plan evaluations completed by Bradford Energy, talk to Vantage Homes QLD today about the inclusion package and upgrade offers available.

Prospective purchasers should undertake their own enquiries in order to satisfy themselves as the accuracy of the details