Project Solar Quote Advice 22 January 2021 at 8:12PM in Green & ethical MoneySaving 26 replies 701 views

umz786

Hey Guys

I was scrolling through facebook when I came across an ad from Project Solar. I just had a rep come around this evening and gave me a quote for £12.9k. Weve got a detached house and the rep said we could get the maximum number of panels allowed on there (generating 5.6kwp?). She estimated we would generate £65 worth of leccy a month and with out current bill for £45 we would be saving £20. I have attached a few screenshots that was emailed to me detailing the quote in more detail. This is the first quote I have had in 15 years. Its only by chance. It seemed attractive to me at first but after reading MSE, it seems like I can do much better! I have read through the PV faqs as well.





Any advice appreciated, thanks in advance!

ASavvyBuyer

That price looks to be about double what it should be for that size of system.

Coastalwatch

Looks like they've also assumed an annual inflation rate of around 4.5% which rather gilds the lilly somewhat. Suggest you work out yourself the current annual saving based on a saving of 50% of existing consumption then divide into the capital investment without assuming any annual inflation to give a more realistic return on investment.

There appears little detail with the quotation, ie number, output and cost of each panel. Type of Inverter, lengths of guarantees etc, is shading an issue? 

Agree with ASB above, its at least double recently agreed figures elsewhere.

Exiled_Tyke

Why are we even discussing this outfit.  Just stay well away and don't give them any publicity.  

Petriix

Well done for coming here to ask. The price is far too high and you will likely not see anything like those returns. If you are interested in solar PV then get some quotes from a range of installers, avoiding the pushy salesmen. You should be paying around £5,000 for 5.6kWp system. A battery will almost certainly not benefit you.

Hexane

Coastalwatch said:

Suggest you work out yourself the current annual saving based on a saving of 50% of existing consumption then divide into the capital investment without assuming any annual inflation to give a more realistic return on investment. 

On that basis, the quoted system will pay for its own cost in approximately 43 years. From there on, it's all profit. 

Martyn1981

Exiled_Tyke said:

Why are we even discussing this outfit.  Just stay well away and don't give them any publicity.  

Exactly what Exiled Tyke says. If you Google them "+ money saving expert" you should get hits on loads of threads on here explaining why you shouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

ASavvyBuyer

As Coastalwatch says, that inflation rate for electricity costs is a lot higher than the average rate, especially with more renewable energy coming on-line at a lower cost than other fossil fuel or nuclear generation.

Also, you can get a much lower average p/kWh, by changing to a tariff like Octopus Go, Go Faster or Agile. For example, many people, including ourselves, are achieving average rates of less than 10p/kWh for all our imported electricity.

jimjames

I found exactly the same trick with inflation rates when getting quotes back in 2011 for my solar system. The salesman didnt even realise that he was claiming electricity would potentially be costing 50% of takehome wages after 25 years if you actually considered what the numbers he was quoting would mean.

Hexane

jimjames said:

I found exactly the same trick with inflation rates when getting quotes back in 2011 for my solar system. The salesman didnt even realise that he was claiming electricity would potentially be costing 50% of takehome wages after 25 years if you actually considered what the numbers he was quoting would mean.

Bizarrely, when I got a quote for a solar thermal system in the late 90's, the salesman did make clear that he was claiming gas would potentially be costing 50% of takehome wages after 25 years - and very nearly convinced me that no-one could possibly turn down the system since the risk of having to pay that much for gas just had to be avoided somehow! He very nearly made a sale - after a sales pitch lasting five to six hours which I don't think he had planned for, very determined fellow he was - but I narrowly managed to retain my sanity and get him out the door just before I cracked.

Hexane

I can't wrap my head round this at all. Does the system include a battery? Do the terms of the deal mean that you can't sell your surplus electricity under the Smart Export Guarantee, it becomes the property of this "Social Energy Supply LTD" instead? What happens if the assumption that benefits "are accrued by Social Energy (on the Customer's Behalf)" turn out not to be correct, for example if they don't make the money for you from Firm Frequency Response that the quote assumes they will? What will you do about that? Just write it off?

We've got frequency response trial equipment in our home connected to our grid supply and our solar PV generation equipment. But I don't foresee any consumers making a steady and significant income stream from such services for quite some time.