About My Solar Reviews
One of the best ways to learn about a product or service aside from a company’s own blurbs (that are of course very biased) is to read reviews.
Here on SolarQuotes, I’ve been collecting feedback from Australian solar owners for over a decade, and during that time amassed the largest solar reviews database in Australia, if not the world.
Collectively, SolarQuotes has more than 83,000 Australian customer ratings and reviews of solar panels, inverters, batteries, installers and EV chargers. These pages are a very valuable resource for anyone considering electrifying their home.
How Are The Ratings And Reviews Collected?
We publish all reviews without fear or favour – the positive, the negative and the indifferent. However, I take very special care to ensure whatever is published is genuine.
While I understandably can’t reveal all our screening methods, every single review submitted not only comes under automated scrutiny, but is also human-reviewed. And that human is “Ninja Ned”. Smart, stealthy, nimble and lethal; Ned sniffs out any questionable reviews, investigates thoroughly and if proven to be non-genuine, deletes with extreme prejudice.
How Ranking Lists Are Calculated
The top panel, battery and inverter brand rankings displayed on our solar reviews home page are based on the average star-rating score of all reviews over the last 6 months for each brand with 15 or more reviews.
On panel and inverter review home pages – in instances where rankings lists are displayed – rankings are based on the average of overall/all-time star-ratings, where 15 or more reviews exist.
On the battery review home page, when sorted by Average Score, rankings are based on the average of ratings for brands, where 5 or more reviews exist. This is to be able to show a full top 10, while we continue to collect battery reviews.
Similarly, our top 10 sorted by Average Score on the EV charger review home page is based on the average of ratings for brands, with at least 1 review.
For installer rankings, I only show rankings of installers participating in the SolarQuotes network. Methodology for calculating installer rankings is explained in detail here.
I Don’t Bow To Cranky Companies (Or Their Lawyers)
No company likes to see bad reviews. Some use genuine negative feedback as a way to improve. Unfortunately, at times others put pressure on me to have those reviews removed. Unless there is *very* good reason to do so, this simply doesn’t happen – even under threat from or of lawyers. Check out our legal threats policy.
I also don’t tolerate companies leaning on Australians who have left authentic negative reviews (which thankfully rarely happens) to get them to change or remove their feedback. I will go into bat for those people and alert the relevant authorities – as this isn’t just unethical, it’s illegal.
How Are Incentivised Reviews Handled?
Australian businesses are permitted to offer incentives for reviews, and some choose to. But these incentive offers must comply with Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) guidelines, in accordance with the Competition and Consumer Act (2010).
At SolarQuotes, we help to educate pre-vetted installers within our network on these guidelines. But we list thousands of other installers as well; many of whom aren’t part of the SQ network. There are also our hardware reviews sections – panels, batteries, inverters and EV chargers.
For many years, SolarQuotes didn’t accept incentivised reviews. In more recent years, we changed our stance given such reviews are acceptable if within the ACCC’s guidelines.
Then in April 2022, as part of a review submission process update, we began asking reviewers to indicate if the companies they are commenting on have offered any type of reward for submitting a review.
On the submission form we also note while the ACCC has said incentives can be OK, what’s not OK is only incentivising good reviews – and we provide a link (as above) to further information from the ACCC on related rules. We encourage further contact if the reviewer has any questions about this.
For reviews that have been identified as incentivised by the submitter, a white $ symbol in an orange box appears at the top right of each review to act as a flag.
Choose Your Section
- Solar installers – hands-down Australia’s most extensive database of installer reviews. 83,000+ uncensored reviews of more than 2,800 solar installation companies across this great nation.
- Solar panels – reviews and information on more than 135 brands of panels; including brands you’ve likely never heard of.
- Solar inverters – find details, ratings and opinions on products from over 200 solar inverter manufacturers
- Solar Batteries – ratings, reviews and information on 60+ home battery brands currently available in Australia.
- EV chargers – ratings, reviews and information on 20 EV charger brands currently available in Australia.
Submit Your Own Review
If you’re the owner of a solar power system, solar battery or EV charger, share your thoughts on your system’s performance and general experience with other Australians. This is very easy to do – using the pages linked to above, navigate to the brand you own or installer you used and click the “leave a review” button. Alternatively (and probably a bit quicker) is to access the relevant form you’ll find listed on this page.