Help on choosing a system !!

superflyguy1971

Bobinog1972 wrote: »

was it the company that swayed it for you in the end or the system? I'm wondering whether I ought to get a few more quotes as with the ASHP I just knew who I wanted to be with and fortunately they gave me a range of systems and prices to choose from. Perhaps if I'm finding the decision difficult the companies don't quite fit.

It was a strange thought process to be honest. I started off liking particular companies and beating them up on price for different solar options. The more I spoke to my favourite 3 companies the more I started particularly wanting solaredge and 'known brand' panels. This made it easier to just focus on the companies themselves.

It was interesting in the end that it was 3 local companies that I liked best. I researched each company on the web using companycheck.co.uk plus companies house and searching for both positive and negative reviews online. I then asked my favourite 2 companies to provide reference numbers and called 3 references from each company after checking out the locations on google (or by car if too new for google). I made sure that I spoke to a fairly new installation as well as an older one in each case.

I felt I would be getting the best combination of technology and service from my final company and so far I'm not dissappointed. The installation was really neat, everything went where I wanted it to and looks good as well as them pointing out a few issues with tiling, ridge tiles, felt and electricals which they sorted for free.

The scaffolding is still up but I know that was subcontracted and they warned me it would be a few days before it was cleared. I also think it's wise to allow the system to bed in just in case they need to go on the roof again.

If you have the time and the patience I'd say that more quotes won't hurt. But perhaps you can cut the wheat from the chaff. There are a few big companies out there with bad or a mixed bag of reviews personally I'd avoid them straight away. Then I know each company has to start somewhere but I discounted all those who haven't already filed at least one company accounts.

My final 3 companies all had come from electrical/building roots, others came from double glazing backgrounds which put me off slightly in terms of knowledge brought to the table as I got the feeling that they contract out either/both of the roofing and electrical elements which could lead to a passing the blame culture if anything goes wrong later on.

Good luck and keep us up to date with progress.

Here's my outputs so far:

Date Energy (Wh) Comments
13 Oct 1,655 Weather truly awful, miserable rain and dark all day
14 Oct 4,962 Cloudy all day, some rain
15 Oct 12,942 Mostly cloudy, some sunny spells