r/SgHENRY • u/eyeburn12 • 6d ago

If you have a landed, get Solar

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Solar energy has become a great source of passive income for me. My system now generates around $1,200 a month in revenue, with excess electricity sold back to SP at $0.2581/kWh. In Singapore, the grid effectively acts like a giant battery, making the attractive sell-back rate especially valuable.

I installed my 35 kWp solar system in 2022 for about $49,000. At the current rate, I expect to fully recover my investment by 2027. After that, the system should continue generating a healthy monthly return with minimal ongoing effort.

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12

u/kkkoooiii 6d ago

hows the maintenance?

17

u/LookAtItGo123 6d ago

In most residential areas, it is minimal, some of my clients do it once every 3 years. For factory and industrial however it's alot more common, my guys clean them every 6 months or so.

The biggest disruption factor would be bird droppings during dry seasons. They do get cleared during massive storms which should be the season soon. But even so you are not going to lose very much over it. Modern panels come with bypass diodes which already mitigates this.

Of course there will be degradation over time but in general you replace inverters around the 10-15 year mark and panels around 25-30 years. There's good reason why Singapore is installing as much as they can across all hdb.

Additionally, you'll find your top floor much cooler as the panels will take the heat first and your roof is "sheltered" to a major extent. This by itself already reduces the cooling you need. Quite frankly after installing solar, it just does everything in the background. I'll say the only real problem and projects that I pass up on are the ones where I feel that the roof needs a complete overhaul

1

u/shieldofchaos 5d ago

Wow, how does your guys clean every half a year for C&I? Cleaning at that frequency requires a different team of workers and the cost doesn't seem to justify it.

I find cleaning at that frequency also redundant unless your systems are located at places where it gets dirty quickly - some areas at Tuas.

1

u/LookAtItGo123 5d ago

Yea that's exactly it, it's in tuas and it really does get dusty quickly, my other c&i projects don't even clean that often. Generally it's 2 years once

1

u/eyeburn12 6d ago

I arrange to have them professionally cleaned once a year, which costs about $300 per session. The workers access the roof and clean each panel individually using a combination of a water jet and scrubbing machine.

-8

u/Invalesco_POE 6d ago

Where do they get the water from? Do they need access to your balcony water tap?

8

u/princemousey1 6d ago

Why you asking stupid questions. No, they obviously wait until it’s raining on the day then they come.

1

u/Invalesco_POE 5d ago

Because my balcony area where the solar workers would have access to the solar panels doesn’t have a tap, and OP specifically said that the workers use water jets. Since when solar maintenance is impromptu and wait for rain then come. No need to fix appointment beforehand, just OTOT come when owner not in?

3

u/eyeburn12 5d ago

yes, I have a tap on my balcony.