$10k Vs $20k Vs $30k Solar Quotes

If you gotten three solar quotes, and they are all widely different prices, there’s usually a reason why. Most homeowners think that it’s the same products slapped with a different price tag. But, the difference between a $10,000 quote and a $30,000 quote can be massive, and not just on the product side, but the quality you’re getting from the business doing the install. I’m Jason. And I’m Cam.

We’re the owners of Source Energy Group, where we’ve designed and installed countless solar and battery systems for Australian homeowners. In this episode, we’re breaking down exactly what you’re likely to get at each price point, what corners get cut, and how to figure out what your home actually needs before you sign anything. Welcome back, guys. Uh Delphi is joining us here again, and obviously Cam’s here with me as always. For those that don’t know Delphi, Delphi is in our support team, so you know, once you get a system installed through us, and you call up to find out some information, you’re going to get Joe and Delphi answer the phone.

Today, we’ve got a quite a good topic, I believe. It’s just, you know, all about the different price variations out there in the marketplace. Yeah. You know, and they’re they’re quite big, you know? Someone could be looking at a quote for 10K, 20K, and 30K, and that’s it’s all the same household.

So, understandably, it’s really confusing. Absolutely. Yeah. What’s your view on that one there, Cam? Well, we we say it a fair few times, but the the Aldi special or the Bunnings special.

Yeah. Shouldn’t mention names, or I’ll sell it. Um Yeah, yeah, just TV on I reckon. Yeah, lower lower end of the margin if it’s all the one property. I my my theory on it would be your your 10K quotes would just be your your ambassador style brand ambassador style companies.

Um just banging out big big numbers out the door, and not really there to look after their customers. Uh you got to look out for the product that they’re trying to push on the customer. Yeah. Um your your 20K ones probably probably not the worst thing ever. Um, it’s more what I’d I’d view as your subcontractor level.

Um, they’re essentially just charging you for an install and the product on top. Just whether whether they can handle the after-sales service and uh, be around in That’s a big one, isn’t it? Yeah, be around in the time. Um, not to say that 100% of companies do go down pricing that margin, but if if they’re around the 20k mark for top-tier system, yeah. But it does sting a little bit of alarm bells.

Um, your 30k is the like they’ve got a office and back-end support. Um, that’s the extra money you’re paying for is is that back-end support and the longevity of your system and your support, so. Yeah. Yeah, the longevity support, the after-sales care. Essentially that peace of mind that, you know, you invest in this uh, asset, you know, the power generation, so you save on your bills for years to come.

At some point when something goes wrong, you just want to make sure someone’s there. Well, look at it though, like 10k versus 20k versus 30k doesn’t actually tell you jack Yeah, exactly. Okay? Like you gave a very good explanation there of the different levels are in the marketplace, but you know, if I’m sitting here and one’s 10k, one’s 20k, one’s 30k, are they the same system? Have they done the same design?

Have they looked at the same things? Company’s just one part of it as is the price, isn’t it? Yeah. So, if we’re talking the exact same system size, doesn’t necessarily have to be the products, but we’re talking the exact same system size cuz all three quotes have designed properly, you know, then we look in at a it is a price variance because we’re looking at the exact same system size, aren’t we? Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Okay. But like I’ve sat down with clients before and you’re comparing quotes and then, you know, someone’s like, it was actually Alan that was on a few episodes ago. I went through this with her last week. Um, Jack will tell them. Ellen Ellen, like she sat down with a person and they had a quote for a 10 kilowatt system that was 10k.

And he’s just like all I want is a 10 kilowatt. Tell me what a 10 kilowatts worth. Yeah. And she’s like sure we can do that. No worries.

But realistically we got no idea why this person was even offered it and I don’t know that if that’s what I need to offer you. Yeah. He’s like oh fair point and goes through. Ellen designs it up and goes through and ends up sizing with a 16 kilowatt system. And it was about a 30 kilowatt battery or 33 kilowatt hour battery to actually achieve what he wanted to achieve.

Yeah. Cuz obviously asked the questions what’s the goal. You know, you just want an ornament on your roof. Cuz that’s what the system was by itself. Yeah.

That put a small dent in the power bill. Once it goes through everything, the system needed to be quite large, needed a battery. And I guess then the person understood the difference. So where I was going there, by the time she sized up that system it was not 10k like he was looking for. It was actually closer to I think it was just over 20,000 or something like that.

So it’s quite a difference in price but he’s now got a system designed to what he wanted to do. Yeah, exactly. Should do an episode on that. I think we should too. 100% yeah. Tell people how it actually works.

Yeah. Yeah, what we actually do when we’re talking to someone. Exactly what Ellen done with that person I just gave. Definitely. 100% Yeah, it’s definitely worth it at home. Worth it at home.

Yeah. It’s something that we get a lot all the time. Yeah, I get that a lot when customers call and things like that. They’re chasing that price. And regardless of whether or not it’s their budget, you’ve still got to outline exactly what they’re using it for, how it’s going to benefit them in the future, how long it’s going to last for.

There’s so many different aspects of Yeah. we need to be educating people about to look for. It’s not just about that price, because that $10,000 price from a different person could be lower products that we wouldn’t usually use, um that might not last the distance as well. Yeah, definitely. You see that when uh they sort of they’re like a little skit on it or whatever and it’s like um say you want solar panels, yeah. So, they put money on the table.

Mhm. All right, then you want inverter, then you want batteries. You want a site inspection with that? No. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, do you want after sales support? Yeah. All right, like yeah. That’s that’s the cookie cutter spec of that I guess that we’re talking about is is that is the customer at 10k going to be offering What? a proper in home audit, a look over exactly how it’s like your system’s going to work and what whether it’s going to future proof you.

Are they going to then like on have everything ready for installation day, all the applications absolutely Well, it’s It’s a very valid point. So, like let’s just assume the 10, 20, 30k ones here are all the exact same size system. So, we are comparing apples for apples. Exactly the same job. Someone in that 20 to 30k range is generally most of the time everything’s going to be included except for things like a meter box upgrade or something that’s not actually not part of the system and what it should do.

And what I find a lot of the time is those lower end ones, it’s it’s priced at a low end to get the hook to sink right in and and get them to install, but then it’s like well, we it’s two-story house, so we’re going to have to add this on it, you know? There’s all extra add-ons that get chucked on it. Mhm. Yeah. This one before is sometimes taken off.

Yeah. It’s further that. Yeah, yeah, 30 panels for 10k. Uh yeah, well, we’ve got to drop five panels, we’ll give you 100 bucks off a panel. Yeah.

Actually, which one’s better? It all all depends on uh what what the product is, really. What service you’re going to get out of the product. Uh yeah, yeah, how long are they going to last? So, you got him?

No, no, haven’t got him. No, but come back. Yeah, yeah, no, I’ll come back to that. Everyone like looks and focuses at the price, but the price is not actually what they’re concerned about. Okay?

They’re concerned about the long-term cost and what’s it really going to cost me down the track. Yeah. So, there’s that old saying, a man pays twice, you know? You pay 10 grand today, generally those ones at the 10 grand, that’s what we spoke about plenty of times before, that is a high volume, as you mentioned before, Cam. They’re just relying on high volumes.

They’re very much sales companies that are subcontracting there. And I’ve touched on it before, some contractor actually wants to wake up and go to work and do a good job, so that’s not the issue. Mhm. It’s generally when something goes wrong, cuz something will go wrong, you know? As good a job as we do, we know and we’re realistic at some point, there might be something go wrong.

As I said, we’re going to answer the phone and fix that problem. Yeah. But where you have that issue in that low end, say in this example, the 10k one, 99% of the time something goes wrong, they’ll call the sales company and they’re like, “We didn’t install it, call the installer.” They call the installer, if they’ve got the installer’s number. A lot of the time they won’t. won’t. Um installer’s like, “Well, we’ll just a contractor, they’re the one that sold it to you, go back to them.” And there’s just that blame game and and forth.

I’ve actually seen it recently. Um I won’t mention any names in this, but yeah, the exact same situation. Customer had an issue with the system, actually quite a big issue. Then the company went back to an installer who did the original PV, so the solar on the roof. Yeah.

He contacted the customer. The customer sent him photos back of a system that you telling me this one now? Yeah, absolutely nothing like what he installed. And then there’s been a battery installed there since. The full DC run’s been re-routed entirely.

Like the entire system’s been redone, which then the person who installed the battery is now liable for that, not the person who did the original system. Yeah. And the he went back to the company and said, “Oh, it’s not on me.” So they’ve like threatened him with they’ve dobbed him into the AISO and whatnot because What’s That’s actually Uh the customer’s still not sorted out. It’s the tit for tat. Yeah.

It’s And that’s what costs you in the long run. Yeah, that’s a very good point you brought up and it’s kind of a little bit off topic here, but it is on topic. It’s like So this is it’s probably a big misconception people have at the moment is about getting batteries installed to an existing system. Yeah. Um exactly what you said there.

Whoever installs that battery to the existing system is now taking ownership of that solar system. Yeah. Because it’s got to be configured and wired correctly, don’t it? Yeah, 100% and hooked into it and then yeah, that that’s got to be a compliance system on the roof as well. No cables hanging down.

Mhm. Um all new tests and everything done cuz that’s a new system. So I guess that’s it’s kind of it is still on topic cuz this could be one of those cheaper quotes that you get coming through. If you it’s just a battery install, not necessarily a solar and battery. Um cuz a lot of jobs these days are just battery install.

You could be looking at a 10 grand versus a 15 grand or a 20 grand battery install. You know, that cheaper end one I can guarantee they’re they’re not telling you that they’re taking on the ownership of the new system. They’re going to palm it off this like this scenario here. Whereas that higher end, they’re taking into account that we’ve actually got to reconfigure the system. We’ve got to make sure all the strings and everything are logged up uh connected properly.

Uh and allow for that we’ve now taken ownership. Mhm. Um it’s our responsibility. And that’s just something that’s got to be taken into the equation, doesn’t it? Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. All right. Um my uncle was actually which Sorry. Sorry to dub you in here. Uh if you’re listening, Uncle Shane, you’re a bloody legend.

He he rang me up for my advice on it. He went down the path of like more like a 10K style battery setup at his place. And it was it it’s exactly the poor man pays twice. Like I don’t know how that system’s going now, but that was my warning out to him. It’s exactly that.

Um you can you can either pay this now with something like a GoodWe ESA or a Sungrow, which he he knows he’s a he’s a fiery, so yeah, he knows which ones burn down. As a fiery, he didn’t even choose the uh pre-built fire extinguishers and everything. No, no, he didn’t. Uh Actually, he knows how to put out a fire. Yeah, that’s it.

Let it burn down. Yeah, you know, he he’s he said last I spoke to him it was going pretty good. He he does ask all the all the right questions, too. They probably be lucky to pull the wool over his eyes. Yeah.

But still that will itself. No one will fix it. And you will pay again. Which that was his exact words as well. It’s that cheap I’ll just rather pay for it twice.

Yeah. Well, that that is the thing. Like yeah, it’s not that the cheaper ones aren’t going to do what they’re designed to do cuz they’re designed to do a job and they do do it, but they come with risks based on how the company’s structured, based on the product usage, based on how it gets installed. That’s it. You might might like this might buy inverter A or battery A and that battery will be perfect and outlast the other nine in the production line because that one was the lucky one that got done correctly and passed all its checks and The the three all the other nine, got me.

That’s sort of just how I see it, but Yeah. Well, I just had a good good good good. I’ll say that example of the last client I brought on board, who are actually installing today. Yeah. Nice big system.

And I took him through the process that we can connect and tie into your existing system. This is what it’s going to need. This is what it’s going to cost. He spoke about, you know, just wanting to do the job right or once. I said, all right, if you’re with that attitude, which is a good attitude.

Okay, it’s not I have a good attitude. Yeah, it’s a good it’s a good attitude. You don’t have that attitude. It’s like reality is uh you bought this house with that system on there. Okay, so that you don’t have any financial Ties Ties to it.

It’s just it came with the house. Yeah. Reality is it could last another year, two, it could last five or 10. Okay. So, I showed him both scenarios, and his response, he chose which one he wanted.

And he’s like Let’s go with that original design. I’m happy to take on the risk of how long that other system lasts. Yeah. You know what I mean? Whereas you’ll get people that will just tell you you can either can’t do it, and they’ll just try and sell you a whole new one, cuz what we talk about before where it’s got more commission built into it.

They say they want the bigger system. It’s just Yeah. It’s come back to just designing what they need and just giving them the right advice, I guess. Yeah. Let them choose. 100%.

Yeah, just yeah, you got to give the customer the ammo to Yeah, let them make their own decision. If if they’re unsure, that’s back to what we’ve always talk about is people think solar’s a scam, cuz they’ve been ripped off before. Um we’re just trying to change that stigma, I guess. Yeah. Absolutely.

And need to change that stigma. No one’s going to complain about paying 30,000 bucks. Actually, we have been told that exact same thing before. Um had a customer uh that was installed. And she mentioned if she knew about our system and what we install, she would have just gone down with us.

She wouldn’t have cared about paying more. Her friend actually got installed by us. And she was upset that she went down that road, not not with us, so. Yeah, so she got installed by another installer Mhm. or another company. And then her friend went through us, and we’re obviously seeing the issues and everything that she’s been having, and yeah.

It was It wasn’t a pricing. Just had she known the difference. Yeah. That’s it. Yeah.

We do have a We’re already even having an ad running in there with two batteries. One of them is actually her system. Yeah. It shows the essay battery, and it shows her system. Both the same size.

When the original one was all price driven, I guess. Well, not probably all price driven, but I guess uneducated and thought was getting a good deal. Now that she understands the difference, definitely would have went a different way. Mhm. And that’s actually why I’ve We’ve put that sort of ad out there just so people can see that straight away.

Yeah. Could go on all day. There’s lots of different reasons. Oh, definitely. Why there’s different costs.

Mhm. You got any thoughts there, Delph, on that? The the what’s better? You getting any Anyone calling in? Anyone questioning?

Um look, I mean, like I said before, you know, our reviews speak for themselves. Our customers were all really happy. Lots of customers do call in for for price comparisons. They have lots of different questions. They’re confused.

But again, we put them in touch with our sales guys. Our sales sales guys answer all their questions, ease their mind, tell them all the correct things. And we always win the deal. If you’re confused about your price differences and you got multiple quotes or anything like that, and there’s big variations in this, hopefully we’ve provided some information around what the differences are. But at the end of the day, whoever’s giving you those quotes should be able to highlight and show you the difference.

And I don’t mean in a way where they’re trying to manipulate you to win and accept theirs, but they should honestly be able to just go, “Well, this one is XYZ. This one is other letters of the alphabet.” But end of the day, if you’re looking into a and you want to make the jump, or not saying make the jump, you just want to actually truly understand what system you need to achieve whatever it is you want to achieve with your power bill, okay? You may be able to get it down to zero or as close to zero as possible depending on your house. It may only be 50, 60, 70%. End of the day, you’re looking to save on your power bill.

Give Delphi a call and we’ll organize someone to come out and show you what it can do for you and your household. Keep an eye out for the dodgy installers. Keep an eye out for the the dodgier systems. And give people a spot to go, I guess. If you’re If you jump on Facebook, there’s a solar installer Q&A for Australia.

A lot of people ask questions in there. Uh there’s also a one called crap solar that anyone can join. Um but yeah, my my strong suggestion on there is don’t post in it cuz it’s it’s a very dog-eat-dog environment in that. So, yeah. Cats with their claws ready to pounce.

Keyboard Keyboard warriors. realm. But um yeah, just jump in, do a do a bit of a search, do your own homework before you do sign up with anyone. If you do jump in there and start posting, “I got this from this company and um got stuffed around.” They’re likely going to know who did it. If you did go for a TV ad one or something like that. Well, the big ones on in there is if anyone’s trying to give you advice and they’re hiding behind a phantom ghost um guest profile.

That’s a big warning sign. Yeah. Did you tell them once? We’ve done a couple episodes before with uh dodgy installers, red flags, what to look out for. If yeah, if you’s uh ever going on going back and having a look what to look out for, um couple of ways you can do it, yeah.

Have a listen to our podcast. And well, yeah, jump on crap solar, jump on solar installers Q&A, do Do of a search, you won’t find us there, thank