Project Solar Quote Advice

Petriix

I believe SE do make SEG payments, but it took them almost 12 months to install a smart meter for my BIL's system with no compensation at all for the exports prior to that. The 10% APR loan also had quite an impact on the ROI.

umz786

Hey guys

Thank you to everyone for your responses. I have since called them and received a proper quote!
So we are 30* degrees pitch, 5 degrees from South
Project solar are proposing installing 18 x 345w panels with an output of 6.21kW generating 5620kW per year. I have taken some screenshots from the quote to help on the solar panels as well as the battery. With this information, could I get an idea on how what kind of price range I should be looking for a reasonable quote?

Hexane

umz786 said:

Project solar are proposing installing 18 x 345w panels with an output of 6.21kW generating 5620kW per year.

I think you mean 5620kWh per year - it's worth getting the units right, and keeping them right, to avoid confusion down the line and avoid the wrong figure potentially ending up being misunderstood as something it's not.

(It's the equivalent of trying to work out whether a particular model of car would be a good purchase, and writing down in your notes "with the fuel efficiency and fuel tank size on this car, under motorway conditions I could drive 500mph on one tank of fuel." Easier with cars because everyone knows what you actually mean - tricky with home generation and storage solutions because you're sometimes not quite sure what you mean, even when the salesman isn't trying to pull the wool over your eyes.)

umz786 said:

I have taken some screenshots from the quote to help on the solar panels as well as the battery. With this information, could I get an idea on how what kind of price range I should be looking for a reasonable quote?

Taking a very rough guess, a 6.21kWp solar PV system with a rather undersized 3.68kW inverter (these people are still too lazy to do a DNO application I guess?) would normally be a cost of around £6000 fully installed. There's probably people would say they could get it for £5000. The 15 year inverter warranty looks nice.

Randomly google searching my way to this website https://www.solarguide.co.uk/solar-batteries#/ we can take a guess that the 5.8kWh battery they're including is worth about £3500. (Prices vary wildly even on that page, and again, others here would probably say they could get similar professionally installed for £2500 or £3000.)

And then I'll throw in £500 for the "Social Energy DRU" that they want you to have for whatever reasons they think that's a good idea.

So the all the equipment they're offering, fully installed and configured and working and certified, would normally cost around £10,000 altogether. Let's say including VAT.

But that doesn't deal with the issue already mentioned by Petriix - with your relatively low electricity usage for a detached house, there is a high likelihood that a battery system will never pay back its purchase cost and become profitable. Project Solar are selling you a battery system and other associated garbage because they want to take their quote into five figures, not because it's something that will be financially beneficial for you. And their "assumptions" about "accrued" "obtaining revenue", built into the supposed "savings" part of the quote, are not in any way guaranteed and neither you nor I, nor probably the salesman, understand what they really mean.

If you're happy to do it just for the environment and to have some nice technical toys to play with, and if you don't care that you are likely to make financial loss overall on the system and never make a profit from it, and if they'll do the system as listed for £9,999 then go for it. But even then, you might have more fun asking smaller local installers for quotes for similar systems anyway (with a DNO application so you can sell more back to the grid.)

If you want to stand a good chance of it being financially worthwhile within a reasonable timescale, then you should approach three different installers and ask for a quote for solar PV panels around 18 x 345W and a 5kW inverter and a DNO application and no battery. With a south-facing roof that will be a nice system, and a few years down the line you might be using it to charge a battery electric car too.

Petriix

I can't emphasise enough how much you should avoid this company. They tell you all sorts of things to get the sale done while the actual contract will show the real figures hidden in the dozens of pages of small print. They're squeezing as much money out of you as possible with no regard for the affordability or suitability of their proposal. My BIL has lost thousands which will never be recouped.

Martyn1981

Petriix said:

I can't emphasise enough how much you should avoid this company. They tell you all sorts of things to get the sale done while the actual contract will show the real figures hidden in the dozens of pages of small print. They're squeezing as much money out of you as possible with no regard for the affordability or suitability of their proposal. My BIL has lost thousands which will never be recouped.

100% agree. From all the nightmares and disasters reported on here, and thankfully many more that checked on here before going with them, they promise the earth verbally, but the written quotes contain none of the fabulous promises, especially those saying that the monthly income from the panels will cover monthly loan repayments.

Exiled_Tyke

Please please please, just stay well away from this company. These boards are full of horror stories about them.  You would be far better off asking for suggestions of reputable companies which operate in your area. 

umz786

Thank you for your advice everyone. Thankfully I've got a 14 day cooling off period so will call them tomorrow to cancel and get some other people in for quotes

jimjames

Good question Hexane, I'd assumed they were just using their rates to calculate but there may be more too it.

Looking more closely I'm curious what happens in year 3, why does the saving go down? 4000kWh sounds quite low for annual consumption, it would be interesting to know how accurate others see that to be.

Exiled_Tyke

umz786 said:

Thank you for your advice everyone. Thankfully I've got a 14 day cooling off period so will call them tomorrow to cancel and get some other people in for quotes

In which case do not enter into a conversation with them, just tell them you've decided you don't want it OR make up something extreme that proves there's no way you can afford it (or indeed afford any loan they might say they can help you with). 

umz786

Hexane said:

umz786 said:

Project solar are proposing installing 18 x 345w panels with an output of 6.21kW generating 5620kW per year.

I think you mean 5620kWh per year - it's worth getting the units right, and keeping them right, to avoid confusion down the line and avoid the wrong figure potentially ending up being misunderstood as something it's not.

(It's the equivalent of trying to work out whether a particular model of car would be a good purchase, and writing down in your notes "with the fuel efficiency and fuel tank size on this car, under motorway conditions I could drive 500mph on one tank of fuel." Easier with cars because everyone knows what you actually mean - tricky with home generation and storage solutions because you're sometimes not quite sure what you mean, even when the salesman isn't trying to pull the wool over your eyes.)

Thanks for your advice, I have double checked and this is a screenshot of the quote. Its got 5620kW. Should it be 5620kWh?