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The payback period is too long, how can I fix this?

There are a few things that can help with the payback period. The payback period is calculated by plotting the cumulative benefits of the system against the cumulative costs. Therefore, to improve the payback period, you either need to reduce costs or increase the benefits, there are a few ways to do this:

  • Check tariffs are correct: tariffs are input into Easy PV in p/kWh, not £/kWh, so make sure your tariffs are in the correct units. 
  • Add export tariff: navigate to the financial task, select the pen icon in the top right, under self-consumption, you can edit the import tariff (electricity costs for your customer). You can also specify the export tariff in this section for excess energy that is sold to the grid.  
  • Add batteries: this will increase the initial investment required but will allow the customer to store energy produced from peak times in the day to be used later which will reduce their grid dependence so reduces their cumulative costs. 
  • Factor in off-peak charging: if your system has a battery, you can estimate the benefits of off-peak charging and add this as an 'additional saving' in the financial task.