Battery Rebate Rush: What Solar Installers Are Seeing on the Front Line - EP63

I think obviously at the moment, right now, everyone's going, shit, I can't keep paying $3.26 for diesel. So yeah, you'd be mad to not start looking into that space. Do you find that they listen to you or you sometimes walk away and go, I have no idea how they made that decision?

Look, I think Chat GPT has been a big factor in people thinking they know what they know. We really want to be really customer focused and make sure they know what they're getting. Like we're not going to bullshit them. Whereas Joe from down the road that's just going to go install this thing and slap it on and then his phone's going to get thrown out.

On the drive home from the install, it's a pretty sad thing to see. Like where we're based in Tweedheads, it's a quite aging population, and you see these talks come in and do the door knocking and sell all these systems that don't make any sense to these poor old people. Presented by Your Energy Answers. Welcome to the YEA podcast.

As you know, we always do solar, batteries, that kind of thing. Today we've got somebody who's right on the ground level of this whole battery boom at the moment, Hugh Salisbury. He operates basically from Tweet all the way down to Byron. He's a solar retailer, and he can tell us really what's happening on the ground with the battery rebate right now.

People are still frothing at the mouth because it is getting towards the end of April. And now people ring up and say, Oh, can I still have it installed? Welcome to the podcast, Hugh. And what's your answer when somebody rings you up and still hopes to get the rebate for April?

Look, at the moment we're um we're trying to look after as many people as we can. Um obviously it's yeah, it's it's finishing up quite soon, but we're we're at a spot where we're pretty much filled up, but we're gonna be trying to look after people. He's such a nice guy. I mean, seriously, he's so nice.

The reality is if you sat on your butt as an end customer to the 20th of April, let's say, and you waited to get a solely installed on the car and battery rebate, good luck to find a half uh good installer. So he doesn't want to say to customer, I'm not available. I get it, but the truth is we'll do our best to look after you. If you possibly have to count a little bit under the May rebate.

So, Hugh, tell me how you started. Um, so look, I've been in the industry since 2014. I um actually did my trade down here in Sydney with a company called MPV Group, learned a lot of great things down there. Um, and then yeah, once uh I finished my trade, ended up moving back up home towards the Borom Bay area, started working for another company there, and then about four and a half years ago, I decided to start my own thing.

And you're married? Not married, engaged. Right. So is your partner kind of calling you half mad to get phone calls at midnight?

She gets pretty sick of it sometimes, but it's all part and parcel of it. Um it's yeah, there's plenty of times where I've got phone calls going on in the back of the car and I've got my son there screaming and doing the whole thing, which is nice to kind of show we're a family-operated business, but yeah, things are going great so far. So when you start as a relatively small solar retailer in a regional area, reputation is everything, isn't it? Yeah, of course, definitely.

So, in terms of customer service, do you find in the regionals too that you sometimes get these solar cowboys come in and just basically burn and slash and then disappear and you guys stand there locally and holding the can? Yeah, it's it's it's a pretty sad thing to see. Like where we're based in Tweetheads, um, it's a quite aging population, and you see these, you know, these hawks come in and do the door knocking and sell all these systems that don't make any sense to these poor old people and you know.

What more sense from the quality or from the size? All of the above, basically. So system size too small or too big, battery size too big or too small, and then just the installation itself is usually pretty subpar, which you know we come in and pick up the pieces when things fall apart, really. So you're in the region, really.

I mean, Tweethead, how do you would you call it region? Yeah, look, so Northern Rivers, Gold Coast region, Tweetheads, kind of shires, things like that. Um, yeah, we basically travel hour, hour and twenty past Tweetheads either way. Um, you know, being from Byron Bay Area myself, usually uh from where I've grown up, I know the aircrop well.

I know a lot of people down that way as well, which is great. So it does help kind of having that local knowledge of the area, I find as well. So was it a bit scary to start your own business? Yeah, of course.

It's um a very daunting thing when you're you know you're starting a young family and you've you know you've just bought your first home and a lot of things are up in the air. But I think um, you know, you've just got to have that drive to want to keep on trying. You know, times get tough and you just find a way to get out of it, really. So you find that what's your recommendation to young electricians and apprentices after they've finished their apprenticeship?

Stay with the company, learn a bit more, or just go out and fly like an eagle and crash? Like most of them are doing at the moment. Um definitely go and get some more experience somewhere else. I like I worked for a company throughout my trade and then I moved up north and started working for someone else.

I wanted to gain that extra bit of knowledge from a different perspective. Otherwise, you just know one way and that's it. Um and it's just you need to know a lot of different avenues and ways to get things done because you know this industry does shop and change a lot as well, and you need to be quite adaptive to it. So if you let's say I in the tweet by an area and I pick Salisbury, uh Sol and Electrical, what do I get?

What do you get? Yeah, other than a pretty good-looking fellow. Yeah, well, you get you get that. You get some pretty good quality service.

Um, look, for us, like we really want to be really customer focused and make sure they know what they're getting. Like, we're we're not gonna bullshit them. We're gonna make sure they know exactly what system we're gonna get, what it's gonna produce, how it's gonna look for them 10 years ahead, 15 years ahead. Because, like, you know, at the end of the day, your reputation's everything.

If you install something and within a year or two it's completely like null and void, what's the point? Meaning null and void in terms of the use because it was too small or too big, or null and void in terms of falling apart. Well, both, all the above, really. So, you know, you see it time and time again, like we've discussed previously.

Um you know, you see these companies that install systems that are just so inappropriately sized for what they need. Um Can you give me a sample? Well, you know, you see a I've had it plenty of times since this rebate's happened. Oh, I John down the road can get a 50 kilowatt um battery for four grand.

But he's got a 6.6 eight-year-old system. It's not even gonna get close to charging it up. He's gonna be a 30-40% charge generally half the time, and he's got a pool and he's got this, that, and the other, and it's you know, he's just pretty much he just was uh uh won over by the 50 kilowatt.

And you know, I'd do my best to try and let these people know these things and let them know, obviously, too, like if they're not filling their batteries over a certain period of time, they're gonna start avoiding their warranties. So, you know, you're just up shit creek without a paddle, basically. So they wouldn't realise that, would they? If their batteries always just filling up to 60% and they can't actually get the baby full with the small solar system they got at the front, yeah.

Then uh you're saying there are some battery manufacturers who go, Well, if you never fill it, it actually after a while deteriorates and that's going to affect the warranty. Yeah, of course. And it's just something like we really push, especially when we are in these sales um processes with people and they are you know talking to these other batteries and talking with other people, we just like to be up front and be like, look, this is what we provide, this is what we think you should get based on the bills you've provided us and what we see in the future with EVs and things like that.

Um this is you know basically the process we go through. So would you say that if I'm a three or four people household right now and we're still looking at the electrification of Australia ahead of us, um with EVs coming and all of those things, should people really get potentially the largest system they can afford? Of course, Marcus. Um look, yeah, you're looking at upwards of 10 to 13 kilowatts at least.

You know, EVs are coming in, they're gonna be a lot more prominent in the next five to ten years for sure. And you know, the power from those, you're gonna need what, anywhere from 10 to 20 kilowatt hours, depending on the size of it. Um yeah, you're mad not to get a bigger system, I think. Now, anyway, that's for sure.

So, what panel do you recommend? Look, we've been we use a a fair few different panels, but probably our our most utilized panels would be our ICOs or ACO, not sure how you pronounce it. Or GINCO's, trainers, they've been around for a very long time. I think I've installed my first GINCO and trainer panels back in 2014.

So they've been around for a long time, they're trusted, you know, they're obviously in that middle tier of panel, not going to break the bank, but quite reliable as well. When it comes to the Aiko, that obviously if somebody has a smaller roof, you can get a bit more off it because they're a bit more efficient and all that. So if you follow that logic where you said, well, get the biggest system, wouldn't you then also try to get the most efficient panel? Of course, definitely.

But obviously, people come with budgets in mind and what they can actually afford and how it weighs up financially for themselves. So, you know, we just try and give them a couple of different options to go with and see how it sits for them, really, at the end of the day. But you know, when I was working for LG, we had the LG Neon R, which was the same uh efficiency kind of curve as what the ICO does, similar technology. And uh we sold them for $1.

09 a watt. Yeah. And the normal panels were maybe 50 cents. So we more than double the price.

But the ICOs compared to the mainstream panels is now like two or three, four cents more. So on a 10 kilowatt system, we're talking $400, $500 more for getting the top. The best yeah, of course. So I mean, are people really that tight?

Well, yeah, some people I I guess everyone's feeling the pinch a little bit at the moment, you know, fuel prices and everything. Like, you know, I'm paid $3.25, I think, today for some fuel. So like you can understand why people are trying to save money where they can, but yeah, as as an overall, you know, you're probably mad not to go down that route, really, aren't you?

Do you go into the sales process or you're more in the installation process or both? On both. So like I oversee a lot of our projects um on the ground, but yeah, I'm also in the sales um channels as well. Right.

Dealing with customers. Let's say if you look the customer honestly in the eye and say, look, for you, you've got a really nice house, the icos are black, smick. And beautiful panel, yeah. Um and I don't want to give you any of the, you know, I mean, luckily we don't have many silver frames anymore.

Yeah, but I don't want to give you one that's a bit uglier. Yeah. Um, and you really make a recommendation and say if, you know, you're gonna save yourself twenty thousand dollars in an uglier house. Yeah.

I recommend you go with this, but it will be four or five hundred bucks more. Do you find that they listen to you or or or you sometimes walk away and go, I have no idea how they made that decision? Look, I think Chat GPT has been a big factor in people thinking they know what they know. Um yeah, it's comes up a lot these days when they've pretty much sent you a whole what they want quoted and everything else.

And so you actually get emails that you can see directly, it's coming off chat. Basically, yeah, I think that one comes through this morning, which was hilarious. Um, but look, you know, it's good that people are doing their own research for sure. But you know, when it comes to that price point, you know, it's not a whole lot more, is it really at the end of the day?

So it's just trying to find that point to show people where the difference is and if they're happy to do it, and if not, look, Ginko panels or trainer panels, they're still gonna do a really great trick, and they've been around for a very long time. So it's one of those things that's you can recommend, but then it's yeah, exactly. But like, look, I I'd still say they they're still great panels, the the Jinkos and the and the trainers, they've been around for a long time, and yeah, I I like installing things that you can trust that are gonna stick around for longer as well.

Well, you don't want to really go back and start unboulding it. Not by any means. Not much money. Gee.

Um, now the whole battery boom, I mean, we wouldn't have predicted two years ago that we're suddenly moving from mainly solar. I mean, before the battery rebate, yeah, what was your ratio of solar only installed to solar and batteries? Yeah, it would have been nine to one, maybe even ten to one, really. Yeah.

It's a such a lot. But you would have seen your your kind of what's the word, ships swimming away a little bit because uh the people who were buying solar only in the last few years, in my opinion, didn't really get the same result as the ones when the feed-in tariff was 20 cents. Yeah. And so the solar benefits are really much more to people who are physically in the home during the day or businesses who've got freezer runnings, yeah, definitely.

Um, and things like that. But the the feed-in tariff you could really have to discount, so the benefits of solar overall was coming down a little bit. Yeah, it's but that was what you're selling. Yeah.

And now, what's your ratio on solar battery now? Oh, it's probably I'm probably doing one solar to every five or six batteries, I'd say. Right. So would you say nearly it's flipped from the nine to one?

Yeah, it's most inquiries now are batteries or solar and battery together. And would you argue that there are a lot of existing solar owners who have a solar system, but when you really analyze it, it is possibly not fit for purpose to run a big battery? Yeah, look, a lot of them. Yeah.

So like I'd say every second or third house we go to, there's a system that's, you know, got 185 watt to 220 watt panels, which are some of the first ones I was installing back in 2014. Um and look, they're still doing a certain job, but you know, if roof space is tight or you know, we may need to remove those and unfortunately put up some, not unfortunately, but put up some new ones and make sure we've got enough on the roof to support their new battery that they're gonna put in.

So but you see, if I'm a bit of a sleazy dzy sales guy, shoot me, I make the big money out of the solar battery. Yeah. Okay. And if I make the customer feel like that his existing solar system, oh, that's a beautiful system.

Oh, you had uh sharp panel, they were the best, you know. Uh it's only a one and a half kilowatt. I'm trying to sell you a 40 kilowatt hour battery. Um, but I say, oh no, no, we don't have to change the solar because I don't really want to touch the solar.

I want to just go in and make my main money on the battery and then do a run-up. AC couple and go. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So I'm gonna tell you I'm gonna fluke you out that, oh, and then you've got the three hours of free power and you're gonna use that.

Yeah, use that too. Don't spend the money on solar, you've got the battery, that's gonna help you. You know, you can you know discharge and charge different times of day, buy it and this and that. And then you walk in and go, that was complete bullshit and chamzzle.

But it's actually the customer likes it because it gives his costs low. Yeah, of course. What do you do then to kind of unscramble that sandwich and not look like somebody who's just trying to pee on it because you want to make more money? Yeah, it's it's quite difficult sometimes.

Um, and I found myself so many times over the last six to twelve months having pretty long phone calls with people trying to tell them these things and explain as to why you just want to make more money. Yeah, there's been a couple of real It's frustrating, isn't it? It's super frustrating because you're trying to do the real right thing by them. And you know, I pride myself on that.

I don't bullshit anyone, I try and make sure that everyone knows what's happening, what's in front of them, and what what we are trying to provide, which is gonna last them a long time. Whereas Joe from down the road that's just gonna go install this thing and slap it on, and then his phone's gonna get thrown out on the on the drive home from the install. It just yeah, it it does piss. But but don't you sometimes feel like uh you know there are some customers who definitely think they're no better, yeah, and they go, no, no, no, mate, two and a half, I'm not using much, I just want the big battery because down the track I've got an EV and I want to charge out of the battery, and they give you this whole story of whatever they got in their head, and you know, it's a bit like a debate sometimes with the partner.

In hindsight, now when you're as old as me, you go half the time that I had arguments with my uh partner, yeah. I shouldn't have had it. Because if I really honest and look into the mirror, there was no way I'm gonna change her mind. So why am I even wasting my breath?

There are customers like that. Yeah, of course. So why don't you just go with a flow and go, well, if he wants to give you a 40 kilowatt hour battery and you just want the battery, I would love to give you a solar and I think you need a solar, but I'm happy to give you just a quote on that. Are you interested?

Do you sometimes get tempted just to give up and do that? Not really. Because then six months down the road when it's not working on up sheet creek without a paddle again. So it's just not what we do.

Yeah, like I said, we try and do the right thing, and otherwise you just you're just constantly doing callbacks and dealing with the bad end of it all. So it's just it's just not worth it, really. All right. And there was no right or wrong answer, but uh No, I should have gone the sleazy route, yeah.

Yes. Anyway, that's uh that's interesting. So what's the what's the biggest satisfaction you get really on your job? I think when people come back to us in you know six to twelve months' time and their bills are you know zero or you know, just paying a minimal supply charge, it's it's pretty cool.

You run into McColl's or Woolies and you know local bakery or something like that, and they're just beaming to see you, they're really happy to see you. Um you know, we've recently installed a few where I've had people just call us up out of the blue and go, look, we're so happy with our installation, they've passed a few numbers on, and I think that's the satisfaction when you're getting the the um the referrals to really like makes you feel like you're doing the right job. Right.

Yeah, and you I mean, being in a small, smaller regional community and all that uh how could you actually operate other than doing the right thing? Because isn't word of mouth still so important? Yeah, definitely, especially like small town, like you know, I've grown up in a small community, and you know, a lot of people know a lot of people, and you probably know them through someone else, and you know, you you want to be known as someone that's doing the right thing by people, not the guy who's working in this 50 kilowatt on an old four kilowatt system.

So yeah, so it's it's it's one of those things that we do do our best to do. You know, you're not gonna always have the best outcomes with everything. Look, there's gonna be things that come up, but you just deal with those as as they come as well, you know. So what about batteries now?

I mean, this 50, 60 shiny brands come into Australia for the last year. Yeah, so how do you know which one to pick? What do you recommend? Look, we're uh probably our three most installed would be uh Sig Energy, obviously.

Um Easy Sun home, they're great little um more for the budget concept, yeah. And like look, I've put one in my home for the interim. We're not looking at staying around our place for a very long time. We're gonna be moving the next six to twelve months, we're hoping.

So put one in our place, it's doing the trick, you know, it's fantastic, does exactly what it needs. Um, and for the price point, I was mad not to put one in. And then probably Sungrow is our third most probably favoured. And you know, here and there we might do Fronius and BYD and things like that, but they're probably our most favoured in the three there.

I mean, basically, a lot of people offer that um good, better, best. Yeah, I'll say that again. A lot of people in the sales game, they offer that good, better, best offer in it. And I would say the easy sun would be sitting in the good with you.

Yeah. But between the Sungo and the SIC, it's very similar price point. Probably GoodWii. Ah, you've got GoodWii maybe in the middle, yeah.

Look, we haven't been installing a heap of them so far. Um, I loved GoodWe as a product when they first came out. I was installing a lot of them. Um, the company I was working for a few years ago, we're installing four or five GoodWeasers.

They're talking inverters now, just the just the grid tight inverters. But as a as a whole, the company I've found they were great, loved them. I think for a while their tech support just got to a point where it just was a bit difficult. So we went away.

They grew too much and didn't hire. From what I've heard, yeah, exactly. But from what I've heard now from you know, a lot of uh friends of mine in the industry, they've really come above again and they're really doing really well in their service space. So we have been quoting them again.

Um, and look, it looks great, they're a great inverter, great battery system. So it's definitely something we're gonna start looking into. So interesting. So you've got the seek, you've got the sun, growing looking at the Good Wee, easy sun.

Yeah. Um I haven't heard anything said about Tesla. No, um, just yeah, for no good reason at all. We just have never really kind of gone down that route.

Anyone I've worked with never had installed them either. So I think I've maybe put one in once. And look, it's they're a great, great machine. They've obviously got the the name in the industry and have been around for a very long time.

And I don't generally hear bad things about them, to be honest. So might be something to look into in the future. But what about the module stackability? That's really where it's moved into, isn't it?

Tesla seems to be, you know, you've got to have the whole bigger box type of thing. Do you think they're maybe redesigning that too to become? I may have been listening to one of your podcasts recently with um what was the guy that was on and he was saying there might be some pretty cool things happening soon with Tesla. Yeah, I think there was Derek from uh PSW Energy.

Yeah, of course. Shout out to Derek in Perth. He always travels to China to get the info from the fact that the free trips are scribes the fact that the free works to get the info before anybody else. I like it.

That was good, that was good. Okay, so not really hasn't come. Plus, I suppose if you're in the Byron area, that is a bit more left-wing, isn't it? Yeah, definitely for sure.

Yeah, and uh, despite those millionaires as well, but I mean they're still left wing. Anyway, I suppose Tesla cut down a bit of a U-turn in their uh group of people who were fanboys and fangirls because first he was the more progressive left. Yeah, and now they all hate him. It's hilarious.

I wasn't gonna say that. Oh, they do. There's lots of stickers getting around Byron actually going, we don't support Elon, which is absolutely hilarious. It's funny.

I've seen one which said um I bought this Tesla before I knew what he was like. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was one of the ones I think getting around to. But he's he's gone quiet again.

Now I think his shareholders have told him, listen, mate, you better get your head in the factory instead of into the politics. Yeah, of course. And now with Trump, I mean we we shouldn't probably go there in the podcast, but um very strange everything that's happening on that level. Is it do you feel there should be some medication dished out or who knows what they can?

Do to help him. Um it seems so all over the place and very uncertain. Like we were talking about earlier. I think I paid $3.

26 for fuel the other day and over a couple of vehicles. I think I paid a thousand bucks over a couple of days. So we need to try and either get the account get this sorted as soon as possible would be nice. So what I find is really strange, um the US is a big country.

But when you add Indonesia and Australia and Germany and Canada and whatever else, you put these in the pot, they're actually bigger in population than what the US is. So why aren't they all signing a petition and say stop the crap? I mean, the the the we're all kind of still even our own government, they're kind of dancing around the pudding. And you know, when he called it an excursion, nobody put a smiley double face with the tears running down next to that for what bull it was.

So I don't actually understand why even our own government is not calling stronger on the US to just what's the word, bring a bit of sanity back onto the table. I think sanity is a very good thing. And I think if one country asks and another country asks, another country asks, eventually the people in the US have to say, look, we're becoming the pariahs of the world. It's not a good idea.

Yeah, it's not looking good. And I I think he's just lost his marbles, to be honest. Old Donald. He's he's he's doing a Biden's sleepy Joe, yeah.

He's looking very tired, I feel, uh, the last few videos I've seen of him. But yeah, who knows what's gonna happen over there. And it's it is it's an uncertain space where you know people are potentially gonna tighten their belts, but in saying that too, we're in an energy crisis, which for us could be a good thing work-wise, but you know, it's it's a bit all over the place. You just really don't know where it's gonna go in the next couple of months.

So hopefully it all gets sorted out quickly. Um, our Prime Minister went overseas and secured a hundred million litres of fuel. That sounds very impressive, doesn't it? 100 million, it's a big number.

It's gonna go pretty quick if everyone keeps the colour. Do you know how much we use? Do you know how much diesel we use per day? Uh I don't know.

90 million. Oh, great. So you got us how many days? Jesus Christ.

One day. Thanks, Albert. But it's a great release. Yeah.

People, what would be. That takes up to 33 days ahead, is that right? Yeah, or from whatever they're saying. But I mean, when you among a hundred mil and you don't really know what we use per day, that's that sounds good.

It's a great marketing tactic. You would thought possibly thought we were in the clear. Yeah, 100%. We're doing what's one day.

Thank you. Oh, that's hilarious. Well, that's called the jerry can diplomacy, you know. Start with one, add another one.

Yeah, uh, anyway. Politicians could love them. And now the refinery going in up in flame. Ethan was telling me about it over the drive over here.

That sounds a bit sus, doesn't it? It's like the insurance coin. Yeah, there's something going on there. Somebody wanted a new refinery or something.

I just can't believe what's a coins and what that couple. Or you could argue they've been running, it's so hard. Yeah, of course. Something overworked and the maintenance didn't fall by.

But uh we'll hear the true story there one day. Yeah, of course. Well, going back into your own region, yeah. What's nice about it?

Oh, it's God's country, mate. Um, we've got beautiful beaches, great weather. Has been very muggy of as of late, but it's finally uh tapering down a little bit now, which is good. But look, it's a great area.

Uh great area to grow up as well. Um, there's just so much you can do. Lots of, you know, I grew up on the beach, so to have that also accessible for myself and my family, it's it's pretty unreal. So do you like are you more of a baliner or a bellinger or a nimbin or Byron person?

Brunswick Heads, ocean shores. So just north of Byron, about 15, 20 minutes, or 10, 15 minutes. Um, yeah, it's great parts of but very different uh people than the Byron people, isn't that? They don't they smoke a bit less.

Yeah, but not unless you go to Malambimbi, that's where the Mullambimbi madness is from. So yeah, things have definitely changed in the last so from when I moved down to Sydney and did my trade down here and then moved back Byron, the whole area's changed considerably. So it's a very different place now. It's it's always been a massive tourist hub and and the rest, but money has um come in and taken over, and everyone's in Range Rovers and Porsches and everything else getting around, but that's just progression, and you can't stop that.

But it's still a beautiful place to live. But does it make it harder for the local police and the teachers and all that to still buy houses and be around? Of course. Like we're looking at buying a place at the moment, and you know, your median average price in the Byron sharp, you're probably looking at 1.

5 for a house at least, which is probably similar to Sydney, really. But you know, anywhere up on the east coast right now, like where we're looking at place, we're looking at 1.3, 1.4.

So it's it's getting up and it constantly just keeps driving up. So How far is Lithgow from all not Lithgow? Lithgow, pretty far. It's just not too far from here.

No, no, no. I mean not Lithgow. What's the place where Lismore. Lismore, yes.

Sorry, Lismore and Lit uh and uh Lithgow. I should know the DF. No, I meant to say Lismore. Lismore, yep.

How far is Lismore from here? Lismore's about an hour from our from where we are. Cheaper houses. Oh, hour and fifteen, yeah, but it floods me.

We did a lot of work um for the restorations after the floods down in Lismore. It was yeah, it was pretty devastating. It's tough for the people there, isn't it? And and our socio uh economic the ones that do earn a bit less that go to those places where the house are cheaper.

Definitely yeah, yeah, for sure. And I yeah, it's basically where a lot of people would go if you can't afford to live anywhere else to a degree. Like it's a beautiful place, Lismore. It's very old town, but it's got a lot of character, and there's you know big art scene there to a degree as well.

But yeah, super horrible watching those floods roll through those companies. And not just and I think two in a relatively short period, wasn't it? That's really that pulls your heart out. I remember I was going through the main street of town and I was disconnecting an inverter that had basically caught it on fire, and yeah, it was pretty bad.

But I saw fridges on roofs. So there was that much water in town that it was about five, six metres up in the middle of town. So as you were repairing up on the roof, you saw a couple of fridges. Yeah, it was insane.

It was wow, that would cause a lot of damage. Yeah, of course. Yeah, it was pretty horrible to see, but um I think they're slowly getting back to where they were. So hopefully those floods stay floating.

So when you walk into somebody's house, yeah, and they're really only asking about the battery because they heard about the battery rebate. Yeah, are you trying to look at the whole electrification and look at how they get their hot water and try to advise them on all of that? Or are you just focusing on the solar system and off you go? No, definitely.

So we we try and what we generally start with people is that we'll try and get their bills, see their usage, have a chat to them over the phone, kind of qualify them to see what they've got in their home, and then if they seem like they're gonna be a client for us, we'll go out to the home, check everything out, go over everything. A lot of the time they'll be on off-peak tariffs for their hot water. Nine times out of the ten, we'll we'll get that removed and put it on either a timer or through a smart port or something like that, depending on what system we're installing.

So that you're using the uh excess electricity out of the solar to heat their hot water. Throughout a day. So we can one remove that tariff, remove the charge they're gonna get from that tariff as well, which will save them anywhere from 30 to 60 bucks a quarter, if not more, which is another beautiful saving that you can have. Um and then, yeah, go through and go, look, are you guys thinking about EVs?

Are you thinking about doctored air conditioning? Are you gonna get a pool at any time? Just we've basically got checklists that we go through and just make sure that everything that could potentially change the usage in time in further years to come, that we're gonna have that sorted and looked after now instead of having to add later on. Because that's the thing that people don't realize we saw in the early days when we sold it, we said 175-watt panel, yeah, get another five in five years' time.

Yeah, we didn't realise it would go into 50 and 300, whatever. So people have to think about that it is an evolving industry. So whatever you buy in uh buy now, uh do it once, do it properly, and do it for the future. Of course.

And like, you know, appropriately sizing is one of our main focuses that we do. Like, we we want to go, look, we've got this, that, and this future thing that's coming with EVs and everything else. Let's give you an extra 10 to 15, if not 20 kilowatt hours, if we can, then you're gonna be okay. You know, the cost for us to come back to do it a later date, labour-wise, it's gonna be a whole lot more expensive.

Panel's gonna go up, probably, racking will go up, it's gonna be a more expensive task at a later date. So why not sell it now while we can? Is there a common misconception or educational bit that you have to tell to people over and over and you think, oh, there this one is coming again? Are there some kind of key things where people still don't understand solar or batteries or where you have to think, oh, every time I have to explain that?

Yeah, of course. Like you know, nine times out of ten, most people these days have really good information prior to coming. You get the odd person who's you know hasn't done and is probably unavailable, like not available to do the research themselves if they're a little bit eld elderly or something like that. But um yeah, it it makes it harder to get through and try and show what you're trying to do if that they're finding it hard to understand.

But you know, we do our best to kind of go through as much things in layman's terms as you can to give them a pretty good outlook on what they're gonna have at the home. Do you someone else get the husband maybe be a solar skeptic and the wife wants the solar? It's always the husband that's the skeptic, always. Trying to get them on board and run them through, and they're just in the back corner, kind of giving you the the dirty.

They're on their little chair, yeah, arms crossed, not too happy, going, oh, you know, like Bloody wife got the And he's good looking, yeah. He's full of shit. Uh yeah But have you won some over? Yeah, of course.

And like I think it's just been authentic and showing them that you're not here to just get a cheap sale, you're not gonna just, you know, and like I don't generally try and my whole thing is like I don't want to push anyone into anything they don't want to do. Like, you want to make sure you've got all your ducks in a row and everything's on a table ready for them to have a look at, and if it's the right fit for them, it's the right fit for them. If it's not, that's fine. I'm not gonna have any anything against you, but at least I know I've done what I need to do to show you what we can provide for for them.

So yeah, it's one one bit of question is if you don't win a quote, do you sometimes then actually bother to ring back and find out why you didn't win a quote? Yeah, a lot of the time we do, um, especially if it's one that we've worked on to a pretty big degree. You know, if it's one that's just gone, give me a quote for this, yada yada, I'm not gonna waste my time on that because I just know they're after the cheapest quote. But if it's someone that I've gone back and forth with for an extended period of time.

Yeah, and we've really had a build a rapport and yeah, you you want to kind of know where you've gone wrong or where you know they've which way they've gone, right? So, and a lot of the time it's not even a lot of the time it is price, but sometimes it's just a a little bit of a change in uh manufacturer or a you know different panel that people might just they've heard from a friend that they've gone, oh my friend had this, they wanted to go with that. We don't provide it. That might be it.

But yeah, and that's just part and parcel of it all. But it's good to get that information to know that maybe that's something you can tweak for the next time or you've got just a bit of data there for future referencing. So well, I think I do recommend that too, yeah. In any sales trainings we've done because at the end of the day, you've invested this much to the customer already, they possibly feel obliged to give you a bit of feedback.

Yeah, of course. Um, and you know, it could be sometimes some weird stuff like um oh, I saw your installer and he's a really fat guy, and I have tiles and I think they're brittle. I'm sorry. I've seen it.

I was I've seen the other company's guy was very skinny. Yeah, he can definitely get in the manhole, it'll fit. So sometimes if you miss out for reasons you you couldn't imagine. Yeah, definitely.

And it's you know, it's it's just all about learning. You just want to keep on refining everything and changing your process to get to a point where you know exactly what you're doing every every day in and day out. So which we're getting close to, I think. Ah, it never stops.

No, it doesn't stop. You as the boss of the company, yeah, you obviously do the hiring and firing. Um now, is it easy to get staff right now? So difficult to get staff at the moment.

I think with this boom rebate that we've had, there's so much subcontracting work out there for guys that have got their tickets to go and you know work for themselves and make pretty good money while they're doing it. Um but it's not a sustainable thing. I started doing the subcontracting thing when I first started the started up. Um and it was great to get the money rolling in and get moving, but it slowly becomes you're the b at the behold of that company that you've done the work for.

It's not you know, you've done the work, but it's not your job, but you're not making the great money on it either. But you know, you've got to look after that system for the next 10 to 15 years too, if anything goes wrong with it. So it's it's one of those things that you know you kind of want to go down getting your own stuff going a lot as much as possible and working for yourself and getting your own work in, but yeah, I don't think um you want to probably keep on going down that subcontracting route.

But I mean, uh we are supposed to move into this whole electrification of Australia. Yeah, of course. But um but then somebody else just recently put an article out saying we're short 45,000 electricians. I mean, are you finding if you put an ad in that you get overwhelmed?

Look, it no, not by any means. We um we really struggled to get our last tech on just because that there was no one answering um our job ads. And I was speaking to many people in our area, a lot of other people looking for Sparkies with solar tickets as well. And everyone's in the same boat, they they just can't get stuff, and it's can you headhunt the others from other companies trying to?

I've tried everything. Big, big, big, big facts. I've tried, I've been calling around. Um there used to be on the Clean Energy website, a Clean Energy Council website, uh installer list that you were able to find numbers and be able to call.

So that's how I used to do it. But it doesn't seem to be there anymore, unfortunately. So you can't go do the headhunting as easily as possible. You have to call up the company and go, Oh, that guy in that truck, oh, I think he drops something on the road.

Can you give me his phone number? I don't think you'd be doing that sort of thing, would you? Why would I do that? That was just a theoretical idea.

He has never done that. Um, and if you do get a call like that, it's not you. Um interesting, interesting. But yeah, we're hearing that all around the place.

I mean, you're not a big mining area, but the towns that have the big mining area, they're even worse because the little companies just chew up and bring the apprentice up to a certain level. Boom, they're gone. And then it happened time and time again. Yeah.

And you don't blame young fellows for doing it, then go out and make some good money out of their trade. But like we were talking about earlier, too, you want to, I guess, stick your teeth into a couple of different companies before you kind of go out and do your own thing as well. And going out to the mines, I think, is just a money grab, really. They're probably just cruising most of the time, I don't I'd imagine.

I really don't know. I haven't been on a mine for that particular job, but uh yes, I think if you need a lot of electricians, then you should also be involved in training them up. Yeah, of course. And I don't know really if we're up for the electrification of Australia if there's enough infrastructure.

I mean, have you seen the I've seen ads for army recruitment, but I haven't seen ads for more electricians. Yeah. That's crazy. Anything in the migrant area where suddenly a swamp of electricians from different countries have come past.

Well, funny you say that. The only people that were asking uh getting back to us about our job ads were people from I think Chile and places like that, because they're all trying to get over and get some work done. But right, so you're actually getting ads from overseas where people want to move to Australia and using your job opportunity to come into it. Exactly so that you sponsor them, is it?

Of course, that yeah, but that's a really long journey. It's a big process to you know, and the time to do all that. You wouldn't even know if it's good or not. And you can't like if they were here already, it'd be something you'd look at, but it's such a big process involved in doing that.

Uh it's just for where we are right now, it's not not viable. I always talk to people who are run these companies, and you seem to be A, wearing a lot of hats. Yes. And B, all the SH sandwiches, the chewy ones that are not that pleasant, they always come to you, isn't it?

There's there's there's always that special staff member that delegates up when there's a headache. Yeah. Have you had staff like that too? Yeah, of course.

And everyone does, and I think you just gotta do your best to deal with those those ones. Um, yeah, it doesn't make it easy sometimes, but you just gotta find ways to navigate who they are and what they what they do, and yeah, stuff staff's a funny thing a lot of the time. But are you able then, and this is maybe as a tip for other smaller solo retailers, are you able to close the door at six, mentally turn off and focus on the family, or is it really all chewing up ish? Look, to be honest, at the moment, very time consuming what I'm doing.

Um, but in saying that too, I do still get to spend some pretty good quality time with my young son and and my partner as well. How old is your son? He's three. So wow, that's a great age.

He's the best, he's hilarious. You got a dog too? I do. I've got a big French mastiff named Sass.

Oh. She's a beauty. Um, but yeah, it's good. I I generally get to pick him up most afternoons from daycare, um, depending time-wise, obviously, with work and what we've what we've been doing for the day.

Do you get those running towards daddy and a hug? Yeah, it's the best. Oh my god, you you bottle them because when they're 18 they punch you. Yeah, of course.

Well, I'll let mum do the drop-off and she gets the crying tears. I don't want to go to daycare thing in the morning, so I get the good stuff every afternoon, which is great. So great, great. Yeah.

Look, I mean, we've learned quite a bit about you. Yep. I think if I'd be in the Tweed and Byron area, um, give yourself a plug. Yeah, come give me a call, guys.

We'll be looking after you for years to come, and we'll be looking after you for more and more in years to come. This brings me to the last subject after sales service. Yeah, there's no money in it. No, don't answer the calls, isn't it?

I don't know about that. It's more like we really pride ourselves on looking after our customers after we've installed a system for them. Like anything from cleaning the panels to you know going over the data from what it's produced. Like sometimes, you know, let's say a tree's just grown significantly over the last four or five years, and they go, geez, our solar system's not producing quite well.

Go out to a site, order, check out everything, make sure, configure. What do you then recommend a bit of trip from it? Oh, he's in Byron recommends. You want that $500 extra siding.

It's generally palms anyway, and they're a nuisance, they're messy. It's always palms, to be honest. So as a matter of fact, they're really bad for the uh bypass diet bypass diodes too. They don't hate them, they they get they burn out.

Yeah, they usually actually also they've been seeded by somebody dropping the palm seed, etc. So yeah, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, we try and try and make sure, like when we're doing our site audits, that we go in and figure out what the issue is, and you know, we just really want to make sure that the system we've installed is going to last a lifetime, really. So like they should.

If I'm a customer with you and now I've suddenly there's a red light come on my inverter and the system's only three years old, how do you handle warranty claims? And it's only what? Sorry, three years old. The system is only I'll ask the question again.

Yeah, sorry. Let's say you gave me a system three years ago, I wander out, and there's a red light on my inverter and it doesn't seem to work. How do you handle warranty claims? Generally we'll go out and do the site visit, see what's going on.

If it's an installer error, obviously we can either fix it on site or we will you know get in touch with the tech support whilst we're there, see what's happening, um, go through our process. And if it's a warranty process, generally we'll just get in touch. Most manufacturers are quite good when it comes to the warranty process we've found. Um you know, Sun Grow seem to be great, Goodwee were usually always really good as well.

Haven't done a whole heap with SIG besides the recall stuff. Um then they haven't broken. Well, yeah, not yet. Sig, sorry, sorry.

Just joking. The recall was a tiny little miss and it's been purring ever since. It's been unreal. So um, but yeah, even the easy suns, like we've had one failure there, and they were on the ball within a couple of days, they had something sent out to us.

So look, they're all generally really great to deal with because obviously they want to keep us in in um in their good books as well. So it's yeah, just going out and making sure we're figuring out what what the issue is and getting it sorted out as as soon as possible. You probably not with batteries yet, but with the older panels, I mean there were some brands that disappeared out of Australia. Yeah, the end customer looks at it, there's a I don't know, bypass diode failure or water ingress and all that, and you actually can't get a warranty, even so they got paperwork says they should have still warranties.

Yeah, of course. How do you explain them that they've got a dud? Yeah, it's a difficult one, Marcus. Um and a lot of the time, I guess because we're in in our infancy to a degree, we probably haven't had that issue come up too too much for us as of yet, because you know, we've only been in business for four four and a half years, so we actually haven't had come up come up against that.

So it was probably more like eight, nine years ago that a lot of these companies. Older companies, yeah, more and like I said, like we kind of have always stuck with those panels that have been around for a long time. So we've we've kind of got that peace of mind to a degree that if it does arise, we're going to be looked after. Do you find panels and systems where there's no maintenance, a lichen all grown over it, and the person just thought it's a set and forget?

Is solar and batteries a set and forget? Definitely not. There's so many panels out there that I drive past that on a daily that have the moss all over them. Then underneath all that moss, there's the the burnouts from the cells because they're not not working correctly.

So yeah, definitely look, I'd I'd advise, especially where we are on the coast, especially if you are quite close to the beach. Like every year to 18 months getting your panels cleaned and whole system check over just to make sure it's working as it should, because it's you know it is an investment at the end of the day. Um, obviously, we don't want to be charging you an arm and a league to come and do it every six to twelve months or eighteen months, or but it is part of what you've signed up to.

You put something on your roof, it's just like anything else in your house. You put a roof on, you're gonna get that roof looked at every ten years, looked at, cleaned, everything else. So I would say possibly every two years or so, but I mean, yeah, maybe coasts with a lot of salt water could be a bit more. With because a lot of our jobs we do are right on like we did one right across the road from the beach the other day, and you know, the salt coming off the off the beach all day was just constant.

And you know, all the panels that we do use have the great salt mist um corrosion test corrosion tests on them. So, but even still, you want to make sure they're gonna stay pretty pretty good on the roof. I mean, if it saves you up to with batteries now, gee, yeah, you could make six, seven, eight grand worth of saving a year. Easy.

Uh spending what, how much you're charging for a core light and a bit of clean. Oh, it ranges, it depends, you know, two fifty two fifty to four hundred. Yeah, I was gonna say four hundred spending four hundred to make and secure eight grand is probably not a bad investment. It's not a bad investment, and it's yeah, peace of mind for them, peace of mind for us, really.

If anything's you know, I've been up there plenty of times where birds or possums have got underneath the panels and there's a dead possum underneath where they've tried to put through the cable on the panel and birds that start nesting under everything, and it's you know, we can't stop what comes under your roof, unfortunately. There is that meshing stuff that we used to install back in the day, but yeah, it's it's it's an investment at the end of the day, and you want to make sure you're looking after it.

So okay. Do you have an EV yourself, by the way? Not at the moment. I've had been looking.

Um I've been looking at the EV Shuck. I think I might be waiting for the model two to come out. A bit more towing capacity, I've been told. So okay.

Yeah. But uh the whole thing with EVs is going mad at the moment, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. It's definitely starting to become.

I think obviously at the moment, right now, everyone's going, shit, I can't keep paying $3.26 for diesel. So yeah, you'd be mad to not start looking into that space. And I think, you know, most people probably would be.

Do you think this whole episode with uh the oil crisis might be the beginning of the end for the um combustion engine car in terms of long-term planning for people? I definitely still think it's gonna put a pretty big idea in people's heads that this might not be the way to go, just keep going down the the the petrol route. Um and if you've got these big giant solar systems with excess storage and like you're mad not to. You save yourself so much money.

Like like I told you earlier, we're spending so much money on fuel with all our vehicles for the for the company, and if I can minimize that by $250, $300 a week, it's it's pretty good. That's money in your pocket. Yeah, 100%. And to get a nice new car out of it.

So look, if I can say a little bit, I've been in the industry for 20 years, I've met at least three, four hundred installers. If you're in the tweet area, if you're in Byron, if you're looking for a reliable installer that is not 55, ready to retire in two years, selling you a system now and do a runner. If you want a young guy who's going to be there to back you up, who's got his family locally, give you a Salisbury a call from Salisbury, Solar, and Electrical. I got that right.

Beautiful. Okay. Because we in the YEA Partner Network, um, we have a reputation too. So we've actually checked these guys out.

We don't pick anybody that has gone bus twice and tries to re-furnix again. It's a bit like the chief, uh, what did it say? It's a bit like the fish that John West rejects makes John West the best. So we uh we picked Hugh in that region because we just felt he was literally the best guy from a reliability and also from a really wanting to do the right thing by the customer kind of thing.

I've been trying to tempt him here in this uh podcast a couple of times to go the sleazy way. Oh, yeah. And uh he actually I thought he might try to please me, but no, he he told me off. So I like that.

Hugh, really to have you here. Thanks, Mario. Please support the channel by liking the video, hit that subscribe button, and ring the bell and check out all our other videos. Want more energy answered?

Visit yourenergyanswers.com for quality energy products, tools, and calculators, and find your quality local installers. You're still here? I'll see you next time.

Bye.