Solar Power - always a scam??

Cardew

craftymummy wrote: »

My husband is an MCS approved installer for both solars and heat pumps , his electrical installations are guaranteed for six years with the ECA warranty scheme.
.

We have no option but to go with an MCS approved installer if we want to get paid FIT; so that is not the issue!

The history of the solar industry makes people extremely wary. Your husband could be trading as 'craftymummysolar' today, and cease trading tomorrow. The day after he could open up a new firm trading as 'craftymothersolar' and have no responsibilty for the shoddy rubbish he had installed previously.

The issue here is just what value to the customer are the warranty schemes(the 6 year ECA scheme or the 10 year IWA scheme) ; read the WHICH articles about just how useless some of the warranties have been.

I have no idea if those schemes are great or garbage, but anyone getting solar should do their research and not assume that a 6 or 10 year warranty is bullet proof.

cit_k

What is the lifespan of solar panels these days, is it much longer than it used to be?

Cardew

cit_k wrote: »

What is the lifespan of solar panels these days, is it much longer than it used to be?

The PV panels themselves have lengthy guarantees 10 or even 20 years.

However it is the system that usually has a 2 year warranty - mountings cables, electronics, inverter.

Mankysteve

craftymummy wrote: »

Salesmen are the blight of the renewable industry, most of the complaints are about sales techniques.

I think sales men are the blight of pretty much every industry out there :rotfl:

Oopsadaisy

Solar energy firm SPWEC has been shut down in the High Court.
The Rochdale firm - its initials stand for Solar Power Wind Energy Company - used a string of nasty tactics to snare customers, including:
*Lying about the availability of government grants;
*Getting payments from customers for goods it had not yet sourced, meaning that it could not honour agreements;
*Failing to respond to customer complaints, give refunds or even honour its own terms and conditions;
*Taking unathorised payments from customer credit cards.
The firm was shut down following an investigation by the Insolvency Service. Spokesman Alex Deane said: "At a time when we are all looking for greener energy products, it is particularly regrettable that a business like SPWEC should use dishonest practices to exploit that demand for its own ends."
The directors of the firm, none of whom served for more than a few months, were Lee Cooper, 24, of Bury, John Hallises, 33, of Rochdale, and Kevin Parr, 27, also Rochdale.