Solar PV Quote seems excessive

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Hi,

I'm looking to get Solar PV installed before 31 March to take advantage of the current FIT.

I live in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire half way between Stockport and Wilmslow. House is semi-detached with a hipped roof.

The house faces ESE (120 degrees) and the side roof faces SSW (210 degrees). I'm attaching photos to help.

First is the front of the house. Next shows the side (SSW) roof and the third shows the SSW roof taken from the West.







I've only had one quote so far (from a company recommended in Which? Local). They are quoting for a 3.7kWh system using square and triangular Trienergia COE-100MB and 200MB panels with a SolarEdge inverter.

The quote amounts to £9,654 made up as follows:-

Scaffolding - £689
Labour - £1,419.60 (28 man hours at £50.70/hr)
24 panels, inverter, cables and connections - £6,503.28
Electrician cost to connect inverter to main - £304.20
Cable, fittings, fixtures etc. - £278.32
VAT 5% - £459.72
TOTAL - £9,654.12

This seems much higher than the £6-7K I was anticipating. Appreciate some advice about this please.

The ridge tiles and other broken ones are going to be replaced in a week prior to the panels being installed.

tunnel

Seems expensive to me.


Your rooves look big enough to accommodate 4kWp of panels, any reason given for only a 3.7kWp quote?


You could possibly get 6 panels on the front, 4 on the side and another 6 on the back. 16 x 250W for 4kWp. Are you looking for something that is nice to look at and symmetrical?

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Hi Tunnel,

I've discounted the back of the house as it faces WNW (300 degrees) and would generate little or no power Oct-Feb. using 10rectangular panels of 250 watt would only generate 2.5Kwh for very little reduction in scaffold and labour cost.

I agree it seems expensive but I think they're using more panels not so much for aesthetics but to maximise solar capture on the two sides that get the most sun.

I think I'm having to pay more because of the shape of my roof. I will get more quotes but I'm acutely aware time is running out.

Martyn1981

Ageing_Stick_Insect wrote: »

Hi,

I'm looking to get Solar PV installed before 31 March to take advantage of the current FIT.

They are quoting for a 3.7kWh system using square and triangular Trienergia COE-100MB and 200MB panels with a SolarEdge inverter.

The quote amounts to £9,654 made up as follows:-

Hiya ASi, and what a co-incidence. I only spotted those panels last week, here's a post with some price links:

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Is it just me, or do those panels look a little odd:

http://www.trienergia.com/projects

Pottering away, as I do, I came across these triangular PV panels. Interesting.

Found a site selling them (I have no association to the site)

http://www.swithenbanks.co.uk/shop.php?c1=Solar%20Photovoltaic%20Equipment&c2=Solar%20Panels&c3=Trienergia

Neat idea.

Right, this gets a little tricky, but dividing the price (from the site I linked) by panel size in Wp, then multiplying by 250, gives a comparative cost of £219 for the triangles and £205 for the squares, compared to say £140 - £150 for other regular 250Wp panels on that site. So the system does cost more, but not horrific.

Following on from this, let's just assume (ignoring the fact that those are retail prices) that each 250Wp costs an extra £60, compared to regular panels. Then that adds, for a 4kWp install 16*£60 = £960.

This is highly unscientific, and the smaller panels will require more PO's (SolarEdge power optimisers), and presumably more fixings. Again, assume 26 panels (I've added 2 to bring it up to 4kWp) v's 16 panels, so 10 extra PO's @ about £40 each.

The AC side (inside the house), inverter, isolators, TGM, wiring etc shouldn't differ to any other install.

Perhaps such a system would come in around £1,500 more. So against a target of £6k, maybe £7.5k. But as I keep stressing, I'm really making a lot of assumptions/guesses here.

Apologies, long story short, I can't really see why this install (different as it is to most) should cost that much.

Mart.

Martyn1981

Ageing_Stick_Insect wrote: »

I think I'm having to pay more because of the shape of my roof. I will get more quotes but I'm acutely aware time is running out.

Ray, please, please, please don't rush because of the FiT degression. It's only 3.5% and doesn't affect the export nor leccy savings, so perhaps 2% overall. Best of luck beating the deadline, but if taking your time and missing it meant saving 2% on the overall cost, then you'd be no worse off.

[Edit: Nothing wrong with WNW (see mine and T's autosig) if done at the same time, to get a larger install, with a lower cost per kWp.]

Mart.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Hi Martin,

Thank you very much for those calculations and your views. I had another email from the company this morning and they're looking to put 9 rectangular and 3 triangular panels on the front with 6 of each type on the side.

That's a total of 15 rect and 9 tri panels and using the site you provided they work out at £3244.50 + VAT. The SolarEdge SE-3680 GBR is £677.74 + VAT making a rough total of £3,900. The company are quoting £6,500. The addition of connectors, cabling etc is hardly going to cost £2,600 so it's those prices that seem to be pushing the price up.

If I was to quote those prices back to the supplier perhaps it might make them think again.

Am I correct about FIT rates being 14.9p per unit before 1/4/14 and 14.38p afterwards? I agree it's not much and I shouldn't rush this decision because of it. But if I can get around £2K off I might go for it without other quotes because those triangular panels look ideal to maximise solar capture.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Gents,
This is the inverter I've been quoted for. http://www.swithenbanks.co.uk/Solar_Photovoltaic_Equipment/12858/Solar_Edge_3680W_1ph_Inverter_16A.html

The website states the following:-
THIS INVERTER HAS NO TRACKERS AND REQUIRES POWER OPTIMIZERS TO FUNCTION

What does this mean? Would my quote of £6,503 include power optimisers and trackers and if so where can I find the cost for these?

I'm trying to determine how this company have reached a price of £6503 for the panels, inverter, roof fitting kit, panel controllers, cabling, electrical connections etc.

Is a panel controller the same as a panel optimiser?

tunnel

Hi Ray,


We see it so many times on these boards, "does my quote look expensive", as Mart says, try not to worry about the FIT dropping, it is by 3.5% to roughly 14.38p.


Maybe better to get some other quotes too for comparison. If you post your rough location then other members with PV may offer their own installers details and more to the point who they'd recommend

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Hi Martin,

I agree. Whilst it would be nice to maximise the FIT rate it's only a small reduction and as quite a bit of money is involved I really should take my time and consider other quotes.

I live in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire.

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone in the south Manchester / north Cheshire area who had Solar pv installed and was happy with the price and fitting.

tunnel

Might be better to take your postcode off the site mate, my mistake for not reading your OP where you clearly gave your location...doh. Hopefully someone close by may be able to recommend someone.

Ageing_Stick_Insect

Done, thanks.