Every now and then, someone pops up on Facebook with a gripe:
“SolarQuotes lets installers in their network who work from home!!! 🤬”
Apparently, not having a warehouse means you’re not a ‘real’ business. Or worse, a fly-by-night operator waiting to disappear the moment the inverter fails.
I get the concern. For a while, we rejected any installer without commercial premises. If you didn’t have a warehouse, you didn’t make the cut.
But over time, we realised our approach was too simplistic.
Lean And Local
Some of the best local solar installers – who take pride in their work, provide real after-sales support, and build strong reputations – start out working from home (usually after years on the tools for someone else).
And some choose to stay working out of their garage. Not because they’re dodgy, but because they’re focused on their long game: a sustainable, small local business with low overheads.
Small-scale residential solar is about good system design, understanding the standards, tidy installs, clear communication, and helping when something goes wrong. None of that requires a warehouse, not when your local solar distributor already has one.
In fact, starting from home can make an installer more financially resilient in the early years. Leaner overheads can free up margin—to invest in better gear, take the time to do things properly, and weather slow months—all important in a volatile industry like solar.
We’ve seen it again and again: sole traders who start small, do things right, and grow into brilliant, medium-sized traditional solar businesses with a warehouse, admin team, and in-house installers.
That makes me happier than almost anything else in this business.
The SolarQuotes team regularly have work-from-home days mixed with time in the office, including resident fact-checking guru Ronald Brakels, pictured above (Ronald is the hairy one).
No Compromise On Standards
Of course, we still vet every installer thoroughly, and we still welcome great medium- to large-sized companies.
And our standards haven’t dropped, they’ve got stricter. We care about installation quality, responsiveness, customer service, licensing, and how they treat people. Whether they work from a garage or a warehouse, the bar is high.
The SolarQuotes model doesn’t pick a winner. When we can, we’ll get you quotes from smaller and mid-sized businesses. And from larger ones, when they do things right. You can compare quotes, check reviews, and choose what works for you.1
What matters isn’t where a business operates from. It’s whether they show up, do the job well, and stand by their work.
That’s what we look for.
And that’s what Facebook commenters should care about too.
For more on the vetting process SolarQuotes uses to choose which installers we recommend, read our explainer.
Footnotes
- Now, I won’t pretend we’re perfect. We’ve built tight feedback loops, but for those to work, some of that feedback has to be negative. That’s why we stand behind our Good Installer Guarantee. If something goes wrong – and occasionally it will – we don’t look away. We help fix it. ↩
About Finn Peacock
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Finn, you are on the money about smart smaller operators as they are often far more tech say than the run of the mill employee from a larger company.
That said our experience was that we had a system I stalled by a larger company in 2015 and they were never able to get the Enphase monitoring system to work.
We did find a local small installer who resolved the issue. We went on to use him several times over the next few years and then suddenly he was gone as he got an offer too good to refuse from a minesite.
We relied on him and now find we have limited documentation for the system regarding setup information and a couple of years on after a lightning strike did minor damage we found it very difficult to get anyone to work on what they considered an orphan system.
Maybe there is a need for smaller operators to provide owners with technical information about any systems they install if they go out of business?
I do also acknowledge that larger companies can also go out of business.
Our “larger installer”, well actually just a reseller that has zero employed staff able to help with anything more than basic questions, just sent me to Fronius and BYD for help. Not even proper shut down procedures supplied.
The first installer sub contractor they used actually told me the battery could only supply the house at night if a contactor installed, switched off the grid.
That would have left us not able to power our AC at night if it had been true. Bit distressing until I researched it myself and realized he had limited understanding of what he was doing. That was further reinforced when the Fronius power meter had to be rewired by another subcontractor. So larger company fail. Would definitely have been better off dealing with the second subcontractor directly.
I would not instal anything that does not have reliable online support and being a sole trader would not be a tick in the minus column when assessing quotes.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, I need to check something. Both live animals in the photo are hairy so which one is actually Ronald. Or, in this day and age of quantum theory, is he in two states at once and therefore Quantum Ronald? Perhaps the evidence from his “be everywhere, know everything” state is evidence of that?
Secondly, but of less importance of course, I agree with your support for good installers, or practitioners in other fields, being able to work from home and deliver quality work. Through my own business experience, my time as a buyer-in of large and small commercial services and recent experience as an owner builder/developer I have had good service from both larger and individual suppliers. And vice versa.
But this is clear to me – the issues about overheads and staffing, particularly in the earlier days of the business growth cycle, can make a big difference to the viability of a growing business. And some people just don’t want the complications.
I chose a big, motorist club owned solar installer who is rated highly by this site.
I regret it. Should have gone with a small one man band and built a relationship.
Mine subcontracted out the install. This ended up with a 1 month outage because installernscrewed racking down on top of a cable and crushed it. Fortunately it was only a comms cable for optimisers not high voltage dc. Grossly incompetent and unprofessional. Took a month of f a ING around to find the problem.
This wasnt only problem.
Now retailer won’t take calls. I want to upgrade battery and solar panel system. Should I stick with original retailer for obvious reasons about warranty, blame if system fails or get someone else? Am between rock and hard place with that one.
Get someone local who takes pride in their work, same for any trade.
That looks like Ronald is in a maximum security institution, with a full time guard staying close to him, to ensure he doesn’t escape.
🙂
Regarding the F***book trolls – isn’t that the objective of F***book? Wasn’t that set up to denigrate females who would not let the founder have his way with them? F***book is simply an online malevolency.
I would be very happy to deal directly with a sole trader, all the normal due diligence of course. (Don’t forget you still need to do that even if you use Solar Quotes.) I am sure the outcome of our installation would have been a far more positive experience if I had done so.
What people should be more concerned about is poorly managed companies that do not appear to employ a single qualified installer and rely on a roundabout of subcontractors, some of whom have limited technical knowledge or skills. Our instal started in 2023 and is still not complete, courtesy of such a “vetted” company.
Matthew,
Who are you having trouble with? We are happy to help.
Finn
Talk to Ned. I assume he is still on staff? Not sure if he ever spoke to them. Not a company you should continue refer customers to from my experience. Review coming once all complete.
At this point I am dealing with another subcontractor directly who has a good level of technical knowledge. I am confident he will return to make some changes to the back up circuits and place correct install and shut down instructions.
Even Fronius could not manage correct instructions for an install with a BYD HVM battery installed.
Spot on with your comments re installers working from home. I purchased a work from home business and eventually moved into commercial premises due to consistent growth. Moved 5 times in 30 years. Competed well against the multi nationals and enjoyed a great reputation.
Glenn Tanner.
When I was looking for an installer in 2019, I had three different companies come by with estimates. The one company I ended up using was NOT the least or most expensive. He was though, a one man show. He did not drive up in a new Mercedes as the man who gave the most expensive quote did, but the truck he used to do the work. He answered every question I had and used pictures where clarification was needed. He showed me photos of the jobs he’d done over the years, and informed me that he’d be around many years and would be available to help with any issue I encountered. Here’s where it gets interesting. I had agreed to buy a system that would cost $28 k with tax. He called me up with “an offer you can’t refuse” to coin a phrase. He was able to procure a 10 kw array that was installed just over two years before and had to be removed. He saved me $10,000! That is over and above what is expected by any company, let alone a single person company.