For over a decade, SolarQuotes readers have been giving feedback by submitting reviews on solar-related products and services, including installers. This post will look at the top 5 solar installers from Sydney, based on customer ratings.
How We Did It
The most recent survey has been determined by looking at companies in Sydney with at least 15 reviews over the last 3 years and finding those with the highest average scores. Note that the results are based on customer reviews1 of any solar company, regardless of whether or not they’re in the SolarQuotes network.
Top 5 Sydney Solar Installers
The winners this year are…
Better Call Solar
Average rating of 5 from 41 reviews.
Perfect Solar Power Pty Ltd
Average rating of 4.99 from 25 reviews.
Solar Concepts
Average rating of 4.95 from 38 reviews.
Empire Solar Systems Pty Ltd
Average rating of 4.95 from 86 reviews.
Roland Lawrence Electrical
Average rating of 4.95 from 26 reviews.
What Makes A Top 5 Installer?
There are a myriad things a solar company has to be on top of to stay relevant in a very competitive Sydney market. But at the end of the day, customer focus and communication are the standout themes by customers leaving reviews. However, being a nice guy on its own won’t cut though, as it’ has to be backed up with knowledge, professionalism, and quality workmanship.
Reviews
As well as leaving details and a description of their installation, reviewers are asked to rate the following categories out of 5 stars:
- Value For Money
- Quality Of System
- Installation
- Customer Service
Here are some reviews of companies that made the cut.
Better Call Solar review by Paul:
“I had a very good experience dealing with Better Call Solar. From sales to install to post-install it has been fantastic. The WhatsApp group is an absolute game changer in terms of communication. The process was clear from the onset, all my questions were answered in little to no time and all personnel I dealt with were extremely pleasant and informative. It’s now approximately 8 weeks post install and I’m already reaping the rewards whereby my first MONTHLY bill is $197 in credit. The panels will pay for themselves in no time. I can’t recommend Better Call Solar enough.”
Perfect Solar Power review by Cassandra:
“The team at Perfect Solar Power are very professional. Quotes were well explained and plenty of time spent by Elliott to work out our needs. The team turned up on time and installed our panels and system efficiently and neatly in what is a tricky roof and very limited access. Tom and his workers were so polite and took the time to explain everything.”
Solar Concepts review by Ross:
“From the very beginning, Ben and his team were amazing. Ben took the time to answer the questions we had while reviewing a system and ensured we did not buy things we didn’t need, and waited for us for a few months while we put the project on temporary hold. Once booked installation was swift and professional, and Ben and his team took care of everything for us. A great experience and very highly recommended.”
Empire Solar Systems Pty Ltd review by Jonathon:
Jonathon left a review in April 2022 and 10 months later we asked how the installation was performing. Here’s the original review.
“The quoting process was easy and because I had done my research (thanks SolarQuotes and Whirlpool) we were able to have an informed discussion about options and come up with a solution that suited our house and our budget. The installation by the company owners was neat, tidy and surprisingly quick. They were very professional and have orgainised the change to a smart meter that we require.”
10 months later we asked Jonathon: “Are you happy with the performance of your system so far?”
“The 7.7kW system we have works well for our family of 5. Even when we are running the 20-year-old ducted air conditioning to cool the whole house we are not purchasing electricity during daylight hours. We run the dishwasher and washing machine in the mornings once the solar has kicked in but unfortunately we can’t load shift the cooking of dinner into the good production time of the day as turning on the oven is really noticeable in the usage patterns. For the Dec 22/Jan23 30 billing period we paid $12 for electricity when our internal consumption suggests we would have paid $243 if we had to purchase all of it. We are very happy.”
Roland Lawrence Electrical review by Edmund:
“RLE are very focused on listening to customer needs and will take a lot of time to talk through different options in an open-minded way. Didn’t feel at any stage like they were trying to force a particular solution. Upfront about the relatively higher price than competitors and justified the additional expense with the excellence of customer service and aftercare. Install of a 6.6 KW system was done in a single day, within 2 weeks of signing off on quote. Solar Analytics package well worthwhile.”
A Word From One Of The Sydney Winners
I spoke with Better Call Solar founder Rhys Winn about his win. He’s come up with a formula that’s a win-win for his company and customers. One of my questions was, “What are the things a solar company needs to do to stay relevant in this competitive industry?”
“Often more than just installing a solar system! Installing a high-quality solar system with good components will only get you so far. Obviously, the workmanship also has to be top-notch, but I believe that’s only half the equation.
Where our clients find the most quantifiable value is post-install account management. The two main pillars of this service are consumption data management through Solar Analytics, along with tariff rate analysis.
All clients have access to a personal account manager who executes a concrete process we have in place – specifically conducting a Solar Analytics assessment every 90 days on the client’s consumption/solar production, and also sighting their energy bills.
The account manager will remain in regular communication with the client and give suggestions on how to increase their financial benefit. Usually, this involves changing their retailer to make sure they are leveraging the market as much as possible. Said changes are based on the data Solar Analytics provides.”
Rhys believes this service differentiates his company from others in Sydney also doing high-quality solar installs. He says referral business is the focus with every client, and going the extra mile certainly brings customer loyalty.
Bottom Rated Sydney Solar Installers
Originally, we had planned to also feature the bottom 5 solar companies in Sydney, based on reviews from the SolarQuotes website, in addition to the top 5. However, we have since decided to keep this post positive.
We encourage you to dig a bit deeper using our installer reviews database, particularly for companies you may be considering or have heard about. This is especially relevant if you are new to rooftop solar. Make sure to pay attention not only to star ratings, but also to customer feedback.
How To Use Online Reviews To Filter Sydney Installers
Here’s a handy reference for comparing Sydney solar providers based on their star ratings:
- If the installer has any one, two, or three-star ratings, examine them carefully and look for trends. Every business will sometimes drop the ball – no-one’s perfect. What is important is how they set things right when things go wrong.
- Click ‘View Timeline’ to discover if they’ve improved or not over time.
- To see their score in context, go to ‘Australia Wide Ranking’.
For example, on the surface, an average score of 4.3 might sound quite good. But it is in the bottom 30% of all installers reviewed on SolarQuotes who have at least 25 ratings:
Always Check Multiple Reviews Sites
Some companies may try to trick certain review sites, which is an ongoing problem. If they are successful, they can have a good-looking score on one site that they use to market themselves, and a bad score on other sites.
At SolarQuotes, we have systems and checks in place that make it very hard to “game” reviews. But we still suggest checking out reviews on more than one site to see if the scores are the same. A reasonable difference is 0.2 stars.2
More Reviews
To ensure impartiality, we’ve included the ratings from SolarQuotes, Google, and ProductReview for all companies. It’s worth mentioning that our analysis of SolarQuotes reviews considers only those from the past three years, whereas Google and Product Review ratings take into account all reviews.
Moreover, we assess solar companies based on four categories – Value for Money, Quality of System, Installation, and Customer Service – by asking reviewers to rate each category out of five stars. In contrast, ProductReview and Google reviews only require reviewers to provide an overall rating out of five stars.
Better Call Solar
Average rating of 5 from 41 reviews.
Google – Average rating of 5 from 141 reviews.
ProductReview – 0 reviews.
Perfect Solar Power Pty Ltd
Average rating of 4.99 from 25 reviews.
Google – Average rating of 5 from 37 reviews.
ProductReview – 0 reviews.
Solar Concepts
Average rating of 4.95 from 38 reviews.
Google – Average rating of 5 from 3 reviews.
ProductReview – 0 reviews.
Empire Solar Systems Pty Ltd
Average rating of 4.95 from 86 reviews.
Google – Average rating of 5 from 39 reviews.
ProductReview – 0 reviews.
Roland Lawrence Electrical
Average rating of 4.95 from 26 reviews.
Google – Average rating of 5 from 36 reviews.
ProductReview – 0 reviews.
And again, thank you to everyone who kindly (or not kindly) left reviews for Sydney installers. If you’d to tell us about your solar installation experience, please do. More Australian capital city “Top Rated Installers” are on the way soon.
TIP: Getting quotes from great solar installers in Sydney (or anywhere else) through SolarQuotes is a good way to avoid confusion and save time on research. With SQ’s unique Good Installer Guarantee, it’s the worry-free way to go solar.
Footnotes
- For a more detailed analysis of how SolarQuotes review rankings are calculated, go here. ↩
- Scroll down to the bottom of any SolarQuotes page to see how we scored on different review sites. ↩
About Kim Wainwright
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I really don’t like this series of blog posts. By reading this you would assume your best bet is to pick one of these installers and you’ll be okay. 41 Reviews and a 2020 business start date is a significant risk compared to other options out there in Sydney. 2nd on the list is worse still, with 21 reviews, a 2019 start of business date, and a place of operation address that’s nothing more than a single office room. I understand the point of the post is to show top ratings by reviews, but a simple fix would be requiring a minimum sample size to qualify, as this data at this size is meaningless to me, and it shows via some quick company background checks.
Ben,
I agree that some consumers want to filter solar companies by longevity. That’s why our review pages show the ABN/ACN start date for all companies in the SQ network.
These posts summarise review data. We chose the numbers so that good sole-traders and smaller companies get visibility as well as the bigger companies. There is no right number.
The consumer is smart; they can – and do filter for the things that are important to them. We simply try and be transparent about all that – hence the effort we’ve put into up-to-date and important info on the reviews pages and the effort we put into review integrity.
Hi Finn,
Agree completely, the data you guys transparently show is amazing and really helps consumers make informed choices. However due to your reputation and trust, my problem is some consumers will look at this series of articles and assume these are the top 5 Sydney installers. They might finish their research there and be done with it. That is, a 4.99 average review rating of a sample size of 25 reviews beats out a 4.94 average review rating of a sample size of 400. The calculation you are using to measure “top installers” in this blog grabs only the average rating and ignores the quantity, which is significantly important. Again, I understand the information exists elsewhere on your site to improve this data, and we have the ability to filter accordingly. It would just have been nice, and important, that this said data was used in consideration for the ratings of these blog posts.
Hi Ben,
My names Rhys, I’m the guy quoted in this article. Firstly, I completely understand the natural reflex to feel a business in its infancy phase presents ‘significant risk compared to others’. That notion isn’t a foreign concept to any industry, just more magnified in the Solar game given the prevalence of bottom-feeders and phoenix operations. Thankfully, impartial pages like SQ exist which guides the uninformed consumer in the right direction most of the time.
However, to publicly suggest Better Call Solar isn’t the ‘best pick’ based on surface research is upsetting. As above, there’s probable cause to be skeptical of relatively new businesses, but most of this concern is based on one’s suspicion of said businesses long-term financial longevity – as in ‘how do I know you’re going to be around to help me if I have a problem’. I can’t speak for all new businesses, but at least in our case, this isn’t forecast to be an issue as we are not a low margin/high volume operation.
Finally, there’s reasons not mentioned in this article as to why we’re rated #1 and I’m more than happy for you to call me anytime on 0402342514 to further better your understanding in this regard.
Regardless, thank you for your feedback.
if my Nan living in NSW asked for assistance on choosing which company to proceed with, I can tell you confidently I would throw out some names on this list nearly instantly – hence my problem to begin with regarding the article. Surface research in solar generally makes all companies look good, so if my surface research is already coming up poor, or perhaps “not good enough,” that’s a good sign to look elsewhere.
I can appreciate you looking our for your Nan man, there’s alot of snakes out there that sadly prey on the elder demographic. Please though, don’t throw our name out! Maybe one day she’ll end up leaving us a nice review.
As someone who’s been deeply embedded in the industry for a few years now, yes I agree that surface information can make or break ones vetting process. Such information is certainly not hard to find if you know where to look (ie Reviews). It sickens me that Crap Solar still exists when the contrary is so readily accessible.
However, time of business operation is not the only discernible metric when it comes to choosing the appropriate supplier. Just because someone’s been around for a long time doesn’t mean they’re the best person for the job.
Instead, what you should be looking for when it comes to people like your Nan are the following factors:
1) General vibe – is someone salesy (commission breath) or transparent and calm.
2) Are they willing to provide local references – businesses will talk about being King Shit at any opportunity, but to hear it from others who’ve experienced their service is way more powerful.
3) What kind of pre/post install processes are in-place and can those processes be quantified – things that go beyond the bare minimum of the whole design/quote/sell/install/invoice motions.
Aside from non-negotiable things like product/install quality, the above 3 are what you should be looking out for. Also be conscious of buzz words like ‘Tier 1/Interest Free/Hot Offer etc’. In my experience, when those kind of terms arise (pun intended) it’s indicative of a poor experience to follow.