1. Work out what you actually need
Before you request a single quote, understand your own household: annual electricity usage in kilowatt-hours, how that usage is distributed across the day, and which appliances or plans might change it in the near future. Quotes built without this information are, in effect, guesses.
2. Request quotes
Three quotes is the commonly cited rule, but five or six is more useful in practice. The best quote often does not come from the first three companies you contact. Aggregator sites, direct retailer websites, and installer referrals each have trade-offs worth understanding before you hand over your details.
3. Compare quotes and shortlist
Most quotes look reassuringly similar until you look past the headline price. Equipment list, warranty terms, meter work, STC calculation, and post-install support clauses are where the real differences live. A structured comparison almost always reveals that the cheapest quote is not the best quote.
4. Choose your installer
The installer matters at least as much as the equipment. An outstanding installer fitting mid-tier panels will typically outperform a mediocre installer fitting premium panels. Accreditation, company age, subcontracting practices, and online review patterns are the things to check.
5. Sort out rebates and finance
By this stage you need to know which rebates you qualify for, how the federal STC scheme affects your bottom-line price, and whether you will pay in cash, finance the system, or use a green loan. These decisions feed into the contract and should be settled before installation is scheduled.
6. Grid connection approval
Before your installer can turn up, your local distribution network service provider (DNSP) must approve the system’s proposed export capacity. For most systems this is routine and handled by the retailer. For larger systems, three-phase connections, or constrained networks, it can delay installation by weeks.
7. Installation day
Most residential installs take a single day. A good installer will walk you through what has been fitted, where the isolators are, and how to read the inverter display before they leave. Quality installs are obvious within the first ten minutes, cable management, roof penetrations, and labelling all tell the story.
8. Commissioning and sign-off
Once the hardware is on the roof, the installer commissions the system, issues a certificate of electrical safety, and submits final paperwork to your retailer and the DNSP. The system is often generating from day one, but the meter reconfiguration that lets you earn feed-in credits usually takes another one to four weeks.
Once commissioning is complete, you transition out of buying and into ownership, which is covered in full in our companion pillar, What happens after installation?.
