genius energy free solar panels

Sterlingtimes

Hopefully, you didn't sign a confidentiality agreement prior to your training with Genius Energy. It sounds like old style double "glazing sales". Companies can charge any price provided that they do not misrepresent the product/service they are selling. The difficulty here would be selling a product with an adequate illustrative return on investment for the buyer where the selling price is so high.

Hussein

Firsttothesunbeds wrote: »

I went to the Genius Energy training as a "energy consultant". Half way through training I popped into the sales room for a chat with a couple of the old hands.

The information given to me shocked me. In training we where told we were providing an excellent service for a fair price and would get a decent commision. (100k plus, turns out even that is not correct, average is probably under 30k) In real terms we were to sell at twice the going rate (13k plus) and the price quoted to the client would be dependant upon what they could afford (wow) and what we could make their savings look like. ie the more you save the more you pay us.

I also became aware that the company used to be a lot bigger until they had a mass lay off over the summer. Went from about 35 in sales to only about 10.

The funny thing was they sent all the managers out and the sales director to push the sales and they didnt do very well. (Got a lot of laughs in the sales room about that)

Needless to say I walked out of the door as quickly as I could. But please be aware that even the sales team if they are new dont know the whole story, I only found out through chatting to the old hands. I was lucky, it only cost me a few days of my time.

Pump and dump is a phrase that I would use for the recruitment of the sales team at genius energy.

This is shocking not just for Genius Energy customers but for new sales people working for them. Do you have a copy of job advert from when you joined? If no one is getting money they say supposed to get can you take them to court over this?

Martinlus

GENIUS ENERGY - BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY!!

I´m a power engineer, and my experience with this company is that they will sell you a solar installation regardless of whether or not it will pay for itself in 20 or even 30 years. They will make all kinds of claims that their panels are super-efficient and will still operate at optimum efficiency even if they are in the shade of trees or on a north facing roof. RUBBISH! On top of all that, they´re not even the cheapest company to go with by a country mile!! They will offer you a “complete” system for your home, comprising PV Solar Panels, LED lighting, a mains voltage optimiser and a gas optimiser for your gas boiler (if you have a boiler). And they won’t give you a breakdown of the total price! It’s all or nothing! Total CR*P!

Now, I’ll tackle each of the systems they offer in turn:

PV SOLAR PANELS – if you have a south or south-ish facing roof with little or no shade, then they’re worth it, even with the very much reduce FIT from the government. But if like me you’re surrounded by trees taller than your roof to the South and only have a clear roof to the north then FORGET IT! At current FIT rates, it will take over 20 years to get your money back. Leave it in the bank! But if you do have a clear south facing roof, you can find much cheaper companies, so get at least three quotes. I got a second company in to quote me, and he was fair and honest by telling me my roof was not suitable and that it was not worth the expense!! More than can be said for Genius!

LED LIGHTING – Actually, I was surprised here. I already have CFL’s throughout my house, so I didn’t expect to see much of a saving. Genius said I would save hundreds though! NAH! I have about 70 CFL lamps in my house, and I worked out I’d save about £20 a year tops. Worth a shot if you can get them cheap on eBay or Amazon though. I recently paid about £1 per LED bulb from eBay, and they came a few days back, and so far, I’m quite pleased with the light output and colour temperature. Now, I couldn’t get a breakdown from Genius as to how much their LED’s were going to cost, but I can’t imagine it was going to be £1 per lamp!!

VOLTAGE OPTIMISERS – These have been proven NOT to work in domestic premises, although for certain commercial premises with lots of fluorescent lighting, then they are worth it. BUT NOT IN THE HOME! The idea is that if you have mains voltage on the high end of the permitted bandwidth, the optimiser drops your mains voltage to 220V and therefore most of your appliances will draw less current than if they were say operating on 250V, which is a common voltage if you live close to your local substation. And it is true that most of your appliances will draw less current – HOWEVER, all that means is things like kettles, tumble driers, irons, space heaters, etc, will all just take longer to do whatever it is they are doing. For instance, a kettle: it takes a finite amount of energy to boil a litre of water, so if your kettle operates on reduced voltage and draws less current, it will just take longer to boil and actually during that extended time, it is losing heat to the general ambient background anyway, so actually will use more energy! And the same goes for your tumble drier and room heaters. IT JUST DOESN’T WORK! I’m an electrical engineer - trust me!

GAS OPTIMISERS - This device sits between the gas supply and your boiler and monitors the return temperature of the water in your system and stops your boiler firing up “unnecessarily” when your thermostat calls for more heat, by starving the boiler of gas. If you have an old single output boiler, then it may be worth it, but again, you might want to get more quotes and talk to your boiler manufacture first! Genius told me that all boilers 5 years or newer do this automatically and that my nearly 7 year old boiler didn’t. I checked with my boiler manufacturer and guess what – my boiler already does this internally and the gas optimiser Genius wanted to fit would have actually caused my boiler to go into a fault mode and shut down!! GREAT!

So all in all, not a very good picture of a company that sells itself as trying to help you save money! My experience is that they just seem to want to sell their systems regardless of whether it’s actually good for you or not! I don’t usually bother writing reviews, but I feel so strongly that this company are out to fleece people I just had to say something! Looking at some of the reviews already here on MSE, it also looks like they are setting up bogus reviews from staff who join this forum just to counter negative reviews. I can’t prove this of course, but it certainly looks that way if you look at some of the counter reviews ‘people’ have put against anyone slamming them! And I’ve no doubt they’ll do the same for my review, you just watch!

The salesman that came to see me really pushed hard, a REAL HARD SELL! But I pretty much destroyed him with my electrical knowledge. He did say he’d get back to me on my various counter claims, but guess what? I never heard from him again! He knew he was onto a loser with me! Take my advice, get more than one quote! Use Genius if you wish, but get other quotes before you sign. And if Genius won’t break their quote down, forget them! How can you compare them with other PV Companies otherwise!

Martinlus

I am a power engineer and Voltage optimisers are proven NOT to work in domestic dwellings unless you have old fashioned light bulbs and then all your lights will just be dimmer!! Even modern CFL's will be a little dimmer! And gas optimisers are only any good on older single output boilers. FACT!

Martinlus

Nice! Good advice I shall use in future! Thank you.

Martinlus

That about ties in with my experience with them. I had already done the calculations for PV on my very far from adequate roof, and told them it wouldn't work. But they still came back with some outlandish claims of how much power they would generate despite the fact my south facing roof is in the shade of trees for most of the day!! Absolute rubbish!! Steer clear!

Martinlus

Actually they record everything anyway!! And the guy that came to me didn't tell until about 20 mins into our discussion!! They say they do it to protect you!! REALLY?? I would get other quotes. These guys tried to sell me a PV system which as an electrical engineer I knew would NOT be financially viable! I even told him that at the start of his visit, but he still came back later that week with absolutely outlandish output figures from PV that was in the shade the shade for most of the day! In my opinion, they must just make the figures up to make it seem like it's worthwhile! Don't fall for it! I had a second quote from a reputable local installer and he said not to waste my money. A rare honest Joe!!

zeupater

Martinlus wrote: »

GENIUS ENERGY - BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY!!

I´m a power engineer, and my experience ....

Hi

Welcome to the forum ... I think !! ....

Odd to see someone new with 5 consecutive posts on one thread forming some form of internalised conversation ... but at least the posts agree, so it must be a case of being closer to sanity than madness ....

HTH
Z

theboylard

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

Welcome to the forum ... I think !! ....

Odd to see someone new with 5 consecutive posts on one thread forming some form of internalised conversation ... but at least the posts agree, so it must be a case of being closer to sanity than madness ....

HTH
Z

I think Martin is responding to various posts about Genius Energy, but has not found the quote button to put it into context!!

Nice to see someone passionate about a subject :T

EricMears

theboylard wrote: »

I think Martin is responding to various posts about Genius Energy, but has not found the quote button to put it into context!!

Nice to see someone passionate about a subject

Those of us of a more suspicious turn of mind will suspect a trainee troll trying to build up his score