The arithmetic nobody finishes
Your panels only make real power for about five strong hours a day. Your business pays for twenty-four.
5 strong sun hours ÷ 24 paid hours ≈ 20%.
That is the whole story in one line. If your operation runs from early morning into the evening — a restaurant, a hotel, a factory shift, a cold store that never sleeps — solar panels alone can only ever touch the daytime slice of your bill.
To be fair to the panels: a purely daytime operation — an office that empties at 5pm, a school — does better than 20%. A 24-hour operation does worse. The point is not that solar is bad. It is that solar alone is incomplete.
Three leaks in the solar-only plan
- The sun clocks off before you do. Evenings and nights are bought from the grid at full price, same as before.
- Exporting pays badly. Surplus sent to the grid is credited at the generation rate — roughly half, or less, of the retail rate you pay coming the other way. Sell low, buy high.
- Your demand charge doesn't care about panels. For commercial accounts, a big slice of the bill is set by your single worst 15-minute peak — which usually lands when panels are weak or asleep. Here's how that rule works.
What fixes the other 80%
Two moves, and they work as a pair:
1. Store the midday surplus. A battery turns your cheap daytime power into evening power. Stored power is worth about double exported power, and a battery timed to your peak also cuts the demand charge directly. That is what iVOLT systems are designed around — self-consumption first, zero-export by default.
2. Move your biggest loads into the sunshine. Heating water is one of the largest costs in most Philippine businesses. A heat pump turns ₱1 of electricity into about ₱4 of heat — and if it runs at midday on your own solar, that heat is nearly free. Store it in a thermal battery and your evening hot water was made by the lunchtime sun.
The result, honestly stated: solar + storage + a heat pump typically takes 50–65% off the whole bill — against the roughly 20% solar manages alone. The exact number depends on your loads, which is why we measure first.
Who we are
Karnot Energy Solutions Inc. is a Philippine energy company in Mapandan, Pangasinan. We build natural-refrigerant heat pumps, thermal batteries and solar + storage systems for homes and businesses in the Philippines, the UK, the US and Canada. We don't sell panels for a living — we sell the missing piece that makes your solar work.
Questions we get asked
Does solar alone cover my whole electricity bill?
Almost never. Panels generate for roughly five strong hours a day, so a business running morning to night typically sees solar cover only around 20% of its bill — less for 24-hour operations, more if your load is concentrated in daytime.
Why is my bill still high after installing solar?
Three reasons: the panels make nothing in the evening; exported surplus is credited at roughly half (or less) of the retail rate; and the demand charge — set by your worst 15-minute peak — is untouched by panels alone.
What actually fixes the other 80%?
A battery, so daytime power covers your evening; and moving your biggest thermal loads onto a daytime heat pump with thermal storage. Together they typically reach 50–65% off the whole bill.
Is exporting my surplus worth it?
It earns something, but not much — roughly half (or less) of what you pay for imported power. Storing and using your own power is worth about double.
Find out what your roof could really do
One free site survey. We log your actual loads and show you the honest number — solar, storage, heat pump, the lot. No upfront cost options: you pay monthly, less than your bill today.
Book a free site surveyRelated reading: Solar-only vs solar + storage, compared properly · Solar batteries in the Philippines · Commercial solar + storage