From 4kW @ 10.2k to (hopefully) reasonable quotes!

tunnel

I really wish I knew how they worked out their quotes? Confused...you will be?
There's £13 difference between sharp polys and Canadian monos but they want £700 more on 16 panels and to confuse you more come out with more quotes.
Why not point them in the direction of the company I linked to so they know that you know the difference in price, may help you get the Canadians down to a reasonable price.

cool_techie

tunnel wrote: »

I really wish I knew how they worked out their quotes? Confused...you will be?
There's £13 difference between sharp polys and Canadian monos but they want £700 more on 16 panels and to confuse you more come out with more quotes.
Why not point them in the direction of the company I linked to so they know that you know the difference in price, may help you get the Canadians down to a reasonable price.

Thanks Tunnel. Yes, I will try. However, as I replied before, I think they already have the Sharp panels in their inventory (bought at a knocked down price). Hence the difference between that and Canadian.

Will definitely send them the link with prices.

Thanks & Regards,
S

Martyn1981

tunnel wrote: »

I really wish I knew how they worked out their quotes? Confused...you will be?
There's £13 difference between sharp polys and Canadian monos but they want £700 more on 16 panels and to confuse you more come out with more quotes.
Why not point them in the direction of the company I linked to so they know that you know the difference in price, may help you get the Canadians down to a reasonable price.

I can't work it out either, but I'd guess that their prices (their being any installer) depend on what panels their preferred supplier has, and what deals are available that day/week/month.

Remember, we are only seeing the retail prices, there may be all sorts of weirdness going on in the background.

I'm so nosey, I'd love to know the full story.

Mart.

tunnel

Maybe they did get the sharps at a knockdown price...but they work out(retail £700 difference) at £43.75 cheaper each than the Canadians. I really don't believe they've picked up the sharps at about £80/£90 each(retail) although I'd love to be proved wrong


If they've picked them up THAT cheap then what profit margin are they working on? And more to the point....how long before we see sub £4k for a 4kWp install? Getting good now!!

cool_techie

MSE community,

An update. Had my PV system fitted from supplier 3 @ cost of £4650/-

16 panels of Sharp Polycrystalline, with SMA 4000TL inverter, with Geo Solo II monitoring and iBoost.

The fitting took longer, since they had to change the layout from original planned (10 on the main roof - landscape from bottom 2, 2, 3 and 3 and 6 on garage roof as 2 rows of 3 portrait) to (10 on the main roof - Potrait from bottom 3, 4 and 3 in landscape at top. 6 on garage roof as 2 rows of 3 portrait.)

Slightly concerned that they have used the Sharp ND-R240A2 panels instead of the Sharp ND-R250A5, which was mentioned earlier.

The installer claims that the Shart Panels have a +5% variation on Power output and hence, each panel will actually go upto 252w.

A huge thanks to Martyn1981, tunnel, pw22 and the rest of the crew for patiently helping me out with their pearls of wisdom. You guys are legends!!!

Thanks & Regards,
CT

pw22

£4650 - that is a great price, especially with an iboost. As Tunnel says, I wonder how long before we see £4k for a 4kWp install!!

tunnel

Thanks for the update, glad to provide the bullets for the gun you used to rob the installer...lol


Now you're up and running pop over to the renewables thread where the rest of geeks hang out and post some readings, that way you'll get a good idea of how your system is performing.


Tunnel

Martyn1981

cool_techie wrote: »

MSE community,

An update. Had my PV system fitted from supplier 3 @ cost of £4650/-

Slightly concerned that they have used the Sharp ND-R240A2 panels instead of the Sharp ND-R250A5, which was mentioned earlier.

Thanks & Regards,
CT

That is a simply staggering price. Well done. Slight improvement from post #1 I'd say!

Your concerns are justified, technically you got a little less than specified. Most panels these days have positive tolerances. They tended in the past to be +/- figures, now they tend to be 0 to +%, so the installer is telling the truth that they may perform better, but it would have been nicer to have 250Wp panels with a 0 to 5% tolerance.

Given the price, with an iBoost installed too, you certainly got a great deal either way. :T

Mart.

cool_techie

Martyn,

From your sigi, i notice that you have two PV systems - Cardiff. 5.58 kWp PV systems (2.4 ESE & 1.18 ESE & 2.0 WNW) -

Tunnel,
Believe you have 3 systems - 2 kWp SEbE , 2kWp SSW & 2.5kWp NWbW.....in sunny North Derbyshire -?

So SolarGurus,

How does the FiT process for that work please? Are these classed as commercial and get the lower rate?

Thanks & Regards,
CT

Martyn1981

cool_techie wrote: »

Martyn,

From your sigi, i notice that you have two PV systems - Cardiff. 5.58 kWp PV systems (2.4 ESE & 1.18 ESE & 2.0 WNW) -

Tunnel,
Believe you have 3 systems - 2 kWp SEbE , 2kWp SSW & 2.5kWp NWbW.....in sunny North Derbyshire -?

So SolarGurus,

How does the FiT process for that work please? Are these classed as commercial and get the lower rate?

Thanks & Regards,
CT

Hiya CT.

My first two systems were installed together, but have separate inverters for various reasons. So I started with a 3.58kWp system, which got me the upto 4kWp FiT rate.

I then added the 2kWp extension a year later. The extension took the total to 5.58kWp, so the whole extension got the 4-10kWp FiT rate, as the FiT rate depends on the total of your system. [Edit: my original system, and therefore it's FiT rate wasn't affected.]

Had I started with a 4.01kWp system, then all of it would have got the lower FiT rate.

As those two FiT rates only differ by 10%, it doesn't matter so much these days, but logically you wouldn't want to install 4.01kWp!

There is some info on extensions in section 10 of the PV FAQs.

Mart.