For a household using 9 kWh a day, about $346 a quarter at NSW's 30c a unit, the calculator puts 5–6.6kW solar at $5,220 to $7,250 after rebates, and No system at $0.
I am an advisor, not an installer and not a lead broker. You pay nothing at any point.
See what my home should costA single person in an apartment, out on weekdays, using 9 kWh a day.
A ballpark for one example household, not a quote. The low end of each range is what a competitive installer charges; the high end is a poor quote for the same equipment. Prices are from the same calculator the free assessment uses, with NSW rates and rebates, and sun hours are its figure for New South Wales.
Four real households, run through the same calculator this site uses for an individual report. Panels only, no battery, clean roof, someone home some of the time. Prices are after every rebate that applies in New South Wales.
| Household uses | Their quarterly bill | System | After rebates | Saves a year | Pays for itself |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 kWh | $373 | 5–6.6kW solar | $5,470 to $7,500 | $490–$730 | 9–10+ years |
| 15 kWh | $510 | 6.6kW solar | $6,250 to $8,250 | $650–$970 | 8–10 years |
| 22 kWh | $701 | 10–13kW solar | $8,000 to $13,000 | $1,020–$1,530 | 6–10 years |
| 30 kWh | $919 | 10–13kW solar | $8,000 to $13,000 | $1,230–$1,850 | 5–8 years |
The bill column is what that household actually pays in New South Wales at 30c a unit, which is why the same house has a different bill in every state. Savings depend on how much of the generation gets used on site rather than exported, and at 3.4c a unit for exports that is the number that decides the answer. A household out all day saves less than the figures above; one home most days saves more. Every figure is produced by the calculator, not written down, so it moves when the published rates move.
Dee Why is an apartment suburb: more than four in five homes are flats or apartments, and nearly half are rented. Rooftop solar on your own house is the exception here. Solar and batteries for the building are the rule, and NSW has programs for both.
Your retailer sells you the power. Your distributor owns the poles and wires, and it is the distributor that decides how much solar you may send back to the grid. Dee Why is inside Ausgrid's network[1], so Ausgrid's rules are the ones a quote here should be designed to. Look for Ausgrid on your bill.
A choice from late 2026. Ausgrid is giving new and upgraded systems a choice. A flexible export connection is automatically approved to export up to 10kW per phase, and Ausgrid can turn it down when the local network needs it, to a minimum of 1.5kW per site. A fixed export connection is approved for 3kW per system and is never adjusted. Either way the inverter has to talk to Ausgrid over the internet; a house without a reliable connection gets a static limit of 1.5kW[2].
What that means in practice: flexible suits a bigger array that will have surplus most afternoons; fixed suits a house that uses most of what it makes and wants a number that never moves. Power the house uses, or a battery stores for the evening, is worth the full import price. Power that runs into the export limit is simply lost, and even what gets out earns only a few cents. So size the array to what the house uses, not to the size of the roof.
At the 2021 Census, 81.9% of occupied homes in Dee Why were flats or apartments, nearly four times the New South Wales figure of 21.7%. Only 15.3% were separate houses, and 47.3% of homes were rented.[3]
Small households, mostly out at work, in buildings that decide together.
Things worth knowing before an installer walks the roof:
All of that describes the area, not your house. Two homes on the same street can be completely different jobs. Put your address in and the assessment works off the actual property rather than a town average.
Since 1 September 2026, NSW has offered an upfront discount on a new battery for apartment buildings of four or more units, larger when it goes in with new or additional solar: indicatively 30 to 40 per cent with solar and 20 to 30 per cent alone. The battery has to be 20 to 200kWh, and the owners corporation has to pass a sustainability infrastructure resolution, which needs 50 per cent or more of those present[4].
Shared solar for the building can be co-funded by a Solar for Apartment Residents grant until 4 December 2026[5]. A building that does both at once gets the larger battery discount.
A single apartment that is empty all day uses very little power when the sun is up. The worked examples below are two such households, and they show honestly how small the numbers get. That is the reason building-level systems make more sense here than individual ones.
These are examples, not an average for Dee Why. They are picked to show how the answer moves for the kinds of household the census shows are common here. Clean roof, no shading, NSW rates and rebates, and the battery prices assume it is installed before the federal battery discount steps down on 1 January 2027.
| Option | System | After rebates | Saves a year | Pays for itself |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change plan and cut waste firstPays back fastest | No system | $0 | $70–$210 | Nothing to pay back |
| Solar panels only | 5–6.6kW solar | $5,220 to $7,250 | $400–$590 | 10+ years |
| Solar plus a 10kWh battery | 5–6.6kW solar + 10kWh battery | $6,880 to $14,880 | $820–$1,090 | 7–10+ years |
On these numbers, none of it pays for itself inside ten years. Every option below still takes more than ten years to return what it costs, mostly because the bill being reduced is not large to begin with. That is not a reason to never do it, but it does mean the free move is the one worth making first, and that a quote should be judged on the price it comes back with rather than on this page.
Before any of it: get onto a competitive retail offer. It costs nothing, it takes an afternoon, and on a bill your size it is worth roughly $70 to $210 a year. Every payback below gets shorter once you are paying less per kWh, so it is worth doing first either way.
| Option | System | After rebates | Saves a year | Pays for itself |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change plan and cut waste first | No system | $0 | $70–$220 | Nothing to pay back |
| Solar panels only | 5–6.6kW solar | $5,220 to $7,250 | $420–$620 | 10+ years |
| Solar plus a 10kWh batteryPays back fastest | 5–6.6kW solar + 10kWh battery | $6,880 to $14,880 | $890–$1,180 | 7–10+ years |
Solar plus a 10kWh battery. It pays back fastest of the options open to you, which is the only measure here that accounts for what the thing actually costs.
Before any of it: get onto a competitive retail offer. It costs nothing, it takes an afternoon, and on a bill your size it is worth roughly $70 to $220 a year. Every payback below gets shorter once you are paying less per kWh, so it is worth doing first either way.
"Pays for itself" is the range between a competitive quote and a poor one for the same equipment, and 10+ means not inside ten years. The battery ranges are wide for the same reason. Your own usage, roof and timing will move every figure here, which is what the free assessment works from.
Applied by the installer as a discount on the quote, not something you claim. It scales with system size: on the 5–6.6kW solar in the first example above the calculator counts $1,750. It falls a little each year until the scheme ends in 2030.
There is no upfront state rebate on solar panels in New South Wales. There is the Home Energy Saver loan: interest-free, up to $15,000, repaid over up to ten years, for property owners, including landlords, with a combined taxable household income up to $210,000. Rooftop solar and batteries are both eligible, and the loans are delivered by Brighte and Plenti[6]. A separate discount of up to $4,000, for households earning up to $80,000 a year or holding an eligible concession card, has been announced but was not yet open on 26 October 2026[7]. The calculator leaves the loan out of every price, because it is repaid.
The federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program applies in NSW. On a 10kWh battery the calculator counts $2,520. The rate is set by the date the battery is installed, not when you order it, and it steps down on 1 January 2027 and every six months after that[8]. NSW's own battery discount under the Peak Demand Reduction Scheme is now only available through approved programs or on government sites, and NSW points battery owners to a separate incentive for joining a virtual power plant[9].
IPART's benchmark for a flat feed-in tariff in 2026-27 is 3.4 to 6.5c a unit, down from 4.8 to 7.3c the year before, and retailers do not have to pay it[10]. The calculator assumes 3.4c a unit, the bottom of that range, which is why every example on this page is decided by how much power the house uses itself.
The full breakdown, with dates, is in NSW solar rebates explained.
Already holding a quote? This is how I read one, line by line.
For the first example household on this page, 9 kWh a day, the calculator puts 5–6.6kW solar at $5,220 to $7,250 after NSW rebates, and No system at $0. The range is the gap between a competitive installer and a poor quote for the same equipment. Your own figure depends on your usage and roof, which is what the free assessment works out.
Ausgrid. It sits inside Ausgrid's network, so Ausgrid sets your export limit, not your retailer. From late 2026, new and upgraded systems choose a flexible connection of up to 10kW per phase, which Ausgrid can turn down to 1.5kW per site when it needs to, or a fixed 3kW per system. Ask your installer which they have designed to before you sign.
On its own, rarely. A small apartment that is empty in the day uses little power while the sun is up, which the worked examples on this page show. Building-level solar and batteries, decided by the owners corporation and supported by NSW grants and discounts, usually make more sense.
The installer, and only when a job completes. Never the homeowner. No installer can buy placement, and nothing about you reaches one until you ask me to make the introduction.
About a minute. You get the system size, what it should cost, and what it saves. No one calls you unless you ask.
Start My Free CheckIndependent explainers on the parts of this that actually change the answer.
Prices, savings and paybacks come from this site's calculator, using NSW rates verified 2026-08. Everything else is from the sources below, read on the date shown. Rules and rebates change, so check the source before you rely on one.