“What I am trying to do is tell the whole world, get good data and work out what you need. I am driven by data, I’m in the game of recommending products, but you have to be careful because you are not buying hardware, you are buying a promised amount of power. And if it doesn’t deliver, you need the data to prove that you haven’t got that promise.”

And data is important even for those who just have solar panels – some studies have shown that more than one third of all solar systems (there are 1.6 million rooftop solar systems in Australia) are working below par, often for some easily fixed fault, but the households simply don’t know.

“It’s not enough  to say that we have got a lot of solar households in Australia. We have got to be able to say that they are delivering on their promise,” Mobbs says.

Other issues he has come across is the lack of a formal second hand market in solar panels. When he took down his original array, the installer didn’t know what to do with them. But soon enough, Mobbs found someone in the Blue Mountains who hopped in his ute to drive down and pick them up. He also wonders why there is not more recycled metals used in such systems.

via The “off-grid” guy is not happy with his off-grid system : Renew Economy