For many Malaysians, solar power is a long-term investment. Whether it’s financially sustainable depends on the cost, the return on investment as well as any government rebates or feed-in tariffs involved in the process.
Homeowners who install home solar systems (or solar panel) in Malaysia receive numerous benefits: lower electric bills, lower carbon footprints, and potentially higher home values.
But these benefits typically come with significant installation and maintenance costs, and the actual amount of monetary gains can vary widely from one house to another.
This article will help homeowners to learn more about home solar systems in Malaysia and how to make the financial calculations required to determine the viability of solar power (solar panel/solar system) in their homes.
How Does A Home Solar System In Malaysia Work?
An average solar system for homes includes the use of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and other components. Here are the basic 4 components that most solar panel systems for homes include:
1. Silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells
When sunlight hits your solar panels, the solar PV cells absorb the sunlight’s rays and electricity is produced via the Photovoltaic Effect.
The electricity produced by your panels is called Direct Current (DC) electricity, which is not suitable to be used in your home by your appliances.
Instead, the DC electricity is directed to your central inverter (or micro inverter, depending on your system set up).
2. A central or micro inverter
Your inverter will be tasked to convert the DC electricity into Alternating Current (AC) electricity, which can be used in your home.
From here, the AC electricity is directed to your switchboard.
3. A switchboard
Your home solar panel system’s switchboard allows your usable AC electricity to be sent to the appliances in your home.
Your switchboard will always ensure that your solar energy will be used first to power your home, only accessing additional energy from the grid when your solar production is not enough.
4. A bi-directional utility meter
A bi-directional meter is able to record all the power that is drawn to the house, but also record the amount of solar energy that is exported back to the grid. This is called net-metering.
Tips For Home Solar Systems / Solar PV System
1) How many solar panels should you buy?
As solar panel supply and installation prices have fallen considerably, the number of solar panels that you prefer for your system mostly depends on your budget and your roof’s capacity.
For most homes, the minimum you should consider is buying 6.6 kW of solar panels (approx. 18 in total) with a 5 kW inverter.
If you use a lot of electricity consider going larger than a 6.6 kW installation. You can calculate your approximate costs of a home solar system in Malaysia with this handy calculator.
2) Do I have to switch on and switch off the solar panel system daily?
With solar power, you don’t need to switch it on in the morning or switch it off at night – the solar panels system will do this seamlessly and automatically. You also don’t need to switch between solar power and the grid, as your solar system can determine when is best to do so based on the amount of energy being consumed in your home.
In fact a solar system requires very little maintenance (as there are no moving parts) which means you’ll hardly know it’s there. This also means a good quality solar power system (good solar panels with reliable solar pv system) will last a long time.
Looking for your own home solar panel system? Next Energy provides winning technical expertise for solar panel supply and installation.
With our extensive years of expertise in both residential, commercial and large scale solar programmes, Next Energy is a trusted authority in solar panel installations (including solar panels/solar pv system/solar power system) and is Malaysia’s preferred solar installer for home solar system Malaysia.
Drop us a message if you would like a consultation on how to install your solar panels or solar pv system and how to receive benefits in terms of warranties, permits or even apply for tax incentives for your solar panel or solar pv installation at home.
Stay tuned for more updates from us in the future as we plan to cover more topics on solar panels, solar pv system, solar power system, net energy metering, net energy metering NEM and many more.
