Solar Money Saver: Being Green and Taking the Family Finances Further Into the Black

Online, November 15, 2010 (Newswire.com) - ZEN Home Energy Systems is helping homeowners unlock the equity in their home to finance their entire energy needs and pay off the mortgage sooner.

"We've known for some time now it is cheaper to produce your own energy at home than buy, but one of the biggest barriers facing householders is finding the cash to finance installation of a whole home solar energy system," ZEN Home Energy Systems Chief Executive Officer Richard Turner said.

"You no-longer have to go into the red to be green at home.

"Householders can now use equity in their home to install a ZEN Home Energy System that will not only pay for itself, but by taking the money you used to pay in power bills and making additional payments off your mortgage you can slash years and tens of thousands of dollars off a home loan."

ZEN in association with financial services company Bernie Lewis Home Loans has created a Solar Home Loan Calculator to show how homeowners can unlock equity to cover the cost of a ZEN Whole Home system.

"The Solar Home Loan Calculator can show you how to take 10 years off an average mortgage and save up to $100,000 in interest payments," he said.

"Currently the only other solar funding alternatives in the market are consumer finance packages which still can put strain on the household budget as the high interest rates offset the savings. But by using equity instead, you can effectively make the bank your power company with no change to household cash flow.

"One customer showed me his power bill the other day and he was $700 in credit.

"Unfortunately for consumers, there are still some low quality systems in the market place as well as poorly trained installers.

"The Government recently announced tighter safety controls around the installation of rooftop solar panels, which is a welcomed move for the industry.

"ZEN's high quality solar panels are produced to our specifications and brand by an industry leading manufacturer. Our installers are licensed electricians who hold Clean Energy Council qualifications and undergo extensive training in our ZEN solar academy well above industry standards.

"It's prudent for householders to go with a trusted company, and not one that cuts corners."
As Australia's first fully integrated solar grid connect home energy system provider, ZEN
installs home energy systems on thousands of metropolitan, regional and rural homes
across Australia every year.

ZEN has just announced a 12 month pilot program with the Local Government Association in South Australia. Under the "Solar Councils Pilot Program" six metropolitan councils will champion Solar Energy solutions to their communities, with ZEN providing free assessments to local households and community discounted pricing on their leading edge systems. The company has undertaken similar programs elsewhere in regional NSW and Victoria winning two national and one state award in Victoria. This is a great achievement for a local South Australian owned business

The average Australian home uses 20kWh of power a day. ZEN offers a choice of home offset systems for owners to offset usage or whole home systems to feed significant amounts back into the grid.

ZEN also provides the latest high efficiency ZEN solar hot water systems, which can save up to 90 per cent off current household hot water bills as well as rainwater harvesting systems.

Under the current Federal Government Scheme, householders and businesses can earn Solar Credits depending on the size of the system and these can be discounted off the price immediately or traded at a later time. There is no means test and holiday houses are now allowed under the scheme.

For a 1.5kWh system (powers 1/4 of the average home) householders can receive 155 Solar Credits currently valued at $6,200. A 'Whole Home' ZEN system 3 attracts 269 Solar Credits equal to $10,760 in subsidies at the current value of $40 per solar credit.

With these Government subsidies taken into account, the out of pocket cost of installing a leading ZEN solar home energy system for an average Australian home may range from $3,350 for 25% power capacity to approximately $20,000 for 100% capacity (ie allowing you to earn extra credits by feeding excess energy back into the grid).

"With the ability to unlock the equity in your home, take advantage of the Government subsidies available and earn credits through the various feed-in tariffs offered in each state, householders can now live free with solar energy," Mr Turner said.

"The ZEN Home Energy System allows you to produce more of your power at home with much less greenhouse gas emissions. We call this generating "blue energy" - it's green energy without the associated production and transport costs."

Every system comes with a ZEN Bluetooth wireless LCD monitor that tracks energy production and the performance of the system on a daily basis.

To find out more go to www.zenhomeenergy.com

For media inquiries: Richard Turner, Chief Executive Officer, Zen Home Energy Systems. Phone 08-8211 0600 or Mobile: 0418 844 780.