Install day. What to check before the crew leaves.
The panels go up fast — a standard residential install is usually a day on site. Here's what actually happens on the day, and the ten-minute checklist to run before the van drives away: panels, labels, paperwork and switch-on, in plain English. A good installer wants you to check.
Reviewed by the Mission Green Energy Team · Updated July 2026
What actually happens
on install day?
A standard residential solar install is usually a day on site — the crew mounts the panels, fits the inverter, wires the switchboard and walks you through the handover. Adding a battery typically extends that to one or two days.
Here's the honest shape of the day. The crew arrives in the morning, confirms roof and switchboard access, and splits into two jobs: the roof team fits the mounting rails and panels, while the electrical side positions the inverter, runs the cabling and works at your switchboard. By the afternoon the system is connected, tested and — in most cases — switched on for self-consumption, with a walkthrough of the monitoring app and the paperwork before they pack up.
You don't need to hover all day. But there are two moments where being present (or at least reachable) genuinely matters:
- The inverter placement conversation at the start — where the inverter goes affects its lifespan, your wi-fi monitoring and how the house looks, and you get a say (more below).
- The handover at the end — the ten-minute checklist this page is built around, run before the crew leaves, while fixing anything is still easy.
And keep the day in perspective: the on-site work is the fast part. Either side of it sit the approvals — grid pre-approval before, and inspection, network permission to operate and meter reconfiguration after — which is why the full journey from first contact to a fully exporting system usually takes a few weeks, most of it paperwork rather than ladders.
What should you sort out
before the crew arrives?
Fifteen minutes of prep the night before makes the day smoother and faster for everyone. None of it is complicated — it's access, parking, pets and one photo of your quote.
Photograph your quote
Take a photo of the quote page listing the panel make, model and count, plus the inverter and battery models. It's your reference for the handover checklist — if you're not sure what those line items mean, our guide to reading a solar quote decodes them.
Clear the access
Unlock side gates, clear the path along the side of the house where ladders and rails will travel, and make sure the crew can get to the switchboard and the wall where the inverter is going without moving your stuff.
Sort the parking
The crew arrives with a van or ute and often a trailer of rails and panels. A parking spot close to the house saves a surprising amount of carrying time — if street parking is tight, flag it with your installer beforehand.
Plan for pets & kids
Dogs inside or at a neighbour's for the day; kids clear of the work area. There will be open gates, ladders, tools and cabling around — the crew will manage the site, but a contained dog makes everyone's day easier.
Think about the inverter spot
Have a preference ready: a shaded wall or the garage is usually kinder to the electronics than a west-facing wall in full sun, and it needs wi-fi reach for monitoring. You'll be asked — it's worth having thought about it.
Be reachable
If you can't be home, make sure someone can unlock access and that you're contactable for the inverter-placement decision and the handover. Doing the final checklist in person is worth arranging if you possibly can.
What happens while
the crew is working?
Rails, panels, inverter, cabling, switchboard — in roughly that order. Two of those steps involve decisions you're entitled to weigh in on, and it's much easier to speak up while the drill is still out.
On the roof: the crew fixes mounting feet through the roof into the structure, seals each penetration with flashings or appropriate sealing for your roof type, clips the rails on, then lifts and secures the panels. On tile roofs a cracked tile during work isn't a scandal — but replacing or properly sealing it before the crew leaves is part of a tidy job, and it's on your checklist below.
The inverter placement conversation: this is your moment. The inverter is the hardest-working electronics in the system, and where it lives matters — a cool, shaded spot (a garage or a south-facing wall, for example) is generally kinder to it than a wall that cops full afternoon sun, and it needs to be somewhere your wi-fi reaches if the monitoring runs over your network. It also has to meet clearance and location rules, which the installer will apply. Within those rules, say where you'd prefer it — including "not on the front of the house" if the look matters to you. A good crew asks; if yours doesn't, raise it before the bracket goes on the wall.
Cabling runs: ask how the cabling will travel from roof to inverter to switchboard — through the roof cavity and wall where possible, or in external conduit where not. If external conduit is needed, ask where it will run before it's fixed. Straight, tidy, well-clipped conduit is the visible signature of a careful installer.
At the switchboard: the electrician adds the solar circuit protection and labelling, and this is also the moment any switchboard limitation your quote flagged gets dealt with. All of this is licensed electrical work — it's normal for the power to be off for part of the day, and none of it is ever a DIY job.
What should you check
before the crew leaves?
This is the heart of the page: six checks, about ten minutes, all from the ground. A good installer wants you to run this list — we do — because it's far cheaper to fix anything while the crew is still on site.
Panels match the quote
Make, model and count — against the photo of your quote. Ask to sight a panel label (or a photo of one) before the panels go up, and count them from the ground once they're on. Substitution without your written agreement is not okay.
Inverter & battery match
The model stickers are at eye level on the wall — read them against the quote. If a different model was fitted "because of supply", that's a conversation you should have been part of before install day, not after.
Tidy roof work, sealed penetrations
From the ground: panels sit straight and aligned, no cracked tiles left in place, flashings visible at mounting points, conduit runs straight and clipped, packaging and offcuts gone. Ask for photos of the roof work — good crews take them as standard.
Switchboard & isolators labelled
Open the switchboard door and look: the solar supply main switch and circuits should be clearly labelled, and the isolator switches by the inverter labelled too. Labels are a compliance requirement, not a nicety — they're what lets anyone shut the system down safely.
Shutdown procedure shown
Have the installer demonstrate the shutdown and restart procedure — which switches, in which order — and point to where the printed procedure is displayed. You hope to never need it; you should still know it before they leave.
Monitoring in YOUR account
The monitoring app should be set up in your own account, on your phone, with your email — not just the installer's portal. Watch it show live generation before the crew leaves. It's your early-warning system for faults, and it belongs to you.
What paperwork should you
walk away with?
Four things — handed over on the day, or promised in writing with a date. The paperwork is what protects you years from now, long after everyone's forgotten what was said on the driveway.
- The electrical compliance certificate for your state. In New South Wales that's a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work (CCEW); in Victoria, a Certificate of Electrical Safety; other states and territories have their own equivalents. This is the legal record that licensed electrical work was done and tested. Some certificates are lodged and issued shortly after the day rather than printed on the spot — that's normal, but get the commitment in writing. If you're unsure which certificate applies, ask the installer to name it; a licensed installer will answer without hesitation.
- The warranty documents — panel product and performance warranties, the inverter warranty, the battery warranty if you bought one, and the installer's own workmanship warranty terms. Ours are published on our warranty page; whoever you buy from, get theirs in writing, not as a verbal "she'll be right".
- The user manual and system documentation — the equipment manuals plus, ideally, a simple system summary: what was installed, where the isolators are, and the shutdown procedure.
- Anything not handed over, promised in writing. A one-line email from the installer — "certificate and warranty pack to follow by [date]" — costs nothing and turns a promise into a record. If a company hesitates to put that in an email, that tells you something.
File the lot with your quote and contract. If you ever need to claim a warranty, sell the house, or deal with an installer that's stopped trading, this folder is what does the heavy lifting.
What happens next — and why
isn't it exporting yet?
Switch-on isn't quite the finish line. Depending on your state and network there's an inspection, formal permission to operate, and a meter reconfiguration before exports flow — and a quiet export figure in week one is often completely normal.
Three things typically follow install day, and none of them is your installer dragging their feet:
- Inspection, where your state requires one. Some states require an independent electrical safety inspection of the new work; your installer arranges it and will tell you if it applies to you.
- Network permission to operate. Your local distribution network (the DNSP — the company that owns the poles and wires, separate from your retailer) formally approves the system to operate and export. This sits with the network, not the installer.
- Meter reconfiguration. Your meter is reconfigured (or replaced) so exports are measured and credited. Until this happens, solar you send to the grid may simply not be recorded or paid.
The practical upshot: a system that isn't exporting in its first days or weeks is often behaving normally — it can usually still power your home during the day while the approvals catch up. The distinction that matters is not exporting yet versus actually faulty: our guide to a solar system that's stopped exporting walks through how to tell the difference from your monitoring app, and if the inverter is showing a red or amber light, the inverter fault-code guide covers what the lights mean and what's safe to do about them (short version: read, note, call — don't open anything).
Ask your installer on the day what the expected approval sequence is for your network and roughly how long it's been running lately — then you'll know the difference between normal lead time and something worth chasing. Your DNSP's own website (Ausgrid, Energex, Powercor and so on) publishes its current connection process if you want to see the steps yourself.
What's safe to check yourself —
and what never is?
Everything on this page's checklist can be done from the ground. The roof and the electricals are the two hard lines — and they stay hard lines for the life of the system.
Never climb onto the roof to check panels. Not on install day, not next month, not to sight a label or count the rows. Falls from roofs are exactly the kind of injury that turns a good decision into a tragedy, and there is nothing up there you can't verify another way: count and sight panels from the ground or across the street, ask the crew for photos of the finished roof work (good installers take them as a matter of course), or use a zoomed phone photo from the garden. If something genuinely needs close inspection later, that's a job for the installer or a roofing professional with the right equipment — not a ladder and good intentions.
Anything electrical is the installer's licensed work. The switchboard internals, the wiring, the inverter's covers, the isolators beyond normal switching — all of it is licensed electrician territory, on install day and forever after. Your role is eyes-on, hands-off: read labels, watch the monitoring app, note anything odd, and put it in writing. The only switches you should ever operate are the ones in the shutdown procedure the installer demonstrated — and even then, only as shown.
None of this is because you're not capable. It's because the checklist works entirely without risk — and an honest installer would far rather answer ten questions from the driveway than have you on the roof.
What if you find a problem —
on the day, or after?
Raise it politely, in writing, the same day. That's it. A well-documented, same-day email is taken seriously by every reputable installer — and it quietly protects you if the company turns out not to be one.
While the crew is still there: just ask. "The quote says [model] — can you show me the label?" or "Can that conduit be straightened before you go?" are completely normal questions, and fixing things on the spot is easy. No good tradesperson resents a homeowner who's paying attention; the crews that do are telling you something.
After the crew has left: photograph the issue from the ground, note what you found and when, and email the installer the same day — politely, with the photos attached, asking how and when it will be put right. Same-day, written, photographed: that combination is hard to argue with and easy to act on. Keep the conversation in email rather than phone calls, and keep it factual rather than heated — you're building a record, not a fight. Workmanship issues are exactly what the installer's workmanship warranty exists to cover.
If the installer won't engage: escalate in writing to the company first, then to your state's electrical safety regulator or fair trading body if it's a safety or contract issue. This is also where the homework you did before paying the deposit pays off — companies chosen carefully rarely get to this paragraph.
And the honest flip side: most installs by accredited crews are done well, and most checklists end with a handshake. The point of checking isn't suspicion — it's that ten minutes of verification on day one is worth more than any amount of arguing in year three.
So — how should you run install day?
Be home if you can, speak up on the inverter spot, and run the six checks plus the paperwork before the van leaves. That's the whole job.
Here's the advice we'd give a friend: photograph your quote the night before, be around for the inverter conversation, and then spend ten unhurried minutes at handover — panels against the quote, inverter and battery labels, roof work from the ground, switchboard and isolator labels, the shutdown demo, monitoring in your own account, and the paperwork in hand or promised in writing. Everything from the ground, nothing on the roof, nothing electrical. If an installer welcomes that list, you almost certainly chose well. If an installer bristles at it, that reaction is itself the most useful thing you'll learn all day — and it's exactly why we tell every customer to run it on us.
Install day questions,
answered straight.
For most Australian homes, a standard residential solar installation is usually a day on site. The crew mounts the rails and panels, fits the inverter, runs the cabling and connects everything at the switchboard within that day, and adding a battery typically extends the work to one or two days depending on the electrical side. The physical install is only part of the timeline, though — before it there is design and grid pre-approval, and after it there can be an inspection where your state requires one, network permission to operate and a meter reconfiguration before the system can export. From first contact to a fully switched-on, exporting system, most households should allow a few weeks, and most of that is paperwork and network lead time rather than anyone on your roof.
Run a simple handover checklist while the crew is still there: the panel make, model and count match your quote; the inverter (and battery, if you bought one) is the model you were quoted; roof penetrations are flashed and sealed and the site is tidy; the switchboard and isolators are clearly labelled; you have been shown how to shut the system down safely; the monitoring app is set up in your own account, not just the installer's; and the paperwork — the electrical compliance certificate for your state, warranty documents and the user manual — is handed over or promised in writing. A good installer expects these questions and will happily walk you through each item. Check what you can from the ground; never climb onto the roof yourself.
Photograph your quote before install day so the make, model and panel count are easy to check on the spot. On the day, ask the crew to show you the label on one of the panels before it goes up, or to take a photo of a label for you — every panel carries a sticker with the manufacturer and model number. Count the panels from the ground once they are on the roof and compare against the quote. The inverter and battery are easier, because their labels are usually at eye level on the wall. If anything on site does not match the paperwork, ask about it politely before the crew leaves and follow up in writing the same day. Do not climb onto the roof to check — verify from the ground or from photos.
You should receive the electrical safety certificate for your state — in New South Wales that is a Certificate of Compliance for Electrical Work (CCEW), in Victoria a Certificate of Electrical Safety, and other states have their own equivalents — plus the warranty documents for the panels, inverter and any battery, the installer's workmanship warranty terms, and the user manual for the system. You should also leave with the monitoring app set up in your own account. Some documents are genuinely issued after the day, so if anything is not handed over on the spot, get a written commitment about what is coming and when. If you are unsure which certificate applies in your state, ask the installer to name it — a licensed installer will know immediately.
This is often completely normal at first. After the physical install, your network distributor (DNSP) usually needs to grant permission to operate, and your meter may need to be reconfigured before exports are recorded and credited — steps that happen in the days or weeks after the crew leaves, and that sit with the network rather than your installer. During that window the system can typically still power your home during the day; it just is not exporting or earning feed-in credits yet. If the wait drags on well past what your installer indicated, or the inverter is showing a fault light rather than simply not exporting, that is worth chasing — our guide to a solar system that has stopped exporting walks through how to tell the difference safely.
Document it and raise it in writing the same day if you can. Take photos from the ground — never climb onto the roof — note what you found and when, and email your installer politely with the photos attached, asking how and when it will be fixed. A reputable installer wants to know about problems early and will treat a same-day, well-documented email seriously; workmanship issues are exactly what the installer's workmanship warranty exists for. Keep everything in writing rather than relying on phone calls, and keep copies of your quote, contract and handover paperwork together. Anything electrical — wiring, the switchboard, the inverter's internals — is licensed work, so never attempt a fix yourself; describe it, photograph it from a safe distance and let the licensed installer put it right.
Where to verify the official steps.
Certificates, inspections and connection processes are set by regulators and networks, and they change — confirm the current process for your state and network at the source.
- Clean Energy Regulator — small-scale system inspections program
- energy.gov.au — solar guidance for households
- Building Commission NSW — electrical compliance requirements (CCEW)
- Energy Safe Victoria — certificates of electrical safety & inspections
- Solar Accreditation Australia — installer accreditation