Help with solar panel quote

rightfoot_shifter

tunnel wrote: »

I had these guys out for my parents and if I'm honest they didn't fill me with confidence, if I'm correct they will have given you a presentation off a laptop, blahed on about offering monitoring of the system. I asked questions that I knew the answers to and didn't get the correct answers.


If your serious about solar then get several quotes, as has been stated, that price is WAY TOO MUCH, I've just paid £4300 for a 2.5kWp system and believe that's about the figure you should be looking at.


can I ask where you are(roughly)?


tunnel

South coast of Hampshire. Any leads for a better deal will be much appreciated

tunnel

I'm sure one of our members, I believe silverwhistle, is based down on the south coast somewhere, have a look on here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4377643 you could then maybe pm them and ask who they used, I'm sure they wouldn't mind

Martyn1981

rightfoot_shifter wrote: »

Thanks Mart, I'm on the south coast of Hampshire. Who do you suggest I approach for a better deal? Mono Crystalline panels.

Sorry RFS, can't help with any suggested companies. But as Tunnel says, ask on here, also ask neighbours or anyone with panels who they used, any good, problems etc.

You could go through one of the quote sites, like compare my ..... but expect lots of contacts, which you may want (or not). The more companies you speak with, the more knowledge you'll compile, also, if they know you're shopping around, you should start to get 'normalised' quotes, nearer the figures we see people on here paying, after they've shopped around.

Getting lots of quotes may be a pain, but you need to build up that gut feeling, and every conversation will teach you something new, raising both your knowledge and confidence.

Mart.

mac2008

rightfoot_shifter wrote: »

South coast of Hampshire. Any leads for a better deal will be much appreciated

Blimey, reading this thread does make me despair somewhat. Sounds like a load of ex- double glazing salesmen are turning their hand to selling solar! Idiotic tricks like quoting a massively inflated price then dropping it to a still-way-too-high price for spurious reasons would be enough for me to send them packing.

I paid c. £5k for a 2.5kWp system, SW England about 9 months ago, which included a wireless monitor and some work to the ridge of the roof.

Best of the bunch I looked at were http://www.southernsolar.co.uk/ - no affiliation other than being a happy customer. Chap who quoted clearly knew his stuff (first thing he did was measure roof size, pitch and orientation) and left the spreadsheet he used so I could play with their assumptions etc. No hard sell or fake reductions etc. Excellent tidy installation, scaffold removed promptly etc.

tunnel

mac2008 wrote: »

Blimey, reading this thread does make me despair somewhat. Sounds like a load of ex- double glazing salesmen are turning their hand to selling solar! Idiotic tricks like quoting a massively inflated price then dropping it to a still-way-too-high price for spurious reasons would be enough for me to send them packing.

I actually had a company out called sol*rstyle uk, look at the name and think of windows, whether they're affiliated I have no idea but the guy was a very slick salesman, unfortunately he didn't offer me buy one get one free so I sent him packing :rotfl:

silverwhistle

Apologies guys, but been on holiday in the Alps: thank gawd for the snow tyres. Can't seem to send PMs (probably me and tiredness). Anyway, last July paid just over £6k for 4kw, Owl monitor and Solar iboost for hot water. Near Portsmouth and company was Infinity from Fareham. Can't remember techy details at the moment but after drive across Italy and France in snow and rain very tired and I'll check later if anyone interested...

Tytalus

Hi All, 1st post, be gentle!


Just been reading through the thread, got the general picture:


£10,000 for a 15panel 3.66 Kw/h system - WAY TOO MUCH (Thanks, but no thanks, Staybrite Solar).


However, having looked into the various systems I have reached an impasse on my understanding of a part of the technology, but can't seem to find the answers (maybe I'm not looking hard enough).


Therefore, taking all the technologies aside, what is better?


A 3.9 KW/h system made of 16 x 245W 11.5% efficient cheaper Polycrystaline panels, or


A 3.9 Kw/h system made of 16x 245W 15% efficient more expensive monocrystaline panels.


Or doesn't it actually matter, just that the 11.5% panels will be bigger?


I ask as I am concerned whether or not the higher efficiency panels will produce more power per panel than the lower efficiency panels for the same lighting conditions, and therefore potentially better value (if the price isn't disproportionately high!)


Also, if the panels are to the EU Standard for such, does it matter which are installed, but it's the Inverter and Installer that really needs that little extra cash spent on it?


Many thanks in anticipation for your help!


Tytalus
(Colchester, 45° off due-South roof)

JH69

Tytalus wrote: »

Hi All, 1st post, be gentle!


Just been reading through the thread, got the general picture:


£10,000 for a 15panel 3.66 Kw/h system - WAY TOO MUCH (Thanks, but no thanks, Staybrite Solar).


However, having looked into the various systems I have reached an impasse on my understanding of a part of the technology, but can't seem to find the answers (maybe I'm not looking hard enough).


Therefore, taking all the technologies aside, what is better?


A 3.9 KW/h system made of 16 x 245W 11.5% efficient cheaper Polycrystaline panels, or


A 3.9 Kw/h system made of 16x 245W 15% efficient more expensive monocrystaline panels.


Or doesn't it actually matter, just that the 11.5% panels will be bigger?


I ask as I am concerned whether or not the higher efficiency panels will produce more power per panel than the lower efficiency panels for the same lighting conditions, and therefore potentially better value (if the price isn't disproportionately high!)


Also, if the panels are to the EU Standard for such, does it matter which are installed, but it's the Inverter and Installer that really needs that little extra cash spent on it?


Many thanks in anticipation for your help!


Tytalus
(Colchester, 45° off due-South roof)

The latter - both systems will generate a similar amount*, but the 11.5% panels will be bigger (and probably cheaper).

* There maybe differences in the actual annual KWh generated between the 2 types of panels. Some panels work better than others when it's really sunny while others work better than others when it's cloudy. I've got Yingli Panda panels which are supposed to be pretty good performers in cloudy weather, where as the Panasonic HITs are top performers when it's sunny.

The general key is to look at the overall system size that you can fit on your roof. If you can fit a 4 KWp system with standard sized panels then go for those. But in some cases the smaller - more expensive - panels make sense if you can get a much bigger system on your roof.

The only way to be sure is to get some quotes and do some maths

rightfoot_shifter

silverwhistle wrote: »

Apologies guys, but been on holiday in the Alps: thank gawd for the snow tyres. Can't seem to send PMs (probably me and tiredness). Anyway, last July paid just over £6k for 4kw, Owl monitor and Solar iboost for hot water. Near Portsmouth and company was Infinity from Fareham. Can't remember techy details at the moment but after drive across Italy and France in snow and rain very tired and I'll check later if anyone interested...

Thanks Silverwhistle, as I'm from Fareham myself the company you mention is an easy enquiry for me.:)

crucian

Hi,

We used a company called 247 solar based in Southampton,they were very professional and even moved and repaired some broken tiles.We have a small roof and used panasonic panels and solar edge micro inverters because of some shading on the west facing roof the majority of the panels are on a south facing angled roof our price was just under 7,500 for a 3.84 system,a bit expensive but I was impressed with their knowledge and there was no hard sell,the guys doing the quotes are the ones fitting the system.It took them 5 hours from start to finish including assisting in filling out the FIT forms and energy assessment.