Should you have a solar power installer do an inspection at your home before quoting?

Choosing the right solar company is crucial when it comes to installing solar panels. There are many sales companies that pose as solar companies but only have a team of salesmen who sell you a system over the phone without even assessing your home. A reliable solar company will assess your home and inform you about the necessary steps to be taken before installing the solar system. This will help you to avoid future problems that may occur after the installation.

Before selecting a solar system, you need to consider three factors - the amount of roof space available, the amount of energy required and the budget. The system design is based on the roof structure, and it is essential to maximise the aspects and constraints of the system. Many people lack knowledge about solar systems, and it is crucial to educate them before making a decision. Therefore, it is important to have a solar expert guide you through the process and help you make an informed decision.

Yeah well, all installers aren't the same you know, you've got sales companies and you've got solar companies. There's a lot of companies out there that mask as a solar company, but they're really sales companies and they just have a team of salesmen. Some of them don't even come out on site and assess the home. They'll just do it all on the telephone and sell you a system that they want to sell you. The right solar company would be someone that would come out and assess the home, lift up the meter box let you know what's going to happen before it happens, because there's a lots of things that a lot of people don't even realise need to happen before the solar system's installed. And a lot of these people are getting bitten at the other end, when the solar system's in, the solar system's being paid, all of a sudden it's time to put the meter in and the meter company says, Well, we're not going to put the meter in because there's all these problems in your meter box. These are the things that we flag before the solar system is installed.

So when you go into it, you go into it with your eyes open and you know all of the pitfalls, and you know all of the problems that could occur. The right solar system for anyone depends on three things we say, how much roof space do you have? How much energy do you want to generate? And how much money do you want to spend on it? When we find the right balance on all of those we've got the right system for you. So a system design is all based around the roof. We've got tight roofs that we need to get a lot of solar panels on. So we need to make sure that we're maximising the aspects and the shade, and the constraints within the system that we're designing as well. Even now there's a massive gap in what people know, and there's a massive gap in what people need to know. We really need to educate them. And that's why it's really important to have someone sitting down with you at the table because if you're not being educated, you're being sold what someone else wants to sell you, not what you need.