Forever Green Energy Quotation

thriftytracey

I have had a number of quotes for solar panels.  I am leaning towards the one from Forever Green Energy in Cheltenham basically because they were very thorough, informative, detailed and efficient with their quotation.  Other firms promised to send me quotes and didn't bother or just gave me a verbal quote.  They were a recommendation from a local Facebook page.  I am going to DM the response to see if I can get further information from him.

I have looked on Trust Pilot and there are no reviews of the supplier which makes me nervous, although there are case studies on their website, so I guess I can ask to be put in touch with former customers although of course they would be glowing recommendations as they have been published on their website.

If anyone has experience of this company I would be grateful if you could respond.

Also, I attach their quote below - is the pricing reasonable?  Other quotes were for smaller installations and smaller capacity battery so difficult to compare.



Our electricity consumption over a year was approx 3500 KwH -  lower than normal because I was economising.

Screwdriva

A few thoughts: 

1) They have not specified which brand of panels they are fitting. I would insist on Sharp/ Hyundai/ REC/ Panasonic or Solarwatt only as they are quality brands from reputed manufacturers. 

2) A 16 X 410W Sharp Panel installation with optimizers and SolarEdge inverter will cost you < £7500/- installed with G99 and 20+ year warranty on all components including the inverter (which is the most important one to have)!

3) That means you are paying £7750 for the GivEnergy battery for a household where you will never see a return on investment because your consumption isn't high enough. So, unless you plan on getting a Heat Pump or drive alot with an EV in the near future, I would suggest skipping the battery altogether and selling your excess to Octopus via their Flux tariff. 

4) Do you have a pigeon issue in your area? If so, bird netting would be advisable. 

Some install batteries because it "feels good" but few can justify the financials without the consumption/ import well in excess of yours. Others will say that the brand doesn't matter, till they they run into an issue and need support from the manufacturer. 

My advice would be to skip the battery, and ask your installer to specify the brand of panels and install your system at or under £7.5K. If they don't agree to this, find another quality installer. There are several still out there! Best of luck! 

DougMLancs

I see they’ve quoted for Tigo optimisers on all panels- do you have any shading issues? They’ll be adding unnecessary expense if not. If you do have shading then I thought optimisers would only be necessary for the affected panels

Alnat1

Did they confirmation they are going for G99 from the DNO? Make sure they aren't just doing G98.

Grandad2b

I agree with Screwdriva: your consumption is similar to ours and without an EV or heatpump it's hard to see how a battery makes sense.
I've not investigated Flux but my recollection is that it's for people with a battery (happy to be wrong about that).

Screwdriva

Grandad2b said:

I agree with Screwdriva: your consumption is similar to ours and without an EV or heatpump it's hard to see how a battery makes sense.
I've not investigated Flux but my recollection is that it's for people with a battery (happy to be wrong about that).

We just got onto Flux. No battery here either. We're projecting a 30+% increase in earnings this summer as a result! 

thriftytracey

Screwdriva said:

A few thoughts: 

1) They have not specified which brand of panels they are fitting. I would insist on Sharp/ Hyundai/ REC/ Panasonic or Solarwatt only as they are quality brands from reputed manufacturers. 

2) A 16 X 410W Sharp Panel installation with optimizers and SolarEdge inverter will cost you < £7500/- installed with G99 and 20+ year warranty on all components including the inverter (which is the most important one to have)!

3) That means you are paying £7750 for the GivEnergy battery for a household where you will never see a return on investment because your consumption isn't high enough. So, unless you plan on getting a Heat Pump or drive alot with an EV in the near future, I would suggest skipping the battery altogether and selling your excess to Octopus via their Flux tariff. 

4) Do you have a pigeon issue in your area? If so, bird netting would be advisable. 

Some install batteries because it "feels good" but few can justify the financials without the consumption/ import well in excess of yours. Others will say that the brand doesn't matter, till they they run into an issue and need support from the manufacturer. 

My advice would be to skip the battery, and ask your installer to specify the brand of panels and install your system at or under £7.5K. If they don't agree to this, find another quality installer. There are several still out there! Best of luck! 

Thanks for your reponse.

1.  I will find out.

2.  I did cut our electricity consumption right down so the annual usage figure isn't totally accurate, eg turned off fridge, don't use oven, less showers etc!  I thought that excess could be fed back to the grid.  I know the payment isn't that great.  The 16 panels are on 2 roofs, a west facing roof and the others on the south facing roof.  I thought the whole idea of a battery was to store electricity especially when overcast and not have to draw on the grid?

3.  Occasional pigeon.  I wouldn't say it is an issue.

thriftytracey

DougMLancs said:

I see they’ve quoted for Tigo optimisers on all panels- do you have any shading issues? They’ll be adding unnecessary expense if not. If you do have shading then I thought optimisers would only be necessary for the affected panels

The south facing roof is an extension so had gable ends which would cause shading.

thriftytracey

Alnat1 said:

Did they confirmation they are going for G99 from the DNO? Make sure they aren't just doing G98.

Sorry, I don't know what that means!

thriftytracey

Also, I wondered, can you turn the battery off?  The reason I ask is we do go away a couple of times a year for quite long periods so the excess could be sent back to the grid via Flux.

Screwdriva

thriftytracey said:

I did cut our electricity consumption right down so the annual usage figure isn't totally accurate, eg turned off fridge, don't use oven, less showers etc!  I thought that excess could be fed back to the grid.  I know the payment isn't that great.  The 16 panels are on 2 roofs, a west facing roof and the others on the south facing roof.  I thought the whole idea of a battery was to store electricity especially when overcast and not have to draw on the grid?

As your appliances age and are replaced with more efficient ones, you will continue to reduce overall consumption over the decades ahead. This should offset the savings you've made via consumption frugality etc.

You can always install an additional panel and a battery at a later time and pay zero VAT on it. But for now, as we have shared, unless you plan on getting electrified heating and/ or transportation, the financial case for a battery is next to non-existent.

Here's a post from a wise forum member that I believe captures this explanation perfectly. 




And the occasional pigeon will make your panels their new home, making it an issue, so worth getting black bird netting around those new panels.