Meet the New Zealand Solar Team: Your Trustworthy Shopkeepers

We're a small team of New Zealanders who got fed up with watching homeowners get talked into the wrong solar system, so we built somewhere to get straight answers instead. We don't sell panels. We don't take a cut from installers based on what you buy. We make our living the old-fashioned way: by being genuinely useful, vetting the installers we recommend through a 13-point process, and refusing to put a single dollar ahead of telling you the truth. With more than 60,000 grid-connected solar installations now humming away on Kiwi roofs (per the Electricity Authority's EMI data), this market is growing fast, and fast-growing markets attract sharks. We're the people who stand between you and them.

You've probably noticed that most solar websites are a bit cagey about who actually writes them. A faceless logo, a contact form, and a suspicious eagerness to grab your phone number. We think you deserve to know exactly who's giving you advice and why you should trust a word of it. So here we are, names and all.

Why a solar website bothers having faces at all

Because trust in this industry is in short supply, and it's earned, not claimed. Consumer NZ has documented a steady stream of complaints about pushy solar sales tactics and quotes built to confuse rather than clarify. When the people behind the advice hide, you should wonder why.

We don't hide. The team below has spent a combined few decades in and around New Zealand power, building, and electrical work. We've installed systems, we've sold them, we've audited them, and frankly we've cleaned up after some shocking jobs. That history is exactly why we now work on your side of the table. We've seen how the sausage gets made.

If you want the full version of what we promise and how we hold ourselves to it, we've laid it all out plainly over here: https://nzsolaris.co.nz/the-trust-proxy-our-promise-to-nz-homeowners/.

The team

The lead writer (that's the voice you're reading)

Fifteen years in and around the Kiwi solar trade, starting on the tools and ending up thoroughly sick of watching good people sign bad contracts. I've quoted systems in Kaitaia and commissioned them in Invercargill, and I can tell you the maths genuinely changes depending on which lines company runs your patch. A north-facing array under Top Energy in the Far North behaves very differently on paper to the same array under Aurora in Central Otago, and almost nobody explains that to homeowners before they sign.

My job now is simple: write the most honest solar content in the country, show every number, name every source, and never let a sales angle creep into a sentence. If I tell you a battery won't pay for itself on your roof, it's because I ran the numbers, not because I'm steering you elsewhere.

Sign-off: with love and power.

The numbers person

Every payback figure, every dollar-per-watt benchmark, every buy-back calculation that goes out under our name gets checked against real NZ data first. EECA's guidance, MBIE's energy statistics, and live retailer buy-back rates from the likes of Octopus Energy NZ, Contact, Meridian, and Electric Kiwi. If a number can't be sourced to a New Zealand authority, it doesn't get published.

This is also the person who built our interactive tool so you can run your own scenario without waiting on a salesperson's spreadsheet. Have a play with it here: https://nzsolaris.co.nz/solar-roi-calculator/. It uses realistic NZ pricing and your actual region's sun hours, not optimistic guesswork.

Sign-off: keeping you honest, with love and power.

The installer vetter

Before any installer earns a recommendation from us, they go through a thorough, deliberately annoying checking process. Electrical licensing, SEANZ membership where it applies, workmanship warranties in writing, financial stability so they're still around when your inverter throws a wobbly in year six, and a track record we can actually verify with past customers.

You can read the full checklist we run every installer through here: https://nzsolaris.co.nz/13-step-installer-vetting-process/. We knock back more companies than we approve, and we're proud of that ratio.

Sign-off: vetted with care, and with love and power.

The privacy and data guardian

When you ask us for quotes, your details go only to the vetted installers matched to your job, and nowhere else. We don't sell lead lists. We don't flog your number to a call centre. That's a genuine point of difference in this industry, and it's backed by our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020.

If you want to know exactly how your information is handled, we don't bury it in fine print: https://nzsolaris.co.nz/data-protection-privacy-act-nz/.

Sign-off: your data stays yours, with love and power.

The "love and power" thing, explained

You'll notice we sign off with "love and power." It started as a daft pun and it stuck, because it's actually a decent summary of what we're about. Power, in the literal sense: electrons on your roof, lower bills, a bit more independence from whatever the wholesale market does next winter. And love, in the sense that we genuinely give a damn whether you get a good outcome.

It's a bit soft for a trade that's mostly aluminium rails and torque wrenches, we know. But fifteen years in, the jobs we're proudest of are the ones where a retired couple in Tauranga rings up months later just to say their winter bill didn't give them a fright this year. That's the whole point.

What being a "shopkeeper" actually means here

Think of the best corner shop you've ever dealt with. The owner knows their stock, tells you when the cheaper option is genuinely the better one, and would rather lose a sale than sell you something you'll regret. That's the model. We're shopkeepers, not salespeople.

The difference matters enormously in solar, because the financial stakes are real. A fully installed 5kW system in 2025 runs roughly $9,000 to $13,000 depending on your roof, your region, and your installer, which works out to around $1.70 to $2.20 per watt based on current NZ installer pricing and broadly consistent with EECA's published guidance. Add a battery and you're often looking at $10,000 to $18,000 more. That's serious money. A pushy salesperson on commission has every incentive to upsell you a bigger system and a battery you may not need.

Here's a piece of maths the upsellers rarely volunteer. Solar pays best when you actually use the power as it's generated, because what you self-consume offsets the full retail rate you'd otherwise pay (often 28 to 38 cents per kWh, depending on your retailer and network), while what you export earns only the buy-back rate (frequently 7 to 17 cents per kWh, and rate-dependent). Two identical houses next door to each other can get wildly different returns from the same system purely because one household is home during the day and the other isn't. A good shopkeeper asks about your daytime routine before recommending a kilowatt of anything. A commissioned seller often doesn't.

How we actually make money (no mystery)

We're upfront about this because vague business models are exactly the kind of thing that should make you suspicious. When you request quotes through us, vetted installers pay a modest fee to be connected with genuine homeowners. That's it.

Crucially, that fee is the same regardless of what you end up buying, or whether you buy at all. We have zero financial reason to push you towards a bigger system, a battery, or a particular brand. Our incentive is to keep you trusting us enough to come back and tell your neighbours. That only works if our advice is straight.

Where we genuinely can't help you (the honest bit)

Solar isn't right for everyone, and we'd rather tell you that than take your enquiry anyway. A few situations where we'll be the first to say "maybe not":

• Renters. Unless your landlord is on board and willing to invest, the maths almost never works for a tenant. We're not going to pretend otherwise.
• Heavily shaded roofs. That magnificent pohutukawa or the neighbour's two-storey extension can gut your generation. Microinverters or optimisers help, but they don't perform miracles.
• Homes you're selling within a couple of years. Payback periods in NZ commonly land in the 8 to 14 year range depending on system size, region, and self-consumption. If you're moving soon, the numbers get hard to justify on savings alone.
• Empty-during-the-day households with no battery and no plan to shift usage. If nobody's home from 8 to 5 and you're not willing to run the dishwasher, washing machine, and hot water cylinder on a timer, you'll export most of your generation at a low buy-back rate, and the payback stretches out.

And to be plainly clear about something the hype merchants gloss over: a grid-tied solar system will not wipe out your power bill entirely. Through a NIWA-typical NZ winter, with shorter days and lower sun angles, your generation drops right when your heating load climbs. Solar shaves your bill meaningfully across the year; it doesn't make it disappear. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling, not advising.

How to use us well

Get the most out of what we offer with a few simple moves:

• Run your own numbers first so you walk into any conversation already knowing the ballpark, using our calculator at https://nzsolaris.co.nz/solar-roi-calculator/.
• Learn the warning signs before you take a single sales call. We've collected the red flags we see most often here: https://nzsolaris.co.nz/solar-scam-checklist-nz/.
• Get more than one quote. Pricing in this market varies enormously for genuinely comparable kit, and the only way to know what's fair is to compare. We'll line up three vetted installers if you'd like.
• Read every quote line by line. Check the panel and inverter brands, the warranty terms (product versus workmanship versus performance, they're three different things), and whether the price includes the electrical work, the network connection application, and GST.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you actually install solar yourselves?

No. We're deliberately independent of any installation business. We assess and recommend installers, connect homeowners with vetted ones, and publish honest advice. Keeping our hands off the install side is what lets us tell you the truth without a conflict of interest.

How do I know your installer recommendations are genuine?

Every installer we recommend passes a 13-point check covering electrical licensing, relevant SEANZ membership, written warranties, financial stability, and verified customer history. We turn away more than we approve. You can read the full checklist on our site so you can hold us to it.

Will you sell my contact details?

Never. Your details go only to the vetted installers matched to your specific job, and to nobody else, in line with our obligations under the Privacy Act 2020. We don't sell lead lists or pass your number to call centres.

Why don't you just publish prices for everything?

Because honest solar pricing depends on your roof, your region's sun hours, your network's charges, and your daytime usage. We publish realistic ranges sourced to EECA and MBIE data, and we built a calculator so you can model your own situation rather than rely on a generic number.

Are your numbers up to date?

We benchmark against current NZ installer pricing, EECA guidance, and MBIE energy statistics, and we point you to live retailer buy-back rates rather than hardcoding figures that go stale. Buy-back rates in particular shift, so always confirm the current rate with retailers like Octopus Energy NZ, Contact, or Meridian before you sign.

What's with "love and power"?

It's our sign-off, half pun and half genuine. "Power" for the electrons and lower bills, "love" because we actually care whether you get a good outcome. Soft for a trade full of torque wrenches, sure, but it keeps us honest about why we do this.

Do you cover the whole country?

Yes, across Aotearoa, and we factor in regional realities: the high sun hours up north, Wellington's reduced winter sun and serious wind loadings, Central Otago's clear frosty winters, and the genuine cloud challenge on the West Coast. Your network company, whether that's Vector, Orion, Wellington Electricity, Aurora, Unison or another, also shapes your connection process and economics, and we account for that.

Can I talk to a real person?

Absolutely. We're a small team and we'd rather have a proper conversation than fire a brochure at you. Request quotes and you'll deal with real, vetted installers, not a faceless call centre reading a script.

The Bottom Line

We're not the biggest solar operation in the country and we don't want to be. We're a small team of New Zealanders who decided the most valuable thing we could do is stand on the homeowner's side and stay there: honest numbers, vetted installers, no games, and your privacy genuinely protected.

If you're weighing up whether solar stacks up for your place, start by getting your head around the warning signs every buyer should know, which we've set out plainly here: https://nzsolaris.co.nz/solar-scam-checklist-nz/. Then, when you're ready, model your own roof on the calculator and compare a few proper quotes. We'll be here, telling it straight, with love and power.