Solar Deals Perth
At Infinite Energy we believe getting the best deal on solar isn’t about getting the lowest possible price on components. We believe it’s about securing and sourcing the best quality panels and inverters on the market.
Investing in a quality solar system will ensure it lasts the life of your building, and guarantees you receive the maximum return on your investment.
We’ve compiled the top 5 things to consider to you ensure you get the best deal on your brand new solar power system!
1. Check Your Panels
Ensure your panels come from a Tier 1 Manufacturer.
You’ve probably heard about Tier 1 Manufacturers, but you might not know what that actually means. To become Tier 1, the panel manufacturer has to meet the following guidelines:
Bankability
The panel manufacture must have provided products to five different projects, which have been financed non-recourse by five different banks in the past two years.
5 years in the business
In such a young industry, five years becomes proof of the manufacturer’s stability, its commitment to you, and the probability it will still be operating in the future to service its warranties.
Research and Development
A substantial amount of time and money has to be put into the research and development of the manufacturer’s products and processes. This leads to better quality and increased innovation.
Automated Manufacturing
All Tier 1 solar panels are produced through highly automated manufacturing techniques. This equates to an extremely high standard of quality, consistency, and reliability.
While choosing a Tier 1 manufacturer is not the be all and end all factor of choosing your solar panels, it’s definitely a great place to start.
Ensure your solar panel manufacturer has a significant Australian presence.
Stay away from panels that are directly imported from overseas. In the case of a future malfunction, you’ll have very little warranty support if the retailer is not around anymore. Think about it – how much success do you think you’ll receive calling up a Chinese company and demanding they fix your panels?
At Infinite Energy, we don’t import solar panels directly from overseas, only sourcing panels from manufacturers who have a significant presence in Australia. This provides you with multiple levels of warranty support.
Ensure your solar panels demonstrate superior performance in Australian conditions.
You need to ensure your solar panels just doesn’t survive the harsh Australian weather conditions but also thrive in it.
Infinite Energy is a research partner with the University of Western Australia through the Future Farm 2050 Project. The solar component of the project is designed to test various solar panel technologies in Australian conditions, including Monocrystaline, Polycrystaline and Thin Film (CIGS).
Infinite Energy has also installed a solar panel test facility for the East Metropolitan Regional Council (EMRC) which tests Monocrystaline, Polycrystaline and Thin Film (CIGS) solar panels. You can find more information here - EMRC Solar Test Facility.
We also use data from the Australian Government's solar test facility Desert Knowledge in Alice Springs and from respected solar industry publication Photon Magazine.
2. Choose a Quality Inverter
The solar inverter lies at the heart of your system and is responsible for the conversion of DC current (produced by the solar panels) to AC current. Purchasing a cheap inverter puts your whole investment at risk. To ensure your solar system keeps producing great results, Infinite Energy recommends addressing the following criteria when choosing your inverter.
Ensure your inverter is Australian Standard Compliant.
Purchasing an inverter that complies with Australian Standards ensures the safety of you and your family. To ensure your grid connected inverter is certified to AS4777 standards, simply head to the Clean Energy Council’s website to view the list of approved inverters.
Check your inverter’s warranty.
You should expect your inverter to last at least 10 years, and the majority of inverters offer warranties of 5 to 10 years.
Consider your inverter’s display.
Choosing an inverter with a quality display and data logging features allows you to check your solar system is performing as it should be without having to wait for your electricity bill. It also lets you calculate how much of your generated solar power you’re actually using, and thus the money you’re saving.
Ensure your inverter is 93% efficient or above.
The efficiency of your inverter measures how well the inverter converts the power it receives from the solar panels (DC current) into power available to your home or to the grid (AC current). The best solar panels on the market are useless without a quality inverter with an efficiency of 93% or above.
3. Why The Lowest Priced System May Not Be Your Best Option
Getting the best deal on your solar system is about so much more than price. Solar is a long term investment, and you only pay off your system quickly if it performs to original expectations. Purchasing a good quality system may cost you more initially, but it will ensure you continue to save on your electricity bills years into the future.
While purchasing cheap components may save you money initially, the cost of replacing faulty parts in the future will be substantially more expensive.
4. If a Price Looks Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is
If a solar deal seems too good to be true, we implore you to read the Terms and Conditions of the contract. T&C’s are where dodgy companies hide so called ‘Gotcha’ Clauses.
Some ‘Gotcha’ Clauses we’ve seen enable the solar company in question passing any liability onto the contracted installer, set a maximum liability of $100, and switch out agreed upon products (panels or inverters) with cheaper, inferior models.
And, like their name implies, you won’t find out about the ‘Gotcha’ Clause until something goes wrong. Some providers won’t provide you with their T&C’s unless you specifically ask, and in the worst cases we’ve seen, some solar providers don’t even have T&C’s at all.
These ‘Gotcha’ Clauses are how dodgy solar companies are able to offer such cheap products – the lack of accountability and money saving tactics more than make up the difference in prices.
5. Do your homework
At Infinite Energy, we believe that it’s better to go with an experienced company rather than a company that offers you a really cheap price with no experience.
Why? Well, it all comes down to your warranty. If something happens to your system a year or two after installation and your provider has closed down – and trust us, it happens (in the last three years we’ve seen 35 solar providers go out of business in WA) – there’ll be no one to service your system or your warranty claim.
So while the cheaper deal with a less reliable company may seem like the right decision in the short run, it isn’t in the long run.
At Infinite Energy we take great pride in our no pressure, honest and informative sales approach. As a Clean Energy Council’s Approved Solar Retailer status, you can be assured that we adhere to all existing legislation and regulations, and promise a five year whole of system warranty for all our installations.
For more information or to discuss the potential of solar for your home or business, simply call 1300 074 669, or submit an online enquiry.
