Beyond Carbon Zero, Blog - carbon reduction

Can I trust my solar installer?

Aug 3, 2021 by Colin Gillam

Over 2.5 million Australian homes and businesses have solar panels and on the whole, most are working fine.

However, like many industries with government subsidies, there are businesses and individuals who want to “game” the system or take advantage of consumers who lack the knowledge to make a good choice.

So how do you avoid the “cowboys” and con-men to ensure you get a quality solar system at a fair market price?

Some basics.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is almost always a con.

You can’t get something for nothing and despite generous subsidies, you can’t get a free solar system. If you see “$0 upfront” the warning bells should ring as this is not free and is just a sales trick to get your attention. Run away!

These guys are not only doing it for free, but are then giving you $1,000. Good luck with that.

A 6.6kW solar system for under $4,000 installed is either using really cheap components or cheap labour to do the installation, usually both. That’s not a good combination and most of the fires caused by solar panels (not many but they have happened) are from these shoddy installations. Don’t go there.

Fully installed and free shipping from eBay. Not sure how that works.

To get a guide to what you should pay here is a table of current average prices in Australia for a good mid-range to higher quality solar system after rebates.

As you can see, a rough rule of thumb is that a solar system costs around $1,000/kW installed after rebates. A typical 6.6kW system from a reputable company is around $9,500 and after rebates ends up costing around $6,000-$7000. To use car analogies, if you want a Kia then you might pay $5,000, but if you want a BMW you might pay $7,000 and if you want a Rolls Royce you can pay well over $12,000.

These prices in part are based on component costs, but also the quality of the installer, how much care they take to make sure the system is installed to exceed current standards and their qualifications. Many “cheaper” installers subcontract work to unqualified labourers to do most of the work and they only use an electrician to check the connection to the switchboard and sign off the paperwork. But if you pay someone $20/hour instead of $60/hour, expect there to be a trade off in the safety and quality of the work.

Cheaper installers will also not care what the system looks like. Bits of cable and conduit running down your external walls at different angles are an eyesore to be avoided.

Other site specific issues adding to the cost include;

a tiled roof is more expensive than a tin roof,
2 or more storeys requires additional equipment and time,
partial shading requiring optimisers,
multiple roof directions requiring additional isolators and cable,
old switchboard needing upgrading or not enough room for additional breakers

These can really only be checked and costed during a pre-installation site inspection so this is why accepting a quote should only be done after this site visit and the additional items included in the quote.

How do you avoid a shonky deal?

Due your research and due diligence.

Check the installers or solar retailers website. How long has it been online? Does it have genuine photos of their installations or just stock photos stolen from someone else? Ask them about the photos and make sure they are genuinely their customers.

How long has the installer been in business and in the solar industry? Ask for some sort of tangible proof. While businesses and people do change jobs or industry, there should be some track record of what they have been doing. Check LinkedIn to see their history. Have they previously been in liquidation/receivership/banned from being a director? Many unscrupulous companies deliberately go out of business to avoid their obligations for warranty and customer support, so it’s important to see how they have performed in the past.

Check for reviews. Google reviews are usually a good place to start, BUT they can be faked sadly. Solar Quotes has a list of installers and reviews, but note that not everyone uses Solar Quotes as this is a paid service for installers and some don’t need to pay to get work. Just because they aren’t on Solar Quotes doesn’t mean they aren’t a great installer.

Check their memberships and affiliations with industry bodies. Generally all solar installers and retailers are members of the Clean Energy Council and/or the Smart Energy Council. While it’s easy enough to pay a membership fee, the Clean Energy Council has added another layer of consumer protection by offering an Approved Solar Retailer membership which has some quite significant checks on the solar business before being allowed to join. So if you see Approved Solar Retailer on the website it’s another tick for the business as they have to conform to much higher policies and business practices.

Ask around. Ask friends and family or Facebook groups for recommendations, but noting the human habit of not wanting to admit they made a mistake when listening to recommendations.

Make sure your quote is itemized with everything that is going to be installed so you don’t get nasty surprises in the final invoice. While many installers will use a variety of solar panel brands and most are interchangeable and of a similar quality, there are differences in warranties and performance so get the datasheet of the panels they are going to use and make sure you understand what is being installed. Inverters are a completely different matter and it is critical that the inverter quoted is installed. There are a lot of very cheap Chinese brands available and while generally they are okay, they are not built to the same standard or tolerances of the better brands and non-Chinese models. That said there are genuinely good Chinese inverters at a fair price as well as the European brands, so again this is something to check.

You don’t need to be an expert, but like with any large purchase, asking questions and being an educated consumer is always a good thing if you want to avoid problems in the future.

This might seem like a lot of time doing your homework, but given you are making a significant investment in your property or business and it is going to be there for 20+ years, it’s worth the time to get it right.

Finally, if you want to do your due diligence on us, give us a call or email for more information. We are more than happy to answer any questions.

Beyond Carbon Zero, Blog - carbon reduction

How much should I pay for a solar system?

Jun 25, 2021 by Colin Gillam

It depends!

While not the answer you want, there are just too many variables to give a simple answer. And comparing your quote to someone else’s isn’t helpful without knowing their exact circumstances and the equipment proposed.

This blog will give you some information that hopefully lets you make an informed decision.

A well designed and installed system should last more than 25 years and be an extremely reliable clean power source. Saving some dollars on the installation is very often a mistake that comes back to haunt buyers. When it stops working, you stop saving.

Some questions first.

Do you own your home and intend to stay there for the foreseeable future? If so then spend a bit extra and get a better quality system.

Is the solar for your business? With accelerated depreciation and potential reduction in demand charges as well as energy use, a cheap solar system pays for itself in 3-4 years, but a better quality one pays for itself in 4-5 years, As above, it depends how long you intend staying at the premises.

Do you want/need a battery for blackout protection? Then consider a multimode inverter even if you delay the battery purchase for now.

Are you going to buy an electric vehicle in the near future? Oversize the solar by as much as you can afford. Feed in tariffs have been going down, so putting any excess into a battery or EV is a smart move. Some EV’s have “bidirectional” battery charging capability that means you can effectively use the car battery in the event of a blackout.

Can you reduce your energy costs easily first? Do you need help reducing energy costs? If so see the link at the bottom of this blog.

The most expensive way to go solar is on the cheap.

There is a fair bit of truth in this. You would not expect a Chinese Great Wall Ute to perform as well, or last as long as a Toyota HiLux, or be the same price.

A cheap Chinese inverter (Sungrow, Goodwe, Solax) wholesale is $1100, a good mid-range (Huawei, ABB, Delta) is $1500 and European brands (Fronius, SolarEdge) $1900.

Most Chinese panels prices are within a few cents of each other (they are usually priced in cents per watt) but there are differences in quality. Acceptable, but slightly cheaper brands include Suntech, Seraphim, Yingli and Risen (costing less than 35 cents per watt). Mid-range brands include Jinko, Trina, Canadian (it’s made in China), JA Solar and Longi (35-40 cents per watt). Other brands (LG SunPower) can be twice the price ($1-1.40 per watt).

If you want Australian made, then Tindo can help but you are paying the same price as the LG or SunPower without the same reputation (90 cents to $1 per watt).

Note here that some of the more expensive brands offer a lower priced panel with their badge on, but similar quality to the mid-range panels. However, they still tend to be 20-50% higher priced for a similar product performance wise. Compare product and performance warranties as these give some indication about the manufacturer’s confidence in their product.

Tile versus Tin Roof makes a difference

To install properly on tile roofs takes even the best installer longer.

Tile roofs are a pain to work on as it’s very easy to break tiles, brackets for panels are more expensive, you have to grind tiles to make them sit flat so it’s more work and more expensive than a tin roof.

Getting up to a 2 storey roof requires a scissorlift and extra edge protection and will generally cost more unless the installer is trying to cut costs and potentially breach health and safety rules.

Even the cable and isolators can vary by 100% because there is cheap that says it meets standards and there is quality that installers will put their reputation behind.

Good initial design is very important for production yield and payback

Shadows at various times of the day require optimisers, $70 extra per panel plus installation. Do you want a good monitoring system so you can see consumption as well as generation (most inverters offer an app so you can see generation only but not consumption), minimum $160.

STC (Small-Scale Technology Certificates – green credits) discount is different in each zone and can be up to 50% more in Zone 1 than Zone 4. Prices also vary from day to day and brokers charge a fee, so when you see the spot price, that’s not necessarily the price the installer or retailer is paid.

Professional installers versus cowboys

If you had all the car parts from BMW factory to build a new car, and had the choice between an ex BMW engineer to put it together, or the garage round the corner who can do it for half the cost, which would you choose?

Do you want cheap labourers with no training doing most of the work and being signed off by someone who turns up just to say they attended the site? Or do you want an experienced installer who takes pride in their work and has been doing this for 10 years or more?

Don’t even get me started on preapprovals, variations and other potential costs. But as a guide, below is my checklist for every installation. It takes time and care to make sure things are done properly.

A good installer/designer will take account of all these things before doing a formal quote so they don’t underquote and then have to cut corners to make a profit.

So how much should a solar system cost?

It depends.

Your best bet is to get a few quotes from reputable companies and compare apples with apples then you will know if you are being ripped off or it’s a fair price. But always keep in mind you will usually get what you pay for, and the most expensive option long term is usually the cheapest price.

Feel free to contact us for more information on how going solar will benefit you.

If you’re not ready for solar just yet but want to save on your energy costs, we offer a free energy broking service and have saved our clients hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Click here for more details.

Tag: cheap solar