Solar & Battery Quote

Drei669

Hi, new member but decades user of the website.

We have recently moved into a new place and needed to get a new central heating system, as the quotes for new gas boiler, cylinder and new radiators was almost the same as a heat pump system, I decided to go with the heat pump. We have installed a  Samsung 12kW HT Monobloc & Samsung Mono Control Kit kit at beginning of September.

We have now started the process to add solar panels, as it only makes sense to help the heat pump, plus we still tend to work from home.

This is the quote we have received for solar panels, and would love to get some impartial input or advise on adding/changing the set-up:

£13,924.00

Microinverter Solar (PV) System - 10.2kW.
Materials to Include:
- 24 x Longhi 430W All black Solar Panels
- 24 x Enphase IQ8AC Micro-Inverters
- 1 x Enphase Envoy S
- Roof mounting to suit
- Generation meter, Isolators and cable

- Safety stickers and system schematic

£9,850.00

GivEnergy All-in-One Battery and Backup Solution:
Materials to Include:
- GivEnergy All-in-One 13.5kW Battery
- 1 x GivEnergy Gateway
- Standard DC PV cable

5 YEAR GIVENERGY BATTERY WARRANTY (Extendable
to 10 Years for £440)

Supply and installation of galvanised bird proofing mesh
10 YEAR NO PIGEON GUARANTEE - £650.00

Scaffolding - £950.00

Screwdriva

Welcome to GEMS! I hope the following thoughts will help with your PV journey:

1) Your quote appears obscenely expensive for what's on offer. To give you perspective, installers I know purchase the Longhi panels (cheap, low end Chinese brand) for £65 each. 

2) If this helps, a recent quote I've seen featured 24 X SHARP 420W black panels (30 year performance warranty)  + 24 SolarEdge optimizers (25 year warranty) + 8kW SolarEdge inverter w/ 20 year warranty, at a cost of £10.5K installed. Add another £7K for a GivEnergy All in One 13.5kW battery w/ 12 year warranty included. G99, HIES and bird netting included. £17.5K all inclusive.

That's a savings of over £8K! You can definitely do better and I would recommend continuing the search for a more honest installer! 

Netexporter

I concur with Screwdriva. I recently had a quote for 8.5kWp solar, 5kW Gen3 Givenergy hybrid inverter, Givenergy A-i-O and gateway, plus Givenergy EV charger, for a bit over £19k. I think that is too expensive, as well.

Drei669

Thanks for that. I am based in Colchester, unsure of good installers as only a few worth using. These guys installed our heat pump which may have been more expensive than it should have been, probably put up the price to account for the £5k grant. Happy to provide the quote on that to get an idea.

I've had a quote from a local company for 25 panels Solarwatt (exclusive installer apparently) German ones, plus Huawei battery & inverter, for £25:)

@Ne@Netexporter so that means your quote was quite expensive too?

Netexporter

so that means your quote was quite expensive too?

I thought so. Having added up the wholesale prices (before trade discount) and making fairly generous allowances for labour, scaffolding, etc, it still left about £5k profit. I know they've got to make a reasonable profit to cover overheads but that seemed a bit excessive for two days work.

My problem is being in the middle of Mid-Wales, so everybody is about 50 miles away with little local competition.

Drei669

By the way, one of the reasons I wanted to go with the current heat pump installers, was that they offered credit card payments, which some didn't, just bank transfer. I wanted the additional peace of mind if I had any issues with them.

Please feel free to suggest any installer, if not allowed to post names on here, can you message me?

Drei669

Annoying that I cannot edit a previous post:)

I wanted to mention that I had a look on the and the midsummerwholesale website, and the prices for the 425W and 430W Longhi are close to the Eurener and Perlight which is over £100.

Screwdriva

Always pay with a credit card, even if it's just a deposit. I would pick the from any of the following well reputed panel brands (and skip the Perlight/ Longhi/ Huawei entirely). 

REC/ Solarwatt/ Panasonic/ Hyundai/ Sharp/ Eurener/ REA/ Meyer Burger/ Q Cells. There are still a few decent installers out there offering them! 

Drei669

Screwdriva said:

Always pay with a credit card, even if it's just a deposit. I would pick the from any of the following well reputed panel brands (and skip the Perlight/ Longhi/ Huawei entirely). 

REC/ Solarwatt/ Panasonic/ Hyundai/ Sharp/ Eurener/ REA/ Meyer Burger/ Q Cells. There are still a few decent installers out there offering them! 

Thanks for that, will need to get back to doing my research.

Screwdriva

I hope you won’t mind my sharing 7 suggestions/ tips I’ve learnt over time: 

 1) As shared previously, pay whichever installer you end up contracting with a credit card, even if it's just the deposit. This will provide Section 75 protection incase the installer disappears. 

 2) Always check each component (but especially the inverter and panels) when they arrive at the location prior to installation. Sometimes they get incorrectly switched due to error etc. Make sure your panels actual say Sharp 420W etc. as example

3) Be politely detailed with any installation instructions when it comes to wiring on the day of. Installers always chose the path of least resistance, which may not match your aesthetic requirements so be upfront and specific on the day. 

4) Request bird netting as part of your quote (if a pigeon issue exists anywhere around you). In this market, some installers will include bird netting at no extra cost. 

5) Always fit the max. # of panels you can fit on your South/ West/ South East aspects. (Sometimes, a larger 550W panel can fill unused space vs. the smaller sizes). Share this intention during the installer survey. 

6) Insist in writing that final installment will only be made after 48 hours of successful continuous operation , visible in the app. 

7) Always ask for video of the roof before they come down (if you can't see any part of it) to ensure no tiles have been broken. 

paul991

add payment after all paperwork completed