When Nobody Designs Anything Anymore

This post is about a choice most people do not realise they are making.

• You can buy a solar battery system from a catalogue.
• Or you can have one designed.

Speak To An Expert

A lot of people avoid conversations with installers or salespeople because they are scared of being sold to. Fair enough. The industry has earned that distrust. Too many bad actors and shiny promises. So people skip the chat and go straight to forums instead. One question, a couple of genuinely useful answers hidden in dozens wrong ones floating in a sea of side conversations, distractions and petty gripes.

Avoiding the conversation with a professional does not protect you, it just pushes you into a mire of confusion and second-guessing.

I’m not asking you to spend hours with a pushy salesman. I’m asking you to consider spending ten minutes talking to someone (ideally IRL!) who knows what questions to ask and why they matter.

A competent installer or sales person will not just ask how much energy use on an average day. They’ll show you how to see how much electricity you use every hour, so they can get the ratio of solar to battery right.

Your Future Plans Matter

The best ones will ask how things might change in the future. EVs. Heat pumps. Renos. Retirement. Working from home. This stuff matters.

They will also ask what you want from the solar and battery.

• Do you want to generate enough solar yourself, or are you happy to rely on a ‘3 free’ plan to top up?
• Do you just want to power your home, hardly touching the grid?
• Or do you want sell back to the grid when prices spike too?

The answer to those 3 questions completely change what your system should look like.

Then come the basics that can add or subtract thousands from your quote:

• What does your switchboard look like?
• Where will the battery go?
• Do you want backup, and which circuits?

None of that is upselling, it’s competence.

Catalogue Shopping Is Not The Answer

The alternative to having a conversation, is to just pick a system from an retailer’s catalogue – Budget or Premium? Small, Medium or Large? – get an official quote by email, upload it to Facebook. No usage data beyond “I average 25 kWh per day”. No mention of how you intend to use the system. No switchboard context. No tariff info. No backup goals.

Just a spec sheet and a price, waiting for permission from strangers you’ll never meet to buy this sophisticated high current energy system subsidised by thousands of tax payer dollars. The same strangers you’ll be asking to rate your install, tell you why your backup isn’t working, and why your monitoring looks weird.

You need a solar and battery that fits how your home uses energy now, how it might use it later, and has the features you need. Installed, tested configured and backed by a local team who will be there for you when you need them.

That starts with choosing a great local installer and having a short, informed face-to-face conversation in the spot you hope to place the battery. Not buying from a catalogue and asking Facebook for permission afterwards.

Phase Shift is a weekly opinion column by SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock. Subscribe to SolarQuotes’ free newsletter to get it emailed to your inbox each week along with our other home electrification coverage.