Solar without storage is the cheapest way to stop importing, and it works best when your usage already sits in daylight — a pool pump, air conditioning, a home office, someone with the washing machine on at two in the afternoon. Panels and an inverter sized against your bill, not against a headline price.
Panel comparison is where most of the sales conversation goes, and it is rarely where the difference lives. These are.
Orientation matters less than people think
North gives you the biggest number over a year. West gives you power in the late afternoon, when you are home and the rate is highest. Split east and west and you flatten the curve. A good design starts from when you use power, not from which way the ridgeline runs.
Shade is worth a site visit
One tree, one chimney or a neighbour’s second storey can cost a whole string in the middle of the day. It is the single most common reason a system underperforms the number in the quote, and it is invisible from a satellite photo.
The switchboard is part of the price
Older boards often need an upgrade, and some meters need reconfiguring by your distributor before the system can be switched on. Honest quotes include those lines. Cheap quotes discover them on installation day.
Sizing follows consumption
A bigger array is not automatically better value. Once you are exporting most of what you make at a low feed-in tariff, each extra panel earns much less than the ones before it. That threshold is different for every household.
An inverter you will still be able to get parts for.
Panels degrade slowly and predictably over decades. The inverter is the component doing the work, and it is generally the first thing replaced — which is why it is worth knowing who honours the warranty. Ours is written against SOFARSOLAR, a publicly listed manufacturer with audited accounts and 42 GW of inverters shipped worldwide.
If you might add a battery later, say so now. Fitting a hybrid inverter at the start costs less than fitting a second inverter in five years.
In every quote we write
- Hardware, labour and the STC rebate as separate lines, so you can compare it against anyone else’s.
- A CEC-approved inverter certified to AS/NZS 4777.2, installed by an accredited installer.
- Ten years on the inverter, backed by the manufacturer rather than the retailer.
- Grid connection application and STC paperwork handled by us — that is the part that takes the time.
- Monitoring from day one, so you can tell whether it is working.
Interval data if your meter has it, a recent bill if it does not. We model your real consumption pattern rather than an average household, and if solar alone is the wrong answer for you, the quote will say so.