At Gulf Solar, we’re proud to bring over 16 years of trusted electrical service to the Hauraki Gulf. As a honest, and professional outfit, we were founded by two passionate electricians—the directors of Integrated Electrical and Bailey Payne—who share a commitment to renewable energy. We offer tailored solar solutions designed to fit each client’s unique needs and architecture, supported by our experienced team of engineers, inspectors, and apprentices. With energy costs rising and solar more accessible than ever, we’re here to light up the islands.
How We Work
From first call to first kilowatt
01
Free Consultation
We assess your property, energy usage, and goals -- remotely or on-site.
02
Custom Design
Our engineers design a system optimised for your roof, budget, and island conditions.
03
Professional Install
We handle all logistics -- permits, transport, and a clean installation process.
04
Ongoing Support
Reassessments, maintenance packages, and a 10-year workmanship warranty.
How much could you save by going electric?
Answer five quick questions and we'll match you to a package.
Your home
LocationPick the island closest to your home. We use this to default the grid pill below — Waiheke and Auckland mainland default to Grid-connected; the other Hauraki Gulf islands default to Off-grid. You can still toggle either way.
Site grid statusMost homes are connected to the grid. If you're off-grid — no grid connection at all, or planning to fully disconnect — pick Off-grid. Off-grid sites need a custom-engineered system, so we'll route you there.
Number of occupantsMore people use more energy, but not linearly. Four people use roughly 1.9× what one person uses — not 4× — because heating, hot water, and shared appliances scale together.
Current household appliances
House heatingYour current main heating source. Heat pumps are the most efficient option — anything else is treated as a candidate to upgrade. Pink shading = fossil fuel machine (high emissions); green shading = electric machine (low or zero emissions).
Already the most efficient option
Water heatingYour current water heating. A heat pump water heater uses about 75% less energy than electric resistance, and far less than gas or LPG. Pink shading = fossil fuel machine (high emissions); green shading = electric machine (low or zero emissions).
Upgrading to heat pump water heater
CooktopYour current cooktop fuel. Induction is the most efficient electric option and the natural upgrade target for gas or LPG. Pink shading = fossil fuel machine (high emissions); green shading = electric machine (low or zero emissions).
Upgrading to electric induction
EVs (now or planned)Electric vehicles are usually the single biggest electricity load a household adds. Count what you have plus what you're realistically planning to add over the next few years.
Rough monthly power bill (optional)Optional. Your average monthly power bill in NZD. Helps us pick the right tier for your home — leave blank if you're not sure.
$/ month
Your Savings
By electrifying your household, we estimate you could save:
Energy & Fuel Bills
$31,612 over 15 years
$1,896 saved per year
$36 saved per week
Energy Emissions
22% saved
That’s 110 kg of CO₂e saved every year.
How we calculated this
This calculator uses the open-source household electrification model published by Rewiring Aotearoa, a New Zealand non-profit advocating for household electrification. We’ve implemented their documented method for our own site so you can size up the savings before we come for a site visit.
The approach
For each household, we compare two states: your home today and a fully electrified version of it. The electrified version replaces fossil-fuel space heaters with heat pumps, gas/LPG water heaters with heat-pump water heaters, gas/LPG cooktops with induction, and any vehicles you flag for an EV swap. Solar and battery are added if you want them.
What we assume
Because we ask only the high-level signals (occupants, EVs, bill), the model fills in sensible defaults: a home running natural gas across heating, hot water, and cooktop. Real households differ — actual savings will skew up if you’re running LPG / petrol heaters today, or down if you’re already mostly electric.
Solar and battery sizing come from the package we recommend you, so the savings line up with what we’d actually install.
Energy use
Daily energy consumption per appliance type comes from the Australia & New Zealand Residential Baseline Study 2021 (published Nov 2022), with heat-pump performance from EECA sales & efficiency data and water-heater efficiencies from US DoE Energy Star.
We scale these averages two ways: by region (Otago heats more than Northland) and by household size (energy use scales nonlinearly with occupants — 4 people don’t use 4× what 1 person uses, more like ~1.9×).
Vehicle energy comes from the EECA Energy End Use Database (2019, to avoid COVID anomalies) and is scaled by 210 km/week — average NZ usage per the Ministry of Transport’s Annual Fleet Statistics.
Solar & battery
Generation is modelled from your panel size, your region’s solar capacity factor, and 30-year average degradation (~93% of nameplate). Battery capacity is degraded over a 15-year life (~85% average) with a 95% round-trip efficiency. We assume 50% solar self-consumption — a deliberately conservative estimate of how much daytime generation you can shift to.
Costs
Bill savings are calculated against MBIE’s 2024 quarterly energy prices for current-year savings, and an inflation-adjusted 15-year average for lifetime savings. Grid fixed costs stay; gas/LPG fixed costs go away once the last gas appliance is replaced. Solar export revenue is netted off.
Upgrade costs come from a survey of installer quotes: $2728 + $1050 install for a heat-pump space heater, $4678 + $2321 for a heat-pump water heater, $1430 + $1265 for an induction cooktop, $2278/kW for solar (with $2500 inverter), $1000/kWh for battery.
Emissions
Energy by fuel type is multiplied by emissions factors from the Ministry for the Environment’s Measuring Emissions: A Guide for Organisations (2023). The result is conservative — it doesn’t yet separate solar self-consumption (zero emissions) from grid electricity (0.074 kg CO₂e/kWh).
The fine print
These numbers are estimates. Real savings depend on your specific appliances, behaviour, and future energy prices. Rewiring Aotearoa disclaims liability for outcomes from the use of this tool, and so do we. Treat this as a starting point — not a quote.
The legal bit — these figures are estimates, not a quote. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Gulf Solar excludes all liability for any loss or damages arising from your use of this calculator or reliance on its outputs. The calculation method is adapted from Rewiring Aotearoa's open-source household model, published under GPL-3.0.
Types of Systems
Waiheke Essential
Designed for homes that want to start with solar now and keep the option open for battery storage later. A clean, simple solar package using quality panels, a battery-ready inverter, and proven Clenergy roof mounting.
Our balanced home solar and battery package. Suits many four-bedroom homes and gives the household meaningful evening energy storage without jumping straight to a full off-grid-style system.
Designed for larger island homes that want serious solar production, high battery capacity, and stronger backup capability. Well suited to homes with larger evening loads, pumps, air-conditioning, EV charging, or generator backup requirements.
For properties where the power system needs to be designed around the site, not pulled from a shelf. Includes off-grid homes, larger architectural builds, generator-backed systems, EV charging, pump systems, spas, workshops, and properties with high or unusual loads. Final design is completed after load assessment, roof review, switchboard inspection, and energy modelling.
Solar Inverters are the brains of your solar system, managing solar generation, house/load consumption, battery recharge/discharge whilst also exporting any surplus energy, all at the same time!
We partner with suppliers that offer a range of single phase, three phase, Grid-tied and Hybrid inverters from 3kW – 20kW.
Battery storage will maximise savings on your power bills and give you true energy independence. Lithium-ion batteries give you the power to store and use your energy in your home when and how you want.
All our batteries are modular and can scale to suit homes of any size.
“Eli was very communicative and came to our home to view and quote, then install a kitchen bench light, moving wiring from an old chandelier seamlessly to the new hanging fixture. He was clean and tidy and then went above and beyond.”
— Casey Radley
Ready to switch to solar?
Give us a call or drop your details and we'll get back to you within 24 hours.