Personal loans · Solar and battery
Solar finance, measured against your power bill.
A solar system is one of the few things people borrow for that can pay part of its own loan back. Whether it pays back all of it comes down to your roof, your household and the rules where you live — not to how many panels the salesperson wants to put up there. This page is about working that out before you commit to the system or the finance.
Start here
Two numbers decide whether this works.
The first is the loan repayment. The second is the amount your electricity bill falls by once the system is running. Put them side by side, in the same units — monthly against monthly, or annual against annual — and most of the decision answers itself.
If the bill reduction is larger than the repayment, the system is broadly carrying its own finance while you use it, and you own it outright at the end of the term. If the reduction is smaller, you are topping the difference up out of ordinary household income. That can still be a perfectly sound decision — you are buying an asset, reducing your exposure to future price rises, and cutting emissions — but it should be a decision you make on purpose rather than one you discover on the third direct debit.
The second question follows from the first: does the system pay for itself inside the loan term? A shorter term means a higher repayment but far less interest and a clean finish. A longer term makes the monthly number comfortable, costs more in total, and can leave you still repaying a system whose inverter is due for replacement. Panels themselves tend to be the long-lived part; inverters and batteries are the components with a shorter working life, and both have warranty terms worth reading before you choose a term.
Nobody can hand you those numbers from a web page. What your bill falls by depends on how much power you use, when you use it, what your retailer charges per unit, what it pays for exported power, and what arrangements currently apply where you live — inputs that differ between houses on the same street, let alone between states.
Every quote that promises a saving is built on a model — an assumed output for your roof, an assumed pattern of use, an assumed price per unit and an assumed export arrangement. Ask which assumptions were used, and whether they came from your actual bills or from an average. A quote built on your real consumption data is worth far more than one built on a postcode.
The choice
Panels on their own, or panels plus a battery.
These are genuinely different purchases with different economics, and adding storage is the decision that most often turns a modest loan into a large one. The right answer depends less on the size of the system than on when your household actually uses power.
| Option | Relative cost | Where the benefit comes from | Suits a household that | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panels only | Lower | Power you use as it is generated, plus whatever your retailer credits you for what you export. | Is home during the day, or can shift the dishwasher, pool pump or hot water into daylight hours. | Export credits are set by your retailer and by arrangements that change. A plan built around exporting a lot of power rests on the least stable part of the equation. |
| Panels plus battery | Substantially higher | Storing daytime generation and using it at night, so you buy less power at evening rates. | Is out all day and uses most of its power after dark, or wants some resilience during outages. | Storage adds a large amount to the borrowed sum. Batteries carry a warranted working life, so the loan term and the battery's expected service life should be considered together. |
| Panels now, battery later | Staged | The same as panels only, with the option to add storage once you have real generation and usage data. | Wants to start smaller, or expects its usage pattern to change — a new baby, retirement, an electric car, someone moving out. | Retrofitting is only straightforward if the inverter and switchboard were specified for it. Say at quote stage that you may add storage later, and get that in writing. |
Support schemes, export credits and eligibility rules are set at state and territory level as well as federally, and they are revised regularly. We deliberately quote no figures here: any number we published would be out of date for someone reading this later, or simply wrong for their address. Check the current rules for your own state or territory with the relevant government energy body before you rely on an incentive in your sums, and be sceptical of a quote that treats one as locked in.
The assessment
What a lender looks at.
Income and how steady it is
Permanent employment reads most simply, but casual, contract and self-employed income all work — the evidence required is just different. A lender is asking whether the repayment fits your income for the whole term, not whether the system is a good idea.
Your commitments and credit conduct
Rent or mortgage, other loans, dependants, and credit card limits — the limit counts against you whether you use it or not. Living expenses are assessed against your actual statements. A run of recent applications is itself read as a negative.
How the loan is secured
Most solar finance is written as an unsecured personal loan, because a rooftop system is not practical to repossess. If you own property, borrowing against it is usually priced better — a genuinely different conversation, and one worth having before you sign anything.
The honest bit
Get more than one quote. Always.
Quotes for the same house routinely differ by thousands of dollars, and not always because one system is better. Component brands, inverter choice, mounting hardware, electrical work and warranty terms all move the price, and only some of that is visible on a one-page proposal. Three quotes is not paranoia; it is the cheapest research you will do on this project.
What actually determines your output
- Roof orientation and pitch. Which way the panels face changes not just how much power you generate but when — and when matters more than total if you use most of your power in the evening.
- Shading. A neighbouring tree, a chimney, a taller building next door. Partial shade can affect more than the shaded panels alone, depending on how the system is configured.
- Roof condition and age. If the roof needs work in the next few years, do it first — removing and refitting a system is an avoidable expense, and poor tiles can make an install more complicated than the quote assumed.
- Your switchboard and meter. Older switchboards sometimes need upgrading, and your meter has to be reconfigured before you can export. Ask whether both are included or excluded.
- How your household uses power. Pull twelve months of bills and look at the pattern, not just the total. Daytime-heavy and evening-heavy usage lead to different systems.
When borrowing for solar is worth pausing on
- You may move within a few years. A system can add appeal to a sale, but you would carry the loan while someone else gets the bills. The payback logic assumes you stay.
- You rent, or you are in a strata property. Both are possible, but the approvals come before the finance, not after.
- A home purchase or refinance is next. A personal loan repayment reduces borrowing capacity for as long as it runs. Tell us early so we can model both.
- The repayment only works on the best case. If it depends on the modelled saving arriving in full from month one, it is too tight. Bills move seasonally.
Get ready
What to have handy.
You don't need all of this to start a conversation — only to finish one. Having it together is usually the difference between an answer this week and an answer next month.
Common questions
Solar finance, answered.
Will the system pay for itself before the loan is repaid?
Sometimes, and it is exactly the right question to ask — but the answer is specific to your household and we won't invent one. It depends on how much power you use, when you use it, what you currently pay per unit, what you are credited for exported power, what support currently applies in your state, and what you paid for the system. Work it out with your own bills and your own quote, then compare the result against the repayment. If an installer or a lender gives you a payback period without having seen your usage data, treat it as marketing rather than analysis.
Is a bigger system always better value?
No. Beyond a certain point you are generating power you cannot use yourself, so the extra capacity only earns whatever your retailer credits for exports — which is generally worth less than the power you avoid buying. Roof orientation, shading and the hours your household is actually home usually matter more than raw system size. A well-matched system on a good roof can outperform a larger one that faces the wrong way.
Should I add a battery?
It depends on when you use power. If most of your consumption is after dark, storage is what lets you use your own generation instead of buying at evening rates. If you are home during the day, or you can shift heavy appliances into daylight hours, panels alone may do most of the work for a much smaller loan. Batteries add a lot to the amount borrowed, so run the two options as separate sums rather than treating storage as an upgrade to tick.
What rebate or feed-in tariff will I get?
We can't tell you, and you should be wary of anyone in the finance industry who does. Incentives and export arrangements are set at state, territory and federal level, they differ by address and retailer, and they are revised regularly. Check the current rules with the relevant government energy body for your own state or territory, close to when you commit. Any figure printed on a website or in a brochure may be out of date by the time you read it.
Should I take the finance the installer offers?
Compare it rather than accepting or refusing it on principle. Some installer-arranged finance is genuinely competitive. The difficulty is that when the system and the loan are presented as one offer, it is hard to judge either. Agree the system and the price first, then compare the finance on the comparison rate, the fees and the early repayment terms. A discount that only exists if you sign in the room is worth treating carefully.
Is it cheaper to use my mortgage instead?
Often, on rate — secured home lending is normally priced well below unsecured personal lending. The trap is the term. Adding a system to a mortgage with two decades left can cost more in total interest than a short personal loan, unless you deliberately pay the extra down on a faster schedule. Redraw, a split, a top-up and a personal loan are all worth comparing, and that comparison is a large part of what we do.
Can I get finance if I rent or live in an apartment?
Finance and permission are two separate hurdles, and permission comes first. Renters need the owner's agreement, and apartments generally need the owners corporation or body corporate to approve work on common property, including the roof. Once that is settled, an unsecured personal loan is assessed on your income and credit position in the ordinary way — it does not require you to own the property.
What happens if I sell the house before the loan is repaid?
The loan is yours, not the property's. An unsecured personal loan stays with you after settlement and you keep repaying it, even though the new owner gets the benefit of the system. Some buyers will pay something for it and some will not. If a move is realistically on the cards inside the next few years, factor that in before you borrow, and look closely at whether an early payout attracts a fee.
Let's talk
Send us the quote. We'll show you what it costs to fund it.
No cost, no obligation, and no credit enquiry while we work it out. We'll put the repayment next to your bills, compare a personal loan against using your existing home lending, and tell you plainly if waiting a year is the better call.
Prefer to talk it through?
Use the call back form at the top of this page and a broker will come back to you, usually the same business day. If you already have your quotes and your bills together, you can start a full application instead.
Bring the itemised quote, twelve months of bills, and anything you have checked about your state's current arrangements. The more of that we can see, the more useful the first conversation is.
The Finance Team is the trading name of Online Showroom Pty Ltd, a credit broker rather than a lender, holding Australian Credit Licence 551493. Anything shown on this page is general information and any figures you discuss with us are estimates only — not a quote, and not an offer of credit. All applications are subject to assessment by the lender, and lending criteria, incentives and energy arrangements change over time.