Solar, Batteries & Off-Grid
The value in solar has shifted. Feed-in tariffs are a fraction of what they were, so a system earns its keep by covering what you use rather than by exporting as much as possible — which is exactly why batteries have gone from a nice extra to the part that makes the numbers work. We start with your bill, not your roof.
What we do
Worth knowing
What you get paid to export is a fraction of what you pay to buy power back. Every kilowatt-hour you use yourself is worth several times one you send out. That single fact is why a battery changes the maths, and why shifting the pool pump, hot water or the washing to the middle of the day is often worth more than adding panels.
If the house is empty during the day and the load lands at night, a battery has plenty of work to do and stacks up well. If someone is home using power while the sun is out, the solar is already covering that and the battery has less to catch. We would rather run the numbers on your actual usage than sell you storage you will not fill.
A battery retrofit is entirely doable, and we do plenty of them. But if storage is on the cards at all, designing for it up front usually means a hybrid inverter instead of two inverters, one set of approvals instead of two, and no wasted gear. Even if the battery comes in a couple of years, say so at the quote.
The Gold Coast is Energex; the Tweed and Northern Rivers are Essential Energy. They have different application processes, different export limits and different approval timeframes, and battery installations have their own requirements again. We work across both regularly, so the paperwork is not a surprise partway through.
Federal and state incentives for solar and batteries change regularly, and any figure written on a website is out of date before long. Ask us when you enquire and we will tell you what is actually available and what you qualify for.
With no grid to lean on, sizing has to allow for a run of overcast days, the surge of starting a pump or compressor, and a generator that will actually start when it is needed. Undersized off-grid systems are miserable to live with and expensive to put right afterwards.
How it works
Twelve months of usage tells us far more than a roof measurement. We are looking at when you use power, not just how much.
Orientation, pitch, shading through the day and across the seasons, roof condition, and what the switchboard will take.
A system sized to your usage, with expected output and an honest view of what it will and will not cover — including whether storage is worth it now or later.
We handle the approval with Energex or Essential Energy before anything goes on the roof.
Installed, tested, metering sorted, and the monitoring set up so you can see exactly what it is doing.
Questions
Sometimes, and it turns on your usage pattern, your tariff and how much you value keeping the lights on in an outage. We are happy to tell you when the answer is not yet — that is a better outcome than storage that takes fifteen years to pay for itself.
Usually yes. The main question is your existing inverter — some accept a battery directly, others need a separate battery inverter or a hybrid replacement. We will look at what you have and tell you which applies before quoting.
Only if it is set up for it. Backup is a separate function to storage, and it needs the right equipment plus nominated essential circuits wired to it. Tell us at the quote if that matters to you, because it changes the design.
It depends on your daytime consumption far more than your roof area. We work it out from twelve months of billing data. Bigger is not automatically better once you account for what exporting actually pays.
Federal and state schemes change regularly, so we do not publish figures that will be wrong in six months. Ask when you enquire and we will tell you what is current.
Yes. Faulty inverters, failed isolators, systems that have quietly stopped producing, and orphaned installs where the original company has closed are a regular part of the work.
Get in touch
Quotes are free and obligation-free. Send the details through and we'll get back to you — usually the same day.