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points by izzydata 3 days ago | 0 comments

I suspect a huge chunk of that is labor costs rather than materials.

Labor costs even more in Australia, yet total systems are installed for about 1/3rd - 1/4th the cost of the US. It’s not labor.

[–] Schiendelman 3 days ago

It is labor. It's code. The amount of labor required to do an installation to code in the US is easily 50% more, if not more than that. Australia also has standardized streamlined racking that works on much higher percentage of roofs, the US has a lot more custom construction.

[–] BobaFloutist 3 days ago

>Labor costs even more in Australia

This is really surprising to hear. Are you sure about that?

[–] tstrimple 3 days ago

Australia's minimum wage is significantly higher than in the US. An adult working as a burger flipper at McDonalds can expect a minimum of $27.81 / hour.

[–] BobaFloutist 2 days ago

That's ~$19.60 USD. That's not out of line for a HCOL area in the US.

[–] dalyons 3 days ago

yup. not just the minimum - skilled labor costs are very high too.