Official MSE Free Solar Panel guide discussion

Elahermster

I had a company rep from Project Solar visit yesterday.  I have been quoted £11,000 for five panels to go on south east facing roof.  With battery , inverter etc.  Not sure whether to go through with this.  No paperwork left with me, signed something on an ipad.  Doe anybody know Project Solar?

Gerry1

Elahermster said:

Doe anybody know Project Solar?

I never trust Trustpilot, but it's another example where the reviews are highly polarised. That often tells its own story.  I suspect the one star reviews are genuine whereas many of the five star ones look fake.  I'm no expert on solar, but £11k seems remarkably expensive these days, and signing "something on an iPad" with no paperwork is extremely unwise.

Neil49

Simply signing something on an ipad was very unwise and could have committed you to a contract with them. 

I suggest that you find out what you signed ASAP and use any option of a cooling off period to escape from it. 

UnclaimedEnergy

Project Solar are one of the main installers in the UK instead of one of those generic cowboy companies that just try and screw you over completely.

£11k does seem a lot, however you are also getting a battery installed with that which probably makes up half of the cost.

If the cost is worth it depends on the size of the panels, historically panels have been 0.25kW each, making 5 panels only 1.25kW capacity which is really small and definitely not worth that amount. For £11k i reckon you should be expecting something around 4kW of capacity.

The main thing that Project Solar does that can be classed as 'miss-selling' is overstating how much money you'll save.

Their savings are all based around the majority of the energy being either used or stored and historically quoted it based on someone being at home all day without battery storage.

If you're at home during the day and use a lot of electricity, then it could be worth it. However if you're seriously considering it then try to get quotes from other installers to get a variaty.

Just don't sign anything until you're 100% happy to go ahead with it.

Dale_UK

does anyone have a guide on DIY solar panel installation? I am tempted to buy a 3.4kw setup via eBay and have a go myself

QrizB

Dale_UK said:

does anyone have a guide on DIY solar panel installation? I am tempted to buy a 3.4kw setup via eBay and have a go myself

Are you a certified electrician? At least in England you need to be one for Part P Building Regs compliance.

If you *are* a certified electrician you should find installing solar panels fairly straightforward;  just follow the MCS Guide and the Wiring Regs.

Katebero1

Hi, we have solar panels and ev cars. You cannot have a feed in tarriff and off peak electricity for charging the cars, well not with Octopus. So if I wanted to save money now, I would purchase 10kw batteries and charge off peak and use an invertor to use the electricity during the day. It means the average house uses 12kwh per day. Even after loss from exporting, your current use at today's prices would be £1-£1.50. cheaper installation than solar panels, you can still keep cheap electric to run washing machine, dishwasher and charge cars?

QrizB

Katebero1 said:

Hi, we have solar panels and ev cars. You cannot have a feed in tarriff and off peak electricity for charging the cars, well not with Octopus.

Yes you can, I have a FIT and get my electricity on Octopus Go.

tteedd

I have a standard gas boiler at present for heating and hot water with immersion back up.

If I have a solar system fitted I will clearly use the immersion and turn off the water heating.

But can I improve things further by heating up the water in the heating system in the winter rather than selling it to the energy company?

Alnat1

On many days in winter you'll get very little solar, 1-2kWh, not enough to be heating much water.

I had a solar/battery system fitted in March and we still use the gas boiler to heat some hot water each day. We have cut down how long we heat the tank for as we realised that we don't actually require that much hot water. 40 minutes uses less than 4kWh of gas and gives enough hot water for 2 showers, hubby's shave and a bit left over. We also reduced the water temp to 50C. Can always manually switch it on for 15 mins if we want a bath. We do have a dishwasher but could boil a kettle to wash up if we didn't and the tap water wasn't hot enough.

We make more on the exported solar (Octopus Outgoing Agile) per kWh than the gas costs. Gas for us is 7.28p/kWh and we average around 15p/kWh credit from Agile.

Many on here do use solar diverters for heating water, it's weighing up whether the costs/savings would be worth it for your household, depending how much hot water you really need.