What have they actually installed?

98 Posts

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
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
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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.
2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 2.5kw inverter. 28MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
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.
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.