Often homeowners believe shopping around for the same brand panel and comparing prices between solar companies and who will give them the best price. THIS IS WRONG!

Comparing solar companies like your comparing one fridge price to another is no way to make a decision. Yet thousands of Australians choose this way every day. Allow us to explain why this is a bad idea.

First, lets go back to the fridge analogy. When you shop around for a fridge, eventually you narrow down you hunting to a particular make and model. Then you just call around getting the best price from one retailer to another.

The reason why you shouldn’t do this with solar is the installation process can make the biggest difference as to whether your solar system is quality or not. If you think you’re getting a top quality install for the lowest online advertised price, think again.

News.com.au stated one of the big problems with the solar scheme is that despite guidelines and accreditation like CEC accreditation; dodgy panels are coming in from overseas disguised as approved products, leading to potential fires and electrocution risks. It estimates that 25% of systems have serious, potential life-threatening faults.

Bad solar companies are selling cheap so-called ‘tier one’ panels (there is no such thing), low-cost inverters and have a lack of installation expertise.

According to LG energy, there are two issues with warranty claims.

First, under stringent Australian Company Law (ACL) warranty rules the installer you buy from is liable to fix it. If they are not in business, at best you may be able to get some parts warranty if you can track it back to the manufacturer, but labour to fix it will be at your cost. In any case the pedigree of the parts may be suspect including directly imported low-efficiency panels and inverters, many sold to you as brand names.

Shoddy systems often only lasting a few years instead of the ‘performance’ warranty of 25 years.

Second, when a cheaper panel or an inverter fails inside the warranty period often it is not an isolated issue. Faced with replacing thousands of dodgy panels or inverters it is easier for those 700+ dodgy solar installers shut the doors. Or reopen as a new (phoenix) company.

What You Don’t Know

Most customers are not aware that they don’t claim the rebate, the installer collects the rebate upon installation and it cannot be clawed back when a system fails. In other words, when that cheap solar company disappears, they get to keep the rebate money. And you keep the bad solar system.

So in summary, if you want the lowest price installer messing with your meter box and causing leaks in your roof, then go ahead. But don’t contact us for the bottom of the barrel pricing.