¶ Solar Solutions With Steve Torpy
Hi guys , I've got Steve's Torpy here today and Steve is running Coastal Solar Solution . He's operating in the Gosford area , wyong , that kind of part up north of Sydney , and so he's getting a lot of baby boomers coming up that way and retiring and a lot of young families . But also cost of living is quite tough in his area . So he's got his challenges .
Welcome to your Energy Answers , steve . Thank you , marcus . So you've been in solar for quite a while , have you ?
Yes , I've been installing solar for close on 20 years now .
You still actually look fit and young for 20 years in the roof , and all of that .
It's taken its toll . It's starting to take its toll .
yeah , Are you a family company .
Yeah , yeah , we have . I had two sons working in the business . My wife works in the office . She does the admin and everything in the office and all the books . I do all the on-site quoting helping out the boys .
I used to be on the tools 100% of the time , stepping away a little bit now so that for the boys to take over and my second son is virtually running the business and doing a great job , just getting call after call saying how good a job they're doing , so you're very proud of them . Is he telling you what to do ? Sometimes he is .
Yes , he pulls me up a fair bit . I taught him everything I know and he still pulls me up .
Then so , from a family company , it's actually fairly important that you do a good job , because you get the word of mouth , isn't it ?
Yeah , it's very important , yeah , yeah . And we do get a lot of word of mouth and keep going back to the fact that we get a lot of phone calls saying thank you for the work we've done , so they're very happy , so it's satisfying , is it Very satisfying ?
yeah , so let's start . I mean , how did you actually one day did you start with electrical ? How did the whole company start ?
Yeah , I was doing electrical and then I was an ASP doing metering and I got to the point where I was doing metering for all these solar companies and I thought that's it's the next generation , it's where electrical needs to go and I thought I can do that . I'll move into solar .
And yeah , and I had to change my name because I had a business called Steve Torpey Electrical and Security and that has no resemblance to solar . So then I changed the name to Coastal Solar Solutions .
So you've been locally going for how many years ?
That's a good question . Close to 20 ? I've been working on the Central Coast for my entire career since I was 16 , so that's 40 years , nearly 40 years , working on the Central Coast . I became a partner in another business because they didn't want me to leave . I was there for a few years and then I went out by myself and yeah , that was in about 95 .
So since 1995 , you've been installing solar on the central coast . Yeah , Must be one of the longest operators locally .
Yeah , there's a few panels being put up . I always want to sit down and work out how many panels I've actually installed , and that'll be mind-blowing .
Have you been going back to customers taking off panels that you put on and actually put new ones on again ?
I've never been back to one of my jobs and upgraded Touch wood , but it's . Yeah . I've done a lot of other installs because I suppose we do a quality install and we use quality equipment . Yeah , I've been fortunate enough to be good at it .
But I mean sometimes the customer has a one and a half kilowatt system and he wants to have an upgrade and get a five or six . Have you had any customers like that ?
Yeah , a lot . We find that the real estate that the older systems are taking up , it's not worthwhile keeping that old system , whether or not it's failed or it's just one . I looked at yesterday 225 watt panels and for 150 mil wider and 100 mil longer I can get 450 watt panels in .
So the real estate that that's taking up is too valuable to leave it there . And a 10 year old system , so it's getting close to its end of life for its warranty period anyway .
For back then and you find that it's far better off just to upgrade the system , you claim the STCs again on the new system and you're getting a system that's producing twice the amount of power in the same real estate .
Got it now , what are you offering actually ? Do you do solar batteries ? What are the things ?
We do everything , right through from a service and maintenance on an existing system , right through from on-grid solar hybrid with batteries . We do hybrid only without battery . Because it's battery ready , we add batteries and we do off-grid systems as well .
What about EV charges ? Have you added that we do ?
Yeah , we do do EV charges as well . Yeah , I used to run by . If it's got wires attached to it , we do it . So yeah , if it's run by wires , we do it Hot water .
Do you do anything for hot water ?
Yeah , we can do . We recommend heat pumps sometimes . But if somebody's got an existing hot water system , that's a storage system . We recommend just installing the um , the catch power , green catch , because that harvests any excess solar going back into the grid and pushes that into the hot water system and it makes your hot water system like a battery .
So you you're getting the benefit . Um , it's like three to one , three kilowatts back to the grid . You've got to buy one for off-peak . So if you can put that electricity into your hot water system , you're saving money .
So what you're really saying is that when I have excess solar , instead of exporting it and getting measly cents for it , I send it automatically in my hot water electric tank and I get hot water literally for free out of my solar .
Yeah , from the excess that's going to the grid . It automatically does it , and if the green catch needs excess power , it will pull power at night . But basically it just uses excess during the day and heats the water , so it doesn't need power at night from the grid . So there's another benefit of solar .
Yeah , All right . Now there's a lot of very cheap solar system advertised . A lot , $2,990 , whatever and you know Australians are gamblers Do you think it's a gamble worth it ?
It's not a gamble worth it . No , you do things right once and you've got a system that's going to last a test of time . You do things on the cheap and it's the same as anything . As soon as you buy cheap , it won't last . And it doesn't last . And you see the the quality of the gear .
You can see bows in the panels , so instantly you know it's a cheap panel in the glass . You have a quick look underneath and you can see all the cables hanging down , so you know it's a cheap installation .
The panels are stepped so they're not put in with a string line and there's or they're crooked on the roof or there's so many different things you can instantly spot with a cheap system . Um , what about the ?
inverters , they don't last as long either , or ?
yeah , they've got a warranty on them , but we find that there's uh , um , yeah , there's different things , um like , with the cheaper inverters it's just overall cheaper . Some of them will shut down and you can't do anything about it with grid voltage , the better quality ones . There is things that you can do with grid voltage to adjust the voltage .
And you pay for quality and you get quality . So we're finding that we use SunGrow as our minimum product for our inverters because we've got tech support . If there's ever an issue with a system , we can get onto tech support . They can do the firmware updates remotely and they can do this so easy to get along with .
And they've also got a training room for installers as well in Sydney , so I can send my boys down there and do excess training if they feel they need any extra training . So they're ahead of the game . A lot of the others very hard to deal with when it comes to cheap solar .
I've actually known of instances where they forgot the end clamps and the panel was rattling away in the wind .
Yeah , well , they forgot to do them up , so they just rattled off .
Yeah , what's the worst that you've seen on a system where you came back later ?
The biggest thing I find is the cable's hanging cables hanging down um sawtooth edge panels , so they're not installed correctly . They haven't taken pride in the first setting up of the first ones and using a string line . We use a string line to make them straight , um , and then everything works together .
So it's it's a very neat installation , um , and we use stainless steel clips and stainless steel cable ties , and we use stainless steel clips and stainless
¶ Quality Solar Installation and Products
steel cable ties . People use plastic cable ties and then they deteriorate in the heat on the roof and UVs and they break and fall off and then all the cables hang on the roof .
So , you get moisture into the plugs , yeah , and I think the cable ties actually then make their way into the gutter and I've seen blocked gutters because of it .
Yeah , we've seen handfuls of black tyres . People use a whole packet of plastic tyres on the roof because it , so-called , keeps it neat , but it's against the rules .
And also the UV in Australian sun will just kill it . Yeah , yeah , yeah .
So we use , like we might use , just a couple . Wouldn't even be a handful of plastic tyres on the roof , but it's all stainless steel tyres and all stainless steel clips . There's the little stainless steel clip . It might be worth $0.35 . We'll use four of those . Where other companies are doing it cheap , we'll use two if they're lucky .
I've seen some installations where the panels come from the factory with a tiny little plastic tyre on it just to keep the pigtails tidy , when in shipping I've seen those left on site and they're just plugged together . Wow and you go . How do people have their licenses ?
And even the brackets . You know , I've seen people save on money by putting less roof brackets on .
Yeah , yeah , you've got a minimum standard for the different roof and different wind categories . We're always over the top in trying to make sure that we're over the top in our installations and yeah , you see some of them , especially when you go back to pull a job off that you're upgrading and you go wow .
How did they get away with that , yeah ?
yeah , they'll be one metre apart and then there'll be like a two-metre gap .
Well , it's under the panel .
I can't see it . Yeah , that's the philosophy and not grinding tiles , not making the tiles sit back down again flat so that it's a chance for water to blow in , rain to blow in things like that . So you take all the care and pride on your installation and you know that you're not going to have a job that's going to come back and bite you .
You're close to coastal conditions . What are the challenges with that in solar so we use a salt-tolerant panel so that becomes a premium product as well . So you're not using the cheapest product out there to give the customer a cheapest price that they can get .
You've got a quality product and we find that you use a quality product and they stand the test of time .
Anything to do with the racking , and so with wind loading that you add because you're close to the coast .
Yes , if it is in a windy location , like on Blue Bay or like right on the coast there , we always increase our feet so that there is no chance . We're within the specs of the system . But we go the next level and put more in Right .
Okay , what about the product itself ? The inverter , the panels , the racking ? What do you select to pick ? The right thing for the right customer ?
I'm not about using the cheapest product and trying to make the most amount of money on it . I'm not about using the cheapest product and trying to make the most amount of money on it . We use a quality product that's going to last the test of time .
We deal with solid juice most of the time and the materials that solid juice sell are a better quality than others seller a better quality than others . You only have to go to other companies around , and there's one in particular that you can tell that the gear out of there is a bit suspect . I don't know if that's the right thing to say , but it's .
No , I know who you're talking about , and it's always like you're getting the salami a little bit thinner .
Yeah , yeah , and their profit margins are really low . But the guys that are picking up from there you can sort of say like we only get it out of there for subcontract installs .
That we've done and I'd never buy from there , so I know where I'm buying my gear from is a high end product and it's well looked after , um and less chance of anything happening to it , and I don't want to save a dollar for that to come back and bite me .
I mean the other thing is about Solar Juice , who is one of the biggest distributors of solar gear is that , if you do have an issue , there's somebody answering the phone and helping you out .
That's right . Which ?
means when the customer has an issue and rings you , you have somebody to follow up and that means that the gear goes back into action and that system will go back into working relatively quick . That's right , because I know of some cheap systems where the inverter broke in November and they finally had a replacement by April .
Yeah , and all that time they waited for the electricity to come back on from their solar and there wasn't anything . So they were getting big bills in that timeframe .
Yeah , it depends on the size of the system . Like , the bigger the system is , the more that's potentially saving the client , so the longer that's off . Yeah , it's costing a lot of money .
What about you and after-sales service ? Do you answer the phone after 4.30 ? My phone is always on .
I just spent a week in New Zealand and my wife got a little bit frustrated because I was still answering the phone in New Zealand . So , whatever my phone is on , I'll answer it . So yeah , I've had a lot of people say thank you for answering the phone , and if I don't answer the phone , it's usually I'm either doing a quote or I'm indisposed .
You're doing a podcast Doing a podcast . Yeah .
Right . Well , you better have a nice present for your wife at the wedding anniversary .
Yeah , yes , I better think about that very hard .
¶ Solar Installations
Have installations changed in the 20 years that you've been in the industry now , and how ?
Yeah , there's the size of the system . Mainly Rules have changed in the way for the installation and it's only made the industry better and safer . But basically the size of the systems back years ago , like a 6.6 was a big system . Now we're installing like 8 , 10s , 12s , 20s 20 kilowatts . Yeah .
Wow , as soon as you get a big house house , like some houses are using like three and a half thousand dollars a quarter um , if they've got big air conditioners and they're big homes , they're chewing power . Um might have big pools and spas and all sorts of stuff . So we're finding that the the systems are maximizing out .
They're always doing bigger and bigger car charges , like as soon as you get an electric car . I'm a believer that if you have an electric car you need solar to charge it , so you don't need a 6.6 kilowatt system . All of a sudden that's doubled .
Yeah , I mean the car alone could use up to 4 kilowatts of solar to really charge it every day if you're driving this amount ? Yeah , that's 4 kilos , if you've got two cars , that becomes eight , and then another eight or so for the house you're sitting at 16 . That's right . But what do you do then if the roof isn't big enough ?
Do you use a high-efficient panel or Well , you are limited .
Like the Australian-made Tindo panels are 410 watt . The new Ako panels are 450 watt for the same footprint . So , yeah , the new eco panels are 450 watt for the same footprint . So , yeah , you maximize it . We are finding that people will say , all right , well , I'll maximize my space .
This is the only space I've got , we'll go with the eco panels , um , so yeah , it's , it's um , you're limited . Um , sometimes we have done ground mount systems . Um , it just depends on where the house is like .
If they've got a semi-rural block or a rural block , it's easier to do ground mount and you can get a lot more panels in on a ground mount system I think in the future what we'll actually find is that maybe carports and things will be built just to have solar on top and charge the car yes , yeah , yeah , we are looking into that .
actually , there's a few companies around doing carports , solar carports but it will be the next thing , because you're building a structure that is solely for that roof and you don't have the extra material that's roofing it . Then putting the solar panels on top , you're using the solar panels as your membrane .
I actually have got've got one , yeah , but I haven't got the EV yet . Right , I've got a solid carport and now I have to get the EV . Yeah , I could only afford the carport yet .
Yeah , they are expensive . The cars , yeah , yeah .
How do you maximise the benefit of solar ?
Okay . So what you do is in your peak period of the solar production is you try and maximise your usage . So you'd be turning on your air conditioner and pre-cooling the house before , pre-heating the house before , while the solar's producing its power , not coming home from work and turning it on at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and using the power from the street .
And turning on at 5 o'clock in the afternoon , using power from the street . So with your hot water system you can use a catch power , a green catch , and you can divert that excess power into the hot water system while it's producing the power .
Anything like that that you can use your solar-generated power while it's being produced is going to offset your power usage and make your bill cheaper . Anything to offset your power usage and make you build cheaper anything to do with timers and washing machines yeah , put timers on .
A lot of new washing machines are coming out with the built-in timers in them so that you can delay your wash for a couple of hours and you set it in the morning . Set it for a couple of hours delay so that you're using the solar generated power same for the . Yeah , a lot of everything .
Even air conditioners now are even coming out with timers built in so that you can delay the start , so you don't have to sort of say , all right , well , I can't turn my air conditioner on because I'm not home .
So when the husband is home working from home . He has to do the vacuum at 12 o'clock .
Yeah , yeah , set a timer so that he doesn't miss it .
As long as he does it , all right . Do you guys have specific certifications and accreditations to actually install ?
solar . Yeah , both myself and Jackson are fully licensed electricians with CEC accreditation . The CEC accreditation that I've got is the grid-connected hybrid and off-grid . Jackson is in the process of getting his off-grid , but he has his hybrid and his grid-connected licence as well .
And yeah , we've got all the public lightability insurances and everything that's associated and that's required for installing solar .
Do you have any qualifications to design a solar system ?
With our CEC accreditation , we have the design and construction in our licenses . Yes , Okay , great .
Now , when you build solar , it has no moving parts . It shouldn't really need any after-sales service . It just works away there for decades , isn't that the rate ?
need any after-sales service . It just works away there for decades . Isn't that the rate ? Not entirely correct ? Like ? They do get dirty . If they're on a minimum 10 degree tilt they're classed as self-cleaning . But they still get dirty . They still get the latching mold on them and over time I haven't seen any new ones get it as much , but the older ones .
They get the big spots of mould on them and they do need cleaning On the outside , on the outside on the glass face , and it just grows bigger and bigger and that just cuts out production significantly .
I heard that , basically , if you do have a solar system , maybe every two to three years do get a bit of an inspection , because the frame could have come loose . You could have had a big bird poo sitting there , costing you production . What's the timeframe you recommend ?
Yeah , well , like we like to do a post-sales , post-installation inspection after 12 months just to make sure everything's working along nicely . After 12 months , just to make sure everything's working along nicely . But yeah , two years between cleans is probably a good amount of time . It takes a while for the dirt to build up .
Any time within two years , I think , is a bit over the top . Yeah , you don't need to spend that money on the on the service call to clean the panels . So yeah , two years is a good period .
Now let's say I've decided to use your services to install solar , and let's make it a solar and battery . What do I have to expect ? Do you rock up at six o'clock in the morning ? Can you just go through the process ?
Yeah , we'd , yeah , we um , after the sales is done and it's all discussed on where everything's going , um , the boys will rock up at about seven o'clock in the morning , um , and they'll get to work and um , get all the roofing work done , um , and basically the working two teams on the roof and on the ground get all the cabling through the roof .
Um , I suppose backtrack a little bit . The first thing we do is run over with the boys or run over with the client on the exact location of the panels . Sometimes we do a design and if we don't get up on the roof and do a full measure , panels might change a little bit .
So we're always in tune with the client to know we've got to move that one panel over to here . Um , it's not going to change production in that , anything like that , but this is what we want to do . So we always keep the client informed and then um move on for the installation and everything comes together .
Uh , it's very rare that an installation isn't done in one day . It's only if it is very big , but we can do , like um , up to 20 kilowatts in a day with our team . What about the inverter position ?
Is that important ?
We always try and keep yes , it is . We always try and keep the inverter location at a minimum on the eastern side , never north and never west . If it's at all possible , we always try and push it into the garage .
Anything that's inside is going to last a lot longer than being out in the elements of the outside , so they are weatherproof , but you bring them inside and they're going to last a lot longer anyway and not north and west , because why ? north , you've got the sun all day long . West , you've got your heat of the afternoon .
So it's the inverters are rated to a certain temperature . As soon as they get over that temperature they start dropping out . Not dropping out , but they start reducing in power to protect themselves . So if the inverter is getting hot , it's going to produce less power so the house owner is actually losing money .
Yeah , and it won't show as a dramatic reduction , but there will be a reduction in the output of the system Like a dripping tap .
Yeah , got it . And also , they don't last as long when they get heated up every day , is it ?
Yeah , well , it's just like a lot of the inverters now don't have the liquid crystal displays on them , so it's not as bad as what it used to be , but there's a lot of systems out there that you can't read the production on them .
So it's not as bad as what it used to be , but there's a lot of systems out there that you can't read the production on them you can't see . All you can see is maybe a green light on it to say it's still producing power , I think so the monitors have literally been cooked by the sun .
Yeah , the perspex .
Usually the perspex window is just crazed and you can't see what it's doing . It's very common back in the day where people just put systems on and just whack them wherever . But we're very , very careful on where we put the system . If it happens to be that it's in a direction where the sun is getting onto the inverter , we'll shield it .
So you put a little roof on top ?
Yeah , a little roof or some sort of sunshade to keep the direct sun off the inverter . But that's at the second resort , last resort to do that .
But that's again the difference between a quality system and a crap system . Because the crap systems , I've seen them bake away for days and weeks and years .
Yeah , yeah , You'll see them just in the western sun and you go . Holy hell , how does that work ?
Well , for a while , but not for too long . Yeah , that's right . Yeah , if I would utilize your services , what kind of customer support do you do ?
Is after-sales service important ? We're always there . If a customer's got any issues , we're always there . The biggest thing these days with our systems is people have either a problem with their Wi-Fi , they change their password or they change their modem because they've had a storm . So I'll probably get two jobs a week .
Two people a week will ring up and say I've lost my Wi-Fi Because we use SunGrow Just before that .
That then only affects the monitoring . It doesn't affect the production . The system will still produce electricity . Yeah , it's still functioning .
It's still functioning and you can see on the monitor that on the inverter itself that it is still working . It's just that you can't see because there's no screen on them anymore , there's only a light and you don't know what it's producing . It could be half working and you don't really know . So the monitoring is very valuable in that respect .
You can see what it's doing . But we also install the smart meters with the inverters as well , so that gives you your full production and consumption monitoring . So through the Wi-Fi of the inverter , when that's set up , nearly everybody now has their own Wi-Fi dongle because that alerts you to problems with the system .
But when you install the smart meter you're getting consumption readings as well , so you can see how much power the house is using outside of your solar window . So if it's possible that you can move your pool filter within the solar window , you can save more money than being the timer being out .
If you have a blackout and you've got an analogue timer and all of a sudden the pool's running outside of the solar window , you can address that very quickly and go oh , I need to move that timer .
Right . So the golden rule is really put as much consumption in the curve of when solar generates . Yes 100% and if you can monitor your house consumption , then it allows you to make some shifts to bring them across into the middle of the solar .
That's exactly right , because you don't want to be producing solar in the middle of the day and not using that power . So if you can shift things into that solar window , you will save more money , and that's what that app will do with the consumption monitoring .
So in the olden days you used to say put the pool filter and the pool cleaner on at night because the electricity was cheap as off-peak , but now it's all changed .
That's right . Yeah , so with the bigger solar systems we're installing , you want to try and do everything during the daytime and that doesn't mean put everything on at the same time . You stagger your appliances so that you're within your solar window .
So with the monitoring you can actually see where your solar is producing the power and where to use your appliances . So all of a sudden , if it peaks and it's gone past your solar window , you can spread those appliances out , and that's what the monitoring will tell you .
Now in the olden days you would have only pretty well installed solar . But now people say have solar and a battery combo . How many customers do you get ? What's your opinion on getting a battery ?
oh , back back only a few years ago , like we were doing one in 10 batteries , um , but now it's sort of one in three batteries . So , um , the , the price that you're getting back for export back to the grid , um , it's like nearly can be six to one . So you've got to send six kilowatts back to the grid to buy one kilowatt in so let's say the number .
If I get five cents paid and I pay actually 30 cents to get it back in some case , I pay 40 cents so it might even be one to eight yeah , yeah , no , 100 it can .
That's if I say one to six , like that's a conservative oh , I'm always conservative I don't want to sort of go in there and say I'll give you , like it's , 10 to one . I'm not going to fatten it up Like it's , I'm a realistic person . So , and not trying to Over-egg the pudding .
That's right , but let's go back to the batteries .
¶ Home Battery Systems
So why do people buy them ? How do you sell it ? What's your opinion ?
So there's a number of reasons why people want a battery system . So it's because they're fed up with getting nothing from the grid and they want to store all their own energy and use it at night . Two , because it's going to save them money by doing that . Three is your blackout protection , so that if the grid drops out , then you've got that storage .
The modern systems that we use now will back up during the daytime . If you've got a blackout during the daytime , the inverter will re-energize and start charging your battery and give you power to the house as well .
So there are different systems out there now that will give you a lot of power so that you can run the whole house , and there's other systems that we use that have just give you light and power so just a couple of appliances , but you can't start baking cakes and running the spa . Yeah , just on the normal household battery .
You have to be careful of your loading . If you just go and turn your spa on and go , oh , I've got a blackout , I might go and jump in the spa and turn the heater on . Your battery's going to run out pretty quick .
Right , right , so you've got to use it as a bit of reservoir . Yeah , and what do these systems do at night ? If I get a blackout , do I still get the battery ?
or so the majority . We leave at 20% residual state of charge left in the battery for a blackout situation . So you'll use 80% of your battery during the daytime or in the evening as the sun's going down and then it will cut out and go back to grid at 20% . It's adjustable . So if you don't think you need 20% you can adjust that state of charge .
But then as soon as you have blackout then it will switch over and give you power .
So you basically , when you get a blackout , you can utilize in the battery whatever is left at that point in time , that's right . And you can actually adjust the battery to say , I want 40% of my battery always be available as a reserve .
Let's say , if you're an area that has a lot of blackouts or you can say , look , I hardly have them , I just want to be able to run four or five hours to house and a bit of light . Just the TV and the light , that's all . So three kilowatts in the battery is enough , so I'm only putting it , let's say , on 20% .
That's right . Yeah , the high-end batteries will notify you that there is an outage , so Enphase and Tesla will send you a message to say you're in blackout situation limit what you're using . So that's very handy .
But both of those Enphase and Tesla have a storm watch feature , so if there is a storm coming , an event that is likely to cause a blackout , they won't discharge the battery , so it's leaving your battery yet fully charged in case there is a blackout .
So what brands do you actually recommend when it comes to batteries ?
The lowest level that I will go is SunGrow . Sungrow have a very good battery option . It's been very reliable . Then we'll go up to the Tesla Powerwall and the newest one on the market is the Enphase Microinverter 5P battery . So it is . That's a very good battery .
It charges faster and discharges faster than Tesla and it's a bit lighter to install yeah , they're those big batteries .
Do need a big burly guy or two to actually it's a backbreaker , if it's .
If it's a Tesla on um , it's a Tesla . It's 140 kilos , so it's not something you really want to be installing yourself . It's a two-person job . The Enphase microinverters , the Enphase microbatteries they're still 70 kilos-ish around about there , so they're still pretty heavy but a lot more manageable . But they're all found to be reliable .
Those batteries now the n phase batteries , um I'm led to believe are best on the market . Um , they charge faster and discharge faster than tesla um . With two batteries we always recommend that you go for two . A minimum of 10 kilowatts . I recommend that you really need for backup on a battery system in a home .
So if you have anything smaller than that , there's people selling like a small battery system .
Three kilowatt-hour batteries . You might as well not have it , because by the time you suck a bit of straw and have the light running . The thing is finished . There are companies selling this and advertising three kilowatt hour batteries and the poor customers buy it , not realizing that they basically wanted a car and they got a .
Not even a bicycle , maybe , maybe a scooter yeah , yeah , that's right , it's , and it just charges that fast . And I quite often see it . People say I've got a battery and it's . I don't think it's saving me any money and it's because they might have a an lg 6.5 or something like that , and then it's , it's not much it's .
It's saving you a little bit , but not much . So 10 kilowatt hours is a better um is is a better storage more ideal size for a family yeah , that's right . Um , and you'll find that that will get you close through the night , depending on what you're drawing through the night .
But if you can get through the night on 10 kilowatts then you can be nearly off-grid . But some customers even do 20 and 30 kilowatt house of batteries , yeah yeah , no , the size of the battery systems are growing along with the size of the solar , because you can , especially with the monitoring system we put in . The battery systems are modular .
Some grow at 3.2 kilowatt-hour modules and they just stack on top of each other . So you can go back and we quite often will go back , sell 9.6 and then go back and add it to 12.8 , add another like two and you go to 16 kilowatt-hours . So it's very easy and a very modular system . It's a one-person job to go back and add batteries .
The Enphase battery system is 5 kilowatt-hour modules , so you start at 10 , start at 5 , but I recommend 10 . Then you can add another 5 . So a Tesla is 13.5 kilowatt hours and you can stack another one on top of the front of it . So the Tesla system is a very neat , very good product .
I mean there have been tens of thousands that go into the Australian market and there hasn't been many issues .
Yeah , that's right and we have done a couple of replacements with Tesla warranty replacements very easy system to replace the whole warranty process is quite easy .
Which is very important because the customer when he has a problem , that's when really you find if you picked a good company .
Yeah , yeah , that's right . And if you pick a good quality product , you'll find that the backup is there , even down to SunGrow . It's . The only reason why we only use SunGrow is because that backup is there . If we didn't have the backup , we wouldn't be using the product .
There's a lot of people that have swapped from SunGrow to GoodWe say , just because their inverters are hundreds of dollars cheaper . But you don't have that same backup . And it's all to do with backup and it's all to do with customer service and reliability of the system .
I mean , if you give it away very cheap , you won't have the money to employ the staff in the back office to back the product . That's the reality . So when you buy cheap , you've got to be expecting to be a bit stuck when there is a problem .
Yeah for some go to stay with their price and not create a price war and drop their price . It means that they have got a good product and they know that they've got that . They know that they have a good product and they know that they're well priced , well placed in the market , for what they're delivering .
Yeah , okay . So , steve , you talk to people every day . Is solar worth it ?
Yes ? The short answer is yes . Solar is the only thing that you can put on your home that will instantly make you money . You can do a lot of improvements to your home and you don't get that benefit until you sell , Whereas you put solar on and from day dot , you're making money .
The return on the investment is far better than anything in the bank and it just works .
Well , what's the investment time ? What's your ROI ?
So from my calculations and the quotes that I do , I always look at that and for a bigger system you can be looking at just over two years buyback on the system before you break even . That's with the current prices of electricity and as soon as the prices go up again that's only going to get better .
If you go for a quality system with , say , microinverters and a battery system , you could be looking at sort of six years , six , seven years on your buyback . That's the battery combo , yeah yeah , it just depends on how you're going to use it and how the system's sized .
And if you're going to put that into other appliances in the house and you're going to use that power at night and you're not drawing from the grid , it's far beneficial .
Right , and if I get an EV down the track , then the RI will go even lower .
Yeah well , it's the kind of thing where you have your car plugged into your home during the daytime . Any excess power that's going to be shed to the grid can go straight into the car . If you get a smart EV charger , then it's going to just look at that and say , yep , okay , I'm exporting to the grid . Now push that into the car .
So it'll trickle charge your car but there's nothing going to the grid and it's worth a lot more money going into your car than it is going into the grid .
But if I have the car not parked at home , then I'd really need a battery , and a decent size one , to start charging the car at night .
Yeah , that's right . So you're storing your power during the daytime . When you come home you plug your car in and say that 20 kilowatt hours that you've stored during the day , you've put that into the battery and then you can safely put that into your car .
That you've stored during the day , you've put that into the battery and then you can safely put that into your car . So you've got the . As things move forward , there'll be the bi-directional cars charging out of the batteries of the cars so you can plug your car in .
So your car , if you actually got a lot of electricity in the car , still in the battery , a lot of power , you could drive it in the garage and if you had a blackout , your car could actually still support your house . Is that what ?
you're saying . That's right , that's the way that it's going . Some of the cars are coming out now and they've got a short three kilowatt output , so that there's not a lot of output you can get out of the car . But the way things are moving forward is that it will be bi-directional .
Wow . So that leads me to smart homes and all that . A lot of people use that word and I know that there is all sorts of interactivity planned in the future , but you're working on the ground . How do you see the smart home of the future ?
So predominantly the solar on the roof . Um . Then your battery , your EV charges um , everything is um . On timers Um , you've already got your LED lighting . Most homes have got LED lighting now , so the lighting is low wattage . Um , all appliances now uh becoming more efficient .
It's , it's um it makes better economy to get rid of an older fridge and put a new fridge in . You can pay for that fridge , um the pay for the new fridge , with the saving electricity . Um .
So , with the smart homes like um , they're moving into uh the automated switches so that you are turning off your power to your your TV instead of it sitting there drawing load during the day , all things
¶ Advancements in Solar Panel Technology
like that .
What about , remotely from somewhere else , being able to move up and down the blinds to make people feel somebody's home ?
Yeah , yeah . No , there's a lot of automation happening there Battery operated blinds , like it used to be non-existent . Now you can have like you don't run power , we don't run power to blinds anymore , so they're all battery operated and they're just rechargeable .
So you charge them up every couple of months , you put them on charge for a little bit and then they just work . They're just seamless and , yeah , programmable .
Everything now is coming out with smarter things , smarter technology , so that they've got timers built into them , automatically turn on and off at different times with different temperatures for air conditioners and all that sort of stuff .
So , wow it's a way of the future oh gee , I still grow up on a coal stove back in germany now . Um , you guys have in-house installers , some of your sons work in the business and all that . Some solar companies employ subcontractors , other employ their own staff . That is a proper employee . What's your opinion on those two models ?
By installing , by employing our own staff and doing all our own installations , we've got full control .
As soon as you start subcontracting stuff out , you don't have the control of those employees and when it comes time to the client to ring up to say , oh , we've got an issue , then if they ring us up because we've done the installation , they ring us up and say we've got this issue , we address it straight away .
We don't have to go and find who the installer was for that job or try and get somebody that's out of town to come back to fix a problem . But we don't have problems because we do our own installs .
So you feel that's a more reliable system , 100% more reliable system , yeah , yeah , we just don't have issues because we are on the ground doing our own installs .
Now , solar has been around now since 2006, . So we're getting towards 20 years and I get that in the early days we possibly would have had a few cowboys and all that , but are they ?
still in the industry ? Yeah , unfortunately there are . As I've said , I don't know how some people keep their licenses . Our industry is supposed to be regulated and supposed to be audited , yet there's still people doing the wrong thing and it's blatantly obvious . So I don't know who's not doing their job .
But , yeah , it's one of those things where we should be um more accountable for the work we do . Um , and our business is uh , I can safely say that we do everything that we possibly can to make sure that our jobs are 100% accurate , and I don't know why these cheap guys are still around , because doing the installs for so cheap ? Because it's wrong .
What they're cutting the corners , or ? I mean , couldn't you argue that they're giving the customer a great deal ?
Yeah , well , they're cutting the corners for sure , because , like they don't grind tiles , they use plastic cable ties . They don't take the time in making sure the panels are clipped up properly , and they're , they chuck the panels around and don't care .
So I've had people say to me I saw an installation across the road and they just these two guys rocked up and they whacked the tiles up , they kicked the tiles up , they chucked the brackets down and they whacked the tiles up on the panels up on the roof and they're gone and you go . They didn't even do the electrical work because they're not licensed .
So , yeah , then they send an electrician along to do the inverter and the wiring , and that's how they're doing them so cheap . I think they're called roof monkeys .
Actually that could be correct . Yeah , okay , the panel position . I just whack them on the roof anywhere , or is the position important ?
The positioning is important . You always try and get north . The north is the best aspect . If you can't get north , then you can go east and west . Even south is the new north With the modern panels . Now they're producing more power and because people are wanting to go for the biggest system they can get , south still does produce power .
With our microinverter systems we can see the performance of the system . In dead of winter , yes , they are down in production , but they're still producing power . In the peak of summer the southern panels actually produce more power than north because the sun's over vertical and it's producing power .
So if you're heavy users of air conditioning in summer , then south is the new north users of air conditioning in summer than south as the new north .
So basically , you in your design process work out what the consumption is of the customer and then design the system and the panel position based on that . Meaning if they use a lot in the afternoon , maybe you put the panels on the west .
Yeah , yeah , that is right , you can adjust it . If they get up early for morning and they're leaving for work early for morning and they're getting home , you adjust your directions to suit the pattern of the client .
We use a program called Pylon that we can lay the panels out and that will give us our performance of the system in whichever direction it's going , and we can adjust the angle and the direction of the panels and that will give us an estimate of the overall production , the annual production of the system .
What do I do if I have a roof that ?
has a bit of shade . My instant reaction to any roof that's got shade is go . Microinverters end phase microinverters that's the best system on the market , so it's the most reliable individual . It's an AC system , so you have the safety of the microinverter system , but individual panel production .
So if shading is coming across from any different direction , you've got a solar window , so you're maximising that solar window by using the microinverters . Every panel works independently of each other and you'll get maximum efficiency from that system .
So you really only lose the one or two or three panels that are shaded and all the other part of the system is still working , yeah While in other instances , sometimes , you lose the majority of output of the system . Is that how the microinverters work ?
Yeah , every panel is independently .
So if you had , say , a pole that's coming across or a palm tree that's coming across and giving direct shade across a set and it's moving across the panels , those panels that have got shade on them will reduce in power , but the panels that have got in full sun will stay at their full production or whatever they can producing at that time of day .
Right , right , I hear the IKO panel now have actually something inside the panel that makes it a bit less shade prone . Have you seen that ?
Yeah , yes , I've seen that demonstration happen and it's incredible technology .
It's going to be a game changer so what I heard and saw is that normally you put shade on a panel , even if it's 10 shade , that panel can lose up to 80 of output . Correct , but in the case of the ico , you actually , if you overshadow 20 of the panel , you might only lose , let's say , 30 output instead of the 70 , 80 , 90 .
So you actually have a better performing panel when it comes to shade . Yeah , yeah , that's right .
¶ Solar System Installation and Warranties
And is that the panel you sell ? Yes , it is , it happens to be . It is . Is that one ?
of the reasons why you picked it . As soon as I saw that at the show , I thought yes , but also what really grabbed my attention was a company that is actually manufacturing cells to turn around and make a panel . So I looked at that and said if a company is making the cells , they are going to be using their top quality cells to make a panel .
So that was my initial whoa . Well , let's look at these panels .
Okay , and they look quite sexy the full black .
Yeah , I'm very interested in . I've got quite a few quotes waiting for these panels now .
Right , good , good , all right . Now let's say I'm an end customer . I'm thinking about solar . Everybody in my neighborhood had it . What are the key criterias you , as an experienced installer , would recommend to get a good deal ? What are the things to look out for ?
Family-based business that does all their own installations using a good quality product , not trying to get the cheapest price out there . Che is cheap . So if if a product is cheap , it's because it is cheap . Same as a car like if you go for the cheapest car , the cheapest price car , you're going to get the cheapest quality car .
So it's the same as the solar system the price dictates quality . So the cheapest price that you can get , you are going to get something that you'll have to do twice . So our philosophy is do it right , do it once and do it well .
Okay , and have somebody that does a bit of after sale service as well to back you up .
Yeah , yeah , that's the role that I've got is answer the phones , and the biggest , as I've said , the biggest thing that I find is that people's monitoring drop off for a number of different reasons , but we're there just to talk them through and get them back online , and if they can't get them back online , we'll go to site and get it back online .
So we're there for after sales service and that's your job , is it ?
That's my job , so you're the officer for special headaches .
Yes , Well , while the boys are out installing Jackson's very good on the phone as well . But while the boys are out installing , they don't have the same time to be able to spend time on the phone .
So if I'm driving between quotes or appointments or anything like that , or sitting in the office doing a quote , I can still sit on the phone and I can guide somebody through more flexible Right , Got it ?
Now you must have had some really cranky customer , maybe even unreasonable customer , making a complaint . How do you handle it ? Do you stay calm , do you ?
swear , swearing and getting cranky doesn't get you anywhere . All it does is get the customers back up even more . So it's very rare that we'll have a client like that because the boys are so polite and so accommodating . So it's , yeah , I can only think of one job in the last , say the last 10 years .
I can only think of one client that I've had an issue with and that was very bizarre , because he was given the boys . They broke a few tiles . It was an old terracotta roof . They were breaking a few tiles during the day , trying to take all the , all the care , even sitting down . Uh , sitting down they were breaking tiles . That's how soft the tiles were .
Um , he was passing tiles up all day long , gave them beers at the end of the job and very happy with the installation , and then I sent him a bill and he said he's not paying . Wow . I go right , okay , so some people you can't keep happy , unfortunately . Some people you can read before a job , right , but in that case there , that was real strange .
What warranties do you provide on the performance of the system ?
So the inverters themselves come with a 10-year warranty . Enphase microinverters have a 15-year standard warranty . We can add another 10-year warranty to Enphase microinverters for as little as $18.70 each Right . So you can get a 25-year warranty on your inverters , 10-year on SunGrow , 10-year on other inverters .
With the solar panels we use , they have a 25-year product warranty . The Australian-made Tindo panels have a 25-year production and product warranty . The 8K panels that we're using now are a 25-year product and a 30-year performance warranty . So we can offer , using the Enphase micro-inverter system , we can have a 25 and 25-year warranty .
25 years inverters , 25-year panels . We give a 10-year workmanship warranty , so anything happens within 10 years of the system , you call us , we'll sort it . That's a long time . Well , we do a quality install and we're prepared to do that .
Okay , you've said you're doing hybrid , you're doing off-grid , you're doing on-grid . Can you explain the ?
difference , so your on-grid system . You difference , so your on grid system . You start from your on grid , so you need to be connected to the grid , um to the network , and the system will work while ever the sunlight and it will energize your house , um . Then from there you move into a hybrid system .
So quite often we'll put a hybrid inverter in for a future battery and then we'll come back and we'll put a battery in , because batteries are still reasonably expensive and it adds an extra component to the installation . So long as you've got something that you are battery ready for in the future , you can always add your battery .
And then the way that the hybrid system works is that any excess in going back to the grid will firstly go into your battery . Once your battery is charged , then it will start exporting to the grid . With the off-grid system , you're completely independent of the grid . So what happens is that the system is built up with your usage in mind .
You've got to build a system to cater for the home usage that you're going to have . So that's a bit of a project to work out how much power that you're going to need to run your home , and then the battery sizes are worked out on how much autonomy you want .
So that means that , okay , if you're going to cloudy weather , how many days of autonomy do you want to last before you have to start the generator ? So it's cheaper to put in more silicon than it is to put in lithium . So you oversize your solar and then that's a cheaper option to do that .
And then you can put in your batteries and you put a system in that you can add batteries . So it's quite hard to estimate . You can estimate what you're going to use , but then if you make a system that is capable of being grown , you can add to it Because off-grid is obviously quite a bit more expensive than on-grid .
It's the battery capacity that makes it more expensive . So the on-grid component , like the solar component , is the same as what you would use on a on-grid house , depending on the size and how much power you want to generate and make . So it's the battery side of it that makes an off-grid system more expensive . Do you enjoy putting off-grid in ?
We love off-grid . Yeah , it's a very satisfying job to do when you go into the bush and you're remote , you're not connected to anything , and then you can produce a system that will give you power . It's very satisfying .
And you can't really get away with doing crap on an off-grid , because you get found out very quickly , isn't it ?
Well , the first thing a person's going to do is , if they lose power , is ring you . If you're on off-grid , if you're connected to the grid , yeah okay , well my system's not working .
But if you spend a lot of money on an off-grid system , you want it reliable , you want quality and you want it to last , and I don't want the phone call at midnight when somebody's lost their power . So , yeah , we build a quality system . Anything we do , we use quality gear . We don't want it to fail .
I heard that some customers from off-grid actually underestimate their consumption to try to get away with the cheaper system . But it might cost them $150,000 to connect to the grid . So wouldn't they want to get the best possible system ? Have you found customers do that ?
Yeah , yeah they do . You're caught between a rock and a hard place . But usually you are quoting , quoting against other people .
So if you go in and say , um , you need , um , 20 kilowatt hours of storage and you need , uh , 10 kilowatt hours or 10 kilowatts of solar panels , um , somebody might come in and say you only need 10 kilowatt hours of storage because you're going to make power during the day and you only want to get through the night .
So obviously that's a big difference in price . It could be $1,000 a kilowatt hour in battery storage . So obviously somebody's going to look at the price and go well , that's $10,000 cheaper , I'll go with that one . But then all of a sudden , by underestimating the size of the system , the generator is going to have to run a lot .
As soon as the cloud comes over , the generator is going to kick in or you're going to have to go and start the generator . So we prefer automatic start generators so that if the battery level gets down and you're not home , something's drawing load and the battery gets down , automatically starts the generator and away you go . It starts charging back up again .
If you underestimate , you're going to be running a generator , a fair bit and fuel costs .
What about the person who has a beautiful house somewhere in the remote area , understands they need a big battery , understands they want an off-grid and no more headaches . Those must be really nice jobs .
Yeah , they're the jobs that you get really satisfied with doing , because you're building up a quality system and you've got a happy customer and that's what we love .
Because you're their power station supporter . Yeah , yeah .
We're the first point of phone call .
The buck stops with you . That's 100% . And those calls you don't actually want .
That we don't want , we don't get , because we build it right . Okay got that .
Commercial , commercial solar . You've been doing any commercial jobs ?
yeah , yeah , we do . Uh , we do anywhere from well . Commercials usually are on the lighter side of 30 kilowatts sometimes , um , but uh , just recently we've just done 100 kilowatts . What's the ?
reason that people get it just simply killed by the electricity bill and they got to do action yeah , yeah , like if you got like three and a half thousand dollars a quarter power bill um , just uh one I just did recently a service station .
So yeah , you got um like probably over half your power is being used in the daytime with , with the heat of the day , the fridges are running more , there's more activity for the pumps and things to run , so it could be 75% daytime usage , which you can offload a lot of electricity through solar systems .
So a lot of systems like a childcare centre , medical centres , dentists .
They would save a lot of money with solar Any daytime activity , businesses will save a lot of their bill , because then you only run back to computers that are on standby , maybe your fridge in your kitchen . A lot of the other loads are all turned off in the nighttime .
So all your lighting in your factory or anything in production or , yeah , anything that's been used during the daytime is all subsidised by your solar .
Dentist drill hydraulic for the mechanic oven for the baker . Yeah , so I get that . But some people rent . Would it be worthwhile maybe , if you rent and you plan to be in that business in that place for a long time , to talk to your landlord ?
If you've got a long lease , then yes , definitely . We have approached people that I can see that are renting , and if they don't have a long lease , if they're using a lot of power and they don't have a long lease , it's hard .
But if you've got a long lease set in place , then it can be very worthwhile to talk to the landlord to be able to get solar on , because it's reducing your overheads instantly so you're going to make money even as a business over time on solar yeah , like if you've got a , you put a system on your roof and it's a two-year buyback and you're in a lease for
five years . You're in front , you've paid for it , you've got three years of power that you're not paying and the landlord gets a solar system for free if you leave . Yeah , if they don't want to take it off , you can take it off and you can take it with you . It's very easy to take a system off and take it back to original condition .
Okay , that's interesting to know . Now we're going to get EVs . They are now becoming more popular in Australia . How is that going to affect solar ?
So you really want to be having a system on your house that's going to produce that extra bit of solar that is going to charge your car . Now , anybody that's got an EV charger isn't going to charge their car from dead flat to fully charged in a day . So , say , a Tesla is 87 kilowatt hours .
There's no way you're going to put 87 kilowatts into your car in a day , but there might be , say , 20 kilowatt hours a day that you might want to put back into the car . So you just build the system up so that you're getting 20 kilowatts extra . Instead of exporting it to the grid , you're putting it into the car .
And then you can offset your $2,000 to $3,000 petrol bill .
That's right . Yeah , so you're getting free energy from the sun , putting it into the car and not paying to charge that car at a fast charger and not paying for petrol . So that's going to be the future . It's a win-win Interesting .
¶ Key Factors in Choosing Solar Panels
Now black solar panels . I've seen some . They look just like completely black . Are they worth it ?
The new AK panels have got a lot of benefits to them . So because they're back connected , they've got a black back sheet , they've got a lower temperature coefficient . So , being black usually , I've always stayed away from black panels because black absorbs heat , they get hotter .
With these new ak panels their heat , their temperature coefficient helps them and they produce more power than their equivalent in standard technology .
I also found that in older systems , people just whack them anywhere and the customer looks back and goes oh gee , my house has gone ugly , but at least I get a cheaper bill . I think the aesthetics are now starting to play a bigger role too , don't they ?
Yeah , yeah , that's right . We'll only ever install systems on the front of the house . That's right . We'll only ever install systems on the front of the house .
Uh , if I was to rock up to a house and it's got a a very nice north facing roof that we can put a symmetrical system on the front , it has to be symmetrical in my eyes , like I have to be a look at that house and say that's a beautiful solar system .
I'm not about to put a panel here , panel there , panel and just just to be able to fit panels in . Just a bit of a patchy , datchy job .
Yeah , yeah so you're not famous for that no , no , no .
If the customer says to me , I don't care what the front of the house looks like , I want solar on the front , then we'll do the best we can to make that aesthetically pleasing to the line of the house , or we go east and west . Whichever way , um is the best aspect .
I got the opinion . There's no point saving $500 on an electricity bill and your house is $30,000 cheaper now because it's gone . So ugly yeah yeah , that's right .
Yeah , it's always . Everything , in our view , has to be laid out nicely . It has to be nice and symmetrical to the roof of the house .
I'm a customer . You've just walked into my house . I've made an inquiry about solar . How do you structure the conversation ?
So the first thing is to what are you trying to achieve by putting solar on ? Are you trying to lower your bill or are you trying to be green ? Do you want a battery ?
Always try and bring that into the equation , because I've had a lot of people come back to me and say I was never offered a battery and so because they're coming into play now , we always offer that . But we always look at the way people live and what they're trying to achieve out of putting a solar system in .
You're trying to reduce your bills , reduce your impact on the environment .
My neighbor's got one and I want to look just as good . Yeah .
Well , that used to be one of the arguments for putting in a battery . It was you want to be ahead of the Joneses , like you want to be a bragger to your mates , oh , I've got a battery . It was you want to be ahead of the Joneses , like you want to be a bragger to your mates , like , oh , I've got a battery .
So that was one of the selling points for batteries back in the day . But now that's sort of nobody really uses that one anymore . Right , right , okay , got that . There's a lot to solar . Yeah , let's talk about , like , with the STC rebate dropping .
I saw a post on Facebook last night , I think it was , and saying that any electrician is going to be able to install solar . And yeah , they might be able to , but there's going to be a lot of systems that are going to be screwed up . It's not something that you . It's hard .
Some of the questions that you see on facebook , you go oh yeah , that's pretty easy , but for somebody that's starting off it's not that easy .
No , it's , and you're working in hot spaces under the roofs . Yeah , you're working in , sometimes dangerous spaces . It's not an easy job uh , the panels are gone heavier yeah so you actually got to have passion for renewables to do this day in and day out .
Yeah , yeah , you know Back in the day , like I used to install myself , just myself . I used to go away for three days a week and I'd do subcontract installs , take all my gear with me and I'd go .
But you said subcontractors wasn't the way to go .
I installed for other people , not my own jobs . So you were a good Kazabi , were you ? Yeah , I was a good Sabi , yeah , and that's why they kept on using me .
But , yeah , it's the kind of thing where I used to do it myself , and now we have a team of three on site , so we've got two apprentices that are working their way through doing their electrical apprenticeship and we'll get them to .
We take on other electrical work to teach them so they're not just doing solar um and predominantly that's the only really reason why I do electrical work is to keep their skills up and develop their skills .
But we've um and then if jackson's got a job on where um , he knows he's got the time , he'll get the others to do the inverters and oversee them , so that they're actually doing the switchboards and the inverters under supervision as well .
So do you care really that your staff have a wide sphere of skills ? Is that ? Why , you're doing that .
Yeah , I don't want to put somebody through that . They've spent four years doing racking and putting solar panels down . So my apprentices that come through have a vast range of knowledge of the electrical industry . They know solar very well , but they also know other parts of it as well .
So if you keep your staff happy , has that got any effect on the end customer system ? Well , yeah , yeah end customer system .
Well , yeah , yeah , it's because you develop an employee that has a lot of care and pride and it just they see how we approach the client and how the whole thing fits together . So unfortunately I shoot myself in the foot because we make a good tradesman and then they leave , they go and start up and come into opposition .
They think it's easy , but yeah , but anyway , like we , yeah , we build a good team .
Why ? On Gosford , I drive regularly through it . It's a beautiful area visually , you know , stunning the beaches and all that . So what kind of customers have you got ?
It's a very wide demographic area . You have um the beach , um , and then you have um the opposite end of the scale , um , so it's a very hard um , uh , it's a very hard place to sell , uh , so there's , there's a , there's a big range . Some people want the cheaper end of the market and unfortunately we do lose a lot of jobs because people are going .
I can get the advertising on TV , a cheap system . I can't and I won't compete with that because the quality of the gear is so cheap . We're not in that market .
But the cricketers say it's good .
They're getting paid to do that , ed , and they're not experts in solar . And they probably don't know anything about solar , they're just going . No , it's getting a paycheck for that every time their ad comes on . But yeah , we do offer the SunGrow system because it is on the lower end of the price bracket .
But then we also offer the Enphase microinverter system because that's a premium product . So , and anywhere in between . So it all comes down to the how much power the client is spending on , how much money the client is spending on electricity and how much money they're prepared to spend on a system to be independent from the grid .
But you do have people who are also , you know , doing it tough with the cost of living . So when they go solar they possibly can just afford to buy whatever is the cheapest .
Yeah , that's right and that's why we do offer finance as well , so the finance packages that we offer . There's no penalty for early payout . So quite often there might be a situation where you can't quite afford it at the moment , but they know that they need to do something because it's a benefit .
Solar is one of the only things that you can put onto your home that you will instantly see a benefit for it , a financial benefit for it . So with the finance packages , sometimes you can be putting a little bit of money aside and then all of a sudden you can pay that out .
Because your bill is going to be lower , so then you've got more money in your pocket . So your advice is don't go for the cheapest system . Still get a good quality system , but maybe then think of finance .
That's right . Yeah , pay it off through the finance and then that way you'll get the system on , you'll be saving money , and the money that you're normally be putting into your electricity bill is paying for the loan .
Okay , Do you have any horror stories where somebody had a cheap system and they haven't really learned the lesson and they still think it's a good system and you've got to actually tell them and educate them and you get a bit of resistance where they go , no , no , no , I paid good , I had a German panel .
And you've got to say no , look here , it says made in China , they ripped you off .
It's the kind of thing where it's very disheartening for a client to hear me say the system's buggered and it needs to be replaced . It doesn't have any warranty on it .
The manufacturers have left water in the isolator , rattling about on the roof , not properly put on . It's basically those cars that were built on late afternoon on a Friday Friday afternoon for a long weekend .
Yeah , let's get out of here .
But then wouldn't the customer be frustrated with you that you're going to give him the bad news ?
Well , we're giving them a remedy to fix the situation and it never comes back to us to say they don't point the finger at us because we didn't do the original installation . Finger at us because we didn't do the original installation . So , um , yeah , there was one down at home just recently .
Um , at your minor , uh , where we're putting on a new system , uh , they used a very cheap it's on the tilt frame . They used a very cheap tilt system on it . The company went broke . Um , there was , I put on a flat roof . They didn't clip-lock brackets to mount the system onto the roof , so they penetrated the clip-lock in the valleys of the clip-lock .
So then they had Siliconed it up and five years later you got the problem .
Well then they had a builder come back and pull it all up , put flashing down and then refit to the top and it still leaked . So we've got a job .
Now we're putting in a new system using the Australian made panels , with micro inverters and phase micros , with a new tilting system with the proper clip lock feet , and we'll rip the whole system off , start from scratch and we'll silicon up all the holes , and that's something else that we do as well .
We don't use silicon , natural silicon , we use a sourdough T-Rex . It's like Sikaflex but it's actually heavier than Sikaflex . So you're looking at maybe $4 a tube for silicon . The stuff that we use is $24 . $4 a tube for silicon the stuff that we use is $24 . So it's the same as everything you pay for quality .
So I've been to many a job and because we go back to jobs that other people have installed that have used silicon , silicon will pull off and you can see that the water has been getting underneath the silicon . It hasn't stuck , whereas you see this saddle T-Rex and it doesn't come off .
It just kind of bonds really hard , does it ? It bonds really hard . It's like shit to a blanket , and from the Australian UV I mean , that's killing a lot of things too . So it's UV-rated appropriately , is it yes ?
Yeah , uv-protected . It's just such a strong product and it's worthwhile because you're not using a tube every job , so to save , like a tube of silicon or a tube of the saddle . T-rex would probably last , depending on the size of the job , but it might last three jobs . Rex would probably last , depending on the size of the job , but it might last three jobs .
So it's not an overall huge cost to us to use this product when we're giving a quality product and quality job .
The difference is so much bigger , but the cheaper companies might use three tubes of silicon on the job .
Yeah , on the difference . They might use it just because they know it's not going to last . But , yeah , it's one of those things where you do it right . You do it once . I've heard silicon fixes everything Apparently . Yeah , they say do your best and silicon the rest .
And then go like this yeah yes . Our lesson here is don't buy cheap solar . You're near the coast , you want quality , you want stuff that is corrosion protected , you want enough brackets to hold it on a big storm , and so Coastal Solar Solutions should be your company . That's right , thank you . Better buy me a cup of coffee for that . Want more energy answered ?
Visit YourEnergyAnswerscom for quality energy products , Let me cup with coffee for that .
Want more Energy Answered . Visit yourenergyanswerscom for quality energy products , tools and calculators and find your quality local installers . Please support the channel by liking the video , hit that subscribe button and ring the bell . And check out all our other videos . You're still here . I'll see you next time . Bye , you're still here . I'll see you next time .
Bye .