AHJ Trade Services

19/09/2026

Another happy client with their GoodWe ESA battery ⚡🔋
Slashing power bills and keeping the lights on when the grid goes down.

02/09/2026

Which way should your panels actually face?

Most people assume they all go on the north side. Plenty of the time they don't, and that's usually fine.

North does give you the most over a year. Around here an east or west face gives up something like 15 percent against north, so splitting an array across a few faces does trade away some total output.

What you get back is timing. East picks up the morning, west carries the afternoon and into the early evening when a lot of houses are actually busy. If nobody's home in the middle of the day, a north array's best hours are heading out to the grid, and feed-in rates in south east Queensland aren't what they used to be.

Two things change that. If you've got a battery, the midday surplus goes into storage instead of out to the grid, and the case for spreading the array gets a lot weaker. And a split roof needs an inverter with enough separate inputs to run those faces properly, so it's a design decision, not just a preference.

So it comes down to your roof, your household, and whether there's storage in the picture.

Happy to work through it with you.

27/08/2026

If you're thinking about adding a battery, the solar already on your roof might not be big enough for it.

That's the part people don't expect. Your panels run the house first, and the battery only gets what's left over. On a small array that means it charges slowly, and on a run of cloudy days it might not fill from solar alone.

Whether that applies to you comes down to how much you use in a day and when you use it, and that's worth working out before you spend anything.

We did a job at Little Mountain recently. Old system off, 13.3kW of solar and a 16kWh battery. I've written that one up, along with how you'd work out whether the solar you've got would keep up with a battery.

Solar installation Caloundra: at Little Mountain we replaced the array and added a 16kWh battery. Why adding storage changes the size of the solar.

27/08/2026

How big a battery do I need? That's the one I get asked most, and there isn't a standard answer.

It has less to do with the size of your house than people expect. What matters is how much you use in a day, and when you use it. A house that sits empty until six and then runs everything at once wants a different battery to one with someone home all day.

So before I put a number on anything, I'll ask what your average daily use is. It's on your electricity bill, usually shown as kWh per day.

That's also the easiest way to make sense of a battery size. If your bill says you're using 20kWh a day, then on paper that's more than a day's worth. Whether it's the right size for you still comes down to when you use it, not just how much.

The gear on this one is GoodWe Australia and New Zealand I quote a few different brands and which one I'd put on your wall depends on the job and what you're after.

25/08/2026

Is the old solar worth fixing, or are you better off replacing the whole system?

I get asked this most weeks. Nobody can tell you from the ground... it depends on what has actually failed, and that needs testing.

I've written up how we work it out:

• what we test, and why
• what tends to fail first
• when a repair is the sensible call, and when it isn't
• four things you can check yourself before you ring anyone

Here's one of the four now. Compare this quarter's bill to the same quarter last year, not to last quarter, so you're comparing like seasons. If it's climbed and nothing else has changed, something's worth looking at.

https://ahjtrade.com.au/solar-panel-repairs-sunshine-coast/

How old is your system? Put the year in the comments and I'll tell you what usually goes first on one that age.

Solar panel repairs on the Sunshine Coast: how we test a system with a thermal camera and a meter, what usually fails, and when replacing beats repairing.

23/08/2026

A lot of people with tile roofs assume solar is going to be a problem. It usually isn't.

Tile is fussier than metal, and the worry is fair enough. The tiles are brittle, they were never laid to be walked on, and every mounting point has to go through to the batten underneath without giving water a way to follow it in.

So we work differently on tile. You stay over the battens where you can, you lift and reseat rather than force anything, and you check every pe*******on again on the way out. It takes longer than metal, and we allow for that when we quote.

This one is a system replacement at Golden Beach, one and a half storey, and the roof came through it fine.

If you have tile and you have been putting it off, give me a call and I will come and have a look at yours.

Justin, AHJ Trade Services, Caloundra. 0492 910 232.

20/08/2026

A failing solar panel can often look exactly like a working one to human eyes.

This is the same array through a thermal camera. Panels run warm in the sun, so heat on its own means nothing. What we are looking for is the difference, where one panel or one cell is running hotter than the ones around it.

A camera on its own is not a diagnosis though. We went over this roof at Nambour panel by panel, then tested at the inverter with a meter to confirm what we were seeing. Between the two you can usually narrow a fault down to one panel, one string, one connection, or the inverter itself.

Th solutions of each are very different to put right. It's also why I won't quote you on a replacement before I've tested what you've actually got.

Justin, AHJ Trade Services, Caloundra. 0492 910 232.

18/08/2026

$904.

That was the power bill for three months on a Buderim home that already had solar on the roof.

That's the part that gets people. You put panels on years ago, you did the right thing, and you're still paying around ten dollars a day.

The system was working. It just wasn't big enough anymore, and it had no storage, so everything it made through the day went out to the grid for a few cents and came back at a much higher rate that night.

We took the old system off, racking and rail with it, and put on 29 panels, a 10kW Sungrow inverter and a 25kWh battery that can be expanded to 40kWh later on. Full main switchboard upgrade to go with it, because the old board was never built to carry a system that size.

I've written up the whole job, including how I work out whether a system is worth repairing or replacing.

Solar installation Buderim: why we replaced an older system, the new solar panels and battery that went on, and the full switchboard upgrade behind it.

11/08/2026

Qualified Electricians wanted - Brisbane & Sunshine Coast ⚡

AHJ is currently on the hunt for electricians to join the team.
Solar and battery installs, steady ongoing work, good gear, no mucking around.
QLD licence required + solar accreditation (or willing to get it).

Apply here: https://ahjtrade.com.au/careers/electrician-solar/

16/04/2025

Thinking About Adding a Solar Battery?
Now’s the Time!

Starting July 1st, the federal government is offering a 30% rebate on solar battery systems — making clean energy more affordable than ever!

Whether you’re looking to cut energy bills, stay powered during outages, or reduce your carbon footprint, a solar battery system is a smart investment — and with this rebate, it’s never been easier to get started.

Don’t wait and beat the rush — be ready to claim your 30% rebate when it kicks in!

Contact us today for a free quote and see how much you could save.