First thing is look for installers that have been in the business for some time and look at the google reviews, get 3 or 4 quotes.
I got a quote from Koala Solar and they were quite reasonable but their lead time to install was too long for my liking
Regent Solar where too pushy for my liking
I went with Infinity solar and electrical, Kiren a relatively young guy owns the business and was good to deal with. Though I had to chase him up to get the Synergy feed in finalised.
I did some work for Heath at Solar Kings and he seems like a nice guy that has been in the business for a while.
You don't have to go with expensive solar panel some of the cheaper ones have good reputations and provide 25 year warrantees
Selecting an inverter is a bit of a hard one, some of the cheaper ones have a decent reputation but have not been around that long. I went with the Fronius which cost me about $1k, not sure if that was with the smart meter that was extra. The smart meter gives me real time monitoring of power production usage and what is going to the grid
The benefit of solar panels is in being able to use as much of the power you generate, you only get 2 cents per KWH you export to the grid. Between 3pm and 9pm you get 10 cents per Kwh which is not bad, pitty we don't have day light saving LOL
Being able to run my Aircon is what makes the solar panels worth it for me, also leant to power shift. That is use the dishwasher, washing machine and if possible cooking during the day using fee electricity
