@mobius76In regards to home installations - I view it as a...

@mobius76

In regards to home installations - I view it as a manner to fix your electricity price per Kw, rather than what you can save via rebates etc... the bigger proportion of your usage you can fix... the less impact inflation will have over time on the balance you have to import from the electricity retailer.

solar installs have certainly grown in size (for same price) and its not impossible to now match a households daily consumption with sufficient panels on the roof (which most Australian homes have enough room for) - whether or not this is beneficial also comes down to if your electricity provider allows you to export surplus energy back to the grid... certainly in parts of QLD there are places where you are unable to export... so surplus generation is "lost".

I also think your point about human behaviour is a two sided coin, some may increase usage due to the presence of their solar panels... some may become more aware of their usage (and time of usage) so that it better co-relates with their panel generation (pool pumps only working during the day is a huge money saver as an example).... also consider many (I would dare say the majority of) people don't change their behavior at all

Agree that there are alternatives to energy storage... particularly for heating and cooling... but they wont keep the fridge on in a blackout. Were I to fall into a substantial amount of money - would I use them? Absolutely... 6 star and above energy home is a LT dream for me.