{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Good Builder Podcast","title":"The Daily Dose #334 | Solar and Batteries in New Builds: The Margin Builders Are Missing, with Gary Higgins of Halcol","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3386,"description":"Solar and batteries are on nearly every new-home wish list, and hardly any builders are putting them in as standard. Az sits down with Gary Higgins, owner of Sunshine Coast solar and battery installer Halcol, to work out why, and what it's costing builders.\nGary's path here is not the usual one. An electrical apprenticeship in Ireland cut short by the GFC, a stint in retail and business management, then the Northern Territory in the middle of wet season installing satellite dishes hours outside Darwin. He joined Halcol as a business development manager, became general manager, and bought the business with his wife Rosie four years ago. Halcol now runs six or seven internal install teams plus subbies out of the Sunshine Coast and Hendra, was a Smart Energy Council top-five finalist nationally last year, and by Gary's count has been the highest-volume solar installer on the coast for the past six or seven years.\nIn this episode:\nWhy battery attach has flipped. Halcol has gone from roughly one in ten installs including a battery to solar-only being close to unheard of.\nThe real reason builders shy away from solar: rebates, Energex, compliance, and the warranty question.\nWho actually carries the warranty under Australian Consumer Law (the builder), and how Halcol takes that off the builder's desk.\nThe margin conversation. How volume pricing turns solar into a line item builders make money on rather than one they avoid.\nHow Halcol works through a 93-unit Azure Build project: pre-wired at frame, panelled with the roof, inverter fitted last. If it's planned properly the builder never sees them.\nWhy a south-facing roof quietly costs 20 to 30 per cent of winter output, and the design-stage conversation that fixes it.\nInspections in Victoria, and why Queensland is heading the same way.\nHiring for attitude over paper, and running every department as its own business inside Halcol.\nWhy Az reckons builders have about two and a half years to get a solar process in place....","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/kfWyLokmOh8IknRiu8hFWliTL287_yQe0yBgRNp7WJc/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yZmE4/MDdmMWNmOWU1Yjc4/ZGU2OTIxYTcwOTk0/OTk3YS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}