NZ Building Answers

How do I choose a solar installer?

Updated June 2026

Short answer

Solar is electrical work, so the wiring and grid connection must be done by a licensed electrician who gives you a Certificate of Compliance at the end. Beyond that legal floor, look for a named installation crew rather than a sales broker, a written production estimate for your actual roof, and separate warranty terms for panels, inverter and workmanship.

Source: EECA (Gen Less). Updated June 2026.

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Key facts

The electrical work must be done by a licensed electrician and finished with a Certificate of Compliance
Grid-connected systems need approval from your lines company before they are switched on
Mounting panels on most roofs is exempt building work, but the roof has to carry the load for decades
Panels, inverter and workmanship carry separate warranties with very different lengths

Work out who actually does the work

The solar market splits into companies that sell systems and companies that install them, and plenty of brands do the first while subcontracting the second. Neither model is wrong, but you want to know which one you are buying. Ask who turns up on the day, whether they are employees or subcontractors, and who you call if a fault appears in year three.

SEANZ, the industry association, runs a code of conduct for its members. Membership is voluntary, so treat it as a useful signal rather than a requirement.

The legal floor: licensed electrical work

Connecting an inverter to your switchboard is prescribed electrical work. It must be done by a licensed electrician, and you should receive a Certificate of Compliance when it is finished. You can confirm a licence on the Electrical Workers Registration Board register before anyone touches the board.

A grid-connected system also needs a distributed generation application approved by your local lines company before it can export. A competent installer handles this as routine and can tell you the approval status without checking.

Quotes worth comparing

A serious quote estimates what the system will generate on your roof, with your orientation and shading, not a national average. It names the panel and inverter brands and confirms the inverter meets the AS/NZS 4777 standard the lines company will expect.

Have the roof itself looked at first. Panels stay up for 25 years or more, and mounting them on iron that needs replacing in five is an expensive sequencing mistake. EECA's Gen Less site has impartial guidance on sizing and payback if the quotes disagree.

Treat any quote built on door-knock urgency or a price that expires today with caution. Solar rewards a week of comparison, and the numbers that matter, generation, export rates and payback period, do not change because a salesperson is leaving the area on Friday.

Warranties and the long game

Panels usually carry long performance warranties, inverters shorter product warranties, and the workmanship warranty belongs to the installer. That last one is the one you will most likely use, and it is only worth anything while the company is still trading. Run a check on the company at checkmybuilder.co.nz before you sign, and keep the Certificate of Compliance, the approval paperwork and the warranty documents together. They matter at claim time and again when you sell the house.

Before you hire

Knowing the rules is half the job. The other half is knowing who you're hiring. Check any NZ builder against the public record: company status, licensing and insolvency notices, from the official NZ sources.

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