Energy30.10.2024

Best solar rentals for people who want to cut their electricity bills

Many South African households that consume a moderate to large amount of electricity every month can reduce their bills by renting a solar power system.

Several companies offer solar rental subscriptions that make it easy to get self-generation and power backup for households who cannot afford the high upfront equipment cost.

Solar rental subscriptions are also often cheaper than the monthly repayments on loans or rent-to-own packages.

In addition, they may be the better option for those who plan to occupy a property temporarily.

In the past, these systems would have come with a premium over using only grid electricity for power.

However, as Eskom’s electricity prices have increased well over the inflation rate in the past decade and solar component costs have come down, the picture has changed dramatically.

It is now entirely possible that renting a solar power system capable of supplying most of a household’s electricity demand can be cheaper than what they would have paid for just Eskom electricity, with no backup.

In certain cases, adding the cost of the extra grid electricity needed to meet the remaining demand would still see the total price being below an Eskom-only bill.

To illustrate this, MyBroadband calculated how much households stand to save or will need to pay extra for rented solar power systems of varying sizes suitable for low, medium, and high consumption.

We used prices from four major installers — GolSolr, Solar Advice, Wetitlity, and Versofy.

Our grid electricity costs were based on Eskom’s Homepower 4 tariff, the most common pricing plan used by its direct residential customers.

We found that low-power users with a consumption of 450kWh — half of Eskom’s claimed average — will be paying a bit more for an entry-level self-generating system and a small amount of grid power than on a grid-only bill.

The most affordable entry-level options are GoSolr and Solar Advice’s packages, which should add around R182 and R334 to the bill, respectively.

It should be noted this premium will include backup power capacity.

The main reason why using a solar rental with low consumption is not more affordable than Eskom alone is because the utility charges a fixed grid access fee of about R222 per month, regardless of use.

Moving up to a more moderate 600kWh consumption per month, the solar rental option starts coming close to price parity with the Eskom-only option, at least for two of the four providers.

The GoSolr option is again the best, with just a R79 increase over a grid-only approach, while Solar Advice is not too far off with R105 extra over an Eskom-only package.

Finally, large power users with 900kWh consumption will see their overall bills reduced if they take up a rental via GoSolr and Solar Advice.

With Eskom’s requested tariff hikes of 36% for direct customers and 44% for municipal customers in 2025, the picture shifts even more in favour of solar rentals.

Even those households with low usage will pay the same or less on their total monthly bill when supplementing demand with a solar system.

Optimizing solar system usage

It should be noted that our calculations assumed the installation would be used alongside sound load-shifting to maximize solar energy during the day.

Ideally, a household with solar power should set high-demand appliances like geysers, pool pumps, washing machines, and dishwashers to run when the sun is out.

If these appliances are used at other times, they can needlessly drain the battery.

It is also important to consider each rental package’s specific terms and conditions before signing the dotted line, as the contract length and cancellation fees may vary greatly.

In addition, we only used packages that were available on the providers’ websites.

More cost-effective options may be available upon request, which might be better suited towards supplying power specific to your usage habits.

The table below compares the prices of using grid-only power from Eskom with a solar power system rental and minimal grid electricity consumption for households with 450kWh, 600kWh, and 900kWh consumption.

GoSolrSolar AdviceWetilityVersofy
Low consumption — 450kWh
Solar panels2.76kWp
(8 x 460W)
3.24kWp
(6 x 540W)
2.5kWp
(6 x 430W)
3.64kWp
(8 x 455W)
Estimated average production383kWh450kWh350kWh505kWh
Inverter3.6kW hybrid3.6kW hybrid5kW hybrid5kW hybrid
Battery storage5kWh5kWh3.5kWh5kWh
Backup hours at typical demandUp to 4 hoursUp to 4 hoursUp to 3 hoursUp to 4 hours
Regular bill without solarR1,487R1,487R1,487R1,487
Price of systemR1,259R1,599R1,499R1,999
Estimated grid bill with solarR410R222
(fixed cost only)
R503R222
(fixed cost only)
Estimated total cost with solarR1,669R1,821R2,002R2,221
Estimated additional cost/saving+R182+R334+R515+R734
Medium consumption — 600kWh
Solar panels4.60kWp
(10 x 460W)
4.32kWp
(8 x 540W)
4.3kWp
(10 x 430W)
3.64kWp
(8 x 455W)
Estimated average production600kWh600kWh600kWh505kWh
Inverter5kW hybrid5kW hybrid5kW hybrid5kW hybrid
Battery storage5kWh5kWh7kWh5kWh
Backup hours at typical demandUp to 3 hoursUp to 3 hoursUp to 4 hoursUp to 3 hours
Regular bill without solarR1,916R1,916R1,916R1,916
Price of systemR1,773R1,799R2,399R1,999
Estimated grid bill with solar R222 (fixed cost only)R222
(fixed cost only)
R222
(fixed cost only)
R488.86
Estimated total cost with solarR1,995R2,021R2,399R2,488
Estimated additional cost/saving+R79+R105+R705+R489
High consumption — 900kWh
Solar panels6.44kWp
(14 x 460W)
7.56kWp
(14 x 540W)
6.02kWp
(14 x 430W)
5.46kWp
(12 x 455W)
Estimated average production900kWh1,050kWh836kWh758kWh
Inverter8kWh hybrid8kW hybrid6kW hybrid12kW hybrid
Battery storage10kWh10kWh10kWh10kWh
Backup hours at typical demandUp to 6 hoursUp to 6 hoursUp to 6 hoursUp to 6 hours
Regular bill without solarR3,156R3,156R3,156R3,156
Price of systemR2,610R2,799R2,999R3,399
Estimated grid bill with solar R222
(fixed cost only)
R222
(fixed cost only)
R402R621
Estimated total cost with solarR2,832R3,021R3,401R4,020
Estimated additional cost/saving-R324-R135+R402+R864

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