Australia's solar market has more cowboys than horses. The good news: most of them tip their hand inside the first minute. Here's what to listen for.
"Cowboy" in this industry doesn't mean illegal. The Clean Energy Regulator and the CEC have cleaned up the worst of the rebate fraud, and outright scams are rarer than they were five years ago. The modern cowboy is more polished — a salesperson on commission, working from a script, selling you a system that will work right up until it doesn't. The tells are subtle but consistent. Once you see them you can't unsee them.
01"It's a free upgrade — normally $X but the panels are included today"
There is no such thing as a free upgrade in solar. Every kilowatt of panel costs roughly $700–$1,200 installed; every kilowatt-hour of battery, $900–$1,400. A "free upgrade" is either (a) a discount that was always in the price, dressed up as a gift to manufacture urgency, or (b) a swap to a lower-spec component the salesperson hopes you won't notice.
The honest version of this conversation is: "We've got a deal with Sungrow this quarter that lets us pass on a $400 discount." If the discount has a name and a reason, it's real. If it's "just for you, just today," it's not.
02"This price is only good if you sign tonight"
Solar pricing moves slowly. Panel and inverter wholesale prices change quarterly at the fastest. STC rebate values shift each January. There is no plausible business reason a quote has to expire in 90 minutes — except to stop you comparing it to anyone else's.
The script is built around a single emotion: loss aversion. The salesperson knows if you sleep on it you'll get a second opinion, and they don't want to compete on the spec. A real quote holds for at least 14 days, in writing, with the panel + inverter brands named.
"Only good tonight" is not a price. It's a tactic to stop you finding out it isn't a good price.
03The system size that magically matches the salesperson's quota
If everyone in your suburb has been quoted 6.6kW regardless of roof size, household size, or power bill, the salesperson is not sizing systems. The salesperson is moving 6.6kW kits.
6.6kW is the default because it pairs with a 5kW single-phase inverter (the cheapest, most common configuration) and fits inside the magic ratio that maximises STC rebate per dollar of hardware. It's a kit-pricing exercise, not a sizing exercise. For a household with electric hot water + ducted aircon + an EV, 6.6kW is undersized by 30–50%.
Ask: "How did you arrive at this size?" A real installer references your bill, your roof, your usage shape. A cowboy says "it's the most popular size."
04"We're a CEC-approved installer" as a closing line
CEC accreditation is the legal minimum to install grid-connected solar in Australia. It's a baseline, not a credential to brag about. When a salesperson lists CEC accreditation as a major selling point, they're banking on you not knowing that it's mandatory.
The real signal is the next sentence. A reputable installer mentions specific things: "We're an Approved Solar Retailer under the New Energy Tech Consumer Code", or "Our principal installer holds the design accreditation, not just install — that means we sign off our own system design without sub-contracting it." Specificity is a credential. "CEC-approved" alone is not.
05The vague warranty
If the warranty section in the quote is a single line — "25-year warranty included" — read it as no warranty. A real warranty disclosure separates:
- Panel product warranty — typically 12–25 years from the manufacturer
- Panel performance warranty — typically 25 years, degradation curve specified
- Inverter warranty — typically 5–12 years, plus optional extensions
- Workmanship warranty — typically 5–10 years from the installer
- Who you call for each, and what the manufacturer's Australian service portal is
That's a couple of pages of detail, minimum. Anything less and the warranty is theatre. The cowboy knows you won't claim against an unclear warranty because you won't know how.
06The doorknock + clipboard combo
If a solar salesperson knocks on your door uninvited, the company they work for has a customer-acquisition cost too high for ethical lead generation. Door-to-door solar is, almost universally, the lowest-quality channel — high-pressure, low-information, and the install crews are typically the cheapest sub-contracted teams in the city.
The Australian Consumer Law gives you a 10-day cooling-off period on door-to-door sales for exactly this reason. The reason cowboys still doorknock is that enough people sign and don't exercise the cool-off to make the channel pay. Don't be one of them.
07"You're going to save $X per year — guaranteed"
Solar savings depend on your usage pattern, your feed-in tariff, your wholesale electricity rate (which moves), shading, weather, and whether you remember to run the dishwasher during the day. Guaranteed savings is not a number a competent installer would offer because they don't know your future power bill any better than you do.
A real installer says "based on your current usage shape and a 12c feed-in tariff, our modelling suggests $X–$Y per year, with the lower end if you can't shift any load and the upper end if you run aircon and pool pumps during the day." The honest version of this is always a range, always contingent, never "guaranteed."
08The single-page quote with no model numbers
A quote that says "premium tier-1 panels" and "high-efficiency hybrid inverter" without naming the actual brand and model is not a quote. It's a placeholder the cowboy uses to bait-and-switch on install day — order the cheapest equivalents, install them, and bank on you not noticing.
Every legitimate quote names the exact panel model (e.g. "Trina Vertex S+ TSM-450NEG9R.28"), exact inverter model (e.g. "Sungrow SH10RT"), and battery model if applicable, with quantities. If you can't tell from the quote what's going on your roof, you don't have a quote.
What to do when you spot one. Don't argue, don't lecture, don't try to "teach" the salesperson. Say "thanks for your time, I'll think about it" and end the conversation. Cowboys are trained to handle objections, not polite exits. If you want a sanity check on a real quote you've received, send it to your consultant — we'll read it and tell you what's actually there.
09The honest summary
None of these tells require technical knowledge. They're behavioural, not engineering. The reason that's useful: you can run the whole filter inside the first conversation, without ever opening a spec sheet.
Cowboys exist in solar because the buying process gives them cover — long sales cycles, low buyer information, big-ticket purchases, and an industry where the warranty period is longer than the average retailer's lifespan. The best protection isn't to become an expert on inverters. It's to make sure there's an expert on your side of the table before you sit down.
That's what your consultant does. We've sat across from every kind of cowboy this market produces. By the time we get on the phone with you, we've already filtered out the ones it's not worth your time talking to.