Phase shift: Can you trust a solar installer who works from home?

Every now and then someone appears on Facebook with a criticism:

“Solar quotes lets installers work in their network who work from home !!! 🤬”

Apparently it means that you don’t have a warehouse that you are not a “real” business. Or worse, a fly-by-night operator who is waiting to disappear as soon as the inverter fails.

I get the concern. For a while we rejected every installation program without commercial rooms. If you didn’t have a warehouse, you didn’t do the cut.

But over time we found that our approach was too simple.

Slim and locally

Some of the best local solar installers are proud of their work, offer real after-sales support and build strong reputation from home (normally after years with the tools for someone else).

And some choose to train in their garage. Not because they are dodgy, but because they concentrate on their long game: a sustainable, small local business with low overhead costs.

On a small scale, it is a good system design, understanding the standards, the installation of tidying up, clear communication and help when something goes wrong. None of this requires a warehouse, not if your local solar distributor already has one.

In fact, an installer can become more financially resilient in the first few years. Lean overhead costs can release the margin – invest in better equipment, take the time to do things right, and the slow months of the weather – in a volatile industry and solar.

We have seen it again and again: sole dealers who start doing things, do things right and grow into brilliant, medium -sized traditional solar companies with a warehouse, an administrator team and internal installers.

That makes me happier than almost everything else in this business.

The Solarquotes team regularly has jobs in working in the office, including the factual review from Guru Ronald Brakels shown above (Ronald is the hairy).

No compromises in standards

Of course, we still check every installer and still welcome great medium to large companies.

And our standards have not dropped, they have more strict. We take care of the installation quality, reaction, customer service, licensing and the way you treat humans. Whether you work from a garage or a warehouse, the bar is high.

The solar quotes model does not choose a winner. If we can, we will receive quotes from smaller and medium -sized companies. And of larger ones if they do things right. You can compare offers, review and select what works for you.1

What matters is not where a company operates. It is whether you appear, make the job good and stand for your work.

We are looking for that.

And that is exactly what Facebook commentators should be interested in.

Further information on the review process Use solar quotes to choose which installers we recommend. Read our explaner.

Footnot

1. Now I won’t pretend as if we were perfect. We have built up close feedback loops, but so that they work, part of this feedback must be negative. That is why we are behind our good installer guarantee. If something goes wrong – and occasionally it gets – we don’t look away. We help to fix it. ↩

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