What's your home's solar score?
Solar power is increasingly being seen as a valuable investment for South African homeowners looking to protect themselves from rising electricity prices, loadshedding and unexpected power outages. And with the government looking to allow homeowners to sell back their excess solar power to the grid, these investments are becoming more attractive than ever before.
While home solar offerings abound, the one thing that is rarely mentioned is the role a home’s location and structure play in the amount of electricity that can be generated. And it’s worth noting that even if your neighbour is producing enough electricity to go ‘off the grid’, your home may only support a medium-sized system and lower solar power generation.
It is for this reason that LookSee has partnered with geospatial actuarial solutions provider, Riskscape to launch South Africa’s first, free-to-use, Solar Score for residential properties.
This online system is easy to use, only requiring users to enter their full physical address into the search field. The system then analyses a 3-dimensional grid of the house against a variety of factors to assess the feasibility and generation potential of a solar installation on that specific property.
The Solar Score doesn’t just give you a grading on your home’s suitability for a solar installation, it also provides valuable insight into the usable roof area available for solar panels, the number of sunlight days you can expect over a month and year, and the amount of electricity you could expect to generate from the maximum system size installable on your home.
And if you’re wondering how much you’ll save on your electricity bill, the Solar Score also provides an annual electricity production calculator that will help you see the estimated Rand value from your roof and how it scales from your first year all the way up to 25 years.
Personalised home power analysis
Once you know your house is optimal for a solar installation, LookSee offers a home power analysis that helps you establish the right-sized system for your family’s needs and budget.
This automated process looks at your average monthly electricity consumption to calculate various system sizes that could fit your specific requirements. And with each size, you’ll see how many hours of backup power the solar system could provide your home without any sunlight support; the percentage of your monthly electricity usage that could be generated from your roof; the Rand value of savings on electricity; and estimated system costs.
With insight into your property’s suitability and household’s solar requirements, you are now ready to speak to solar providers about systems, configurations and financing options with confidence.
LookSee's Solar Score currently covers freestanding homes in most cities across the country. Efforts are underway to expand the coverage to include all towns and cities in South Africa and include sectional title properties.
To see the Solar Score's coverage map, click here.
The LookSee Solar Score provides insights into your roof’s potential to generate electricity and save money.
