November 2026 Update

Welcome to the first Smarter Solar Post: a monthly round-up of what's new on Smarter Solar.

I'm Alex, the founder. I'm a licensed electrician, accredited by Solar Accreditation Australia (SAA) for solar, batteries and EV chargers, and I built Smarter Solar here in Canberra. Every month I'll list what we shipped, what we fixed and what's coming. Here's October.

New

Your typical day

Your plan now shows how much of your home's power your own solar and battery could cover over a typical year, with the battery's share under it. Twelve monthly bars show where your solar goes: used at home, into the battery, or out to the grid, with your home's use drawn as a line. It's worked out hour by hour for each side of your roof.

Real brands in your plan

Your plan now shows approved inverter and battery sets that fit your home, plus an EV chargers tab, on the plan page, in the PDF and in the brief your installer receives. No brand pays to be included.

Pick your own size

Under Pick a size there's now a Custom option: use − and + to choose any system size, up to the most your roof can fit.

Your plan, emailed straight away

When you press Show my plan, a copy is emailed to you automatically, so you can come back to it any time.

Change something I said

Changed your mind about an answer? Open Change something I said on your plan, update it, and the plan rebuilds.

Improved

• One battery size. The battery tile now shows a single recommended size instead of a range (the range is still in Show the working). Above 50 kWh, the plan suggests talking to an installer.
• Existing solar. Mark your current panels on any side of your roof. Type the system's size ("I think 3 kW") and we'll use it instead of our estimate from above. Type its age and we'll pass it on to your installer. Not sure what to do with it? Pick Not sure, you suggest.
• Bills. Type your bill the way you'd say it ("about $450 a quarter") and we'll match it to a bill range. No bill handy? I don't have a bill opens the ranges right there. Two new top ranges cover bigger bills: $1,200–$2,000 and over $2,000.
• EV chargers. Tell us your supply phase with a tap, or snap a photo of your meter box and we'll read it.
• A fresh look. New plan page, roof findings and question screens, plus a short demo video on the homepage.
• Fixes. Dozens of smaller fixes from walking through the site ourselves, including clearer wording, steadier address suggestions and a Try again when the roof scan is busy.

Security: how we keep your details safe

In October, two serious security flaws were reported in PHP, the programming language behind many older websites, including a lot of WordPress sites. A fix came out on 21 October, but every site running PHP has to install it, and older sites are often the slowest to update.

Smarter Solar doesn't run on PHP or WordPress. It's a modern web application built from the ground up:

• Your answers are stored encrypted, in a database in Australia.
• The working happens on our servers, not in your browser. Every calculation and saved answer lives on the server.
• No account, no password to steal. You don't need to sign up to get a plan.
• Robot checks. Forms have a human check, and there are limits on how fast anyone can hit the site.
• Every change is reviewed and tested before it goes live.

No website can promise it will never have a problem. What I can promise is that security is built in from the start, and that I'll tell you straight if anything ever goes wrong.

Coming next

• Quote Scan. Upload the quotes you've received and we'll check the price, parts, warranties and fine print for you, in plain English. We're testing it now.
• Better plan figures. The typical day is the first part of a bigger upgrade to how your plan's figures are worked out. More on the way.
• The December update. Next month's Post.

Haven't tried it yet? Start your free plan. It takes a few minutes.

Alex

Founder, Smarter Solar