Free solar panel discussion

jackieblack

Gizmosmum wrote: »

Nice house Bit confused though - Building Regs say you have to have the generation meter in with the consumer unit from 1st Oct 2010. I could have read it wrong - does anyone else know???

pauldreed wrote: »

Don't know about the first point, but doubt that it would fit, and not sure of why this should be either.

I have a man in my understairs cupbord as I type - he is installing my generation meter next to the consumer unit but says he's not aware of any change in regs on where it must be fitted (although he says it's entirely possible he's missed seeing any memo there might have been if this has changed )
I'm told that the isolator has to go next to the consumer unit, but they usually install the generation meter wherever it is most convenient to do so/ wherever the customer wants it.

Gizmosmum_2

jackieblack wrote: »

I have a man in my understairs cupbord as I type - QUOTE]

Lucky you:rotfl:

csae

Smallfish wrote: »

Don't miss the full details that I will be posting shortly.
You will see how British Gas Installations sort out an installation, from sending to your home a British Gas ENERGY EXPERT to survey your property telling you what system you can have on your roof, taking measurements and photos, and of course a 10% deposit, to sending a team to erect the scaffolding and then on the day of fitting...........
Are they cooking on gas......or are they making an ash of it!

Right then now I have had dinner, and a rest to get over today's farce, I feel I have a little more power to my elbow if not to my roof!

So the scaffolding went up on Friday (see my prior post) and Monday morning British Gas start to arrive, first one van, then another, then another, and another with workers to match, gosh have we got enough mugs little did I realize that British Gas may have thought that I was going to be one of the Mugs...
A couple of hours and we had lots of British Gas workers whisperings and looking thoughtful, up on the roof tape measure in hand, measuring this way that way, down again from the roof, on the phone, up on the roof measure again that way and this.....this went on for a while, until finally the chap with the smashed iPhone said the 2.52kWp system consisting of 12 x 210W panels, that British Gas own "Expert" said would fit......WOULD NOT FIT.
But, but British Gas said they were sending an EXPERT to do the survey, he said it would cost £12,646.80 and told us we had to pay him a deposit of over £1,264.68 so we gave him our nice sunny yellow coop card and he called the British Gas "Money expert......my words this time" to take the payment.
The British Gas survey Expert did say that all would be checked and then we would get confirmation Direct from British Gas which we did, so what went wrong, well somethings afoot or should I say a meter with his measuring or is it that he was rushed to soon out on to the Job as he had told me he had not been with British Gas for long. The first two workers to turn up this morning, one had only been with British Gas 3 Weeks and I think the other said 5 weeks.
So in conclusion, The scaffolding is coming down, and I have had 2days off work and lost money taking cash out of my ISA not to mention other bits and bats that had to be sorted out.
Never mind It could have been worse, we could have gone to a Cowboy outfit.... ok so that was a little below the belt, and to be fair all the staff were very pleasant but you have to wonder if British Gas are just trying to jump on a gravy boat, and how much training are all these new staff and EXPERTS getting?
I rang customer service and the are now refunding my money to my sunny yellow coop card.
So British Gas it's the RED CARD from me.... As you have left me out of pocket on this one.

I think you will find that is pretty much the long and short of it.

My mate has gone to work for BG, 3 weeks in, he finally got a call saying start work in a weeks time. 2 hours later, got told to go the next day!

Installers are being sent out to sign people up, in as little as 3 weeks after training and no work on PV systems.

His report back was "Shoddy work, no-one had proper tools, mounting kits held in with one small coach bolt on each corner, DC cables not labelled and contained within roof space, just clipped onto beams any old how, sparkys being sent out with no ladder training, so can't go on the roof to have a look at the array!!"

Plus many more bizarre things.

They have jumped on the bandwagon without any preparation, but like all things, they will get it right eventually..

Gizmosmum_2

Ok I'm confused :huh: - if you can't fit a 2.52kwp system on your roof why don't they just reduce the system size? Panels vary in size between 1300 x 994 and 1700 x 998 (I think) so why not just put some smaller panels on and have a slightly reduced output.

I've put Sharp 180's on mine, they're 1318 x 994, 12 of those would have given you 2.16kwp and saved you a bit of capital outlay. Ok it would take a couple fo weeks to get the materials but at least you'd get a pv system.

rgannon4

suntechsolar wrote: »

You are of course talking about solar thermal panels and not solar PV.
Its not true, in my past business after 12 years building it before the bank killed us, we were selling lots of solar water heating systems as a pre-heat of the mains freezing water prior to entering the Combi Boiler.
Depends on which make of Combi, as the older type had a rubber valve which could not except heated water above 23c, the new boilers which use a machanical valve can handle up to 60c.

U need a place for what is called a Fortic cylinder of 100 litres which has a 20ft finned copper coil inside which is where your mains water is directed through and then out at the top through a thermostatic mixing valve set to suite the maximum your Combi can take.

For me the Combi Boiler should only be installed in appartments, not houses where a good solar thermal water heating system with a normal boiler could support the heating as well as hot water.

Our Solar Combi Boiler systems were sold to the trade for £1,650.00 using an evacuated heat pipe collector that did not require any freezing protection like Gylcol

So could I have a water tank in the loft and run the combi along side this?

doctrain

applied via web to ISIS Solar to be considered for the free installation of panwls without initial cost. I've Just got email back from ISIS saying I don't qualify, I have a town house with pitched roof that faces south? They say I need a minimum of 30sq mtrs facing south. How big a house/roof is required. Does this mean only people in larger than normal houses can benefit:

Elainemary

theoldclucker wrote: »

I've just applied for this scheme, as my property is eligible, south facing roof blah blah blah.

I will post up how long it takes from the initial registration, to the company coming out to inspect roof etc, to fitting and the outcome of any savings or payments as and when appropriate.

It was encouraging to read the posts of people who already have taken advantage of the scheme and their savings and payments for electricity produced. Thanks to those folk, it was most helpful.

My property is all electric with Economy 7 heating, and although I won't be able to take advantage of the 'free electricity' during the night when the heaters are on, I can now stop putting the washing machine and drier on timers and use them during the day. OR, I can have the E7 heaters wired direct bypassing the E7 meter and heat them up during the day, not sure this would work, as they'd probably use more electricity than I'd be producing. So will stick with option one I think and see how it pans out.

I think this scheme is ideal for all electric homes, like mine. Even it it saves money on daytime use it's good, as at present my daytime units are around 14p per unit.

Hi there. Has anything happened yet? Maybe I've missed a later post about your adventures in Solar panel Land. I STILL think it's a good idea to keep us all in touch with what's happening or maybe, like me, you're fed up with the bickering!!

keninab

tingleytim wrote: »

My roof is south west facing and is of no interest to A Shade Greener. How much less efficient is a SW facing roof compared with a south facing roof? When cloudy there is presumably very little difference. But what tends to be the difference overall? Is it still worth my while installing panels at my own expense on a SW facing roof?

I have just had a survey done on my property which is southwest facing and they say my property is fine, I will be having a system installed shortly which I am financing myself. Try another installer

keninab

yes a meter is fitted in the system to show how much energy is generated

digitaltoast

It's coming up to 5pm as I type this, approaching peak load time as people arrive home and put the heating on cookers, light, kettles and televisions on.
Can anyone with some panels please take a glance at your meter and let me know how much you're generating right now?