I put a 1.4kw system on the roof in March this year. I was on the tail-end of the $8000 grant, and was about to can the whole idea when I realised the rise in the AUD from approx 75 to approx 95 cents had reduced the cost of solar by almost a third.

So, I ended up paying $2500 for a system with 7 German-made 200w panels and a sunny boy inverter. ($10500 before the rebate, was quoted $14k mid last year)

I noted the figures on the inverter this morning and we've had 534kw/h out of it since the end of March, with nearly 1000 hours of sunlight, which equates to about $100 worth of power in a couple of months. 'Sunlight hours' includes morning & late afternoon when you get bugger all.

We're feeding stuff all power back into the grid, so fingers crossed for a gross tariff credit. THAT would be worth it.

We're on track for about $600/yr worth of free power, which means the system will have paid for itself in 4 years. It's also a good hedge against rising power costs.

We costed a slightly bigger system but it was another grand for one more panel, which is another 2 more years to pay off. Not worth it - I'll wait to see whether they bring in more rebates on extending existing systems, and then I'll go to 3.5kw.

By the way, our power bills range from $300 in winter to $600 in summer.