0:00

Hi guys , I'm here with Anthony Lamb from

0:02

HCBColar , and Anthony has been in

0:04

the Solar Game for quite a while and he's also

0:06

proudly working for a company which is fourth

0:08

generation Now . With the Solar Coast

0:11

, many , many companies gone , finding

0:13

a company that has been in the electrical

0:15

and the Solar Game for four generation

0:17

is quite special . Welcome

0:23

to the show . Thanks for having me , marcus . Well

0:25

, you've got a lot of experience in solar . You're

0:28

selling it , you're installing it . You've

0:30

initially started installation game , then you're

0:32

moving more into management . What's your role ?

0:34

Yeah , so my background is I've

0:36

been an electrician for 11-12

0:39

years now . I started when I was 15 , straight

0:42

out of school , straight in apprenticeship doing

0:44

construction work and on homes

0:46

and commercial things like that , and I've moved into the solar

0:48

game back in 2017

0:51

. That was up in Darwin , so , as you can imagine , it's

0:53

a pretty hot place to be installing

0:55

solar on the roofs and things like that , and I learned

0:57

a lot in Darwin . But I also learned some

1:00

of the ways not to do solar . So I was working

1:02

for quite a large company at the time , but in

1:06

terms of how we were doing things there , there's

1:09

probably not some of the right things to do , and

1:12

so , coming to HCBC with a quality company

1:14

, I learned really

1:17

the major difference between quality and cheap

1:19

and using quality gear

1:21

. So , yeah , it's

1:24

been quite a journey learning all the solar

1:26

stuff , but I love where I am now and

1:28

now into management and , yeah

1:31

, it's another trade to learn , so trying to

1:33

manage people but I'm really enjoying it

1:35

so far so you've

1:37

been installing solar for

1:39

quite a few years , isn't

1:42

it all the same ?

1:43

It's a black panel , it's

1:45

an inverter . I just stick the two together

1:47

. End of story . Is there a variety ?

1:49

Theoretically it's all the same , but in terms

1:51

of the actual products themselves they're definitely not

1:53

the same . You can get a cheap $800

1:56

inverter that might last five years

1:58

if you're lucky , or it will probably

2:00

fail in five years , in one month , right after the warranty

2:02

runs out . Or you can go with a product that

2:04

it comes with 10 years warranty

2:07

but it'll probably last you 25 years if

2:09

installed correctly .

2:11

So there's a difference in the price point ? What about the

2:13

installation quality ?

2:15

The installation quality is number one , really

2:17

. If you can install a quality product in

2:19

a crap spot and yeah

2:22

, it's not going to last , the same If you put a high-end

2:24

, quality inverter on a north-facing wall

2:27

cop in the sun , it's still not going to last

2:29

as long .

2:29

So you said kind of stuff you look

2:32

at , or is it just hurry , hurry get it out

2:34

?

2:34

No , no , every job we do is well

2:36

planned out in advance . So , once the job's sold

2:38

, we have an in-house design team that looks after

2:40

the managing that process of where

2:43

the inverter is going to go , where the battery is going to go , what

2:45

way the solar panels are going to go on the roof , making sure

2:48

that everything is designed from start

2:50

to finish , that when the guys get there on the day , they have

2:52

a map in their hands of this is where this is

2:54

going . This is where this is going . If

2:56

there's anything that's been missed , the guys are

2:58

well trained in picking that up and going hang on

3:00

this in location isn't

3:02

going to work . It's different from the picture . They've actually knocked

3:05

this wall down and now that's in full sun , something

3:07

like that , and the guys will be able to pick that up . Tell

3:09

us and we'll replan it on the day

3:11

.

3:12

So let's say , if I go into

3:14

Hunder Valley there are lots of solar companies out

3:16

there . Why

3:18

would I want to pick HCB ?

3:19

solar . Well , I mean , you

3:22

could go with the cheapest company out there

3:24

or any one of the other companies that have been

3:26

there for a few years , but I

3:28

think just in that the history HCB has

3:30

they've been around since 2008 doing

3:32

solar , but also since the 1950s

3:35

doing electrical , so it's a company

3:37

that's been around for a very long time . We're

3:39

not going anywhere . When we sell you a product

3:41

with 25 year warranty , we'll see you in 25

3:44

years to be able to service that 24 months

3:46

, and 24 years and 11 months we'll

3:48

be there to claim that warranty for you , whereas

3:51

you don't know that with a company that's just started

3:53

up a year ago .

3:54

I mean 800 solar companies have come and

3:56

gone .

3:57

Exactly right . So it's

3:59

the industry we're in is . There's a

4:01

lot of highs , a lot of lows , but yeah

4:03

, HCB has been through a lot of them .

4:06

So what's your philosophy ? I'm a name customer

4:08

. You walked in , I'm going

4:10

, I need solar , but I don't know what

4:12

else I need . What do you

4:15

start ? What questions do you ask me ?

4:17

I guess why do they want solar If they

4:20

have a really expensive power bill ? That's normally the main

4:22

driver . How do I get my power bill down ? That

4:25

would be the first step , and then it would be looking at the power bill

4:27

was going all right , this is how much power you're drawing

4:29

or importing from the grid . This is

4:31

what this site system could meet and cover that . But

4:34

it's not just like if they're out working

4:36

all day . The solar system isn't going to change that

4:38

for them . So it's about educating them

4:40

on their energy use and making sure that they

4:42

use their sort of hydro products

4:45

during the day , so that dishwashers , their washing machines

4:47

, setting those things on timers and

4:49

things like all these . All these stuff have . All

4:51

these products have timers now , like air cons , you can set

4:53

it on a timer . So if you , even if you're out all day

4:55

at work and you know it's going to be a particularly

4:58

hot day , you can set the timer on the aircon

5:00

to start at 12 o'clock and you can walk

5:02

in from from work at five o'clock and your house

5:04

is nice and cool and but it hasn't cost you

5:06

a cent to run it .

5:07

You run it entirely for free . So you're saying

5:09

, instead of at six o'clock whacking

5:12

the aircon full blast for the house

5:14

that heated during the day , I'm

5:16

actually setting the timer in the middle of the day

5:18

to pre-call it , and then at

5:20

night my bill won't be so high

5:22

because I don't have to whack the aircon too hard

5:24

.

5:24

Oh , absolutely . If you turn the aircon on once the sun's

5:27

gone down , the solar's not doing anything for

5:29

you , so you're just paying for it from the grid . So

5:31

I mean there's not much point in getting

5:33

a solar system if you're just going to export it all

5:35

to the grid . The feed-in tariffs , now the

5:37

crap , there's nothing there . So if you're

5:39

not going to use it , you're not going to pay the system off . Like

5:41

these payback periods you get given , sort

5:44

of assuming that you're using that solar system

5:46

. If you're not using it , you can sort of kiss goodbye

5:48

to the payback periods there , mike but

5:51

I mean , there are also people who do work

5:53

from home .

5:53

now they're also pensioners . So

5:56

if you're actually a person who's at home most

5:58

of the time , then solar is really a very

6:00

, very good option .

6:01

You're the best person to get solar . You're going to use all

6:03

of that solar power . You're going to consume it all

6:05

and not pay for any electricity .

6:08

So when you end up going

6:10

to a house , have you now found also that you find some older solar systems

6:14

that already now need replacement ?

6:16

Oh , there's loads of them out there . You can sort of see

6:18

them straight away , you know . Yeah , you go to a house , you see these

6:21

old one and a half , two kilowatt

6:23

systems and you can probably like

6:25

most of those ones would have been installed when the

6:28

60 cent feed-in tariffs are on and things like that , and

6:30

you wouldn't even use solar power . Back then

6:32

the idea was that you would get the 60 cent feed-in tariff

6:34

and export everything and capitalize

6:37

on that return , Whereas

6:39

now it's shifted because the

6:41

feed-in tariffs aren't there . The process

6:43

has shifted to consuming your energy

6:45

. So with those old ones they're probably

6:47

not fit for purpose anymore . You probably need a

6:50

larger system that's actually going to meet your energy needs

6:52

.

6:53

Do . Sometimes customers emotionally love

6:55

their little old system so well that they want you

6:57

to go and fix it again . Or do , if

6:59

you say , look it's past this , use by day , pull

7:01

it off . They okay with it .

7:03

I think most people understand that technology's changed

7:05

so much that those older ones just

7:07

aren't . They're not good anymore . They

7:09

understand that even panels look nicer now than

7:12

you can get in some nice old , all black panels

7:14

, those old blue ones that are covered in

7:16

bird poop and whatever else . They're probably

7:18

not the best to look at on the roof . So

7:20

I don't think they'd like they like getting a nice new system

7:22

on there .

7:24

Do you sometimes still have an old system that actually

7:26

works and you can put a new system right next to

7:28

it ? Is that works ?

7:29

Yeah , yeah you can retrofit systems for sure

7:31

. They obviously depends on the

7:33

system and things like that but if there's still life

7:35

in the system , there's no reason to rip the whole thing off

7:38

and start again . You want to get the maximum return

7:40

off your old system , so you can definitely

7:42

retrofit newer systems to them and then incorporate

7:45

them all into their same monitoring platform and things

7:47

like that .

7:47

So then you have two systems next to each other

7:49

because the old ones . You are not allowed to

7:52

add extra panels or anything like that , so

7:54

you've got to leave the old system in the way it is and

7:56

then could add an extra brand

7:58

new one out . Or you say , look

8:00

, I want the whole roof space looking

8:02

the same , not two different looking

8:04

systems , and then I go all the way with

8:06

one . Is that the way it is ?

8:08

Yeah , definitely . Well , you wouldn't add old panels to a new

8:10

system because you don't get the rebate or anything like

8:12

that , so there's no point . So

8:14

you could have a new system on there . But , as you said

8:16

, it might look a little bit sort of bad

8:19

having two different systems on

8:21

there , one with tiny panels covered in bird crap

8:23

and the other one nice flash , all black panels

8:25

. So , yeah . So sometimes just

8:27

better to start from scratch . Yeah

8:30

, again , it comes down to the customer's needs . If

8:32

that system is working and they only want to top

8:34

up to meet their obviously , with power

8:37

prices going up , they go oh my bill has gone up this much

8:39

. Can you give me a system that covers that extra

8:41

? And you go . Yeah , of course we can .

8:43

Nowadays . What are the customers

8:45

like ? What are they looking for ? What are the questions

8:47

they ask ?

8:49

Oh , you get all sorts . The majority of customers

8:51

are fine , just looking for a

8:53

way to save money . Obviously , with the climate

8:55

sort of being as it is , the economy being as

8:57

it is , a lot of people are just sort of how

9:00

do I save money ? How do I stop the

9:02

retailers taking 60 cents for a

9:04

kilowatt of electricity , things like that

9:07

. So those are the majority of customers and , yeah

9:09

, you're just trying to give them a good solution that that

9:12

will last for them and give them the return

9:14

on investment . You also get

9:16

the customers who probably

9:18

a lot smarter than you are and

9:20

they're dive into their products and they're asking

9:22

you all these crazy questions . And it's

9:25

an asking . I think the good one is the guys

9:27

that want to manage the API keys with

9:29

the home automation system and you just saying , oh

9:31

god , all right , I'll do my best to help

9:33

you out and I'm learning as I'm going through the process

9:35

.

9:36

Right , that's the whole thing . Coming up with smart

9:38

homes , isn't that ? I mean that the home

9:41

itself will be a whole Energy epicenter

9:43

, trying to use as much renewables and

9:45

then reuse it again with security

9:48

shutters and the security cameras

9:51

and all the wonderful things

9:53

that all run .

9:54

Why are the apps and all that

9:56

. So I was gonna say one guy had had an app that

9:59

he was just doing everything from his house

10:01

with the app and he was watching his battery

10:03

coming in and he was turning the light on there and

10:05

Opening the roller door there and I was

10:07

holy crap . But

10:09

most customers just want to keep a bill most

10:12

customers just want to keep a bill but , as

10:14

I said , I love those customers that come in because I'm

10:16

learning so much . Often markets it's Pretty

10:18

cool to see , like , how far technologies going , because

10:20

I don't hear about these , all these things , I'm busy and

10:23

then this guy tells you about a crap .

10:25

I mean the latest thing that just got released , and

10:27

here I've got it already yeah , yesterday I got released

10:29

and asked me about it . Now

10:33

the key questions . At

10:35

the moment , some soli

10:37

installers now sell maybe three batteries

10:40

out of 10 . In some regions

10:42

it's a bit less . But what's

10:44

the whole thing with batteries ? A lot of people ask

10:46

about them , but not as many getting them .

10:49

Yes and no , there's . There's definitely a lot of people

10:51

asking about them now , but they always ask about and

10:53

then go . I'm just not sure if it's worth it . Yeah

10:55

, and I guess what I try

10:58

and tell people when they , when they say that , I say , look , the

11:01

best thing is when they've already got a system installed

11:03

by us , they've got consumption monitoring so

11:05

they can say I'm using a lot of energy Between

11:08

five and ten pm at night and you

11:10

can look at it and use it all to work out exactly how much is

11:12

it . You're using 10 kilowatt hours of

11:14

, so I've energy between

11:16

this time but your soul is not covering because there's no son

11:19

. So a battery would fit you right

11:21

here . That's going to save you this peak period of 60

11:23

cents kilowatt hour and so that's going to save

11:25

you 10 bucks every night having that

11:27

battery , which over time adds

11:29

up quite a lot .

11:30

So what about the luxury of

11:32

having backup and actually having

11:34

electricity in the house ? Many

11:37

people went by battery . Is that the key motivator

11:40

or they forgot about that advantage ?

11:42

No , so that's still like a primary driver , like

11:44

, especially when we're selling things like Tezzas

11:46

and stuff like that . That's so

11:49

there's . This is again the two different customers . As

11:51

a guy that just want to save money on their energy bill , don't care about anything else

11:53

. But then

11:55

there's also that caveat that those guys , when

11:57

they buy a battery they're like expect the blackout as well , and so there's

11:59

a conversation there where , especially

12:02

with certain battery products , you need to make sure they understand that they

12:04

are getting blackout or they're not getting blackout , so they are batteries

12:06

that don't give you blackout protection . Of

12:09

course . Yeah , there's plenty of just DC couple batteries

12:12

that are just purely for saving power on

12:14

your , or saving money on your energy bills , so they

12:16

just take it out maybe when there's electricity cheap

12:18

, maybe they get even from the grid and

12:22

then when it's expensive they release it and

12:24

that's the function of the battery .

12:26

But they don't have backup . So you've got to really

12:28

ask when somebody selling your battery that

12:30

they do have backup . You can't assume it .

12:34

Yeah , absolutely , if , if , yeah

12:36

, if you're buying a battery and you're not sure , ask the question

12:38

, because a lot of batteries don't come with that as a default option , so

12:42

you need to make sure that that's being done if that's your

12:44

primary driver and I mean , if the battery is very

12:46

cheap , then maybe in those cases

12:48

they don't have that , but the sales guy doesn't even tell the end customer and the

12:50

only finds out during the blackout that he didn't get . Yeah

12:54

, you'd be pretty pissed if you go into a blackout or you

12:56

hear the energy company sends you the text . So we're doing work

12:58

in the street and go sweet , I've got a battery , I'm all good . And

13:00

then all the power goes out here . You're not going

13:02

to be happy , the wife's not going

13:04

to be happy about all the food in the fridge that she thought you

13:06

would say for .

13:07

So what's the price difference between ?

13:08

a battery that would have a backup and not

13:10

a backup . So

13:15

really it's not that much

13:17

difference depending on what products

13:19

you use . Obviously there are a lot of smaller batteries out there

13:21

where it's just not even an option , but

13:24

then a lot of them is just like an extra , extra

13:26

box that you buy on it , which may be anywhere

13:28

from 500 to a thousand two thousand bucks for that difference , but it depends

13:30

on the battery product you're buying . Every

13:35

company is now diving into their own ecosystem

13:37

of products , so you've really

13:39

got to know that when you're buying a product that it's going to help you with that future

13:41

ecosystem as well . And would you

13:43

say that most customers that do go into a battery actually are

13:46

interested ?

13:46

in the backup or they don't care .

13:53

I think most want the backup . It's pretty cool , isn't

13:55

it , to be able to put your aircon on and watch Netflix while your neighbors are sitting over

13:57

there with their candles out , like that's . I mean , if you buy in a battery , you want , you

13:59

want the blackout like , and considering , like I said , it's , it's

14:01

anywhere from 500 to 2000 max , but even

14:03

then 2000 is pretty rare that for that sort

14:05

of thing it's

14:09

a small price to pay to be sort of sipping lattes while

14:11

everyone's sitting there in the cold . No , you should invite

14:13

your friends over in your neighbors for a

14:15

barbecue . We

14:21

could stand at the window . No , no , no

14:23

, no .

14:26

Okay , got that . When it comes to

14:29

panels , it's a black box on the

14:31

roof and they all the same .

14:33

There's definitely differences in panels and differences in

14:35

manufacturers . There's been a lot of panel companies come and go Throughout

14:40

for Australia , so you really want

14:42

to stick with like that . They do all look the same , really . There's different

14:44

colors and things like that , but it's

14:46

it's less about the looks of panels and

14:48

more about the companies behind them . You want to make sure you get in companies

14:50

that will honor their Warranties

14:54

all the warranties now a 25 , 30 years

14:56

plus but how many of the panel manufacturers

14:59

have been around for 25 , 30 years ? So yeah , that there's definitely

15:01

Things to watch out for panels and not just

15:03

buying the cheapest one , because that's that's where you

15:05

may run into problem in the future , when they just

15:07

pump out However

15:11

many gigawatts of panels and get them off the off the shelves

15:13

and then go bust and then you can't claim any warranties anyway . So so

15:19

what product do you pick ? So we like some powers and

15:21

trainers . So they're both . So some powers first that they've been

15:23

in the solar panel game longer than anyone else currently

15:25

in the market . So

15:29

they've been through the all the ups and downs

15:31

of the industry there . I think they've been around for 35 , nearly 40 years

15:33

now in the in the solar game . So Just

15:38

a very reliable panel and always been very good

15:40

with their , their warranties , sports and things like

15:42

that that's a US product , is it that's

15:44

an American ?

15:45

company . Okay

15:47

, and what about the inverter solution

15:49

? I mean , there is the micro inverter , there's a string inverter . Do you

15:51

do both ? And what's the diff ?

15:55

We do do both . Look

15:58

, I personally would recommend a micro

16:00

inverter solution for the panel of a monitoring

16:03

for the lack of downtime if anything was

16:05

to go wrong . Things like that

16:07

, it's just . It's just such a great solution . Ease

16:09

of install things like that

16:11

. String inverters can be good

16:13

if you use quality products . But then you have

16:15

a centralized point of failure If

16:17

anything was to ever go wrong with that product . You

16:20

got no solar at all for the duration

16:22

of time that's out . So obviously , luckily

16:25

, if you got it installed by us , we have a strong after

16:27

sales team so we'd be there within a week to

16:29

get that product back up and running and get it diagnosed

16:32

and get it going . But if you have with a company

16:34

like cheap company , that you went with

16:36

the cheapest price and you inverted dies , you

16:38

could be without for weeks , months if you can't get a

16:40

hold of them when you're trying to get a hold of another company

16:42

, things like that .

16:43

So you often get calls from cheaper

16:46

systems that have failed and ask you to go

16:48

and fix it .

16:49

It's half half the cause I get in the office is people

16:51

saying I can't get in contact with my my

16:53

install , blah , blah , blah . Can you come and

16:55

help me ? And that's that's where we send our

16:58

support team out there to go and sort of fix

17:00

these ones . But yes , it's . It's

17:02

sort of a tricky road for them at that point because

17:04

if it's a crap system and installed

17:06

poorly , then we're going to be hesitant

17:09

to put our name to rectify that .

17:12

Mike is sometimes is beyond

17:14

repair .

17:15

There's definitely systems that are beyond repair , but

17:17

it's it's not necessarily that's beyond repair . I think

17:19

all systems could be repaired . It's

17:21

just if it's been installed poorly . There may be a lot of

17:23

work to do to get that system up to code

17:25

and up to scratch .

17:27

So that we feel comfortable saying that we've repaired

17:30

it because we , if you touch it , then

17:33

from the electrical cord , you

17:35

actually take responsibility . So if you

17:37

only fix what the problem is , but

17:39

there's lots of other slightly illegal

17:41

ways of how they cut corners , then

17:44

you suddenly got your responsibility .

17:46

That's right with it , with the last person on site there

17:48

. So even if we were just to fix one plug or something

17:51

like that , and then there's all these

17:53

other problems with the how the rails been

17:55

installed or other plugs

17:57

, or it's not been earthed properly , things like that , then we're

17:59

liable for those things . So we need to make sure that when

18:01

we fix the system , we

18:03

fix it and we know exactly what's going on with that system .

18:06

But that means if it was installed poorly

18:08

and cheaply , then sometimes

18:10

you got to look at it and go it's too much run

18:13

.

18:13

Yeah we can't fix this , that's right

18:15

Well

18:17

hopefully somebody learns a lesson , then that's

18:19

the main reason they go for a quality company .

18:22

So we've got the inverter , we've

18:24

got the panels . You say go

18:26

quality . What about the rails underneath

18:29

? Nobody can see them . Who cares ?

18:31

Oh , I think rails need to be quality as well . Definitely

18:33

, like we're in Newcastle , which very

18:36

nice beach town , there's a lot of nice properties by the beach

18:38

. If you have sort of poor

18:41

railing things like that , the salt's just gonna eat it

18:43

up , things like that . So you gotta make sure

18:45

that you're going with a quality framing

18:48

provider . Another reason

18:50

is we use a company called Schlatter for

18:52

all our framing . They have a 25 year product

18:54

warranty , which goes nicely with a 25

18:56

year panel warranty . So we know when we put that

18:58

system up the whole system's gonna

19:00

last 25 years , not just the panels

19:02

. And then maybe the framing breaks after 10

19:04

years and you have to replace that with the same panels

19:07

. It just doesn't make sense . And Schlatter's German

19:09

, isn't it ? Schlatter's German ? Yeah , I

19:12

like him .

19:15

Okay , so you've been really in

19:17

solar for about a decade , but one

19:19

day get earlier , we were sitting at one and a half

19:22

kilowatt systems . What are you installing

19:24

nowadays ?

19:25

Oh , I think the average system size is anywhere from

19:27

seven to 13.2 on

19:29

the roof . Yeah

19:31

, it's definitely a lot bigger than it used to be

19:33

. We still install some smaller ones a lot of add-ons

19:36

, things like that but generally new systems

19:38

are going up , but homes are bigger

19:40

and consume a lot more electricity . The

19:44

feeding tariffs are nothing now , so you need

19:46

to make sure that you're using your solar .

19:48

Let's say I've decided I wanna

19:51

get two EVs . I've

19:53

got a normal house with lots of

19:55

utilization of electricity . Do

19:57

you get situations where the roof isn't actually

19:59

big enough to support the system ?

20:01

Oh , definitely , yeah , there's loads of you

20:05

could put solar on all aspects of the roof , but

20:07

there's only the northeast . West is

20:09

gonna be where you're gonna get your most sort

20:11

of generation from there You're getting sort of

20:13

efficiency losses and things like that , just

20:15

based on where we are in the world . So

20:18

, yeah , you could definitely not have a large enough

20:20

roof for solar , absolutely .

20:22

And what do you do in those cases ? Try and put a more efficient

20:24

panel on , or something .

20:26

Yes , you could use a more efficient panel , or sometimes

20:29

you may even go a smaller panel that you

20:31

could fit more of them on there . So like , obviously panels

20:34

are getting bigger and bigger , the

20:36

panel technology is not really changing

20:38

, the cell technology is not really changing , they're

20:40

just making the panels larger . So in

20:42

that case you may be able to go to a slightly smaller

20:44

panel , an older 400 watt

20:46

instead of a 440 watt , and you might be able to actually

20:49

fit an extra two panels on there . So

20:51

each customer is gonna be different and that's why

20:53

we have a sort of quite a dynamic design

20:55

process in-house .

20:58

So you're saying , you're doing like a bespoke

21:00

solution or what . What does that mean ?

21:02

Absolutely bespoke solution for every customer

21:04

. So if someone comes to see us for a quote , they're

21:06

gonna get a quote tailored to their needs . So reviewing

21:08

their electricity bills , asking about their

21:11

electricity consumption , things like that we

21:13

don't just sort of slap a package deal on and

21:15

away you go , this is what you get .

21:17

And what about if they got like 11 , 12

21:19

year olds who now become teenagers ? Do you take

21:21

that already into consumption calculations

21:24

, going forward where they're going , or ?

21:26

Well , I mean , I know personally . When I was a teenager I used

21:28

to sit at home and play video games all day with

21:30

the air con cranking when I was in Darwin . So

21:32

I can imagine if you've got teenagers

21:34

coming , you need a plan for that additional

21:36

energy use .

21:38

Okay , and you'll provide that to you

21:41

in your calculations .

21:43

Not necessarily , like we don't look at it that much

21:45

, but we will look at this is a solution that's gonna be

21:47

on there for the next 25 years . Is this

21:49

gonna be a large enough system for you as you grow , when

21:51

you get , say , for example , you electrify the

21:53

rest of your home , you get your big hot water

21:55

tank and all your heat pump or your

21:58

EVs , things like that ? Like you need a plan

22:00

for these things from day one rather

22:02

than trying to add to it later because you wanna get it

22:04

done once and get it done right .

22:06

So , with other words , if I tell you that I'm thinking

22:08

of getting an EV , then you're gonna

22:10

possibly add a couple extra panels to my system

22:12

design , is it ?

22:13

Oh , if there's room on the roof , then yeah , like

22:16

your electricity bill will show your history . If

22:18

you then tell us I'm getting an electric car

22:20

, that's gonna add to your energy consumption

22:22

, so we need to make sure that we're meeting that .

22:24

Do you ever get customers who maybe don't

22:27

really believe in solar and wonder all about

22:29

it and or maybe critical or something

22:31

like that .

22:33

Yes , we definitely do . We get some customers

22:35

that have probably been burned in the past

22:37

by other companies that maybe

22:39

have just sold them the cheap , nasty

22:41

solution and sort of run away and

22:43

now they've been left with a system that doesn't work and

22:45

things like that . So that's where we

22:48

come in and sometimes it's quite difficult

22:50

to get them to believe in the process

22:52

again and give them the

22:55

right way of doing solar and give them the right

22:57

attitude that they're happy

22:59

with the solution going forward . But generally

23:01

with those customers , once we've installed

23:04

and they've gone through the process , they're normally quite happy

23:06

and we normally get some really good referrals and

23:08

things like that from those customers .

23:10

Is that a big part of your ?

23:11

business I think that's probably

23:14

nearly half of our business is word of mouth . Obviously

23:16

, hcb haven't been in the game for

23:19

as long as they have in the Hunter region that we've

23:21

got so many systems out there that people will

23:23

be ringing up and basically

23:25

just oh , I've got your number from so and so

23:28

and this . You did a really good job there

23:30

. I like the panels you put on that place and that's

23:32

where a lot of our work comes from .

23:34

So what's your Google star review

23:36

?

23:37

Google star we're 5.9

23:39

, but yeah , that's pretty hard . Yeah

23:41

, 4.9 , 150

23:43

reviews , something

23:45

we're trying to chase a bit more of . We don't have a process

23:48

in place yet to ask people , so trying

23:50

to get that going .

23:51

So you want to go from 4.9 to 4.99

23:53

, do you ?

23:54

4.99 . We're probably already 4.99 if

23:56

we go into it .

23:58

Excellent . So you're talking

24:01

always about quality product that

24:03

you prefer quality product in your solar systems

24:05

. What's the definition

24:07

of a quality product ?

24:10

So a quality product again comes back

24:12

to things like that the company's behind

24:14

the product . So

24:17

, as we know , there's so many companies that have come

24:19

and gone from Australia . You want to not

24:21

just the installation company like HCB

24:23

, to be quality and deliver quality work . You also

24:25

need the products to be backed by sort of a

24:27

long warranty , things like that . They're strong

24:30

Australian based tech support , things

24:32

like that . They're all things that can be easily overlooked

24:35

, but when you do have an issue with a product

24:37

that doesn't have those things , you're wishing

24:39

that you had that sort of quality

24:41

tech support , quality warranty service

24:43

, all that sort of thing . So

24:45

we won't actually sell products that don't

24:48

meet those criteria . So if they don't have an Australian

24:50

based tech support , if they don't have a strong warranty

24:52

support , things like that , we won't sell them because

24:54

it'll make our life difficult if there is ever

24:56

any problems . So it's a liability

24:58

for our business .

25:00

And what accreditation

25:02

or qualifications do your installation

25:04

teams have ?

25:05

So our electricians are CEC

25:07

accredited for solar and battery . Basically

25:11

, you can't install solar and battery if you're not accredited

25:13

.

25:15

Any other training you guys do to kind of keep

25:17

them really on top of what's going on .

25:19

So then they need to have the

25:21

working from heights definitely Like . That's obviously

25:23

number one . Everyone's running around the roof . If they're

25:26

not trained to be on a roof , then , yeah , they

25:28

can't be up there .

25:29

But do you kind of go to any special training

25:31

that some of the manufacturers put together or

25:33

things ?

25:34

like that . So part of having the CEC

25:36

accreditation is you need to keep up your continuous

25:38

professional development , and so all

25:40

the installers on site to maintain

25:42

their accreditation . They need to do additional

25:45

training every year to stay on top of

25:47

that , and so a lot of that training comes from the

25:49

manufacturers webinars and things like that releases

25:51

on new products installation guidelines

25:53

so that's where they actually get their

25:56

points every year to be able to stay accredited .

25:58

Now let's say , can you explain to me

26:00

a little bit the installation process

26:03

? So I go to you , I get a quote

26:05

, I like the quote . I say go

26:07

ahead . What happens next ?

26:09

So from the minute you sign the quote , we'll

26:11

be in contact with you to let you know that . Yep , thank

26:13

you so much for going with HCP . We're

26:16

going to put you through the design process now and

26:18

begin ordering materials . It's normally a four to six

26:20

week process for us . We

26:22

just have a bit of a backlog . So we

26:24

aim for within four to six weeks from the

26:27

time you sign the quote you'll

26:29

have your system on your roof , and during those four

26:31

to six weeks is when we have our in-house design

26:33

team design the system , make sure it's going

26:35

to work to the exact specifications

26:37

provided by the salesman . We'll

26:40

be in touch with you if there's any changes that need to be made

26:43

. That need to be made , but

26:45

it's very rare that there are any changes at all that

26:47

are required and then , once we have the design

26:50

sorted , the grid connection

26:52

applications approved from Osgrid or Essential

26:55

, whichever region we're working in at the time then

26:57

we'll be giving you a call to say hey , we're coming

26:59

in a couple of weeks to put the system on your roof . You're

27:02

happy to go . And is it a one day , or

27:04

how long does it take , most systems being

27:06

stored in one day ? Obviously , as

27:08

I said , systems are getting larger and larger

27:10

and big 10 kilowatt system

27:12

and a battery could take a day and a half . So

27:15

that'll all be outlined in that phone call to you . Initially

27:17

to go hey , this is a larger system . Do

27:19

you have a day and a half spare for our team to be on site

27:21

?

27:22

I always hate when I have tradesmen and

27:24

they leave all the crap behind the boxes

27:27

and the cables

27:29

and then I become their cleaning lady .

27:31

Absolutely not . That would never happen on H2B

27:33

site . So we would take all that rubbish with us . We'll

27:36

be wiping down the . I mean it's

27:38

kind of annoying that all the nicest looking battery products

27:40

and inverters are white , because it leaves fingerprints

27:43

everywhere . So our guys have packs

27:45

of sugars open the car ready to wipe it all down

27:47

when they're finished , because there's nothing worse than

27:49

fingerprints on a nice white inverter . So

27:51

we take care of all of that . So it's a

27:54

sparkling result . Sparkling , that's what

27:56

we want .

27:57

Customer support . I've

28:00

spoken on that previously

28:03

and all that . I think it's a little bit

28:05

underrated because some people don't realise

28:07

that things can go wrong with solar

28:09

. So if I have a system

28:11

from you , it stopped after two

28:13

years for whatever reason . What happens

28:15

next ?

28:16

So if , for any reason

28:19

, you had any problem with the system in store bars

28:21

, you get straight on the phone to us . You'll

28:24

be put through to our service team and our

28:26

service team will have someone out there as soon

28:28

as possible , generally within a couple of days

28:30

to get onto that and

28:33

get that going for you again .

28:34

But what happens if the manufacturer says , oh , I haven't got a spare

28:37

part here at the moment , it's still stuffed . What

28:39

do you do then ? Are you do jump proactive

28:41

or bad luck ?

28:42

So no , so a lot of the time we actually

28:44

have stock in the warehouse and so if

28:46

a manufacturer doesn't have a part , we will negotiate

28:49

with the manufacturer that we use our own stock and

28:51

get that product working again for the customer

28:53

, and we'll just be without the stock

28:56

until the manufacturer sends it to us . That's not a problem

28:58

for us .

28:59

You got any example which really happened in real

29:01

life where somebody could have been very

29:03

cranky but you actually made them happy .

29:05

Yeah , we've had it happen a few times with . We

29:08

used to sell a lot of a certain inverter brand and we

29:10

still have a lot of stock of that brand and we

29:13

don't actually sell too much of it anymore . But we

29:15

did have a one recently where basically

29:17

, the inverter had failed . There

29:19

was a delay on this stock arriving into Australia

29:21

and we had the stock in and

29:24

we negotiated a deal with the company where

29:26

we send the technician out the next day and actually put the inverter

29:28

on the wall , got it working and we

29:30

waited like two , three months for the new one to

29:32

come in . But yeah , it didn't bother us

29:34

and the customer was Customer stoked

29:37

. They had it up and running again . They didn't

29:39

even know about the delays , so like

29:41

there's no need to trouble them with , oh , this isn't coming , this

29:43

isn't coming , we just got it done . They

29:45

didn't think anything wiser of it .

29:47

So you were the duck , just sailing smoothly

29:50

across the water and underneath

29:52

you were paddling like this yeah , paddling

29:54

like mad and trying to get it going . That's

29:58

the best . I mean . Nowadays

30:00

, really getting good service and good and good tradesmen

30:03

is really a problem , isn't it ? What about you

30:05

getting good staff ? Is that a problem nowadays

30:07

?

30:07

It's difficult when you're trying to expand , but we've got a

30:09

really good team at the moment . The team

30:11

is absolutely solid . The

30:13

guys all know what they're doing . Like all our guys have been

30:15

with us for a few years now . So

30:18

we do have a new , first year new green guy , so

30:20

we've got to train him up to the standards . But the

30:23

electricians have all been with us for a few years now and they're

30:25

all just very good quality .

30:27

Now sometimes you get a very eager

30:30

sales guy who sells a system

30:32

for a certain price and then

30:34

when the crew comes to install

30:36

they actually realize maybe the

30:38

switchboard has asbestos in it or

30:41

you can't actually fit as many panels as

30:43

he thought because there's a

30:45

skylight there and whatever . What

30:48

do you do in those cases ?

30:49

So , as I touched on before , we have

30:51

such a stringent in-house design team that

30:53

the majority of these issues are picked up well

30:55

before the team are there , four weeks before

30:57

the team are there , and so

30:59

if there's any sort of discrepancies that we're

31:01

maybe not sure about , I generally like

31:04

me personally will go to the site and check these

31:06

things out well before the installation . So

31:08

, yeah , it's very rare we miss things

31:11

. On the odd occasion that we do miss

31:13

things , then , as I said earlier

31:15

as well , that the guys are so well trained that they can

31:17

pick these things up and let us know straight away

31:19

. They'll immediately look for an alternate location

31:22

for a panel , things like that . The

31:24

other benefit of using a system like Nphase

31:27

, for example with microinverters , is it's

31:29

quite a flexible system . If there is a spot

31:31

that you can't change it . It's not like a string

31:33

inverter where they all have to be facing the same

31:35

orientation . You can mix and match and you can

31:37

actually come up with new solutions quite

31:39

quickly .

31:40

So Okay , so

31:42

if you pick the wrong phase

31:45

on the switchboard and the three phases more

31:47

expensive and you gave me a fixed

31:49

price , what do you do then ?

31:51

I think we'd have to wear that If

31:53

something like that has come up and

31:55

salesman missed it and I've

31:57

missed it and the guys go to site and they go oh , it's

31:59

the common one is the

32:02

salesman thinking it's three phase when it's actually two phase

32:04

. That's probably the most common thing

32:06

you see . In that case there

32:08

we will quickly swap all the stock

32:10

out that we need , but there won't be an additional charge

32:13

to the customer because that's our mistake

32:15

.

32:15

We've missed that and we'll wear it and

32:17

does the customer possibly find out about it , or you

32:19

just basically just get on with it .

32:21

No . So there's obviously

32:23

a discussion with the customer if they're expecting a three phase thing like that

32:25

. I mean the customer doesn't . Most

32:28

of them don't really understand the difference between single and three

32:30

phase . But if there's any changes to a job , the

32:32

customer will be informed and we'll give them a call and we'll

32:34

let them know that the system is

32:37

slightly different to the quote in terms of performance

32:39

. They're still going to get the same amount of panels . They're

32:42

still going to get the same amount of inverters

32:44

or microinverters or an inverter

32:46

. We'll make it work . It fits the quote

32:48

that we're given Excellent .

32:50

Most people nowadays go solar because of the financial

32:53

consideration . But I don't know if you've got kids

32:55

or so , but I mean the whole climate change thing

32:57

does seem to be real because it is getting

32:59

hotter in summers and stuff like that . How

33:02

much is the whole environmental aspect playing

33:04

a role in solar and people installing it ?

33:07

There's definitely a massive factor in it . One

33:10

of the biggest things for me is I'm a massive

33:12

believer and we need to do more to

33:14

sort of stop climate change , and solar

33:16

and battery is probably one of the easiest ways we

33:19

personally can do that . If we can install

33:21

it on a house , we can help with that . A lot more

33:23

customers are starting to think about that now as well

33:25

. These

33:28

are the customers that will go for the quality straight

33:30

off the bat , because they don't want to have a system that

33:32

gets pulled off in five , 10

33:35

years to go to landfill . They're

33:37

already thinking about that as well , which is another

33:39

reason why we prioritize quality

33:41

, because then that system is not going to contribute

33:43

to a problem that is growing .

33:46

I hear about this stuff called smart

33:48

home . I don't think I'm smart

33:50

enough to understand what smart home means . What

33:52

is it all about ?

33:53

I think you're smart enough , Marcus . You're German , German

33:55

engineering , all that .

33:56

No , I get easily confused at my age

33:58

. So what's a smart ?

34:00

home . Smart home is just basically sort

34:03

of you can like . Obviously . You've

34:05

got apps for everything nowadays . There's

34:08

now going to be an app for your home . In the future , You're going

34:10

to control everything through your smartphone . You're

34:12

not going to have switches in your house one day , probably . There's

34:14

just going to be everything on your phone . You'll turn everything

34:17

off , everything on timers .

34:19

So if I lost my phone , I wouldn't bloody be able

34:21

to turn the light off , is it ?

34:22

Well , I mean in the future . It'll probably be embedded

34:25

in your body somewhere . You won't have

34:27

to worry about losing it .

34:29

But I mean , what does it all mean for solar and the

34:31

renewables and you guys installing stuff

34:34

?

34:35

So in the current market

34:37

, all the different sort of solar brands

34:39

and inverter suppliers , they're all marching

34:42

down this path to creating their own ecosystem

34:44

of smart home devices your EV

34:46

charger , your hot water controllers , your

34:48

load controllers , all

34:51

that sort of stuff and they're all pushing down

34:53

and trying to just

34:55

. I think they're all going for the future

34:57

market potential of every customer they sell to

34:59

. So when they create a

35:01

product , you're not just buying solar now . You're buying something

35:04

that can be added a battery to later that

35:06

works specifically with that brand , and then

35:08

an EV charger that works with that brand

35:10

, and then a controller and all things to make your

35:12

day to day life easier and make

35:14

your products work better together and

35:16

save you more money ultimately .

35:18

But if all these different manufacturers go off with

35:20

all their different little infrastructures and they'll

35:22

work with each other , but don't work across . Then

35:25

we're in the old VHS versus speeder

35:27

game . Is that what's happening , or are they getting

35:29

onto a kind of common language ?

35:31

No , I think there was a period where there was a

35:34

common language and there was a lot of sort of interoperability

35:37

, but now it seems like a lot of the

35:39

brands are moving away from that and they're

35:42

just going out on their own . They just want to develop their own products

35:44

and go with that . So it's really important

35:46

to do your research now before you sort

35:49

of go down a product path , because you

35:51

may be sort of limited to your

35:53

choices later on .

35:55

Right , okay , got that . I'll

35:57

pick a solar system . I'll pick

35:59

a medium one , and

36:01

then I want a battery . I'll pick another company for

36:03

that , and then I'll go oh , smart home's

36:05

coming . Who could do that for

36:07

me ? Is that the best way to go forward ?

36:10

Probably not . Just as I was saying before

36:12

, because of these ecosystems , things like that . You

36:15

really want to sort of pick a company

36:17

that you're going to work with for

36:19

the next sort of five , 10 , 15 years

36:21

, as more products come out that allow more

36:23

cool things to be able to be done

36:25

in your home . You want to work with a company that's

36:27

across those things and ready to provide

36:29

them . So you may only need a solar system

36:32

now . You should be

36:34

thinking about a battery already . So

36:36

when you're buying the solar system , you have an idea

36:38

in mind , right ? I want a battery

36:40

in this many years that's going to complement my needs

36:42

. I can't afford it right now , but I need to design

36:44

the solar system in a way that's ready for that

36:46

battery to be added on . And then that's the same

36:48

with . In the future you'll probably buy an EV . That's

36:51

the way the world's going , so you'll want a company

36:54

that can provide an EV that fits into that solution as

36:56

well . Ev charger sorry .

36:58

Yeah , so in other words , the company that

37:00

I pick now , I'm actually going to have like multiple

37:03

dates with that company , isn't it ? It's not just

37:05

the one night stand .

37:06

Oh well , if we impress you enough on the first night

37:08

, then I hope you keep coming back . So that's

37:11

what we want to try and do , and so we want to work with

37:13

you for a long time .

37:14

All right , maybe I shouldn't have used that term

37:16

, sorry darling . All

37:18

right . How do you handle customer complaints

37:20

?

37:22

Um , do you get any ? We

37:25

do get some . I mean , we're not perfect . There's

37:28

definitely always opportunities for learning

37:30

from customer complaints , and that's primarily

37:33

how I see them . If a customer is complaining

37:36

and it's

37:38

completely warranted , they're

37:40

not just some grumpy person having a bad

37:42

day then yeah , that's an opportunity

37:45

for us to learn and improve as a business in

37:48

how we handle that customer and get

37:50

them back on our good side or

37:52

we get back on their good side , but

37:54

then how we can take that forward into making sure that we

37:56

don't have that same issue crop up . So

37:58

I look at it as an opportunity to improve

38:00

.

38:01

So give me a sample where somebody maybe wasn't

38:03

that happy and what you did about it .

38:05

So we actually had a good one not too

38:07

long ago where we're putting in a hot water

38:09

controller for a guy and essentially

38:12

that it'd been sort of a . There was

38:14

a few different people involved in the quoting process

38:16

and sort of I was actually the one that went

38:18

out to go and do it just because we were very busy at the time

38:20

, and so I jumped back on the tools and did

38:23

the whole job and I realized that it was missing

38:25

a part to actually make it work . And through

38:27

the process the customer got quite annoyed . They'd

38:29

been waiting for this product and things

38:31

like that and I ended up sort

38:34

of giving them the product for free and then revisiting

38:36

how we quote things as well , so making

38:38

sure that we've only got one person sort of dealing

38:41

with that customer and things like that , because once

38:43

you start to add multiple people in that are having different

38:45

conversations , things like that , then

38:47

the customer's hearing this from one customer

38:49

. He thinks he's told someone , but then there might not be communication

38:52

within the office itself . So , yeah

38:55

, that was how we learned from that one .

38:57

Okay and happy customer he

38:59

is now .

38:59

Yeah , he's given me quite a few referrals since . So

39:02

he's yeah , we're good mates . Now he calls

39:04

me , but he wants a week to

39:06

ask me questions , so it's good , Okay

39:08

great .

39:09

I'd love to put soul on my house but

39:12

I got this stupid tree from next

39:14

door which is shading part of my

39:16

roof of part of the day . Is

39:18

it worth getting solar ?

39:20

Yes and no . If it's only

39:22

shading part of your roof , then we can design

39:24

a system that'll work around that . You're still going to get benefits

39:27

from the solar during

39:29

the parts of the day where it's not shaded . You'd

39:31

probably look more towards a microinverter

39:33

solution or an optimized solution

39:35

so that even if there's partial shade

39:37

on some of the panels that rest them still perform again

39:40

. That comes back to the bespoke design process

39:43

where we'll look at it and we'll go look , there's a bit of shading

39:45

here , we can see it and we'll talk to the customer

39:47

about it and let them know . But ultimately

39:49

, if you're still getting sun on there , you're still going to

39:51

benefit from solar . What products ?

39:53

do you use Feel free to mention

39:55

a couple of brands the inverters , the panels

39:58

that you specifically recommend , why you think they're

40:00

good ones . What's the good gear

40:02

I can get out of HCB solar ?

40:05

So we use a wide variety of brands

40:07

and products Like . Personally , if it was

40:09

up to me , I'd put premium

40:11

Maxion Sunpower panels and

40:13

NFA's microinverters on every house . But

40:15

obviously the way the world is at

40:17

the moment , people can't afford these high

40:20

end premium solutions . So we offer other

40:22

products as well , so that we can cater to all

40:25

customers and provide a

40:27

comprehensive quality solution but still

40:30

meet their budget requirements . So we have Sunpower

40:32

panels as our premium panel . We've

40:34

brought in the trainers as well , because they're a quality

40:37

panel too . They've been in the Australian game for a while

40:39

, but they are on the cheaper side , so it can help

40:41

bring the system price down quite a lot

40:43

by going to that cheaper panel . For inverters

40:46

, we primarily use NFA's microinverters

40:48

for all the benefits I've mentioned before . The

40:51

AC voltage on the roof is

40:53

a lot safer , they're modular , they're expandable

40:56

, it's quite easy to install . But

40:59

then we also use products like Phonius and

41:02

SMA . We

41:04

use SolarEdge . Here and there in between

41:06

we have quite a large fleet of SolarEdge

41:08

people that we still deal with

41:11

, and part of that ecosystem again is we're

41:13

still adding on to their systems from

41:15

five , ten years ago . What

41:17

about the racking ? The racking ? We only

41:19

use Slater , as previously mentioned , it's

41:22

just a strong manufacturer

41:24

. They've been around for a while , german

41:27

, so I know you like them , but

41:29

they're no . So they come with a 25 year guarantee

41:31

. So that's primarily why we

41:33

use it , because both our panels that we use have

41:35

25 year warranty .

41:36

So if I'm in the Hunter in

41:38

Newcastle , why

41:41

should I use HCB Solar

41:43

?

41:45

Well , I mean , as we've discussed

41:47

previously , there's plenty of choices out

41:49

there for Solar , for battery , things

41:51

like that . But ultimately you want to

41:53

pick a company that's going to be around for a very long

41:56

time . They're going to give you

41:58

a quality system . In a perfect world , you

42:00

would buy your solar system and not have to worry about it

42:02

ever again . But it isn't a perfect

42:04

world . You want to be able to have someone you can call that's

42:07

going to be there for the life of that system

42:09

, and so when we sell you a system , it's going to

42:11

last 25 plus years . You

42:13

want to be able to call at any point in those 25 plus

42:15

years and go hey , there's something

42:17

not quite right . Or hey , I want to add on to the

42:19

ESER or anything , and we'll be there

42:21

.

42:22

So if I have a problem on a Saturday , I notice my

42:24

solar stopped and I leave a voicemail

42:27

message on HCB Solar's phone . When

42:29

are you guys going to ring me back ?

42:31

Just like the Monday morning . But if it's urgent

42:34

it'll go through to either myself or Logan and

42:36

we'll be able to get there . For example , if you've got a power outage

42:39

, I know Logan will like to pick up the phone

42:41

and help you out . Do you have you seen ?

42:43

any issues with cheap stuff

42:45

, where actually the isolator was burned

42:47

or the panel was burned and there were really serious

42:50

risks for people because they went cheap .

42:52

Yeah , absolutely Obviously

42:54

there's . I think back a few

42:56

years ago there was the really cheap isolators that were

42:58

fighting around and basically they used

43:01

to get installed without weather shields , things

43:03

like that which would protect them from the sun . Obviously it's just a plastic

43:05

box and the Australian sun plastic

43:08

and sun don't really mix well together , so

43:10

the plastic cracks , water gets in there , it's DC

43:12

voltage just starts arcing . You

43:14

can't turn solar panels off when the sun's

43:16

out , so yeah , it just creates a

43:18

fire straight away .

43:20

Right , and so my advice

43:22

is don't go too cheap , is it ?

43:24

Don't go cheap . Yeah , get a system that's going to be

43:26

installed correctly . Obviously , DC

43:29

isolators are actually being done away with now they're

43:31

not a requirement anymore . So if you've

43:33

got a good installer , they probably won't

43:35

do that . They'll probably go with the disconnection points

43:37

, which is plugs under the panel . But

43:39

even if they are still using a DC isolator

43:42

, then you've gone with a quality installer . It will be installed

43:44

correctly with weather shield to protect it .

43:47

Now you manage teams , don't you ? Yeah

43:51

, that needs a bit of leadership

43:53

.

43:54

Yeah .

43:55

How do you handle that ?

43:58

It's an everyday learning process . So

44:00

obviously I've been managing a team directly

44:02

for , I mean , since probably

44:04

2019 , I've been in

44:06

the field managing teams . Probably

44:08

easier when you're in the field managing teams because you're there

44:10

and you can oversee everything and see exactly what's happening

44:13

. It's been a massive learning opportunity

44:16

, the last sort of six

44:18

, seven , eight months learning how to manage from the

44:20

office and try and sort

44:22

of impart wisdom over the phone . That's

44:24

probably the hardest thing and not being able to just show people

44:26

how to do things . But , as I said earlier

44:29

, I've got a really good team of guys that

44:31

really get stuck in and want to learn as well . So , yeah

44:33

, Does ?

44:34

a happier team means better outcome

44:37

for the customer .

44:38

Of course , if the team's not

44:40

happy , they're not going to do good work because they're

44:42

going to be running around the site and engine

44:44

them open and not caring about the job

44:46

. They're just going to want to get it done and go home and they

44:48

don't want to do a good job . Because why do

44:50

they care ?

44:51

And so how are you making sure they are happy ?

44:55

Well , one thing the boys get bacon eggs

44:57

every Friday , so that helps keep them happy

44:59

. But no , on a serious note

45:02

, we have monthly toolboxes where

45:04

we discuss any concerns and things

45:06

like that . We bring up any opportunities

45:08

for improvement . We listen

45:10

to the guys and see what they have to say and we've

45:14

got a very good relationship with the guys where they

45:16

can come to me with anything . So

45:19

try to always be there for them and then that reflects

45:21

into better outcome for the customer . Absolutely

45:24

Like you said , if it's a happy team , it's going

45:26

to be a happy customer because the team are going to want to do a good

45:28

job .

45:28

I drive sometimes around and I see some houses

45:31

and the solar panels made them really look

45:33

ugly . Can solar panels

45:35

be sexy ?

45:36

Yeah , yeah , definitely . So we offer

45:38

all black panels and we offer all black

45:40

rail . We offer black weather shields for isolated

45:43

on the roof . We try and make it look

45:45

super sexy so that when

45:47

you're driving around you look at it and you go that is a

45:49

nice solution . So absolutely

45:51

, we can .

45:52

So I can ring HCB solar and say I want

45:54

sexy solar , is it ?

45:55

rings HCB solar . So you want sexy solar

45:58

and we'll drum it right up Sexy solar

46:00

package .

46:01

Okay , no worries , I want that

46:03

on a special .

46:04

Yeah , I'll put it

46:06

together .

46:07

Anthony , I must say , lots

46:09

of learning for me here today and

46:12

if I'd been in Hunter I would definitely pick

46:14

HCB solar .

46:16

Awesome , can't wait to have you See you , marcus

46:18

, see ya .

46:20

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46:23

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46:40

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