Household consumption defaults are the Australian Energy Regulator’s residential electricity benchmarks, prepared by ACIL Allen and the same dataset behind the government’s Energy Made Easy comparison site. We use the NSW figures for your climate zone: coastal Northern Rivers, the north west slopes around Tamworth, or the northern tablelands around Armidale. A pool adds 2,635 kWh a year, which is the difference between the with pool and without pool benchmarks in that same table. An electric vehicle adds 2,000 kWh a year, the Electric Vehicle Council’s figure for a typical passenger EV driven 12,000km.
The share of power used after dark is set between 55 and 68 percent depending on whether anyone is home during the day. Australian households generally sit in the 60 to 70 percent range. Generation is figured at 4.2 kWh per kW of panels per day, the annual average for Northern NSW. Savings assume imported power at 32c per kWh and exports at 6c, which sits inside IPART’s 2025-26 benchmark range of 4.8 to 7.3c, and allow for the battery not fully cycling every day.
Backup hours assume half a kilowatt of essential circuits, which is the sort of load a fridge, lights, internet, a few power points and a water pump draw between them. What actually stays on depends on your switchboard, and we spell that out in a written quote rather than guessing here.
This is a sizing tool, not a quote. Roof space, shading, your switchboard, network export limits and current rebates all move the final answer, which is why every real system gets a site assessment first.