Minimise the guesswork and maximise savings: Solar Analytics launches new calculator to find personalised energy saving plans to Australians.

If your energy bill was higher than you anticipated this month, then you're one of many Australians who are looking for ways to reduce it. But it can be an overwhelming process.

While for most households getting rooftop solar is the answer, how do you know that is the best option for you and your household? And if you already have solar, what more  can you do to reduce your energy bill? Should you upgrade your solar with more panels or a solar battery? Or should you replace your gas hot water heater with a heat pump? The answer depends on your individual circumstances, which means figuring out the right option for you can get tricky.

To answer these questions that are being increasingly asked by thousands of their customers, Solar Analytics have launched Solar Maximiser. Solar Maximiser is a free online calculator designed to find your optimal smart energy solutions.

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Solar Maximiser uses solar and energy data from tens of thousands of Solar Analytics customers to make its recommendations. The information the user enters into Solar Maximiser is combined with this real-world data to help form realistic and practical recommendations. In short, Solar Maximiser makes recommendations that are unique to you, your lifestyle and household.

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Thanks to Dr Tom Beuzen and the data science team at Solar Analytics, Solar Maximiser is a world-first that can uniquely compare all of the different smart energy options including solar, batteries and hot water heat pumps (with Electric Vehicles coming soon) for different households.

“All of my previous work in the field of data science has helped develop it,” he says. “From extracting unique insights from our 18 TB of energy data, the 20,000+ energy retail plans, the localised energy regulations, to building predictive machine learning models that power Solar Maximiser's internal workings. This includes providing the information to the public in an easy to understand manner.”

Making such an innovative product does come with its challenges, of course. Tom says the hardest challenge was dealing with the scope of the tool. To make the tool as personalised as it could be to the user, there was a lot of information that had to be collected and managed.

“There's an enormous amount of variety in each individual's household and energy usage, but we wanted the tool to be able to be used by anyone.” The team leveraged their large customer base to test and calibrate Solar Maximiser.  

Stefan Jarnason, CEO at Solar Analytics says, “Solar Maximiser is the only ‘one-stop-shop’ that allows people to compare all of their options to reduce their energy bills.In the future it will also help people to decide when is the right time for them to electrify everything in their home, from their car to their cooktop.”

‍Solar Maximiser is free to use. If you want to find the best way you can reduce your energy bill, try the Solar Maximiser today.

This Project received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) as part of ARENA's Advancing Renewables Program. The views expressed herein are not necessarily the views of the Australian Government, and the Australian Government does not accept responsibility for any information or advice contained herein.‍

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