Solar Sharing Equitability Review
Wattblock’s Solar Sharing Equitability Review is an independent auditing service for strata schemes which are planning to share solar into individual apartments. It is a service provided prior to installation sign-off, as sometimes things can't be made fair AFTER they are installed.
It evaluates solar designs, proposed by solar installers, to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of solar energy among residents. It also provides a sense check on the right size of solar and batteries for your apartment configuration, as solar installers have quoted systems which are oversized for the number of apartments they are servicing.
Key Capabilities
Advanced Modelling Methodology
Solar Installer Guesswork vs Precision Modelling
Wattblock’s Solar Sharing Equitability Review is an independent auditing service for strata schemes which are planning to share solar into individual apartments. It is a service provided prior to installation sign-off, as sometimes things can't be made fair AFTER they are installed.
It evaluates solar designs, proposed by solar installers, to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of solar energy among residents. It also provides a sense check on the right size of solar and batteries for your apartment configuration, as solar installers have quoted systems which are oversized for the number of apartments they are servicing.
Key Capabilities
- Multi-System Analysis: Audits for complex buildings with more than 15 apartments or physically separate meterboards across the strata complex, which plan to use multiple solar sharing gateways (e.g. Allume Energy SolShare) and check that solar is shared equitably across multiple physical systems
- Orientation Assessment: Evaluates how different roof orientations impact the energy yield of separate solar sharing networks on different roof planes with different pitches
- Common Area Integration: Reviews the equity impacts of connecting the common property meter to a specific solar system.
- Shading analysis. Different solar systems connected to different solar sharing systems might have different shading effects from trees or other building structures
- Multi-rooftop modelling where required for strata schemes with multiple rooftops
- Unit Entitlements: Have the unit entitlements been optimally converted to percentages for solar allocation, particularly if the common area circuit is also connected to the solar sharing system
Advanced Modelling Methodology
- Real Apartment Data: Replaces generic Ausgrid Local Government Area (LGA) averages with actual apartment-level consumption data captured from independent electricity monitoring devices (e.g. Wattwatchers, Smappee)
- Irradiation Variations: Factors in seasonal solar irradiation differences to ensure accurate, year-round performance forecasting. The Solar Sharing Equitability Review will take into account historical cloud cover
- Objective Auditing: Provides an unbiased, third-party check before owners corporations sign installation contracts with solar installers.
Solar Installer Guesswork vs Precision Modelling
Poor Quality Solar Installer Quotes |
Wattblock's Solar Sharing Equitability Review |
Use generic grid provider averages for households (which is a blend of standalone houses and apartments) for apartment consumption. |
Uses real apartment level data captured from a range of real apartments for hourly timestep modelling through 365 days of the year. |
Use the total daily energy billing data for common area. |
Use 1 year of historical common area metering data in hourly timesteps and using time-of-use tariffs at each timestep (where applicable). Where historical common area metering is not available, construct a tailored common area load profile based upon a physical asset audit. |
Focuses strictly on system output. |
Focuses on fairness of distribution to each lot |
Assume 100% efficiency of solar stored in battery. |
Roundtrip efficiency of energy losses through charging up and discharging batteries taken into account. |
Assumes battery can 'catch' all excess solar power. |
Models the input rating of the battery and will model feed-in at the same time as the battery is charging if the battery is not able to 'catch' all the excess solar power generated. |
Assume solar production is uniform across solar arrays connected to multiple solar sharing systems. |
Ability to model orientation of solar array, pitch of roof and shading effects on part of solar array separately for multiple solar sharing systems. |
Cumulative modelling of all battery storage at the site |
Independent modelling of the effect of each battery connected to each solar sharing system where multiple solar sharing + battery systems are proposed for the same site |
Ensure fair solar power for every apartment in your strata scheme.
As a strata committee member, signing off on a solar design is a major responsibility. Wattblock’s Solar Sharing Equitability Review provides an independent, expert audit of your solar installer’s design. We ensure that solar energy is distributed fairly, transparently, and equitably across all residents. We can provide an independent view of whether common area solar should be it's own discrete system or whether common area circuit(s) should be connected through a solar sharing system alongside apartment meters.
Protect Your Investment Before You Sign
Do not rely solely on the company selling you the hardware or the installation services. Protect your community from future disputes with an unbiased, third-party check before signing your solar sharing installation contract.
Wattblock's offering is based upon 12 years of analysis of electricity consumption in apartment buildings housing over 125,000 residents and the provision of apartment baseline data to NSW Department of Climate Charge, Energy, Environment & Water.
Contact us today for further information by emailing [email protected]
As a strata committee member, signing off on a solar design is a major responsibility. Wattblock’s Solar Sharing Equitability Review provides an independent, expert audit of your solar installer’s design. We ensure that solar energy is distributed fairly, transparently, and equitably across all residents. We can provide an independent view of whether common area solar should be it's own discrete system or whether common area circuit(s) should be connected through a solar sharing system alongside apartment meters.
Protect Your Investment Before You Sign
Do not rely solely on the company selling you the hardware or the installation services. Protect your community from future disputes with an unbiased, third-party check before signing your solar sharing installation contract.
Wattblock's offering is based upon 12 years of analysis of electricity consumption in apartment buildings housing over 125,000 residents and the provision of apartment baseline data to NSW Department of Climate Charge, Energy, Environment & Water.
Contact us today for further information by emailing [email protected]