What a compliant solar install looks like
Here's the uncomfortable part of solar: nearly everything that determines whether your system is safe and durable gets covered up within hours of being done. You cannot inspect it later from the ground.
This isn't a case of most installers being careless. It's that the incentive to cut corners is high and the chance of being caught is low — because the evidence disappears the same day. These are the six things that separate a compliant install from one that merely looks finished.
Fixings that land in structure
Brackets must be fixed into rafters or battens — actual structural timber — not just into the sheeting or a tile. A fixing into nothing holds until the first serious wind.
Skipped because: finding the rafter takes time. Invisible once panels are on.
Penetrations flashed properly
Every hole through your roof needs correct flashing, dressed over the roof profile rather than under it, and sealed to the manufacturer's method for that roof type.
Skipped because: a bead of silicone is faster. It lasts about two summers.
Cable that's supported and protected
DC cable should be properly supported, UV-protected where exposed, and never resting on sharp edges or loose on the roof surface where it will chafe.
Skipped because: nobody sees under the array. Chafed DC cable is a genuine fire risk.
Terminations done before covers close
Connections at the inverter, isolators and switchboard need to be correct and tight, with no exposed copper. Once the lid is on, nobody will look again for a decade.
Skipped because: it's the last hour of a long day.
Earthing and bonding that's continuous
The array frame must be properly bonded with the right lugs and conductor, with corrosion protection where dissimilar metals meet — which matters enormously near the coast.
Skipped because: it's fiddly and nothing appears wrong when it's missing.
Signage, labelling and commissioning tests
Mandatory labels at the switchboard, inverter and isolators — durable, not handwritten — plus the commissioning tests actually performed and recorded, not assumed.
Skipped because: it's the most common audit defect, and the easiest to fake on paper.
How to tell whether yours was done right
You can't climb up and check, and you shouldn't. What you can do is ask for the evidence — and notice how the answer lands.
- Photos taken during the install — fixings, penetrations, cable runs and terminations, before they were covered. A careful installer already has these.
- Your CCEW — the Certificate of Compliance Electrical Work. You're entitled to a copy. Keep it.
- Commissioning test results — the actual readings, not a ticked box.
- Serial numbers of the panels and inverter installed, matching what you were sold.
If a company can't produce these, it doesn't prove the work was bad. It proves nobody can show it was good — which is the same problem when you're making a warranty claim or selling the house.
Every install, photographed and checked
On a Solarsearch job, each stage is captured against a fixed protocol and verified before the next begins — so the hidden work is documented while it's still visible. You get the record, not just the promise.
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