Steven Reduced His Electricity Bill to $5 a Month

Steven Bell’s electricity bill is now $5 a month. “My direct debit on electricity now is $5 a month, which is the lowest it can go,” he says. He lives in Port Kembla, runs a heavy-usage household, and had solar on the roof well before he added a battery. The solar battery storage savings that got him there are ones he tracked himself, and the numbers speak for themselves.

This is Steven’s story. Here’s what it covers:

• what his bills looked like before and after the battery
• how buying an EV made his savings stronger, not weaker
• why he chose Lenergy while the rebates were in flux
• whether the Sigenergy SigenStor was worth it for him

What were Steven’s electricity bills before the battery?

Steven already had solar, and he was not starting from scratch. “I had solar already that had been working well, so my installation was adding a battery to the mix,” he explains. The doubt was whether a battery earned its keep on top of that. “There’s still a lot of hesitation around, was a battery going to be good, was it worth the investment?”

He is careful with his numbers. “I’d done a reasonably good job of tracking my electricity before,” he says. “In the seven months previous, how much I purchased from the grid was $1,350. That’s with solar. So I’m a heavy electricity usage household.” That figure already had solar working in his favour, which shows how much a high-use home still has to draw from the grid once the sun drops.

How much did the solar battery cut his electricity bill?

Then the battery went in, and the second set of numbers landed. “In the seven months since I’ve had the battery put on, my external grid costs have been $120,” Steven says. “So it’s about 10%.” Same house, same heavy usage, a tenth of the grid cost. “I’m stoked. It had massive savings.” 

The battery does this by storing his daytime solar and running the house on it through the expensive evening peak, instead of buying that power back at grid rates.

How did buying an ev impact his solar and battery system?

Here is what makes his result stand out. “Not long after I put the battery in, I also purchased an EV,” Steven says, “so that’s just accelerated it.” An EV is a big new load. Charging a car  adds a significant amount to a household’s electricity consumption. Steven’s stayed at the floor. His experience shows that a well designed solar and battery system, paired with a smart charger like the Sigenergy Sigen EV Charger he had installed, can be one of the most efficient ways to run a car. 

Why did Steven choose Lenergy?

Steven did his homework before committing. What settled it was the manner. “Honestly, they just came across very open and honest,” he says. “Absolutely no pushiness, no over sales pitch.” He valued that they were “happy to talk and go back and forth on what would work best, what size would work best, what kind of electricity plan would work best.”

Steven bought while the battery rebates were unsettled. “Around the time of putting this on, all the rebates were in flux,” he recalls. “There was no rebate, then there was the New South Wales rebate, then there was the federal rebate, and in between all of that there was a lot of doubt around what was going on in the market.” If you are trying to make sense of what is currently happening with battery rebates, our guide on what changed with the battery rebate walks through it.

Even in that noise, he never felt pushed. “There was no push to just, you know, we’ve got to sell something. So I really appreciated that.” He also credits Lenergy for keeping him informed, including flagging “the OVO plan that came online around that time with the free for three,” its free daytime electricity window.

Would Steven recommend Lenergy to others?

Steven’s answer is an easy yes, and he backs it with names. “One of my colleagues at work has just had their battery installed with Lenergy,” he says, and a friend has since done the same. The strongest sign is his father, a solar owner and, by Steven’s own description, the ultimate sceptic. “I’ve convinced my sceptic of a dad to put one in, and he’s seriously considering extending his solar and adding a battery, just based on how it’s performed and how nice Lenergy were to deal with.”

That ease stayed with him the whole way through. He found Lenergy “just really easy to deal with,” crediting the small things: they “always took my call or returned my call in a timely manner,” stayed “very transparent about when it could be done” even when the rebate launch had the team flat out, and followed up afterwards “just checking in to make sure the system was working as expected.”

If you are weighing up the same decision Steven faced, read next: Mistakes to Avoid When Buying a Solar Battery.

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