A little while back, SolarQuotes’ in-house installer Anthony Bennett wrote a solid post on a niche issue: whether power and data cables can run in the same conduit.
It was based on a video I recently made of a difficult EV charger install.
The YouTube comments under the installation video were enlightening.
Not about the technical issues encountered. About the culture of electrical trades in Australia.
Instead of discussion or curiosity, what turned up was the usual: point scoring, nitpicking, and dunking on an install crew who were clearly trying to do the right thing.
I’ve copped it too. I’m not a licensed electrician – I’m an electrical engineer with my head in the theory. For some people, that’s all they need to dismiss you. But like most of you reading this, I care about quality. I want to get it right. And I’ve spent a good chunk of my life trying to help others do the same.
Across the solar industry, in Facebook groups, forums, comment threads, we’ve developed this nasty habit of tearing each other down. Electricians bagging out engineers. Engineers talking down to sparkies. Electricians attacking each other over conduit runs, labelling choices, inverter spacing, or trench depth.
A Distraction From The Real Problem
And while all that noise plays out, the real problems go unchecked.
The dodgy operators? They’re not in the comments. They’re not posting photos or asking questions or trying to clarify compliance. They’re smashing out a gazillion installs a week for a sales company whose call centre sales team have never heard of AS/NZS 5139, and never will.
The people who do show up, who want to get it right, are the ones we should be encouraging. But too often, we turn on them instead.
And yep, I’ve done it too. I’ve been the guy quoting standards and picking apart an install photo. It feels like protecting quality, but sometimes it’s just flexing. I’ve learned the hard way: it helps no one.
We don’t need more ego. We need more trust, shared learning, and a bit of humility.
Solar and battery installs aren’t easy. They’re often full of nuance, compromise, and edge cases. If you’re doing residential work properly, planning, documenting1, checking, fixing, you’re already on the right side. TAFE, uni or school of life. On the tools or off.
Let’s Reform The Culture
So here’s the ask: build each other up. Speak to teach, not to tear down.
Because the real enemies of good solar aren’t in the comment thread.
They’re being dispatched by overseas call centres – rushing installs, cutting corners, and leaving customers with mess they’ll never see until it’s too late.
Let’s stop eating our own.
Footnotes
- OK, forget the documenting – I know almost no one leaves an SLD (Single Line Diagram
) with the customer these days ↩
About Finn Peacock
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This is a trend in every sphere of life now. I work in local government, and it’s a pile-on every second of every day, from beginning to end, non-stop complaint and abuse. My wife is a teacher and the same happens there, a continuous stream of bile and criticism and anger, from parents and children and politicians and community members.
What I like about Solar Quotes is that it found a way to introduce genuine expertise into this social media world. Of course nothing can be perfect, so you’ll cop it as well, but it was a way to at least try to meet the online tsunami of stupidity and bad faith anger with genuine knowledge and experience.
Hi Nick and Finn,
So true. It is human nature and it is getting worse, given the breakdown of comminity and society. We have forgotten the commands of Christ , including ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’.
Hi Matthew,
I think the wold might be in a lot better position if the religious types were more adherent than bigoted.
No Anthony, It isn’t the religious types who are spewing the bile and cutting people down.
I am speaking as a person who spends one day a week in church and six days a week with people who aren’t.
I thought the article above was about bringing a better culture to the conversation?
Hi Cameron,
Sorry if I’ve come across badly but what I’m trying to say is an adherent would follow the teachings that said love thy neighbour and turn the other cheek, like my Mum.
Whereas a bigot will actively campaign against gay marriage or voluntary assisted dying in an effort to impose their beliefs on everyone.
Religious types like Tony Abbott claimed to be a good moral leader while offering character references for a paedophile. Morrison goes and flails about in church while inventing and then inflicting Robodebt on the poor. The catholics have spent decades, and millions, on denying responsibility for the abusers they actively harboured. That sort of thing needs to be called out.
Perhaps it’s just the apartheid ethnostate that’s starving children in Gaza, and sheileding itself with claims of religious persecution, which I find truly disgusting.
Bigots who deny others humanity, but take advantage of polite society deference to religion, they can get in the bin.
Totally agree Finn,
Negativity is unfortunately all ove the internet.
Keyboard warriors are quick to put down others.
Why can’t people be positive, supportive and nice?
feel it’s I, me, I’m worth it mentality.
feel it’s I can have it now if I want, all I need is a credit card or after pay type credit. Translates into I can do/have/say whatever I want now.
feel it’s a bit if our governance is displaying elements of self interest and lawlessness, we all do.
feel big American tech companies with hours of self-help reading to resolve the companies issues. No-reply emails, no to very hard to find human contact makes for a hostile customer.
feel our media is only concerned in sensationalism. After decades of it, it has to surface somewhere in culture.
feel we all feel our tax, royalties, big company profit ratios are out of sync.
We are more affluent and healthier than ever. But work longer for less, socialize more but in less personable way, are more time poor than ever though we have time saving technologies and regulation all around us. Think we have less freedom than ever though we have more than ever, its just who controls it.
If we want to shift the tone in the solar industry, that change has to start with the loudest voices.
You a solid point about the harm caused by nitpicking and takedowns — but let’s be real: some of the biggest platforms helped shape that culture. Reviews from places like SolarQuotes and MC Electrical have often blurred the line between critique and ridicule, with a tone that sometimes feels more like rage bait than helpful analysis.
Absolutely, transparency matters. And yes, some products deserve scrutiny. But when the tone becomes about provoking rather than informing, it undermines trust — not just in brands, but in the industry as a whole.
If we’re serious about lifting the standard and moving forward, we need to reflect not just on what’s being said — but how, and why.
Well said Finn
Well said Finn.
We do need good installation QUALITY which includes good paperwork – including a Single Line Diagram (SLD) to show the next electrician who looks at the Switchboard/installation what is actually there.
With two incoming supplies and a changeover system, ie the Grid and Inverter from Solar Panels or battery, there in a major affect on complexity and therefore safety (possible electrocution) and much easier for the electrician or whoever is fiddling with the installation, getting caught out.
The way the Contractor AND Inspector left my installation was disgraceful and I had to arrange to get it made safe!
As an electrical engineer, I was the one who drew up the SLD so that I AND anyone else could check out he installation SAFELY!
Agreed Lynne. Diagrams and documentation help the home owner and the next electrician who comes along. The installer should be responsible for leaving us with the most up to date system diagram.
Finn, thank you, I appreciate sensible informative comment on installations but not dumb criticism which doesn’t always present a solution to a (potential) problem.
Fair comment Finn
Yep..spot on Finn
Totally agree. We nit pick over the ‘visuals’ on otherwise high quality installations whilst the contacted cowboys using a team of backpackers paid drinking money, working for the version 2.0 “true value and euro solar” phoenix operators, are laughing at the good guys nit picking on social media!
I think there has to be some balance. Bad practices that are either dangerous or lead to shortened life of installed products should be called out.
The balance of course is not to leave there, but to show examples of great installations and how it should be done.
There plenty of installations that, largely because of margins, are done in a rushed way, for example poor conduit runs where corro is overused.
But there is plenty of nit picking. This unnecessary and distracts from real issues.
Right on the money Finn!
As others have mentioned it seems to be the new normal.
Constructive criticism is one thing, but it goes waaay past that in so many areas. And of course I’m not just talking about solar and batteries etc- it’s really everywhere these days. Sad!