Solar quote does this sound reasonable?

nightsky224

I’ve found so many spam sites and rubbish when looking at Solar so I’m finding it hard to know if these quotes are reasonable. The 2nd quote offers larger batteries and 2 more panels for the same money but I’m not as sold with them as a company. 

1. local company with good reviews, via solar together scheme. Get good vibe from them no pressure sales. 

8 x 415w panels 
2 x batteries Mira HV25 (2.38kwh each) 
£8114
2. larger company, reasonable reviews, more salesy. 

10 x 415w panels 
2 x batteries Hanchu32 (3.2 kWh each) 
£8197

Be interested to know what others have paid for similar. 

Screwdriva

Hope you won't mind a couple questions to better inform our feedback?

1) Any reason you've opted for the Solar Together scheme?

I ask as feedback is broadly not very positive, with very low end solar component brands on offer (as your quotes demonstrate) to their captive customer base, at prices that installers can often beat, while offering far better brands of PV components.

2) What is your annual electricity consumption?

I ask as you may not need a battery and may benefit from "selling" your excess solar energy directly to the grid via a smart tariff like Octopus Flux instead?

3) Do you have a South or West roof aspect and how large is it?

Often schemes will offer fixed packages of 8/10 panels when the roof aspects may be able to accommodate 12 or more panels. The more panels you have, the quicker the return on investment of the system, so worth factoring this in

nightsky224

Screwdriva said:

Hope you won't mind a couple questions to better inform our feedback?

1) Any reason you've opted for the Solar Together scheme?

I ask as feedback is broadly not very positive, with very low end solar component brands on offer (as your quotes demonstrate) to their captive customer base, at prices that installers can often beat, while offering far better brands of PV components.

2) What is your annual electricity consumption?

I ask as you may not need a battery and may benefit from "selling" your excess solar energy directly to the grid via a smart tariff like Octopus Flux instead?

3) Do you have a South or West roof aspect and how large is it?

Often schemes will offer fixed packages of 8/10 panels when the roof aspects may be able to accommodate 12 or more panels. The more panels you have, the quicker the return on investment of the system, so worth factoring this in

Thank you for taking time to reply
1) Any reason you've opted for the Solar Together scheme?
Not really - Quote 1 is solar together Quote 2 I got for comparison outside of the solar together scheme. The panels are Vertex S Trina Solar Mono. Are you saying the batteries are not good brands?

2) What is your annual electricity consumption?
 3400kwh - We work from home so will be able to use in the day but still use electric in evenings etc

3) Do you have a South or West roof aspect and how large is it?

Panels are to go on East and West facing roofs. I am not sure how large, next door have had the same and there doesn't seem to be much extra room. The roof is for a 2 bed terraced house (it has been extended and we have portions of flat roof and a small side roof where the 2nd company suggested putting 2 panels)

Screwdriva

nightsky224 said: 3400kwh..

With your electricity usage, and assuming you don't experience regularly power outages & are not planning on a heat pump imminently, I would recommend skipping the battery altogether. It's very unlikely you will see a return on the additional £ spent on a battery vs. exporting your excess PV to the grid via Octopus Flux tariff.

I'd be willing the bet the inverter specified is Fox/ Solis/ Solax or Growatt or the like, which I would also avoid. (ECO4 providers buy brands like JA/ Trina panels etc. in bulk at prices so low its often hard to believe!)

A great example of a quality alternative to your existing quotes, one I see nearly every week:

10 X Sharp 425W Black panels w. 25/30 year warranty
10 X SolarEdge optimizers
  1 X SolarEdge inverter w. 20 year extended warranty

 G98 + HIES insurance warranty + bird netting for £5500 installed. £300 for any extra panels they can fit on there.

Petriix

On the other hand I say ignore the brand snobbery and go for a cheaper system. 4kWp should cost less than £5k. Keep shopping for quotes. 

Exiled_Tyke

I don't think it is brand snobbery.  Brands with a good reputation are well worth having if they are less likely to go wrong and if they do will help sort it out smoothly.  At some point a component will fail and you want that to be as far in the future as possible. And then you want to be able to identify the problem and get it fixed asap.

The company I use continually review their choices of equipment for what they think is best value for money. Recently they told me that they are about to change battery supplier for this very reason.

Screwdriva

Exiled_Tyke said:

I don't think it is brand snobbery.  Brands with a good reputation are well worth having if they are less likely to go wrong and if they do will help sort it out smoothly.  At some point a component will fail and you want that to be as far in the future as possible. And then you want to be able to identify the problem and get it fixed asap.

The company I use continually review their choices of equipment for what they think is best value for money. Recently they told me that they are about to change battery supplier for this very reason.

I can see why @Petriix views it that way. I wish things were different but sadly, my experience with helping 120+ households with their PV emphasizes the adage, you get what you pay for, ever so sharply to me. 

Very difficult to find an installer willing to say no to the temptation of selling highly suspect brands purchased for peanuts, at premium prices to the naive end user, these days.

Solarchaser

Screwdriva said:

nightsky224 said: 3400kwh..

A great example of a quality alternative to your existing quotes, one I see nearly every week:

10 X Sharp 425W Black panels w. 25/30 year warranty
10 X SolarEdge optimizers
  1 X SolarEdge inverter w. 20 year extended warranty

 G98 + HIES insurance warranty + bird netting for £5500 installed. £300 for any extra panels they can fit on there.

And which company is offering this for the user?

Petriix

For the panels themselves there's an incredibly low failure rate and some of the lesser known names have now delivered huge numbers of panels with clear evidence of reliability. Trina and Canadian Solar are absolutely fine. 

Screwdriva

Petriix said:

For the panels themselves there's an incredibly low failure rate and some of the lesser known names have now delivered huge numbers of panels with clear evidence of reliability. Trina and Canadian Solar are absolutely fine. 

I don't mean to disagree but that is not what I see in the real world. Recent comments from actual installers below:

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