Did you sign up for free solar panels? Feedback wanted

M4ximillion

vikwal wrote: »

I had solar panels fitted last September by A Shade Greener, and had a similar experience to other posters on this topic - fab customer service, very professional and transparent.

Until last month, my elec/gas supplier was ScottishPower, who provide a personal account graph which shows 12 month elec usage compared to the previous 12 months. This visually showed our energy consumption had almost halved since having the panels fitted.

I am sure that some of the savings are because we dont waste as much elec now (my 3 kids no longer leave every light on upstairs!!), but there is no doubt in my mind that having these panels fitted was the right move for us.

Cardew - another post about how their usage has been reduced and i also agree with this poster that some of the savings will also be because we are more aware of what we're using but it doesnt matter to me, savings are savings and if i can keep up with the 40% reduction my savings will be about £260 in the year and for me that is a huge amount. May not be much for you, but for me it means we may get a holiday this year.:D

cathd6

pandapaws wrote: »

Great for them that they're not paying any road tax, and great for the environment that they're cleaner cars, but just because they emit less carbon doesn't mean they'll require less road maintenance. My £280 (or whatever it is now) road tax on my 8-yr old Mondeo is subsidising these Band A cars.

If it makes you feel any better the vehicle duty you're paying is nothing to do with road maintenance which is paid for out of general taxation (eg. your council tax most directly but also other taxes eg. income which go towards the government's central contribution). The car tax (vehicle excise duty?) is a penalty tax on you for the privilege of owning something which has various social costs. You could argue that the social costs of a Prius are lower (although it still has negative social effects unrelated to carbon emissions when in use...) I don't think the tax revenues are ring-fenced so can be used for any public spending requirements.

...sorry, way off-topic.

semsley_2

Cardew wrote: »

May I ask how you calculate the 'saved figure'?

Took meter reading when panels were installed. Have an OWL which calculates usage. Checked meter reading and the difference between what we had used according to the OWL and the meter reading was the KwH we have saved, ie free use.

grahamc2003

semsley wrote: »

Took meter reading when panels were installed. Have an OWL which calculates usage. Checked meter reading and the difference between what we had used according to the OWL and the meter reading was the KwH we have saved, ie free use.

Could you expand on that please? If installed according to the owl instructions, then the owl should measure the same readings as the meter, with the exeption that the owl may clock up readings on export while the main meter may not - so the difference may be what you have exported (roughly - the owl isn't very accurate, especially on low cosumption). If that's the case (and there are a lot of 'if's, then you have to deduct the difference from your generation meter to get what you have used.

Or do you have your owl clipped onto a different wire in your system?

hotflush

We signed up and paid £500 last year in September with Energy Saving Group their installer is my energy station t/a northern energy solution ltd. We have received various correspondence full of excuses but todate no panels. Has anyone signed up for the same scheme and received their panels?

Cardew

hotflush wrote: »

We signed up and paid £500 last year in September with Energy Saving Group their installer is my energy station t/a northern energy solution ltd. We have received various correspondence full of excuses but todate no panels. Has anyone signed up for the same scheme and received their panels?

Welcome to the forum.

You should read this thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2563003

K4blades

I'm appalled at some of the behaviour of some of these companies, cowboys jumping on a bandwagon, and exploiting people who don't do research. I have heard several stories now of people paying over £500, then nothing happens.
My advice, if you can't afford to buy, try and get them free. If one of the free installers turn you down, there is a reason for that, your roof will not generate enough income, so if another company wants to charge you £500, you are subsidising their income.

I suspect Cardew and I may disagree over exactly how much you will save in electricity, but IMHO, either way, not worth an upfront cost of £500.00

Ask for your money back and if you don't get it, report them to trading standards.

lqa

We had our survey completed by ISIS Solar a month ago and heard nothing since. The surveyor stated our roof was ideal, South facing and 7 x 3.5 metres.
I rang up today and was told we have been declined as they can only fit 10 panels instead of 12. I challenged this and they admitted the imagery was missing off the file. They emailed it to me later and to be fair I could have produced better with Powerpoint. The scale was wrong as our roof is twice as long as wide.
I called them back and they again admitted the imagery was of poor standard but I was a Class C house asregarding scaffolding and they would re-survey if I agreed to pay £175 to cover the scaffolding. We have a conservatory at the rear.

I declined their kind offer.

Any one else experienced this.

LQA

lqa

To follow up my own post.

Homesun ave completed a survey and reckon a 3.9 Kwh array can be fitted. Fitting should be within four weeks.

or even within two weeks :-)

iscamaid

iscamaid wrote: »

We had free solar panels fitted earlier this year with Homesun. The fitters were inexperienced and when the scaffolding company arrived (contracted in and not part of Homesun) they had to let us know we had several gaping holes in the roof and broken tiles strewn over the scaffolding planks.

The PV panels had long white scratches from the fitters and over 24 tiles had been bodged with white putty by the fitters to try and put them back together!. It was raining when we found out and had been all day, so you can imagine how upset I was to find out there were holes in the roof and the fitters had sloped off without a word and left us in such a mess.

The supervisor for Eaga, the company that fits for Homesun, was good and came the same day. However he said he would put his most experienced fitter onto it. What they forgot to do was lift the panels and look under. I called them back the next day and lo and behold the solar panels had been fitted over broken tiles.

We thought the nightmare was over until we went into the loft 2 days later and found there was over 20 tears in the roofing felt, up to 50cm long. We called Eaga back and they had to again lift the panels to put in new felt. The roofer left without checking the loft and when we next went up we found the new felt was fine but by removing the torn felt the roofer had dislodged the old felt and this was hanging down in places. All in all we had nearly 100 tiles broken or cracked which had to be replaced. Eaga was pretty good and came back promptly to replace.Needless to say Homesun did not ring to check progress, we had to do all the chasing.

The Customer Service Section never apologised properly and we had a marketing call from Homesun last week asking if we could have a large advertising board in our garden!!!!!!

ok rant over, back to original questions:

Which free solar panel company did you use? HOMESUN

Whereabouts are you? SOUTH WEST

How smooth was the panel-fitting process? SEE RANT

How much did you save on your electricity bill? IN USE FOR 4 MONTHS SO FAR, DAILY GENERATION 20 KWH IN FULL SUN 4 -5 KWH IN CLOUD, USAGE 7-8 KWH, SAVING APPROX 4-5 KWH.

How long did you have to wait for the panels? 2 MONTHS

What are your tips to ensure you get the most out of the free panels? WE NOW USE THE DISHWASHER AND WASHING MACHINE IN THE DAY AND STAGGER OUR USAGE OF HIGH CONSUMPTION ITEMS THROUGH THE DAY IF WE ARE HOME.

Were there any technical glitches? WE HAVE HAD HOMESUN BACK 3 TIMES TO ADJUST THE MODEM AS IT WAS NOT PICKING UP A SIGNAL

What should other MoneySavers watch out for when signing up? BE PREPARED TO HAVE SCAFFOLDING UP FOR 6 WEEKS AND A CONSTANT STREAM OF WORKMEN THROUGH YOUR HOUSE!

Can anyone advise if the solar fitting industry have a regulator. It is now November and our roof is still leakiong from the appalingly shoddy work from Homesun. I have sent three e-mails to their customer services team over the past 2 weeks as the weather has worsened and as yet we have had no help. Is there anyone I can complain too?