Official MSE Free Solar Panel guide discussion

Demanufactured

Ashadegreener are a complete waste of time.

We were rejected despite the initial visit, telephone assessor and the visiting assessor saying our property looked absolutely perfect. Fully south facing roof, good sized flat area, no obstructions to daylight.

Apparently, their final decision was that they couldn't offer us an installation because "there is shading to large trees to the south."

Edit: apparently as a new user I can't post a link to the image, so copy & paste: i.imgur.com/BPhQRT5.jpg

Oh yes, those trees way off in the distance of our directly south facing property. Those trees that must cast shadows well over 900ft long when the sun is so low in the sky it is perpetual sunset even at midday.

Try to raise this with them? Contrary to their representatives post earlier in this htread, they do NOT provide you with a telephone number at any point. There are no contact details on any of their literature aside from the website address. Heck, even their letterhead has no address, telephone number, email address or even the courtesy of a named representative - just "the customer relations team". Literally the only way I found to contact them was the enquiries box on their contact page. And I'm sure based on others' experiences it'll be a cold day in hell before I hear anything back.

Utter cobblers.

John.Barsby

Hi Everybody I'm a solar panel installer, We try our best to explain things in plain english to our customers as best as we can and make sure they can make an informed decission. We sometimes loose business to the man in a suit with a breifcase that has the simple "best" solution who will stay until a contract is signed.
People spend a lot of money on Solar PV and need to do their homework to avoid being ripped off or having an expensive ornament on their roofs.
The design and placement of Solar Panels could shave years off the payback period in a real life situation. The more panels you can get on your roof the quicker the payback will be so for a little extra money going from a 2kw system to a 4kw sytem you can nearly half the payback time.

As for A Shade Greener and Free solar panels its not a con as you are getting something for almost nothing by letting them use a space on your roof that your not using anyway. So regardless of the length of the agreement I wouldnt considder it a con and the only problem you may have is when its time to sell etc.

Buying your own Solar Panel system is by far the best way to go as without the Governments Feed In Tariff CASH incentive (which you dont get with the free ones) its almost a waste of time unless your in all day to use the free electricity generated.

We have some good solar info on our website... (cant install links so just Google Jb Electrical Mansfield)

Cardew

John.Barsby wrote: »

We have some good solar info on our website... (cant install links so just Google SPAM SPAM SPAM

You are not allowed to promote your own company on MSE.

Incidentally I take issue with this statement from your website.

With over 10% APR return on investment potential a Solar investment is better than money in a saving's account.

If I invest £5,000 in a savings account at 10% after 1 year my investment is worth £5,500. @ 2% it is worth £5,100.

'Invest' £5000 in solar panels and if that saves you £500, you have that £500 and some panels on your roof.

It is not until your income/savings from the panels equals the £5000 + compounded interest that you show a profit.

John.Barsby

Cardew wrote: »

You are not allowed to promote your own company on MSE.

Incidentally I take issue with this statement from your website.



If I invest £5,000 in a savings account at 10% after 1 year my investment is worth £5,500. @ 2% it is worth £5,100.

'Invest' £5000 in solar panels and if that saves you £500, you have that £500 and some panels on your roof.

It is not until your income/savings from the panels equals the £5000 + compounded interest that you show a profit.

Cardew - Firstly let me apologise for breaking the forum rules I will try to make sure not to in future.

Secondly - I'd like to think that we are good installers that look after our customers. Our customers are very local as we are not a big company and only install locally so would not benefit much from advertising on this forum.

I have been reading comments about solar on a few forums and Facebook for a while , some of the stories and things people are being told are ridiculous.

I'd like to think that people in these forums might like to hear from an installer as we have much information to share like actual performance figures from systems we have installed etc.

If there is inaccurate information on my website then I will look into getting it sorted (a quiet word would of done). I think you seemed to of made it a personal mission of yours to make me and my business look bad by picking fault with my website.

Like I said I have lots to share with the forum but none constructive negative feedback puts not only me off posting again but probably others who were thinking of posting too.

I hope my next post is better received as admittedly I'm not perfect.

jonmknight

Thanks for starting this thread. Really useful reading & I'm glad I did..

We're in the process of buying a new house (completion date in 2 weeks) and among the first things I was going to check out was solar pannel installation.

Unfortunately, we don't quite have the capital to purchase outright, so have been looking at the Free installers (A Shade Greener etc etc) that operate in the area.

Whilst we intend for this house to be our 'forever home' I'm really discoraged to hear stories still (4+ years on since these free schemes came about) that mortgage lenders just don't want the hassle of dealing with houses with free pannels fitted. Free solar pannels have become so mainstream thesedays I thought that this far down the line lenders would be a bit more accomodating.

Q1: Has *anyone* had sucess selling their house with these free pannels fitted?

Q2: For the paid-outright solar panels (privately fitted) - The Govt's feed-in scheme - exactly how solid is this 20 year promise? I've been onto the EnergySavingTrust website and can see that's it's definately worthwhile saving up for a private install based on today's Govt's payments... so long as they commit to this...

John.Barsby

beverk wrote: »

MY PLANET
This is a sorry tale, I thought I'd got a great deal, a 4Kw 12x327panel system with immersion booster switch for £6 K and all was going well the EPC survey went ahead ..all ok with that and an installation date set but then...
Quote from a complaint to My Planet customer services, I have to tell you all about..
"I should have had a system ( 12 panels @327w etc).. installed today at 10.30 am start arranged but no one has turned up.
I was rang yesterday by Mr Paul B (your rep)who said that your company head office had been in touch with him and couldn't supply the 327w panels and that you wanted to substitute lower rated panels and a new contract drawn up and sent to me. I stated that this was unacceptable to me and could I speak to his superior. A person called Mark subsequently rang me and stated that your company wouldn't supply that panel (327w) at the price agreed and that the representative had made an error ( even though he had checked with his manager
that the price was alright before he offered it ). Mark went further to say that he would redraw the contract and give another £500 off the lower rated panel system 2.5Kw or it would be an extra £2000 for the contracted system specified.
I stated that this was also unacceptable and I expected you (My Planet) to stand by the signed existing and fully paid for contact.A cheque for £6000 was given to Mr Beale when the agreement was signed and was cashed by My Planet. I
also said that all his proposals to alter the contract and why be put in writing."
This was a couple of weeks ago since then I have involved HIES, a trade organisation which offers mediation and a Ombudsman service. Although they broke the contract HIES accept that is was a genuine error by the representative and and that my options were to ask for my money back or take it to Ombudsman service which he said would take months to get my money back.I opted for contract cancellation and money back.
Since then the MD and his wife have been on holiday and the lady in accounts is off till next week and no one else can write cheques .Next they say its in the post or the computer is broke or the pen has ran out of ink.
Has any else used HIES to mediate or this Ombudsman, My Planet seem to be giving them the runaround .I know I was stupid but it all seemed so good.
HAS THIS HAPPENED TO ANYONE ELSE?

Hi,

I have fitted these panels myself and we have charged £7500 for a fully installed system without any immersion controller. It seems they have given you an incorrect price by mistake as these panels are very expensive compared to say 250w standard panels.

It's good that you've got your money back as they would of never fitted it at that price.

tigerlee

Hi we have received a few quotes from a few companies and I am wondering if anyone can give some advice please? Which quote would you go for?
Company: Maw-green.
1). 16 solar world panels + Solis inverter. £6385
2). 14 seraphim panels + Solis inverter. £5795
or with Enphase micro inverter
1). 16 solar world panels + Enphase micro inverter. £7520
2). 14 seraphim + Enphase micro inverter. £6935.

Company: EEC
1). 14 seraphim panels+ Tranergy inverter £6250
2). 15 Suntechpanels +tranergy inverter £5850

Company: Scottish solar
1). 16 8.33 gallium panels + ABB/ Power one Aurora inverter £5800

Any help will really be appreciated! Thank you very much!

EricDeeson

Thanks for the tip - I followed the link and found the latest version is actually June 2015: just what I wanted!

This is a brilliant technology (says he after a fortnight since installation) - I hope the forum takes off again....

Meanwhile I have a question - see my next posting.

Cheers - Eric

EricDeeson

Last month Tesla announced high capacity battery packs for the home - and today Mercedes-Benz have done the same.

They'd be great for users of solar (and wind) power, but seem dramatically costly - "The two versions of the Tesla Powerwall – a 7kWh and a larger 10kWh unit – cost $3,000 (£1,975) and $3,500 (£2,300) respectively. " (Guardian 7 May)

(a) Can anyone calculate in what circumstances the larger one would be worth buying for one's home (the Guardian says Tesla have sold tens of thousands already in the first few days)?

(b) Are 7 and 10 kWh typical electric car battery capacities (electric cars being where the domestic units have derived from)?

All the best - Eric

Martyn1981

Hiya Eric. This is simply a massive subject. The two batteries are different, one for occasional power cuts and low cycling, the other for daily use. You'd also need a very clever inverter to 'take' the energy back out, and know when to do so.

TBH I'm fascinated by the subject, but it'll be a few years at the very least before these may be economical for some UK domestic use. They are borderline economic in high sunshine/high leccy price areas now such as Australia and Hawaii. Germany has been subsidising the rollout of storage for a year or two.

You'll find more info on this thread:

Tesla to unveil home storage batteries

Probably a topic you want to keep dipping back into every so often but don't expect too much till later in the decade.

Mart.