Free solar power system. Is it a scam?

Cardew

XRayDave wrote: »

Projecting these figures backward to our install date and then forward to the end of the month would suggest around 400kWh for the month making ASG some £166 of income and potentially saving us £52.96. Even if we only use around half of this (reasonably, I think) that would still be a £26-odd per month knocked off our bills.

Thanks, figures are in line with what would be expected.

You need to be aware that it is mid-june and the sun is as far North as it gets so your 400kWh estimated output for the month is probably accurate; however it will decrease in future months and it will be interesting to see the figures for Dec/Jan.

However it is important to note a couple of points:

Firstly as Sarah points out they expect to see a minimum output of 2,800kWh a year and about 3,000kWh would be good - say an average of 250kWh a month.

Secondly I suggest that most people will struggle to use 50% of the output in June especially as you point out that there is little during the morning/evening and approaching 3kW at noon. However 40% to 50% used in the house, averaged over the year, is normal.

I think also that people tend to inflate the value of the electricity they use in the house - I note you use a figure of 13p/kWh.

Bear in mind that the only true value you can allocate to the electricity is the cheaper Tier 2 price. The tier 1 price is effectively a standing charge and as that is only charged for 225kWh(125kWh with BG) a quarter, you will use that allocation regardless of any input from your PV.

If you look at electricity prices for Yorkshire(I used a Leeds post code) nearly all the major suppliers have electricity for around 7p/kWh on their internet tariffs Even BG standard rates are 9p/kWh before discounts.

So if the panels produce 3,000kWh pa and you use 40% to 50% in the house your savings are likely to be £85 to £135 a year(£7 to £11 a month).

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.

Optimist

Oopsadaisy wrote: »

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.

I fail to see the relevance of this in regard to the company this thread is about

XRayDave

Hi Cardew

Hmmm... I think that I'm paying 13.24p/kWh on the Tier2 price (electricity company is nPower). Must look into this and swap companies if we are not competitive. Thanks for the "heads up".

XRD

XRayDave

Whilst writing a reply to a PM, I though that I'd share the following with the rest of you...

Thoroughly happy with the installation and the panel output. One thing that would have been nice was to have some way of monitoring what the panels are actually producing.

There is an additional meter (which is in the loft next to the PV Inverter) so hardly convenient to read BUT, even when you look at it, the display is so complex as to be meaningless.

So, I invested in a remote energy monitor (an Efergy Elite) which simply clips around a cable (no dangerous wiring or costly installation here) and gives us a continual (updated every 6 seconds) update as to the panels' output.

I'd throughly recommend getting one. Retail they are in the £45-50 region but eBay provided a brand-new, boxed unit for £25 inc p&p. Search on eBay for "Efergy +(elite,e2) -sensor".

A similar meter is the OWL Energy Monitor (one of those is on order from eBay for under £20 inc p&p to monitor our consumption from the Grid). Search on eBay for "owl +(wireless, energy meter) -USB". Again, this simply clips around the live wire so installation is a breeze.

Hope this helps.

XRayDave

STILL can't post direct links for you - hence the search criteria detailed above - grrr!

geordie_joe

Cardew wrote: »

If you look at electricity prices for Yorkshire(I used a Leeds post code) nearly all the major suppliers have electricity for around 7p/kWh on their internet tariffs Even BG standard rates are 9p/kWh before discounts.

So if the panels produce 3,000kWh pa and you use 40% to 50% in the house your savings are likely to be £85 to £135 a year(£7 to £11 a month).

I think it's a bit more complicated than that. I checked a few suppliers and the ones that have electricity at 7p per unit have a large annual standing charge, £80 - £150.

Paying 12 or 13p per unit usually has a much smaller, or no standing charge.

So yes, xraydave could get electricity at 7p per unit, so that is how much you should use to calculate the savings. But you have to add in the fact that you can't get it at that price without paying £80 - £150 per year standing charge.

XRayDave

Thanks Geordie Joe,

Spent many a happy hour (!) looking at various sites today and managed to get our projected energy costs down by a whopping £883 :eek:

Methinks our current energy supplier is taking us for a bit of a mug :shocked:

Even factoring in the £100/yr standing charge for BOTH gas and electricity the mere fact that the costs have fallen from 13.24p to 7.44p/kWh (electricity) and from 2.388 to 2.264p/kWh (gas) means that we should save heaps.

Now factor in those freebie solar panels ....

:money:

Result - one happy bunny.

XRayD

PM1

I noticed from the A Shade Greener website that they read the power that you contribute back to the grid. How do they do that? Is there a connection to your Telephone or Internet? or is it read remotely by a wireless device? I can't find it on their site and I did not read through all 17 pages here.

Also just for info, I have an Owl meter (free from E.ON) on my house power currently showing usage of between 500 and 700 watts. Two computers and I don't know what else running- TV on Standby, fridge?

I recently read a book from the library by Brian Goss about solar power, and it gives you charts that calculate soalr impingement depending on your latitude and time of day ( Angle of incidence on your panel) If you want to investigate further.

I forgot to mention I am on the South coast and If the offer was available down here would definitely look into it.

Cheers,

PM

martint123

PM1 wrote: »

How do they do that? Is there a connection to your Telephone or Internet? or is it read remotely by a wireless device?

Probably something like these ? Seem to be used by quite a few installers.
http://universalmeterservices.co.uk/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=24&products_id=91&zenid=a225f11f25a8d7f412530bbddbd17ba2

XRayDave

Hi PM

The meter that A Shade Greener (ASG) put in to monitor the output of the panels (referred to as a "Generation Meter") has a built-in GSM mobile phone connection. When they commission your system, they pop a SIM card into the meter and voila - they get daily reports of how the PV system is performing.

The readings on the meter's display are, however, incomprehensible. Hence my purchase of an Efergy Elite Energy Monitor to see how the panels are performing.

The Generation Meter is a Iskra Emeco ME372 (see this URL): h ttp://w ww.iskranet.co.uk /index.php?cat=Iskra_Emeco_Electricity_Meters

(remove the spaces in the "h ttp" and "w ww" and copy the line for the full URL)

I'll see if theis darned site will allow me to post a picture in this thread (it STILL won't let me post URLs)!

err... Nope (grr)

XRD

EDIT - yes EXACTLY like the link posted by Martint123