Solar PV quotes - could you sense-check and advise on Sofar vs Growatt

Officer_Dibble

We used Light Renewables in Maidstone. There's been some discussion about them here previously, which I hadn't found before deciding to use them. On balance, I'm still fine about deciding to go with them - their prices are good, they got the installation done far faster than I'd expected and it's all working nicely.

The downside - after their original look at the roof on Google Earth they sent the electrician (I didn't know that at the time) to do the site survey, and he agreed that there was space on the main bit of roof for 12 panels (which I'd expressed doubts about). As soon as the roofers turned up, they could see that there wasn't. Fortunately we had an extra bit of South facing roof they could use as overflow, but still not ideal, and even 10 panels are rather squashed on. Double check any claims they make about what they can fit carefully! They managed to blow up the central heating controller when doing the electrical work. To be fair, they did warn about turning off electrical stuff first and that was one thing I'd overlooked, and to be equally fair the original installation was shoddy plumber style electrical work and my replacement Hive wiring is far superior! Don't really feel I've got any comeback on that one. They also installed a 3.6kW inverter instead of 4kW - doesn't seem to be a massive deal, but it would be nice to be told!  Then there's the paperwork...it's taken a year or more for some people round these parts. Hopefully they've improved now, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm expecting to lose a couple of hundred pounds in SEG payments I could have had, but their quote was so much better that it's not the end of the world. Just annoying.

tomkaier

Yeah I thought it might have been your nickname that I came across when looking up Light Renewables before. The headache associated with obtaining the relevant paperwork might easily frustrate me enough to regret the initial investment with them, so I'm in two minds about this...knowing that you're not an isolated case!

Officer_Dibble

Your VAT savings will cover a good few months of SEG payments!

1961Nick

It sounds as if anyone using Light Renewables in Maidstone should retain 10% of the invoice value subject to receiving the paperwork.

Solarchaser

Let me tell you a wee story from 2019.
I liked the look of the sph3600 growatt inverter.
Max 3.6kw output, but capable of 6600w of solar input.
Ideal for me, as I need not much solar in the summer really, but would be grateful for more in the winter, so an oversized array /undersized inverter sounds perfect for max generation in the winter.

I bought the sph3600 and seperately installed 6600w of solar panels to plwer it, and for the next few months dealt with growatt through protracted discussions of why it wouldn't work right.
Eventually they decided it needed a firmware update, which seemed to break it in new ways.

I also had a sofar me3000sp in my house connected to my existing 5 year old solar system, the idea being two battery systems would work together to cover the high load of multiple white goods in the house.

Problem was the sofar was quick to respond to power fluctuations/demands and the growatt really really wasn't,  it was bloody woeful in comparison. 
It really didn't do anything battery wise well, and on high solar days would output over 5kw... from a supposed max 3.6, which isn't great when your wiring is sized for 4kw max.

After 6 months and threats of court, growatt finally refunded me.
I'd strongly advise to avoid, id go sofar every time as its a far better system in terms of response and load balancing.

Screwdriva

2nd_time_buyer said:

Yeah I am also a bit uneasy about condemning products because they are Chinese. I can see valid ethical reasons why you might not want to buy Chinese. However, in terms of production line technology, they are way ahead of the West in many areas.

In any case, most products  in the technology sector are made in China or other parts of the far east regardless where the manufacturer's headquarters are. I admit that claiming on a warranty 10 or even 25 years might be harder on a Chinese company but likewise I would not have a high degree of confidence that any of the manufacturers today will still be around in 25 years. 

If you'd like me to explain the difference between Chinese quality, not just of the product but also after sales support, based on my experience with several Chinese owned brands, I'm happy to: I expect their inverters will fail prematurely, and their warranty to be worth less than the piece of paper it's printed on. Whether they'll be trading in 10 years is also an open question. If you're fine with that, and the gross ethical transgressions of the parent country, please do enjoy your purchase! 

2nd_time_buyer

Screwdriva said:

2nd_time_buyer said:

Yeah I am also a bit uneasy about condemning products because they are Chinese. I can see valid ethical reasons why you might not want to buy Chinese. However, in terms of production line technology, they are way ahead of the West in many areas.

In any case, most products  in the technology sector are made in China or other parts of the far east regardless where the manufacturer's headquarters are. I admit that claiming on a warranty 10 or even 25 years might be harder on a Chinese company but likewise I would not have a high degree of confidence that any of the manufacturers today will still be around in 25 years. 

If you'd like me to explain the difference between Chinese quality, not just of the product but also after sales support, based on my experience with several Chinese owned brands, I'm happy to: I expect their inverters will fail prematurely, and their warranty to be worth less than the piece of paper it's printed on. Whether they'll be trading in 10 years is also an open question. If you're fine with that, and the gross ethical transgressions of the parent country, please do enjoy your purchase! 

Personally I feel uncomfortably about stereotyping according to race. 

I have bought many hundreds if not thousands of Chinese made items that have worked as expected. Like you I also have had bad experiences of some Chinese brands. I have had similar happy/unhappy experiences with products bought all over the world.

Solaredge also has reports of high failure rates and suspect ethics which made me have second thoughts about buying their products:

https://www.mcelectrical.com.au/solaredge-inverter-optimiser-review/

You are asking people to boycott Chinese brands based on your experiences based on a limited sample size. If I was to tell people not to employ someone from a certain country, because I had employed someone from that country in the past and they were useless, I would expect to be picked up on it as it is not acceptable.

Screwdriva

2nd_time_buyer said:

Personally I feel uncomfortably about stereotyping according to race. 

I have bought many hundreds if not thousands of Chinese made items that have worked as expected. Like you I also have had bad experiences of some Chinese brands. I have had similar happy/unhappy experiences with products bought all over the world.

Solaredge also has reports of high failure rates and suspect ethics which made me have second thoughts about buying their products:

https://www.mcelectrical.com.au/solaredge-inverter-optimiser-review/

You are asking people to boycott Chinese brands based on your experiences based on a limited sample size. If I was to tell people not to employ someone from a certain country, because I had employed someone from that country in the past and they were useless, I would expect to be picked up on it as it is not acceptable.

If I didn't know better, I'd say your response was a veiled accusation of racism?

I won't respond, as I wouldn't want this post to devolve into something the OP did not intend (and because I realize the futility of it). Instead, I thought I'd quote another forum member's recent post, to augment Solarchaser's experience above and, as a way to summarize my experiences with all Chinese owned brands. 

"Choosing solely on brand name, it'd be SolarEdge for me. 

I replaced my inverter with a Growatt recently - good price, painless install etc. The documentation and software is poorly translated - with the inverter web software appearing quite stale. I fired off a support query which went unanswered. I'd certainly not want to tackle a warranty claim."

Best of luck with your purchase(s)... I have a feeling you're going to need it!