Solar Power installers in the ACT: Recommendations and cautionary tales?

We had our install by Solar Shop. Very happy with the process, service and install. I would be wary of the new companies that have just set-up to take advantage of this boom. They are probably people who were recently installing roof insulation.

Ken_Big_ones said :

Hahaha- citisolar . . . . They tell you their perlight panels are worth $1200 each and they charge you $6 – $9000 for a 1.5KW system. In actual fact the panels retail for $500 each and if you call Winsolar in QLD they can bring in a container full and sell them to you for $390 each. This means that including your rebate, Citisolar make a nice $9000 profit from selling u a 1.5KW system at around $8000.

Hi. I’ve heard good things about the quality of citisolar products.. I am wondering how you arrived at the 9k profit of selling a system for 8k. i was told the rebate is about 3000 for 1.5 system, thanks.

Also I should mention that citisolar offer the signage to everyone. They tell you that they are looking for 2 display homes in the area then if u agree to advertise by putting a small sign out the front of your house, they will offer you a “tonight only” discount of an already incredibly over the top retail price..! Watch OUT

Hahaha- citisolar . . . . They tell you their perlight panels are worth $1200 each and they charge you $6 – $9000 for a 1.5KW system. In actual fact the panels retail for $500 each and if you call Winsolar in QLD they can bring in a container full and sell them to you for $390 each. This means that including your rebate, Citisolar make a nice $9000 profit from selling u a 1.5KW system at around $8000.

CitiSolar based in Isaccs is small but makes up for it by offering longer warrantys, 3 levels of inverters and uses only the highest grade mono cyrstaline panels. They showed me examples of customers in canberra and worked with me on pricing in exchange for refferals and signage. They are local to canberra and use local installers which might come in handy if we ever upgrade the roof and need to get them reinstalled. citisolar.com.au is the site

Thanks michcom. No, my Kanekas are on a sloping tiled roof, but not perfectly oriented. My 1.8 system got a high of 9.0kwh in March (March ave=6.9), and last Sunday (20th) got 4.4. Those figures indicate that you’re getting better efficiency than me. Not a lot in it but over the life of the panels will add to quite a bit. Thanks for that – it just gives me a bit of a comparison.

What is sadly lacking in the solar energy market are case studies showing exactly what people are achieving on the ground, not theoretical figures produced by the panel manufacturers.

Whatever you do, avoid using Modern Solar at all costs. We signed the contract with them a year ago, and it was only with the help of Fair Trading that we actually had the installation completed last week.

+ another for solar shop

The only negative experience I had was that the installers broke a few cement tiles (which I’m sure was an accident) but they didn’t tell me, or try and fix it. As it turns out, it didn’t really matter to me, as I had a pile of spare ones in the shed.

Apart from that, it was a top notch install. The service was great, they were ready to install within a month of laying down a deposit, and they dealt with all the paperwork and ACTEW/ACT Government certifications. The Kaneka panels are made in Japan, and the SMA inverter is made in Germany – top quality stuff. It cost me $4990 for a 1.44KW system (which we bought almost a year ago).

54-11,

It’s unfortunate that you felt mislead, if I understand correctly, your panels are not orientated north, but rather just facing straight up? This would certainly effect how much you can generate, particularly during winter when the sun is so low in the sky. I wonder why they didn’t recommend some frames so they could be better positioned?

By comparison, last Sunday (one of the shortest days of the year) we achieved 4.2kwh and in March we were getting around 8.5kwh / day. This is on our 1.44Kw system, and it too is not ideally orientated (half our panels are facing NE, and the other half NW).

StrangeAttractor said :

hope to have my system installed by the end of June, which I think will be unlikely.

You think correctly.

We went solar shop and have been very happy. Solar Shop may not be the cheapest, but they seem to be in it for the long run and care about their reputation and operating professionally. They don’t sell the junk systems, so they’ll seem a little more expensive than some solar vendors. Make sure you compare like with like.

Maybe I’m a geek, but It’s a great feeling to get home and see how much energy you’ve produced for the day.