Two quotes for the same shed roof can land many kW apart, and the gap is almost always in how the system was sized to your business, not the panels themselves. Here's what that gap actually looks like in practice.
The Usual Approach
System sized to your roof, not your load
A system gets quoted around how much roof space is available, not your actual demand profile or the hours your business draws the most power. Result: a system that looks big on paper but barely dents your peak demand charges.
Broker or comparison-site estimate
No site visit, no look at your switchboard or three-phase supply, no review of your actual business electricity bills. The number you see is built to win the tender, not to match your site — and no installer is accountable once the sale is made.
The SEG Approach
Based on your last 12 months of business bills
We review your actual usage and demand pattern, assess your roof or ground-mount site in person, and design a system around your business, not a template — a real payback period, installed by the crew who designed it.
The full process runs five stages. Here's where commercial sizing fits into the first three.
We review your last 12 months of business electricity bills, assess your roof or site, and map your load profile before recommending a system size.
Your system is specified from your actual demand data, not a catalogue size. You get an exact payback period and return before you sign anything.
STC certificates are calculated and applied as an upfront discount, handled entirely by us.
The panels rarely fail. What tends to go wrong is everything around them.
Deducted from the price you're quoted, not promised as a future refund you have to chase.
You're told exactly which panels, inverter and hardware are going on your roof.
Backed in writing, not a handshake. If it's our fault in year 12, it's still our problem.
Most businesses use the bulk of their power during business hours — the exact hours solar generates. That means a system sized correctly against your actual load profile, not just the roof space available, delivers far higher self-consumption than a residential install ever can. Quoting to fill a roof instead of to match your demand is one of the most common reasons commercial systems underperform against the numbers in the original pitch. Our free audit exists specifically to avoid that outcome.
Small-scale Technology Certificates are created based on your system's size, your location and the number of years remaining in the scheme, then assigned to us as an upfront discount on your quote rather than something you claim yourself after the fact. The exact figure depends on current certificate pricing at the time of your install, which is why we calculate it during your audit rather than advertising a flat number that may not hold by the time you sign. Your accountant can confirm how any additional depreciation benefits apply to your specific business.
In practice, this means we look at your last 12 months of business bills, not just your most recent one, to account for seasonal swings in trading hours or production. We assess your roof structure and load capacity (or a ground-mount site), your orientation and any shading from neighbouring buildings, and your existing switchboard and supply — single or three-phase. Refrigeration, machinery, ducted air conditioning and any planned additions like a battery are all factored into the design before a number gets quoted.
Solar alone still leaves a business exposed once the sun goes down or during a grid outage that stops trading altogether. Many of our commercial customers add a battery, either at the same time as the solar install or once the system has paid down enough of its cost to justify it, to smooth out demand spikes and keep critical equipment running through an outage.
Your 25-year workmanship warranty and the manufacturer warranties on your panels and inverter don't end when the installers leave. We monitor system performance remotely and flag any drop in output before it shows up as a jump in your next bill. If you'd like to see the full process from first contact through to year 25, our how it works page walks through every stage, or get in touch through our contact page to book your free audit.
Step 1 is a free, no-obligation energy audit. We review your actual bills and tell you exactly what’s possible — including if solar won't deliver the return you need. We'll contact you within 1 business day.
Book Your Free Energy Audit