What have they actually installed?

Skintsaver

OK little background. I applied for a grant via EON who then passed my detail on to LMF Energy Services. Who carried out an EPC then said I was eligible for the grant to my supprise.

The design team said I will have 3 panels on front and 3 on Rear solis s 2.5kw system

Install day came, the subbies LMF energy Services used were cowboys at best. They've left a eyesore of copex cabled tied to a guttering pipe then looping over the guttering and was fixed to the ridge tiles and running through a tile. I will remove this and run the cables in white upvc conduit or even through the house intime. I can't live with what they left. The inverter in the roof looks good, but no DC I isolators, apparently the inverter DC isolator is good enough?  I have AC ISOLATORS installed next to the DB and in roof. They hacked my distribution board to bits. Cutting bits off busbar and using bits from another brand. I can sort these issues in time but not impressed! ( I don't think I can complain as its all free paid for by a government grant. 

But with the above said my main concern is what have they actually put on my roof. These are the ones which was quoted and I was expecting. 



But this is what they installed instead I have no idea what they are



As you can see they're completely different ! But how can i tell what wattage these are?

My gut feeling is these arnt 400w but 250w panels.  The 2 at the rear produce a steady 500w 8am to 650w at noon.  This was a really sunny day when I monitored this I was expecting 800w due to the conditions and no shading.

The 4 front panels peaked around 1500 at 1.1kw, again I was expecting around 1.6kw.

Would the DC voltage within the inverter settings give me a clue what they are?

I have a feeling they could be risen Titan s. But that's just a complete guess 

MalMonroe

I think you should contact EON. They are the ones you applied to and they are the ones who arranged for the work to be done for you. If you are not happy with their contractors and think they were cowboys you can let them know.. But do contact them, send them photos as above and ask them the questions you are asking here. Because EON will hopefully be able to answer all your questions and put things right, if they are wrong.

Just because you were allowed the grant doesn't mean that you have to put up with shoddy workmanship or incorrect installations. You deserve the same customer care as any other (paying) customer. 

QrizB

Skintsaver said:

As you can see they're completely different ! But how can i tell what wattage these are?

You should have been provided with a schematic and an MCS Certificate. TYhey should detail what equipment was installed and should agree with one another.

MalMonroe said:

I think you should contact EON. They are the ones you applied to and they are the ones who arranged for the work to be done for you.

I agree with this; if you had the work done via E.ON, it's E.ON who you should complain to.

Skintsaver

QrizB said:

Skintsaver said:

As you can see they're completely different ! But how can i tell what wattage these are?

You should have been provided with a schematic and an MCS Certificate. TYhey should detail what equipment was installed and should agree with one another.

MalMonroe said:

I think you should contact EON. They are the ones you applied to and they are the ones who arranged for the work to be done for you.

I agree with this; if you had the work done via E.ON, it's E.ON who you should complain to.

The installation only happened last Monday so probably too soon to recieve the MCS Certificates but with the inverter also being different and the look of these panels being different. I know of atleast one local firm who would repackage different panels so the client thought they was getting somthing superior... Glad they've not been trading for a few years now. 

I've emailed lmf and text their subbies for clarification neither have responded as yet. I'll give them both time to respond before contacting EON. 

Spies

You should see maximum power when the sun comes out from behind a cloud as the panels will be cold,  that's probably the best way to judge what their potential output is. 

jimjames

With the current heat (not sure on your location) the panel output will be substantially lower than the maximum.

If they've installed 2 x 250W panels then there is no way you'd be generating 500W at 8am. 650W at noon would suggest they are 2x400W panels. You couldn't get that much above the rated capacity for 500W panels.

We have 3kWp of panels, at the moment the maximum peak generation is around 2.3kW but in perfect conditions earlier in year would be nearer to 3.