I've only had mine on for two full quarters. Through winter our...

I've only had mine on for two full quarters.

Through winter our bill was $253 for the quarter and comparing the two bills I think it is purely the amount we generated was less due to shorter days and less peak sun hours. Possibly a bit of the reverse cycle air-con for heating in the mornings hurt there.

When I say 6.5kwh per day usage, they are only counting what we are using from the grid on the bill I think.
Our usage was 17-20kwh per day when I was investigating our solar install.
I actually think we use more electricity now if anything, particularly through the day.

One other thing I did (which some may disagree with) was scrap our off-peak connection entirely which was formerly used for our electric water heater.
Now I just run our water heater on a timer installed in our meter box between 11am and 1pm. Haven't had a drama yet and saves the off peak connection fee which was roughly $55/quarter from memory, plus the 10c/kWh off peak charge.

The reason I finally got around to the solar install and got it sorted was that our old water heater blew up. I was gonna get a solar water heater which are very popular in my area, but couldn't justify the huge cost when water heating was only costing us $350 per year. I was getting quoted upwards of $5k for the water heating system and you still need a electric/gas connection for boosting when it is cloudy for a week.

We decided to spend a little bit more and got our solar installed, now we heat the water during the day anyway and have cut our electricity bill significantly at the same time.

I'd recommend the same route to anyone investigating solar installs at the moment. Solar is so cheap now that you are better off oversizing your system and then run as much off it as you can.

Batteries are cool, i'd like to get one, but they are also too expensive for what they are at present. Until that tipping point comes with the supply charge increases and battery price decreases, it will be a hard sell for consumers like myself.