Pigeons nesting under my panels

2nd_time_buyer

The mesh itself will be less than £200 for a typical job. It will take on the region of 2-3 hours for one person to fit with the scaffolding up.

So it should add no more than £400 to the job at point of install. They may quote you more but there is definitely room to haggle.

mickyduck55

I would strongly advise having it installed at the same time as the panels.. easy job and easy access to the roof at that time...
Retrofitting is still not difficult but you may incur extra costs. 

Exterminator

2nd_time_buyer said:

The mesh itself will be less than £200 for a typical job. It will take on the region of 2-3 hours for one person to fit with the scaffolding up.

So it should add no more than £400 to the job at point of install. They may quote you more but there is definitely room to haggle.

I'd happily do it for £400 at time of install!
Scaffolding up with no pigeons or nests to remove and no blocked gutters to clear. Win Win.

Verdigris

Victorthe2nd said:

This thread makes me start to wonder if I should bother with fitting panels! But, perhaps any new fittings can now come with some sort of protection against nesting birds gaining access to the space?

The alternative to mesh is to have an in-roof installation, so panels are more-or-less flush with the surrounding roof. The downsides are the additional cost and a slight loss of efficiency because the panels tend to get hotter.

Hexane

Victorthe2nd said:

This thread makes me start to wonder if I should bother with fitting panels! But, perhaps any new fittings can now come with some sort of protection against nesting birds gaining access to the space?

Yes exactly, my installer charged me £200 for anti-pigeon mesh and they fitted it for free because it was done at the time of install. Now several years in and 100% effective so far.

Solarchaser

As a follow up for my particular situation. 
Trusted builder came back and we took the panels off one by one, turned out one string went dead short because the installers had not tightened the back of the mc4 connectors and water had gotten in, this combined with the fact of very large piles of pigeon poo and a few dead ones was leading to my issues.
Removed all panels and connected them together after replacing every mc4 connector and all is good.
Still need to put them back on the roof though, ran out of time.

Tried washing the piles of crud off the rood only to totally block my gutters, which trusted builder is coming back to resolve when refitting panels.

So yeah definitely get the mesh fitted at install.

Verdigris

Or go for an in-roof installation.

Solarchaser

In roof certainly looks better.
But due to lack of airflow to cool the panels, it's not as efficient. 
I prefer go over show.
Or performance over looks

Verdigris

Solarchaser said:

In roof certainly looks better.
But due to lack of airflow to cool the panels, it's not as efficient. 
I prefer go over show.
Or performance over looks

I have to say I tend to agree, although panels are cheap, so adding a couple of extra would make up for the small performance loss.

Solarchaser

Yeah I can get on board with that.