wrong solar panels.

pauliobee

Hi,
in march 2013 we thought we bought 12 x 333w solar panels from a company called project solar. Back in september 2016 we found that one of the panels were damaged so claimed on our insurance to replace the panel that has now been done. when they took the old panel off it was placed in our garden for the insurance company to pick up on an arranged date.. I looked at the model on the back on the panel and it doesn't match the model we were supposed to get and are in fact only 300w panels.. where do I stand on this as the company did not actually fit what we paid for in the first place?

Thanks
Paul

pauliobee

The MCS certificate says they are 333w panels and no i did not receive the serial numbers for the panels, In fact Sunpower did not know anything about the installation until we tried to get the broken panel replaced.
They have offered us a setlement figue of the FIT calculation but surely there would have been a price difference between the panels supplied and the panels erected. It was paid for on a credit card if that makes any difference.

Martyn1981

Your second post answered my question, which was did they mislead you or con you.

Sounds like a con, in the sense that they lied about the amount of PV being installed.

But, trying to get my head around this, if they are offering you a settlement for the lost FiT, then that's your loss - you paid more for more FiT (generation from a bigger system). So the compensation is for paying more.

If they gave you the extra money back, then you'd only have paid for the system (FiT) you have, so no lost FiT.

Does that make sense, you can only have one or the other.

Try taking the argument to the extreme, if you paid for a system and got nothing, then you are due the lost FiT, or your money back. But if they gave you both, you'd be getting the lost FiT, but would have paid nothing at all (after the refund).

I'm not defending the company, you've caught them red handed, and you should try to get as much off them as possible, and even end up ahead, not even. I'm just trying to think through what appears to be a double payment for the same thing.


But legally, with the extra protection and legal support from the credit card ...... go get em!

Exiled_Tyke

I agree with Martyn. The compensation should be 11% of Total FiT payments over the entire life of the Fit contract - which if you can get, as a settlement in one go should be very useful. In addition you could try to claim for extra free electricity you would have used - I'd certainly ask for it but would probably settle for any amount as its so difficult to estimate reliably.

EricMears

I take the view that it should be possible to have the 300W panels removed and replaced with 330W ones - either by the original contractor or (at their expense) by another. That would put the OP back to the position he should have been in for the rest of the FIT contract period. In addition he should also receive 10% of any FIT payments already claimed for the 300W panels.

pauliobee

big thanks for your reply's peeps, we have spoken to our CC company and they are taking it on. THey did increase the payment slightly but I still think we would be out of pocket.. If they had told us they were fitting different panels in the first instance we would have asked or a refund and gone with another company.. I think they knew this so the just tried it on.