Help with my 3 kw solar panel quote please

Julie-H_3

Martyn,
The prices are all pretty similar, with the Yingli system being £150 cheaper using 250w panels. We are swaying towards the Sunrise panels as we prefer the black surround as opposed to the silver frames of the Yingli and Phono Solar (I want them to look good too lol).
I dont mind paying £150 extra if we are getting a 10 year workmanship warranty which is guaranteed by insurance, as opposed to a 5 year one.

shafeeq

Julie-H

The reason I decided against the Sunrise was because The 2 other company I used for quote have not come across the panels and also from this forum whoever contributed to this thread have not come across Sunrise Panel.

I don't think price was my consideration unless it is a big difference in price.

Out of interest what quotes are you getting for a 4kwp system and which Inverter are you going to use.

Best wishes
Shafeeq

Julie-H_3

We have been quoted £6399 + vat for 16 x Sunrise 250w Panels with an Aurora PVI 3.6 inverter.
The reason why we initially looked at Sunrise was because our accountant had a 4.00kWp system installed with these panels and his system is outperforming what was quoted, and they look great on his roof with the black surround.

shafeeq

Hi Julie-H

Thanks. I was quoted for 12 sunrise 250 panels and aurora inverter (not sure which one) Since I din't go ahead didn't ask. The cost including vat was £5399 so ur getting 4kwp for £1319 more.

Hope it all works out
Shafeeq

Martyn1981

Julie-H wrote: »

Martyn,
The prices are all pretty similar, with the Yingli system being £150 cheaper using 250w panels. We are swaying towards the Sunrise panels as we prefer the black surround as opposed to the silver frames of the Yingli and Phono Solar (I want them to look good too lol).
I dont mind paying £150 extra if we are getting a 10 year workmanship warranty which is guaranteed by insurance, as opposed to a 5 year one.

Hiya Julie, as I said to Shafeeq a while back, in 10 years time we'll be able to advise you on the right panels and inverter, till then there will be an element of heart and gut feeling.

If you're happy with the price and get a better warranty then the black panels sound nice. I've got silver frames, but given the choice I'd probably go with the black finish.

You mentioned your accountants system overperforming. The salesmen are only allowed to quote against a set performance figure, based on Sheffield. This prevents them misleading you. Depending on where you are in the country, elevation, and local climate your system performance can be a little bit different.

Have a look at the FAQ thread and try to work through the PVGIS site. Ideally, switch it to 'climate' from 'classic' (can only be done once a location has been chosen, and watch out for it switching back occasionally) this will give a very good breakdown of estimated monthly generation. If it does seem too tricky, just post your approximate details on here, and I'll run it through for you.

Mart.

Julie-H_3

Thanks Shafeeq and Martyn for your help. I have been doing some research this afternoon and found out there is a company in Germany who do independent tests on over 130 different panels and release all the information called a Photon Test.
Unfortunately I am unable to add the link as I am a new member, though it compares the yields and performance ratios of the different panels.
Unfortunately Phono Solar are not in the list, but Sunrise and Yingli are - with Sunrise in the top 5 for both yield and performance for their panel.

The Sunrise stats are:-
Performance Ratio of 99.9% and a yield of 31.5
The Yingli Panda stats are:-
Performance Ratio of 95.4% and a yield of 30.1

shafeeq

Hi all

Just to confirm I decided to go with Company C even though they were £106 more expensive. My reasoning behind this was because

1) Their offer was original offer awhile company B only lowered their offer when found out they were expensive. This only happend because of Company C without their offer Company B would not have reduce the offer, I should be only fair to Company C

2) Company C did my next door panels, since my roof and next door is Rosemary tiles so they shouldn't have an issue.

So I am going for 3 kwp system using 12 X JingLi Panda series 250 panels with SMA 3000TL Inverter. I am not sure if it's the Normal dual or the one with Reactive Power control. Total cost £5,684.91

They should confirm tomorrow for EPC and they are hoping to start the Job Early next week. So hoping for the best.

Mart. Thanks for your advice.

I did feel sorry for Company B, but wrote a long email stating my reasons for not selecting them.

Best wishes
Shafeeq

Martyn1981

shafeeq wrote: »

Hi all

Just to confirm I decided to go with Company C even though they were £106 more expensive. My reasoning behind this was because

1) Their offer was original offer awhile company B only lowered their offer when found out they were expensive. This only happend because of Company C without their offer Company B would not have reduce the offer, I should be only fair to Company C

They should confirm tomorrow for EPC and they are hoping to start the Job Early next week. So hoping for the best.

Best wishes
Shafeeq

Hi Shafeeq, glad you got there, I think you're being very fair to the company. Good reasons to go for it.

Last year I was going with YingLi and researched 'the hell out of them', but at the very last moment went for Sharps as I was able to bring the install forward, and that's what they had. All that research for nothing! Been trying to find the bit that 'calmed me down' regarding this unknown Chinese company. Here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yingli

"The company held 27% of the California market in 2009, the largest United States market.[5] This performance contrasts with the 10% share held by Suntech, another Chinese manufacturer, and the 16% position of all American companies combined."

Whilst it really could mean nothing, I took heart from the fact that the Californians are a little ahead of us, and YingLi were the most popular. Fingers crossed they work well too.

Early June install will be great, you'll get the Summer generation, and also get to see how generation runs up to the solstice, then starts to gently slide back down after a month.

Hope it all goes well, and don't forget to post some numbers on the generation thread.

Mart.

Martyn1981

Julie you are a mind reader, I was going to post to you, suggesting you PM that link, as I've done some googling but couldn't find it.

What do I find, you've already PM'd it. Thanks very helpful:-

http://www.photon.info/upload/YM_TestInfo_EN_972.pdf

Now for some quiet anorak time!

Did you have a go at PVGIS, did it help, or confuse you?

Mart.

Julie-H_3

Really pleased you have got yourself sorted. I wish you all the best with your installation - hoping to confirm ours tomorrow