Death Inc

Anybody know anything about solar power and what i should be looking for in a set of home panels

I recommend using the biggest company you can find, I think some of the power providers have installation services, AGL and Energy Australia etc. If you don't use someone big, don't pay up front. I personally lost $3,500 mid last year when I paid upfront to a smaller provider who subsequently went bankrupt with around 5 million owed in installations that had been paid up front. The company used some crappy inverter and the warranty claims sent them under. I researched the company before going ahead and they looked solid, but clearly weren't. A lot of these company are fly by night, maybe less now that the pay back scheme has been wound back. Also from my sums the government payback doesn't really add up.
 From a disaster preparedness pov, you're better off with a petrol generator as the solar system needs a battery bank as well. A good long cycle battery will set you back around $400, and you'd need maybe half a dozen. So a solar system will cost around 5k and a petrol generator will cost maybe 1k. If you have a petrol lawn mower you already have petrol onsite, and maybe store a full jerry can that you cycle through your car every month or so so a petrol generrator is good to go.

Yep I used to work for one of those smaller companies that used to rip people off, they ripped their employees off too so we all quit :D . Go for a larger company, it will cost you more, but when the time comes to claim anything on warranty they will still be around to fix it.

How big are your bills? You should aim to try and negate your bills instead of trying to go into the positive, when you have massive systems and make money out of it I'm not seeing the government letting you not pay tax on that for long. Solar is too new in Australia and will be changed massively in the next few years or so.

Have you got enough roof space? They should send someone out to scope you're roof and take dimensions, just don't let them split your panels on different facing aspects of your roof (say 4 panels facing north and 4 facing east) as you lose generation this way with most inverters. If you have to do it that way, ask them if the inverter has multiple power point tracking in it, if not, you will lose power.

Ahh if you're switchboard is not up to scratch they will need to update it to today's standard and it's not cheap. 90% of the jobs I did, I had to upgrade the switchboard while I was at it.

Yeah, any other questions? Just ask, im sure I left things out.