COMMON QUESTIONS

Typically 4 to 5 weeks from the time you approve your quote. That window covers stock procurement, Energex grid connection approval, and scheduling our installation team.

The installation itself takes one day for a standard residential solar and battery system.

For most Gold Coast homes, yes, and the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program has significantly improved the economics.

The regional Queensland solar feed-in tariff is 6.006 cents per kilowatt-hour from 1 July 2026, which means energy exported to the grid earns you very little.

A battery lets you store that energy and use it at night, when grid electricity costs three to five times more than the export rate.

Steven’s view is that the payback period for a well-sized battery system in South-East Queensland is typically 5 to 8 years, depending on your usage.

Your quote shows your own figures. Gold Coast homes also benefit from backup power during storm-related outages, which adds practical value beyond the bill savings.

The Cheaper Home Batteries Program is a federal discount on eligible battery installations. It works through the same certificate scheme as the solar rebate, so the discount comes off your price at the point of sale and there is no paperwork for you. The amount depends on how much solar and battery you install.

As a guide, our customers save between $6,000 and $12,000 off the upfront cost, as at October 2026.

To qualify, the battery must be installed by an installer accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA), using CEC-approved products. Evolved Solar is SAA-accredited and applies the rebate on every eligible installation.

Every price we quote is what you pay after the rebate.

For a typical Gold Coast household using 20 to 25 kWh per day, a 6.6 kW to 10 kW solar system is a common starting point.

The right size depends on your daytime usage patterns, roof orientation and available space, whether you are planning to add a battery now or later, and whether you have an EV or pool pump that can be timed to run during solar generation hours. We assess all of these factors before recommending a system size — we do not use a one-size formula.

In most cases, yes. The main considerations are whether your existing inverter is battery-ready or compatible with a battery retrofit, the age and condition of your current system, and your switchboard's capacity.

We assess existing systems before recommending a battery addition and will tell you honestly if a retrofit is not worthwhile. In some cases, replacing an ageing inverter as part of the battery upgrade is the better long-term option.

Every battery system we install is Sigenergy. We use Sigenergy's Gateway, which gives you full home backup, and the same system can run on the grid as a hybrid now and go fully off grid later if you want to.

Every Sigenergy battery package includes 12 months of Energy Pilot. Energy Pilot monitors how you use your battery, then advises you on the best current retail or VPP deal and can set it up for you. Energy Pilot has no affiliation with any of those companies.

We set every customer up with a smart monitoring app connected to their inverter.

This lets you see in real time how much energy your panels are generating, how much you are using, and how much is going to or coming from the grid. If we install a consumption meter — which we strongly recommend — you can also track your household's total energy usage patterns. We walk you through the app on installation day and are available if you have questions afterwards.

The Gold Coast's regular rainfall means panels installed at a standard pitch of 10 degrees or more are largely self-cleaning under normal conditions.

If you have significant tree coverage, live near a construction site, or notice bird droppings accumulating, a professional clean every 12 to 18 months will protect your system's output. We can advise on cleaning services if needed.

Not always, but often. Older switchboards — particularly those with ceramic fuses rather than circuit breakers — are generally not compatible with modern solar inverters and must be upgraded before installation can proceed. Even newer switchboards sometimes lack the spare capacity or correct configuration for a battery system.

We assess your switchboard as part of every site visit and include any required upgrade in your quote upfront, so there are no surprises on installation day.

It depends on the board you have now. Every battery we install uses Sigenergy's Gateway for full home backup, so the whole installation must meet the current battery standards. That means correctly sized circuit breakers on the mains and sub-mains, and Type A RCBOs with pulsating DC protection on every circuit.

We include any upgrade this needs in your battery quote once we have seen a photo or two of your switchboard. For a switchboard upgrade on its own, we provide a fixed-price quote before any work begins.

A licensed electrical contractor can carry out a switchboard upgrade, but for solar installations specifically, the work needs to be coordinated with the solar system design and Energex grid connection requirements.

Having the same team handle both the solar installation and the switchboard upgrade — as we do at Evolved Solar — avoids the miscommunication and liability gaps that arise when two separate trades share a job.