Free solar power system. Is it a scam?

Solargain

moneysaverTC wrote: »

Hi
I'm looking for a installer for my solar panel system.
Two that I have found that look quite good are EvoEnergy (evoenergy.co.uk) and Solar Logic (gosolarlogic.co.uk/).
Both companies look good, but has any one experienced either of these?
I like the companies because they are based close to me. Am I better off going with a large company like Tesco?
Any advice is very much appreciated.
Thanks

No experience of the two companies you mention, but I was in much the same position as you back in May when I first started looking at the options.

My inclination was to go with a local installer, and I had every intention of doing just that until Tesco entered the market. They undercut the local firm by around £4000 (though the gap has narrowed a bit since then) for much the same system.

I had some reservations about using Tesco (the wife rather more!) but we're both now very happy that we did. Can't fault any aspect of the installation - a very neat job, done exactly in accordance with our wishes.

Cardew

As stated in your other thread on this, you can be pretty sure Tesco will be around it 10 or 20 years if there are problems.

Poosmate

I notice with a Tesco installation you earn Tesco Clubcard points. I never shop at Tescos so don't really understand this Clubcard thing they have going but having just done a little bit of research have I got this right:

A 1.0kWp system fitted by Tesco for £6999 gives 13998 clubcard points. (I understand that bit).

14000 clubcard points (go to shop and spend £1 to make it up to 14k) = £140 in vouchers, yes?

And,

£10 vouchers can be exchanged for £40 vouchers for goods/services with their partners, yes?

So, those 13998 (+ 2) is or could equal £560 worth of vouchers (14 £10 vouchers x £40 = £560) which you could use to take you on holiday? Or flog on Ebay maybe?

Nice little bonus. Does anyone know if Tesco have reduced their prices at all with the demand? Or are these the latest guide prices:

http://www.tescohomeefficiency.com/solar-electricity-price-examples/

Thanks

Poo

Doc_N

Poosmate wrote: »

I notice with a Tesco installation you earn Tesco Clubcard points. I never shop at Tescos so don't really understand this Clubcard thing they have going but having just done a little bit of research have I got this right:

A 1.0kWp system fitted by Tesco for £6999 gives 13998 clubcard points. (I understand that bit).

14000 clubcard points (go to shop and spend £1 to make it up to 14k) = £140 in vouchers, yes?

And,

£10 vouchers can be exchanged for £40 vouchers for goods/services with their partners, yes?

So, those 13998 (+ 2) is or could equal £560 worth of vouchers (14 £10 vouchers x £40 = £560) which you could use to take you on holiday? Or flog on Ebay maybe?

Nice little bonus. Does anyone know if Tesco have reduced their prices at all with the demand? Or are these the latest guide prices:

http://www.tescohomeefficiency.com/solar-electricity-price-examples/

Thanks

Poo

Spot on, in every respect. And those are the latest Tesco prices, so far as I'm aware, amended within the last month to take account of the change from 22 panels to 18 in the largest system (to keep it within the 41.3p FIT rate). That system went down by £500.

A word of warning about the Clubcard vouchers, though. You'd be very lucky to get £560 value for your £140 nominal value. Theoretically it's possible, but the way they can be used is quite restricted. Usually you end up having to use them against what proves to be an inflated price that few normal customers would actually pay. Not always the case, but it frequently is.

Hotels, for example, are booked on the basis of prices that no well-informed savvy customer would ever pay.

As a rule of thumb, I'd value the points at about twice face value (£280 in your example) for most things. Still better than using them over the counter, and still a useful cashback.

Poosmate

Thanks Doc, a relative paid for a ferry crossing over to Ireland with Tesco vouchers earlier this year. I just wasn't sure if I'd got the process right. I guess if Tesco offer a competitive price (and their contractors seem to do a good job from feedback on these threads) the clubcard points could be a deal breaker for them.

Poo

decsdad

While we are on the subject, I have about £1000 of clubcard vouchers, so 4 x 1000 = £4000 in deals. I was saving them for a watch but would like to work out a way to put it towards a solar pv system. Any advice appreciated.

Poosmate

Got this knockback from Homesun today:

[FONT=Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Hello,

Thank you very much for your interest in HomeSun and our Free Solar offer.

The team here has now reviewed your application and, unfortunately, your roof does not appear to be eligible. This could be for one of a number of reasons. For example, it could be that your roof does not face in quite the right direction, or it is not large enough for our minimum size of 12 solar panels, or there is too much shading.

I know this must be disappointing but, as you know from our website, solar operates efficiently in certain situations only. As an example, just 3% shading for a tiny proportion of the day can reduce performance by a massive 25%. This would not be good for either you or HomeSun. As you would guess, we're very careful with our reviews, but if you are convinced that your roof is perfect, you can send us an email (salesadministration@homesun.com) explaining why and attaching:

· a satellite image e.g Google Maps or Bing Maps showing clearly the location of your home/roof
· a photo of your south facing roof
· a photo taken with your back to the south facing roof (so that we can estimate shading).

Our call rate currently is extremely high, so any follow up is solely by email only I'm afraid.

Having said all the above, the good news is that we are investigating other renewable energy and energy-saving technologies - and our plan is to find ways to make these more accessible and affordable, just as we have done with solar. So, if you don't mind, we'll keep your contact details on our database and we will contact you when we have other products that might be suitable. If you'd prefer not to hear from us again, please email [EMAIL="unsubscribe@homesun.com"]unsubscribe@homesun.com[/EMAIL].

Thanks again for your interest in HomeSun.

[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif]HomeSun Customer Team
[FONT=Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif]0844 824 0000[/FONT]





NOTE: Please do not reply to this e-mail. Replies to this address are not monitored or reviewed.





[/FONT][/FONT]

I asked about the Solarshare option (where you pay £500 up front and £5 pcm and can buy the system outright when you're able to) not the free system. I'm guessing the reason is that the roof isn't big enough for their system.

Oh well, :-(

Re: the bold type, I wonder what else they're getting into? ASHP's/GSHP's when the tariffs are announced?

Who knows? Watch this space!

Poo

Poosmate

decsdad wrote: »

While we are on the subject, I have about £1000 of clubcard vouchers, so 4 x 1000 = £4000 in deals. I was saving them for a watch but would like to work out a way to put it towards a solar pv system. Any advice appreciated.

People used to sell them on Ebay and they still do but I think the Ebay market is quite flooded with them now, I looked last night and there were loads for sale and very few bidders.

Also, whenever I've seen them before they've always gone for quite a bit below the x4 value.

Can you spend these vouchers in the store? I'm not very savvy with these vouchers but was thinking if you could use them and put the cash equivalent into a Solar Panel Savings account. Might take you some considerable time though.

Poo

Doc_N

Poosmate wrote: »

People used to sell them on Ebay and they still do but I think the Ebay market is quite flooded with them now, I looked last night and there were loads for sale and very few bidders.

Also, whenever I've seen them before they've always gone for quite a bit below the x4 value.

The problem is that they're not transferable, and buying them on eBay could be very risky, given this extract from the T&C:

Tickets and rewards tokens can only be sent to the address on your Clubcard account and will be printed with your name and may include your postcode.

Even if the seller has the reward tokens sent to his address (which is the way it usually works on eBay) you could still struggle to use it because of the name on it.

They're unlikely to go for more than twice the face value, because in practice they're only worth about that.

lufc246

lemfizz wrote: »

Hi all

We recently applied for the ASG solar panels and were accepted. However, after careful consideration we have decided against going ahead for the following reasons:

The estimated saving of about £100-£150 per annum on our electricity bill doesn't seem high enough to justify entering into a binding 25 year contract.

The solar panels would be ours to keep after 25 years, but the technology would have probably moved on considerably in that time, leaving us with obsolete solar panels on our roof.

We were not convinced that a house with solar panels on which did not belong to the owner would be as an attractive proposition to prospective buyers as ASG claim.

ASG informed us that a date had been arranged for the scaffolders to come, and a date for a new meter to be fitted before anyone had been out to discuss the details or go through the paperwork with us, so we began to feel that we were being put under pressure to let the installation go ahead.

We cancelled the installation by phone and email and were phoned up a few days later to agree a date for someone to come out so we could sign the agreement!

We were told that if cancelled we would be the only ones to cancel an installation as everyone else had been happy with the agreement, so even then we felt we were being pressured!

Hi,

Why would it leave you with obsolete panels on your roof ? The agreement states that the panels can either remain on your roof as your property or they will be removed free of charge by ASG, your choice.
ASG informed us of the relevant fixing dates before we signed up but I thought that was great efficiency. Obviously like you we could cancel at any time.
On an average day we use a steady flow of about 700-900w of electricity, according to our meter, which is 3 tv,s 3 computers and lights etc, only more when we boil a kettle put the iron on. we only ever go over 3kw when we use the iron and kettle together. Average daylight use should more or less be easily covered by the panels.
Regarding the saving, any saving is good in my eyes, no risk here, its FREE
Anyway mine are been fitted 3rd week in Sept so feel free to ask any questions.