When the calendar flips over to the new month next week, there’s an added warranty requirement for solar power and hot water systems installed under Victoria’s Solar Homes Program. [Read more…]

Learn how Australia’s solar panel rebate works and how to avoid heartache, headaches and hip pocket pain by recognising shonky ads. [Read more…]

Democracy sausages have been devoured, ballots cast and (mostly) counted, and the people have spoken. Discover what’s ahead for home electrification support in Australia under another round of Labor. [Read more…]

As an ex-pommie, compulsory voting still feels a bit odd to me.

Skip it and you’ll cop a $20 fine — more than it costs to fill your EV on off-peak electricity.

What’s really strange, though, isn’t the voting. It’s the energy policies on offer — and how little they match what the major parties claim to believe.

[Read more…]

While Labor banked on battery incentives, on the eve of the election the Coalition announced plans for cuts to a range of home electrification programs. Here’s what was facing the axe.

[Read more…]

For many years, the Clean Energy Council (CEC) has been the gatekeeper approving which solar products can connect to the grid in Australia. As an installer, I assure you many of my boots-on-the-roof colleagues are keen to remove that responsibility from the CEC. Strap in while I explain why.
[Read more…]

So you’d like to be an electrician? Here’s half your required reading…

Australia’s conservative electrical licencing laws mean there’s really not much a homeowner can DIY, beyond changing light globes or rewiring a ceramic fuse (if your switchboard hasn’t been upgraded since the the 1960s). Some people decry this as ‘the nanny state gone mad’, but I have to point out the law isn’t as silly as some of the wiring I’ve encountered. [Read more…]

JIS screws are invariably ruined by people who don’t know they exist.

Despite 15 years in solar, my experience as an apprentice isn’t as distant as you might think. [Read more…]

Pat Southwell is an Electrical Inspector, solar installer and electrician based in metropolitan Melbourne.

Picture this: Mike, a seasoned solar installer with over 15 years experience, is compelled to bin a perfectly functional solar system—inverter, panels and all—solely because of inflexible Australian Standards. [Read more…]

Save the trees? What about saving the solar panels? Dare I say it, I like trees even more than solar panels, and that’s a hell of a lot. But in a cruel twist of irony, it’s obvious they are not compatible bedfellows. [Read more…]