How PowerSmarter Vets Installers (Our Standards)

Getting a home battery installed is one of the larger financial decisions most homeowners will make. The quality of the installer has an enormous impact on the outcome — not just on installation day, but for years of ongoing performance, warranty support, and grid connection management.

At PowerSmarter, we don't just connect you with whoever's available. Here's exactly how our installer vetting process works.

Step 1: SAA Accreditation — The Baseline

Every installer on the PowerSmarter platform must hold current accreditation from Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA). This is non-negotiable. SAA accreditation means the installer has passed nationally recognised training for solar PV and battery installation, and is subject to SAA's code of conduct and complaint resolution process.

We verify SAA accreditation status at onboarding and monitor for changes. An installer who loses their accreditation is immediately removed from the platform.

SAA accreditation is also required for CHBP rebate eligibility — so using any installer without it means you can't access the federal rebate. We eliminate that risk entirely.

Step 2: State Electrical Licences

Battery installation involves high-voltage DC wiring and connection to your home's electrical system. Every PowerSmarter installer must hold a valid electrical contractor's licence in the states where they operate. We verify this against each state's licensing register.

This matters more than it might seem. Unlicensed electrical work is illegal in every Australian state, voids your home insurance in the event of an incident, and creates real safety risks. We check licences — you shouldn't have to.

Step 3: Battery-Specific Experience

An SAA-accredited installer with a valid licence is still not necessarily a great battery installer. Battery systems are significantly more complex than solar panels, and the skills required (hybrid inverter commissioning, grid approval management, backup configuration, monitoring setup) take time to develop.

We require that installers on our platform have a minimum track record of completed battery installations before joining. We review their installation history as part of the onboarding process.

Step 4: Customer Reviews and Complaint History

We check installer reviews across Google, Product Review, and where available, direct customer references. We also check for complaint history with SAA and state-level consumer protection bodies.

Installers with significant unresolved complaints or poor track records don't make it onto our platform — regardless of their paperwork credentials.

Step 5: Ongoing Monitoring

Vetting doesn't stop at onboarding. We collect feedback from every PowerSmarter customer after their installation is complete. Consistent issues — late completion, poor communication, unresolved warranty problems — result in removal from the platform.

This ongoing feedback loop is one of the things that distinguishes our model from simple lead-generation platforms, where an installer's relationship with the platform is purely financial.

What We Don't Do

We don't take payments from installers to be featured higher or promoted more prominently. We don't allow installers to buy their way onto the platform — every installer qualifies through the vetting process or doesn't get listed.

We also don't take referral fees from battery manufacturers or brands. Our business model is based on connecting homeowners with installers who've earned a place on our platform — not on pushing specific products.

Why This Matters for You

Finding a good installer independently is genuinely difficult. SAA accreditation can be verified, but experience and customer service track records are harder to assess without inside knowledge of the industry.

The alternative — taking a cold call from an installer who found your details from a solar lead aggregator — carries real risk. That installer may be perfectly fine, or they may be a bottom-of-the-market operator maximising margins on unsuspecting homeowners.

PowerSmarter's vetting layer doesn't guarantee perfection, but it significantly raises the floor. And our ongoing monitoring means underperformers are identified and removed before they become your problem.