How to read a solar quote, line by line.
A quote is where a good installer and a dodgy one look most different — if you know which lines to read. Here's the full anatomy of a proper Australian solar and battery quote, where the rebate should sit, the red flags, and the six questions that expose a bad one.
Reviewed by the Mission Green Energy Team · Updated July 2026
What does a proper quote
actually look like?
A proper quote is a design document, not a price tag. It names the exact hardware, shows a design for your roof, puts the rebate on its own line, splits the warranties, includes the grid application, and states what performance it expects — in writing.
Here's the full anatomy. Every item below should appear on the quote itself — not in a verbal promise, not in a brochure, on the document you'd sign:
- Exact equipment — panel, inverter and (if quoted) battery make, model and quantity.
- An address-specific design — your roof layout, panel orientation, and any export limit the design assumes.
- The rebate as a visible line — the STC point-of-sale discount shown against a stated gross price, so you can see gross vs net.
- Warranties split correctly — panel product, panel performance, inverter and workmanship, each in years.
- The grid application — the connection approval from your local network (DNSP), included as part of the job.
- A payment schedule — a modest deposit and staged payments, not most of the money upfront.
- A written performance estimate — with the assumptions it's built on stated.
The rest of this page walks through each line, what "good" looks like, and the tricks each line is used to hide. And to be plain about our own position: Mission Green's quotes follow this exact anatomy, and we'd ask you to hold us to it — read our quote against this page as critically as you'd read anyone else's.
What exact equipment
should the quote name?
Make, model and quantity — for every major component. "6.6kW of Tier-1 panels" is a marketing phrase, not a specification, and you can't compare or enforce a quote written that way.
Make, model, wattage, count
Not "Tier-1 panels" — "Tier 1" is a bankability list about the manufacturer's finances, not a quality rating for the panel on your roof. The quote should name the exact panel model and how many of them, so you can look up its real warranty document and compare it on our compare tool.
The component that matters most
The inverter works hardest and is the component most likely to need attention first — so the exact make and model matters more here than anywhere. "A quality inverter" on a quote is a blank the installer fills in later, usually with whatever is cheapest that week.
Model and usable capacity
If a battery is quoted, the exact model and its usable capacity (not just the nominal number) should be on the line. Sizing it right matters more than the brand — see our guide to what size system you actually need before you compare battery quotes.
What should the system design
show for my actual roof?
A design for your address — not a template. If nobody has looked at your roof, your switchboard and your usage, the number at the bottom of the quote is a guess wearing a suit.
A genuine quote is built on a genuine design, and the design section should show it:
- Roof layout — which roof faces the panels go on, usually as a satellite or drawn layout of your actual house. Orientation and tilt change what the same panels produce, so a design that ignores them is ignoring your output.
- Shading and obstructions — chimneys, aerials, trees, the neighbour's second storey. A good designer works around them; a template pretends they don't exist.
- Any export limit assumed — many networks limit how much your system may export to the grid, and the design should state what limit it assumes for your address. A design that's silent on this can produce a system whose headline output you're never allowed to use.
- Switchboard and site notes — if your switchboard needs work, that's a line on the quote by a licensed electrician, priced upfront — not a "variation" that appears on install day. (And it's never a DIY job, whatever a forum tells you.)
- Sizing from your usage — the system size should trace back to your bills and usage pattern, not to whatever package is on special. Our guide to what size solar system you need shows how that sizing should be reasoned.
The test is simple: could this design section have been written without knowing your address? If yes, it was.
Where should the rebate
sit on the quote?
As its own visible line: gross price, minus the STC discount, equals the net price you pay. If you can only see the "after rebate" number, you can't see what was passed on — and that's usually the point.
Australia's federal incentives are delivered as STCs (small-scale technology certificates) — tradeable certificates the installer typically claims on your behalf and passes on as a point-of-sale discount. For solar panels, the certificate value depends on your system size, your postcode zone, the install date and the floating STC market price. For batteries, the Cheaper Home Batteries Program works the same way and takes around 30% off the installed cost. How the certificates are calculated — and why the value drifts — is covered properly in our solar & battery payback guide.
What matters on the quote is the shape of the pricing:
- Gross system price — what the system costs before any incentive.
- STC discount — shown as its own line, with the number of certificates and the rate used.
- Net price — what you actually pay.
Why insist on all three? Because a quote that shows only a single "after rebate" figure has removed your ability to check that the full certificate value was passed on — and to compare the real underlying price between two quotes. It's not automatically dishonest, but it's the single most common place for margin to hide, and any installer who has genuinely passed the value on has no reason to hide the arithmetic. Also remember the certificate value floats with the market, so a rebate figure quoted before the design is final is an estimate, not a promise — a proper quote says so.
What warranty lines should
a quote split out?
Four separate numbers, not one blended headline. "Up to 25 years warranty" on a quote is a blend — and a blend always flatters the weakest part.
Product warranty
Covers defects in the physical panel — delamination, failed connections, the panel actually breaking. This is the panel warranty that does real work, and it's usually shorter than the headline number on the brochure. The quote should state it in years, per the named model.
Performance warranty
A promise about output over time — the long number sales material leads with. It's the weakest of the four in practice, because proving an output shortfall to claim on it is genuinely hard. Never let it stand in for the product warranty on a quote.
Inverter warranty
Usually shorter than the panel warranties — and the inverter is the component most likely to need replacement first, so this is often the warranty you'll actually use. Check the number rather than assuming it matches the panels, and check what's excluded.
Workmanship warranty
The installer's own warranty on the installation — the wiring, the racking, the roof penetrations. Typically 5–10 years, and it's only worth anything while the company is still trading. The quote should state whose warranty it is and for how long.
Battery warranty (if quoted)
Check two things the headline hides: the guaranteed capacity remaining at end of warranty, and any throughput or cycle limit that can end the warranty early. Both live in the warranty document for the exact model — which is why the model must be named.
Who will honour it?
Manufacturer warranties generally survive an installer going bust; the workmanship warranty and after-sales support don't. An estimated ~600,000 Australian systems are already "orphaned" (roughly 1 in 6–7 solar homes, per CHOICE) — our guide to checking an installer before you pay shows how to check yours won't be.
Should the grid application
be included in the quote?
Yes — connecting your system to the grid needs approval from your local network (your DNSP), and a proper quote includes lodging that application as part of the job, not as an afterthought.
Every grid-connected solar or battery system needs a connection approval from your DNSP — the network that owns the poles and wires in your area. The application sets what you're allowed to connect and how much you may export, and networks can approve, limit, or reject it. A proper quote:
- Names the step — pre-approval (where your network requires it) lodged by the installer before install day, plus the metering change with your retailer.
- Includes it in the price — not as a surprise fee later.
- Matches the design to it — the export limit assumed in the design section should be the one the application seeks. If the network approves less than the design assumed, your quote's performance estimate quietly breaks.
This step is also where timing honesty shows: an installer who promises an install date before the network has approved the connection is promising something that isn't theirs to promise. If an application does get knocked back or limited, it's usually fixable — our guide to what to do when the DNSP rejects your solar or battery application covers the options. The specific rules vary by network, so check your own DNSP's current connection requirements rather than assuming.
What payment schedule
is fair to ask for?
A modest deposit, staged payments tied to milestones, and the final balance only when the system is installed and working. Anyone who needs most of your money before doing most of the work is financing their business with your deposit.
The payment schedule is a trust document. What good looks like:
- A modest deposit — enough to commit both sides, and no more. Consumer codes in this industry expect deposits to be kept small; a demand for half or most of the price upfront is a red flag, not a norm.
- Staged payments tied to real milestones — for example, a progress payment when equipment is delivered or installation starts, with the final balance due after the system is installed and commissioned. That sequencing keeps the installer motivated to finish properly.
- Normal payment methods — card, bank transfer, or regulated finance. Cash-only is a walk-away sign: it usually means no paper trail, and no paper trail is exactly what you don't want holding up a decade-long warranty.
- Honest finance — if the quote includes finance, the repayments, term and any fees should be on the quote, and the interest cost should be part of your payback maths, not hidden beside it. See our finance options page for how we lay it out.
Why the deposit matters so much: if an installer stops trading between your deposit and your install, that money is very hard to recover. The smaller the deposit and the later the balance, the less of that risk you carry — and the checks in our before-you-pay-a-deposit guide shrink it further.
What performance estimate
should the quote include?
A written estimate of what the system should generate — with its assumptions stated. An estimate with no assumptions isn't an estimate, it's an advertisement.
The performance estimate is the quote's actual promise — it's the number your payback depends on. On a proper quote it is:
- Written on the quote — not a verbal "you'll barely have a bill". If it isn't written down, it wasn't said.
- Specific to the design — reflecting your panel orientation, tilt and shading, not a best-case template for a perfect north-facing roof.
- Explicit about assumptions — what generation it assumes for your location and layout, what share of that energy it assumes you use yourself versus export, what tariff and feed-in rate it assumed, and whether the export limit from the design is applied. Change any of those and the savings number changes with them.
- Framed as an estimate — real output varies year to year with weather and your usage. Any quote that "guarantees" your savings is making a promise the sun didn't sign.
You don't need to audit the maths yourself — you just need the assumptions written down, because written assumptions are checkable and vague promises aren't. To understand which assumptions move the payback most (self-consumption is the big one), read our solar & battery payback guide — it's the honest maths this line of the quote should be built on.
What are the red flags
in a solar quote?
None of these alone proves dishonesty — each one just removes a protection you'd otherwise have. Two or three together is a pattern, and a pattern is an answer.
No exact make & model
"6.6kW of Tier-1 panels and a quality inverter" names nothing you can compare, price-check or enforce. If the hardware isn't specified, the quote is a price for a mystery — and mysteries never resolve upward.
"Or similar" wording
Substitution clauses let the installer change what actually goes on your roof after you sign. It's a one-line fix to strike — our installer-checking guide owns this topic and shows exactly how.
The discount expires "today"
A genuine price survives a week of thinking. Manufactured deadlines exist to stop you getting a second quote — which tells you what the seller thinks a second quote would show. The federal rebate steps down gradually; it is not a today-or-never cliff.
No address-specific design
A price produced without anyone examining your roof, switchboard or usage is a template with your name on it. The install-day "variations" that follow are not bad luck — they're the business model.
Cash-only, or a big deposit
Cash-only means no paper trail; a large upfront deposit means you carry the insolvency risk. Either one alone is a serious warning. Both together — keep your money in your pocket and walk.
Only an "after rebate" price
No gross price and no STC line means you can't verify the rebate was fully passed on, and you can't compare the true underlying price against another quote. Transparent installers show the arithmetic; there's only one reason not to.
Six questions that
expose a bad quote.
Ask these of any quote — including ours. A good installer answers all six easily, because the answers are already on their paperwork. Evasion on any of them is itself the answer.
1. "Which exact models will be installed — in writing?"
If the answer is a brand tier or "equivalent", no design exists yet. The models on the quote should be the models on your roof, with substitution requiring your written agreement.
2. "What gross price is the STC discount coming off?"
This one question exposes hidden-margin pricing instantly. If they can't (or won't) show gross, discount line and net, you can't verify what was passed on — and they know it.
3. "Who lodges the grid application, and what export limit did you assume?"
Exposes quotes that skipped the DNSP step entirely. If nobody has thought about your network approval, the install date and the performance estimate are both fiction.
4. "What does the workmanship warranty cover, and who honours it if you close?"
Separates real warranty cover from a blended headline. A confident installer explains exactly which warranty is theirs, which is the manufacturer's, and what happens in the worst case.
5. "What assumptions is the performance estimate built on?"
An installer who did the design can answer immediately — orientation, shading, self-consumption, tariff. An installer who copied a template will improvise, and you'll hear it.
6. "Why does this price end today?"
There is no good answer to this question. Real costs don't expire overnight, and the federal incentive steps down on published dates, not sales deadlines. Watch what happens to the "deadline" when you say you need a week.
So — how should you handle your quotes?
Get more than one, read them against this anatomy rather than by the bottom line, and refuse to be rushed. The cheapest compliant quote is a great outcome; the cheapest quote is often not compliant.
Our honest advice: collect two or three quotes, and score each against the lines on this page — exact hardware, real design, transparent rebate line, split warranties, grid application included, fair payment schedule, written performance assumptions. A dearer quote that passes every line is usually the better buy than a cheaper one that fails three of them; a cheaper quote that also passes every line is simply the winner, and we'll say so even when it isn't ours. And if every quote you've received fails this page — including on price pressure — the honest move is to walk away from all of them and start again. Solar rewards patience far more than it rewards deadline-day signatures.
Reading a solar quote —
your questions, answered.
A compliant, professional solar or battery quote should name the exact panel, inverter and battery make, model and quantity; show an address-specific system design with your roof layout, panel orientation and any export limit the design assumes; show the federal STC incentive as a visible point-of-sale discount line so you can see the gross price and the net price; split the warranties into panel product, panel performance, inverter and installer workmanship lines with the years for each; include the grid connection application to your local network (DNSP) as part of the job; set out a payment schedule with a modest deposit; and give you a written performance estimate with its assumptions stated. If a quote is missing several of these, that is not a formality problem — it usually means nobody has actually designed a system for your home yet.
Compare them line by line on substance, not on the bottom-line number. First check both quotes name exact makes, models and quantities — you cannot compare 'a 6.6kW system' against another 'a 6.6kW system' if you do not know what hardware is in each. Then compare the warranty lines (product, performance, workmanship and inverter, in years), whether each includes the grid application and metering steps, whether each shows the rebate as a transparent discount line off a stated gross price, and what each performance estimate assumes. A quote that is slightly dearer but names better hardware, carries longer warranties and includes the grid work is often the cheaper quote over the life of the system. If the two quotes are for different system sizes, first work out what size you actually need, then compare like against like.
The federal incentive — small-scale technology certificates (STCs) for solar, and the Cheaper Home Batteries Program for batteries, which takes around 30% off the installed battery cost — is almost always applied as a point-of-sale discount: the installer claims the certificates and passes the value on as a visible line on the quote. A proper quote therefore shows the gross system price, then the STC discount as its own line, then the net price you pay. Be wary of a quote that only shows a single 'after rebate' number with no gross price and no discount line — you cannot see what value was passed on, and it is a common place to hide margin. The certificate value floats with the market and your details, so treat any pre-quote rebate figure as an estimate.
Four separate lines, each with a number of years: the panel product warranty (covers defects in the physical panel), the panel performance warranty (a promise about output over time — usually the long headline number, and the weakest of the four in practice), the inverter warranty (usually shorter than the panel warranties, and the component most likely to need replacement first), and the installer's workmanship warranty on the installation itself. For a battery, add the battery warranty and check its guaranteed end-of-warranty capacity and any throughput or cycle limits. A quote that offers one vague 'up to 25 years warranty' line is blending these together, and the blend always flatters the weakest part.
The big ones: no exact make, model and quantity for the hardware; 'or similar' substitution wording that lets the installer swap what actually goes on your roof; a price that was produced without anyone looking at your address, roof or switchboard; a discount that expires 'today' or 'this week' to pressure you into signing; a demand for a large deposit or cash-only payment; no mention of the grid application to your network; no written performance estimate, or one with no assumptions stated; and warranties presented as one blended headline number. None of these automatically means dishonesty — but each one removes a protection you would otherwise have, and several together is a pattern.
Yes, genuinely — sometimes the cheaper quote is the better one, and an expensive quote is not automatically an honest one. A cheaper quote wins when it names equivalent or better hardware, carries the same real warranty lines, includes the grid application, and comes from an installer likely to still be trading when you need warranty support — some businesses simply run leaner or price more keenly. The cheaper quote loses when the saving comes from unnamed or substituted hardware, blended warranties, a missing grid application that resurfaces later as a variation charge, or a company unlikely to survive its own workmanship warranty. The price tells you almost nothing on its own; the line items tell you nearly everything. Read both quotes against the anatomy on this page and the answer usually becomes obvious.
Where this guidance comes from.
Program and incentive mechanics on this page are drawn from official primary sources and were current as at 2026. Rebate values and network rules change — confirm at the source (and on your own quote) before relying on them.
- Clean Energy Regulator — Cheaper Home Batteries Program & battery STC factors
- Clean Energy Regulator — Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (STCs)
- Cheaper Home Batteries Program (energy.gov.au)
- ACCC — warranties & consumer guarantees
- New Energy Tech Consumer Code (NETCC) — retailer conduct standards
- CHOICE — solar-industry consumer reporting