How to choose a good solar installer (and the red flags)

A solar system is a 25-year investment, and the biggest factor in how well it performs is who installs it. The industry has plenty of excellent, conscientious installers — and a few cowboys. Here’s how to tell them apart.

The green flags

• A registered electrician who holds the Mains Parallel Generation Systems endorsement doing the grid-tied work.
• A Certificate of Compliance and an independent Record of Inspection provided as standard.
• Honest sizing based on your actual power use, not the biggest system they can sell.
• A production estimate given as a realistic range, with the assumptions explained.
• Clear, itemised quotes: components, what’s included, what’s not, and the warranties.

The red flags

• High-pressure sales tactics or ‘today only’ pricing.
• Vagueness about compliance, the CoC and inspection, or who’s doing the electrical work.
• A single hero production number with no assumptions behind it.
• A quote dramatically cheaper than the rest — usually something’s been left out.
• No interest in how you actually use power.

Questions worth asking

Ask who does the electrical work, whether they hold the Mains Parallel Generation endorsement, and whether you’ll get both a Certificate of Compliance and a Record of Inspection. Ask what panels and inverter they use and why. Ask how they arrived at the production estimate. The quality of the answers tells you a lot.

Get a second opinion

If you’ve got quotes and a gut feeling but no way to judge the technical side, an independent expert can review them for you — no allegiance to any installer, just an honest read on which is genuinely the better job. That independent second opinion is exactly what SolarLink offers.

Sources

• Mains Parallel Generation Systems endorsement — EWRB
• Certification requirements for PV systems — WorkSafe New Zealand