Solar Panel Guide Discussion

zeupater

KevinG wrote: »

Hi Eric and thanks for your reply.

OK, Maybe not the best approach then.

I don't think I need meticulous records. My argument (and I have said this before) is that the only sensible way of calculating any underpayment is on the basis of generation, not consumption. It is the amount of generation exported that will have distorted the reading. It is assumed that 50% of generation is exported (I don't know how accurate that is in my case but it will do as a starting point), so if you must bill me, bill me for 50% of the units I have generated. That will then lead to a separate argument about what proportion of those should be billed at the night rate - I have a Micro CHP boiler as well as Solar PV, so it's not so straightforward, but I'd probably settle for about 20%. Such fun ahead!

Hi

... but you've been saying exactly this since 2011 and despite numerous posts from others are still relying on the supplier not noticing and therefore taking financial benefit ..... it's your decision to do so and it's your pocket and neck on the line, not ours.

Anyway, 20% ? ... good luck with that!. As mentioned before, the majority of pv owners are likely to be exporting around 60% to 75% and all of that is winding your meter backwards .... add to that your CHP which will also be winding the meter backwards and you likely have an additional problem ...

So, the scenario is that you've informed the FiT partner about a reversing meter on the applications for both pv and CHP and been content to sit back and not inform the energy supplier directly that the meter isn't metering correctly and believe that this doesn't breach your supply agreement (it does ours !) ... and on top of this you believe that you could make an almost watertight case/excuse that you hadn't noticed the really low bills ? .... anyone with a basic grounding in logic would expect any corrective calculation to take prior and post installation consumption into account .... for well over 3 years your position has been the "only sensible way of calculating any underpayment is on the basis of generation" and therefore continue to believe (/hope) that this is the case and that even if 'found out' any correction will still be to your financial advantage - if not, why else would you not have heeded numerous posts that others have made advising you to advise the supplier? ....

.... the problem is, the supplier isn't really interested in your generation, it's what you've used which should have been billed, but hasn't .... going even further, there's a strong case that what could be classified deliberate abuse of the FiT scheme (ie knowing allowing net metering without specifically contacting the supplier) for financial gain would lead to suspension or removal from the central FiT register (P48 .. https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/58855/fit-generator-guidance.pdf)

HTH
Z

KevinG

zeupater wrote: »

Anyway, 20% ? ... good luck with that!

You misunderstood my post. I was referring to 20% of the underbilled units being charged at the off-peak (night) rate.

zeupater wrote: »

.... anyone with a basic grounding in logic would expect any corrective calculation to take prior and post installation consumption into account .... for well over 3 years your position has been the "only sensible way of calculating any underpayment is on the basis of generation" ...
.... the problem is, the supplier isn't really interested in your generation, it's what you've used which should have been billed, but hasn't ....

No, this is simply incorrect, consumption is completely irrelevant, it is only the generation that affects the equation.

Anyway, I am suitably chastised by you all and will inform my supplier for the third time and see what happens.

Edit: Right, I've done it, I hope you're happy now.

Further edit: Just to reiterate my point about the majority of PV owners probably being blissfully unaware of all this, I tried to explain what I had done to my wife, who is an intelligent professional person. She couldn't understand a word of it.

1961Nick

KevinG wrote: »

You misunderstood my post. I was referring to 20% of the underbilled units being charged at the off-peak (night) rate.

No, this is simply incorrect, consumption is completely irrelevant, it is only the generation that affects the equation.

Anyway, I am suitably chastised by you all and will inform my supplier for the third time and see what happens.

Edit: Right, I've done it, I hope you're happy now.

Further edit: Just to reiterate my point about the majority of PV owners probably being blissfully unaware of all this, I tried to explain what I had done to my wife, who is an intelligent professional person. She couldn't understand a word of it.

Tbh Kevin, SP are in such a mess that you may just get away with the bulk of the underbilling.

I had an ongoing issue with them that started on 01/07/13 & was finally resolved on 27/01/15. That's 19 months without a bill for gas & electricity. The correspondence file is half an inch thick + all the emails! They gave me £200 compensation last year for my wasted time & then wrote off a further £1026 when it was finally settled in February.

£1226 probably sounds like a lot of money but I worked for every penny of it!

Good luck.

EricMears

I too have had a long running issue with Scottish Power.

I moved my 'ordinary' account from them in June 2013 and assumed that any credit in the account would have been returned to my bank account.

Only when the subject received publicity earlier this year did I look into it any deeper and could see no sign of any credit from SP (apart from a 'goodwill payment' for an error they made shortly before I left) in any of my bank accounts. I sent off an enquiry in late January when one of their customer advisors confirmed that my account had a credit of £90 and asked me if I'd like it refunded !

Needless to say, I did but rather than the immediate refund by return of post I was expecting I got a series of emails insisting that I had had a refund in July 2013. That was of course the £30 I knew about rather than the £90 I was still due - but they 'forgot' to quote the amount and just insisted that I'd cashed their cheque. With the help of my bank, I eventually managed to show that what I'd had was their 'goodwill payment' so then they tried to offer me a further £60 as their 'recalculated balance' ! After another couple of snotty emails insisting on full repayment plus further compensation they finally sent me a cheque for £90 this month. But I've still had no apology or offer of compensation. I'll continue to harass them . . . .

organum

amitagarwal wrote: »

Hello


Does anyone know about Green Energy Nationwide Ltd (also known as Green Energy NW Ltd) who have taken my deposit and not come back for work in last 3 weeks. They have been not responding to any phone and email.


Thanks

Companies House reports they are in Voluntary Arrangement.
Their MSC accreditation has been suspended which means they cannot legally install anything for at least six weeks.
Another poster on this forum reports they have 'moved' from their stated address due to non payment of rent.

I can only verify the companies house and MCS information.

I hope you paid by credit card so just cancel and claim the money back.

If you paid by bank transfer, which is what they kept asking me, good luck!

I offered a credit card but there is always an excuse why they cannot collect.

Pity as they seemed very straightforward to deal with.

1961Nick

EricMears wrote: »

I too have had a long running issue with Scottish Power.

I moved my 'ordinary' account from them in June 2013 and assumed that any credit in the account would have been returned to my bank account.

Only when the subject received publicity earlier this year did I look into it any deeper and could see no sign of any credit from SP (apart from a 'goodwill payment' for an error they made shortly before I left) in any of my bank accounts. I sent off an enquiry in late January when one of their customer advisors confirmed that my account had a credit of £90 and asked me if I'd like it refunded !

Needless to say, I did but rather than the immediate refund by return of post I was expecting I got a series of emails insisting that I had had a refund in July 2013. That was of course the £30 I knew about rather than the £90 I was still due - but they 'forgot' to quote the amount and just insisted that I'd cashed their cheque. With the help of my bank, I eventually managed to show that what I'd had was their 'goodwill payment' so then they tried to offer me a further £60 as their 'recalculated balance' ! After another couple of snotty emails insisting on full repayment plus further compensation they finally sent me a cheque for £90 this month. But I've still had no apology or offer of compensation. I'll continue to harass them . . . .

After 18 months I escalated my problem to an 'official complaint'. That must get the attention of the regulator because emails were suddenly answered within hours rather than weeks.

I'd ask for some more compensation to cover the cost of chasing the full £90.

Last summer when I was speaking to them, I suggested some compensation for all my wasted time. The CS person asked me how much I thought was appropriate. I said £200 expecting them to offer about £50....maybe £100. I was a bit taken aback when he said "I've credited £200 to your account & you should be able to see it online in a few minutes".

The bill after 19 months was £2500!:eek:

KevinG

KevinG wrote: »

Anyway, I am suitably chastised by you all and will inform my supplier for the third time and see what happens.

And the reply from Scottish Power:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding your energy account number XXXXXXXXXXX.
Firstly I apologise for the service you have received, I will endeavour to help deal with your query.
Thank you for your Feed-in Tariff enquiry. I have forwarded your query on to our FIT team and a reply will be issued within the next 10 working days.
If you would like to apply online for the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) scheme, or have a FIT related question, please click on the link below to access our Feed-in Tariff web page. Here you will find details of the scheme and some useful contact information.

So they have passed it to the FiT team, who of course can do nothing about it, but at least they should understand it and have the record of my previous declaration.

EricMears

KevinG wrote: »

And the reply from Scottish Power:
So they have passed it to the FiT team, who of course can do nothing about it, but at least they should understand it and have the record of my previous declaration.

Experienced Scottish Power students will of course note that their 'reply' says nothing at all - except that what should have been a problem for the billing department has been passed to the FIT team

But it's achieved the primary objective of (re)acknowledging that SP have been told of the faulty meter.

KevinG

A fairly efficient reply from the FiT team today:

Due to the solar panels having been installed at your property I believe your normal electricity service meter is reversing and this needs changed to allow your account to be billed correctly.

Please reply to this email with a suitable date (Monday to Friday) and time either am (which is anytime between 8.00am and 1.00pm) or pm (which is anytime between 12noon and 6.00pm) when this meter can be replaced – please allow at least 12 clear working days notice when you provide a date to allow us to arrange this with the meter operator in your area – the first available date we have currently is any day on or after Tuesday 05 May 2015. Please advise the date and time that suits you best and remember that you must be able to switch off your solar panels before the electrician changes your electricity meter and you need to switch your solar panels back on after the meter has been changed.

No indication that they might try to back-bill me. I've opted for polling day, 7th May, I'll let you know how it goes.

oldskoo1

Hi all been researching solar panel installs for the past few days.

My roof is south facing, literally 183 degrees, its of normal angle with no shading, no trees but the house nearby might block the summer sun around 30mins to 1hr before sunset (on roof). We tend to get sun on patio and garden until 7:40pm.

Its a 5 bed detached so roof space isn't tight.

I am looking at this for a decent return so i want best install for the £.

There are serious gaps in my understanding.

I started out with solar world panels. I checked out the top countries for solar energy with germany and china being top, so thought solar world would be a good place to start. Seemingly they have financial issues.

Led me to JA solar black panel 250w mono. Not much info but i assume these are decent enough for a chinese panel.

Whilst researching JA Solar, i found Benq. They have some very cheap 250w panels but also 280w and 330w sun forte panels which are suppose to be the same / similar panels as sun power who i discounted for being too premium. But the Benq ones are cheaper (it seems) and high efficiency at 20% ish. However i can't find any installers for the Benq.

Does high efficiency of the 330w Benq really make much difference or is it just a space consideration (i.e. i need less panels to generate 4kWh?). I hear sun power panels have some issues with string or something like this? 60/90 or something. Something about not being able to use micro invertors. Really big gaps in knowledge here.

I haven't even got onto invertors.

I simply want the best and most efficient system for the £. I don't think i need anything premium or clever. Just a good value panel that will deliver good energy capture.

What should i go for?

JA
Benq
Benq premium
Solarworld
Something else

I'm in the midlands and the only installer i've seen so far is EvoEnergy.

thanks you