About us
Why choose Top End Solar for your Melbourne home
Top End Solar is a solar and battery installer based in Mount Waverley, run and owned 100% by Melbourne locals. We inspect every home before we quote, design the system around the power you use, and take every federal rebate your home qualifies for off the price.
Below: who designs and installs your system, each step from inspection to switch-on, our accreditation and our warranties. To check any installer, us included, use our installer checklist.
Updated
Who designs and installs your system
Every system has a designer, who sizes it and lays it out on your roof, and an installer, who puts it in; one person can be both. For the rebate, each must be accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA).
Your quote names the designer and the installer for your system, and we can give you their SAA accreditation numbers to check before you sign.
From inspection to switch-on
Every home solar or battery install in Victoria passes the same approvals. These are the steps, in order, and what you get at the end of them.
- Inspection. We come out before we quote. We check the roof’s direction, shading and space, look at your switchboard and meter, and go through your power bills to see how much power you use and when.
- Design and fixed quote. We size the panels, and a battery if you want one, to your use, and fit products made for Melbourne’s hot summers and cold, wet winters. The quote names every model, with every federal rebate your home qualifies for already taken off. Our packages.
- Distributor pre-approval and export limit. Before we install, we apply for pre-approval from your electricity distributor, one of Victoria’s five: CitiPower, Powercor, Jemena, AusNet and United Energy. Installation can’t start until it is granted (EWOV). The approval sets how much power you may send to the grid, based on the export capacity left on your local network when we apply (AusNet). Export limits by network.
- Install day. The panels go on the roof, and the inverter is mounted and wired to your switchboard. A battery must also meet the battery standard, AS/NZS 5139:2019, which limits where it can go. How we install a battery.
- Safety inspection and certificate. Solar and batteries are prescribed electrical work in Victoria, so an independent Licensed Electrical Inspector checks the work, which should happen within 8 business days of it being finished. It can’t be turned on until then. Your electrician must give you a copy of the Certificate of Electrical Safety within 4 days of completing it (Energy Safe Victoria).
- Switch-on and handover. Once the work has passed inspection, the system is switched on and tested, and we set up the inverter’s monitoring app with you, so you can see what it makes each day.
- STC paperwork and meter set-up. The STCs must be created within 12 months of the install, and we do that paperwork: their value is already off your quote. We also lodge the post-installation paperwork your distributor asks for, and your meter is then reconfigured to record the solar you export, for most Victorian homes remotely (Solar Victoria). The distributor charges a fee for this, which usually appears on your electricity bill (EWOV). Who claims the STCs.
Your quote gives your install date and how long the team will be on site.
What a good installation looks like
A good install is tidy and documented: cables supported and shielded from the sun, matching connectors, isolators sealed against rain, and every part listed with its serial number in your handover pack. Energy Safe Victoria’s compliance focus includes panel earthing and mismatched DC connectors, so ask how both were tested.
Your handover pack: what you should receive from any installer
Whoever installs your system, these are what you should have once it is switched on. Most are required by AS/NZS 5033:2021 and AS/NZS 4777.1:2016 (Solar Victoria), and Energy Safe Victoria says the documents are what let a system be run and maintained safely for its whole life. A future buyer, electrician or warranty claim will need them too, so keep them together.
Solar handover checklist
| Item | What it should show | Got it |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Electrical Safety | From the independent inspection; your electrician must give you a copy within 4 days of completing it. | |
| Equipment list | Every panel, inverter and battery model, with its serial number. | |
| Wiring diagram | The ratings of the panels, switches and circuit breakers as installed. | |
| Commissioning records | The test results, the settings at switch-on and the installation checklist (AS/NZS 5033 clause 5.7 makes giving you these mandatory). | |
| Shutdown procedure | How to switch the system off safely for maintenance or an emergency, and back on. | |
| Manuals and maintenance | The makers’ manuals and datasheets, a maintenance timetable and a performance estimate. | |
| Warranty registrations | Each warranty registered where the maker requires it: a Fronius inverter on Fronius Solar.web within 30 months of delivery for its 10-year cover; REC panels registered by the REC Certified installer, for ProTrust; a Sungrow battery monitored in iSolarCloud; an Alpha ESS battery kept online. | |
| STC assignment form | A copy of the form that assigned your STCs to the installer or its agent. | |
| Network approval | Your distributor’s pre-approval, with the export limit it set. | |
| Monitoring login | The app set up in your own name, with the inverter and any battery showing. | |
| Contacts | Who to call about the installation, and each maker’s Australian warranty contact. |
Solar Victoria says an electronic copy is fine, and suggests a QR code inside the switchboard that links to it. Battery owners have a few more items to collect.
Accredited solar installers: how we measure up
What “approved” or “accredited” solar installers means for the federal rebate: the system’s designer and its installer must each be accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA), and the installer must also hold an unrestricted Victorian electrical licence. Without that, the system can’t earn STCs, so the rebate on your quote depends on it (Clean Energy Regulator).
For a battery, the federal rebate also needs an installer with a battery endorsement and a battery on the approved list. Battery rebate rules.
Ask us for our installers’ accreditation numbers and our approvals when we quote.
Warranties on the products and our workmanship
A solar install carries two kinds of warranty: the makers’ product warranties on the equipment, and the installer’s workmanship warranty on the work itself. The battery warranties below are as the manufacturers state them.
- Sungrow SBR high-voltage battery: 10 years (conditions in Sungrow’s warranty letter)
- Alpha ESS SMILE-G3 home battery system: 10-year product warranty and 10-year battery performance warranty (at least 70% of usable capacity after 10 years)
Your quote lists the warranty on every panel, inverter and battery, and our workmanship warranty, in writing.
The brands we install
Home batteries: Sungrow and Alpha ESS. Compare them.
Each maker’s specifications are on our solar panels page (efficiency, size and warranty) and our solar inverters page.
Your quote names the exact panel and inverter models, and we can explain why we chose them for your roof.
Our track record
Ask us how many systems we have installed in Melbourne, and since when, when we come out to quote.
Reviews and recent installs
We publish only reviews from our own Melbourne customers, word for word and with their permission, so there are none on this site yet.
Ask us about recent installs in your area when we come out to quote.
A local Mount Waverley team
Our workshop is at 8/41 Ricketts Road, Mount Waverley, VIC 3149. From there we install across metropolitan Melbourne.
Why choose us: your questions
Are your solar installers SAA accredited?
Ask us for the accreditation numbers of the designer and the installer when we quote, and check them on Solar Accreditation Australia’s register before you sign. A system earns STCs only when SAA accredited people design and install it and the installer holds an unrestricted Victorian electrical licence, so the rebate on your quote depends on it. Our accreditation
Do your own electricians install the system, or subcontractors?
Ask us when we quote: the quote names who will install your system. Whoever does the work must hold an unrestricted Victorian electrical licence and Solar Accreditation Australia accreditation, and an independent Licensed Electrical Inspector checks the finished work before it is turned on. Who installs your system
What workmanship warranty do you give on a solar install?
Your quote sets out our workmanship warranty in writing, next to the manufacturer’s warranty on each panel, inverter and battery. A workmanship warranty covers the installation work itself; the product warranties cover the equipment. Read both before you sign, and keep them with your Certificate of Electrical Safety. How solar warranties work
How soon after I accept a quote will my solar be installed?
Your quote gives the install date. Work can’t start until your electricity distributor grants pre-approval, and the system can’t be turned on until an independent Licensed Electrical Inspector has checked it, which should happen within 8 business days of the work being finished. Each step, in order
Will I get a Certificate of Electrical Safety for my solar system?
Yes. In Victoria a solar or battery system is prescribed electrical work, so an independent Licensed Electrical Inspector must check it before it is turned on, and you receive a Certificate of Electrical Safety (COES). Energy Safe Victoria says your electrician must give you a copy within 4 days of completing it. Every Victorian distributor asks for it too, with the paperwork after the install. Energy Safe Victoria: certificates
Installing solar on a Melbourne home: the steps and the yardstick
Every Melbourne install passes the same Victorian checkpoints, whoever does it: pre-approval from your network, which is CitiPower, Powercor, Jemena, AusNet or United Energy; an independent inspection, which should happen within 8 business days of the work; and a meter reconfiguration, done remotely for most Victorian homes. For output, a north-facing 6.6kW system in Mount Waverley is modelled to make about 9,319 kWh a year (PVGIS), a fair yardstick for any quote’s estimate. When our Mount Waverley team comes out to inspect, ask us for our accreditation numbers too.
Get a fixed price from a local installer
Free inspection, no obligation. Every federal rebate your home qualifies for comes off before you see the price.
Talk to our Mount Waverley team
Locally owned, locally installed. Call, email, or send the form and we’ll come out and inspect the property.
- Phone
- 0485 000 015
- Workshop
- 8/41 Ricketts Road,
Mount Waverley, VIC 3149