How we make money

You're the only person who can move your data outside this site. If you want quotes from installers, you tell us; otherwise, what you typed sits in our database and goes nowhere. We don't sell inputs. We don't run background quote requests. We don't deliberately bias a calculator's output because a sponsor would prefer a different answer. If a battery beats a diverter for your setup, we say so even when a battery company is sponsoring us.

This rule is the entire reason the site exists. Most solar advice sites on the AU internet are run by installers or quote brokers. They show you the answer that pays them best. We're trying to build the opposite of that.

Right now the site costs us about $20/month in hosting (Vercel, Supabase, the registrar) and earns us nothing. There are no ads, no affiliate links, no sponsorships, no email captures. This is a side project run on personal time, described honestly because that's relevant context for any number we report.

Once the calculators have an audience and we've written enough content to be discoverable, the first revenue layer is passive affiliate links. Recommended smart plugs, energy-monitoring gear, that sort of thing, on Amazon AU and a small number of vendor sites. We only recommend products we'd use ourselves and the recommendation is the same whether it's an affiliate link or not. Every affiliate link is marked.

We'll also offer an optional premium tier (a low annual fee) that gets you saved profiles, alerts when tariffs change, and access to deeper analyses. The free calculators stay free forever. Premium is extra, not gated.

Once we have a few thousand regular users we'll consider 1–3 transparent sponsorships from diverter or battery manufacturers. The deal is explicit:

• The sponsor is named on the page where they appear.
• Editorial independence is contractually preserved.
• Sponsors don't see calculator outputs they could bias.
• If a sponsor's product is the wrong call for a given household, the calculator still says so.

We'll also start licensing the calculator engine to manufacturers and installers who want to embed it on their own sites. Flat annual licensing, no usage tracking, no funnelling back to us.

As soon as we have enough sessions to make it work for both sides, we'll build a feature where you can ask us to forward your calculator inputs to 1–2 carefully picked local installers in exchange for quotes, and we'll collect a referral fee. The model only works one direction: you start it, you choose who, you see the receipt of exactly what was sent. No background quote requests. No phone ringing three times in an hour from people you've never heard of. If you want quotes, we're your matchmaker; if you don't, we're a calculator. This is the only form of installer connection we'll ever offer.

In the meantime: there's a card at the bottom of each calculator result where you can register interest. Two options:

• Tell me when it's live: we email you once when installers are connected, and you opt in then if you still want quotes. Lower commitment.
• Pre-authorise the forward: when local installers are ready, send your details automatically. We still email you 48 hours before any actual sharing so you can stop or modify it. Better for people who are keen now and don't want to chase a future email.

Either way, you control the outcome. The interest list is also how we'll prove demand to installer partners.

We'll also explore B2B data products: aggregated, anonymised insight sold to retailers, network operators, and DePIN networks. No personally identifiable data, no inputs traceable to individual households. The aggregate dataset is the genuinely valuable long-term asset, and we're patient about building it honestly.

Already under way: when you check a quote on the buyer tool, we log the postcode, system size, and quoted price (nothing that identifies you, and nothing linked to your email if you've given us one). Over time that becomes a public index of what Australians are actually quoted for solar, published as aggregates only, never raw rows.

• Forwarding is opt-in or it doesn't happen. The "run our calculator, get three installers calling you in the next hour" model that's common in this space is exactly what this site exists to be an alternative to. We don't fire off quote requests in the background, sell our list, or hand your postcode to anyone unless you specifically tell us to.
• No selling raw inputs. Your postcode and solar setup never leave our database in a form anyone could resell.
• No paid placement that influences calculator output. A sponsor cannot buy a better suitability score.
• No mandatory accounts. The calculators work without signing up. Ever.
• No dark patterns. If the answer for you is "don't buy anything," the calculator says that.

This page is updated before any new revenue stream goes live, not after. If you visit this site six months from now and the page still describes only affiliate links plus a premium tier, that's still all we're doing. If you see something on this page that's missing from the list of revenue streams above, we owe you an update.