Solar panels on Tyers homes and sheds

Solar panels in Tyers often go on bigger roofs than in town, because many Tyers properties are semi-rural blocks with a house plus a shed, and the extra roof space tempts owners toward a larger system. How much of that output you can send to the grid is set by the network when the system is approved, so it pays to plan the size around your own use and any outage backup you want. Enquiries from Tyers are passed to an independent local installer, which inspects the property and quotes on its own terms; Traralgon Solar does not carry out installations.

What is different about Tyers properties?

Tyers is a small township about 10 km north west of Traralgon, with 824 residents at the 2016 census, and it shares postcode 3844 with Traralgon. It is part of Latrobe City. From Tyers Lookout on the Walhalla to Tyers Road you can see across the Latrobe Valley (Tyers, Victoria on Wikipedia).

Because the postcode is shared, mention Tyers by name in your enquiry. Otherwise a provider may assume a suburban Traralgon block and plan the visit, the access and the cable runs around the wrong kind of property.

Typical Tyers enquiries involve:

• a house with a large, simple roof that suits a bigger array
• a machinery or garden shed with a north facing roof some distance from the house
• a household that wants the essentials to keep running when the power goes out
• water pumps, workshop tools or other loads that town houses do not have.

House roof or shed roof?

Mounting choice	Advantages	Things to weigh up
House roof	Short cable run to the switchboard, simpler job	Roof size, shading and condition may limit the array
Shed roof	Often larger and better oriented, no house roof penetrations	Longer cable run, trenching or overhead cabling, and the shed’s own switchboard
Both	Spreads the array where the space is	More design work, and the combined inverter size still faces the network limit

A longer cable run to a shed is a real cost and needs correct cable sizing, so the provider should measure it rather than guess from an aerial photo. If the shed has its own sub-board, photograph it too. The farm and business solar page covers sheds that run a business or farm load rather than a household one.

How much can a Tyers system export?

This is where many larger rural plans change. On AusNet’s network, the distributor’s automatic pre-approval comes with a set generation and export limit, and a request that goes beyond that offer needs a paid manual assessment. Your installer applies for approval before any work starts and should tell you the limit that comes back. The AusNet export limits guide explains the bands and the conditions, and AusNet’s own solar connections page for systems up to 30 kW is the primary source.

The practical point for Tyers: a big array on a big shed does not mean big export income. If the network limits export, the output above that limit is either used on site, stored, or curtailed. So the questions to ask are how much you use during the day, and whether a battery would let you use more of what the roof makes.

Can solar keep a Tyers home running in a blackout?

Not by itself. A standard grid-connected solar system switches off when the grid goes down, to protect line workers, so panels alone will not keep the lights on during an outage. Backup needs a battery and inverter designed to separate the house from the grid and supply chosen circuits. For a rural household that may mean the fridge, lights, internet and the water pump.

How the backup is designed, which circuits it covers and how long it can run are covered on the battery backup power page. If outage backup is your main reason for asking, put that first in the enquiry, because it changes the inverter and the wiring a provider will quote.

What does a careful installer check at a Tyers property?

• Supply. Whether the property is single or three phase, and where the meter and main switchboard are.
• Distance. The cable length from any shed array to the switchboard.
• Loads. Pumps, heaters and workshop equipment, and when in the day they run.
• Roof structure. Shed roof framing in particular, since some older sheds were not built to carry panels.
• Access. Gates, driveways and whether a vehicle can reach the shed in wet weather.
• Approval. The export and generation limit from AusNet, before any equipment is ordered.

Expect the provider to decline mounting on a shed roof it thinks will not carry the load, or to price structural work first. Photos of the shed framing from inside help here, and you can attach them when you enquire about a Tyers shed array.

Which nearby areas have similar properties?

Glengarry, also north of Traralgon, has a similar mix of township blocks and lifestyle properties; the Glengarry area page covers supply types and battery sizing for households out of town.

Next step: a Tyers solar enquiry

To request a Tyers solar quote, include:

• that the property is in Tyers, with the nearest road
• whether you want panels on the house, the shed or both, with photos of each roof
• the distance from the shed to the house switchboard, roughly paced out
• a photo of the meter box and any shed sub-board
• your main daytime loads, such as pumps or a workshop
• whether you need backup during outages, and which appliances matter most.

Send a job enquiry