Next steps; grip-relaxing bimbling, and avoiding the temptations

foxgloves

It really does sound as though contracting out the solar work has resulted in some sloppy standards for your installation. What a nuisance having to sort it all out. Glad you are being so assertive about it. Knowledge is power in all things, but especially useful in this sort of situation.

Suffolk_lass

Well that really is reassuring! the email with the response from the Solar installers dropped into our inboxes yesterday lunch time, and basically they are offering to replace the battery (like for like) and reinstall everything properly, including rewiring and they have accepted all the points we made.

I went back to the original proposal and the settlement invoice and I can see that one of the components we paid extra for is not mentioned. When I discussed with Mr Sl he said the surveying engineer they sent this week actually commented that he was surprised we had not got the optimisers installed. As I don't know what they are (can't remember) or what they look like, I need to investigate and then ask them to include this. Also, we looked at the outdoor suitable battery they are recommending (5kw and it is available now for between £800 and £1200 as tech has moved on.

The same company make a double that size capacity model; available (from other sources) at £1500. We paid £4950 for the battery part of the installation (it included other bits, but not more than £4-500 costs), so we are going to suggest they install 2 of the 10kw in its place at no charge to us, and add the optimisers to the reinstallation - because the system has not worked as promised since it was installed and we have paid out much more than we should have done in electricity bills, plus paying a third party for an honest review and not receiving components we paid for. We might ask for three of them and see what they say. Three is what we need to counter the costs of the electric aga, so we'll discuss before we respond.

Less good is Mr Sl's truck which the people called back about. The chassis is shot and needs replacing. Much more serious than the bit of welding we hoped it would be. We need to find a farm machinery company to undertake the work I think. So far we have found somewhere near Halifax… It is likely to cost nearly as much as the vehicle did to buy. Taking a step back from the heart over head part (he loves it, and feels very guilty for buying it without first getting it properly inspected) - if we pay out, say £6k, we have a vehicle that has years of use in it. If we don't, we write off £6.5k and we are looking at spending about £10k on a replacement vehicle. Cost wise, worth doing. Value of the vehicle afterwards, less so. We will need to run it as his final vehicle I think, if we go for it.

Oh and there is a whole section of the syllabus for my exam in a month's time that I need to study harder to understand. I remember nothing about genetics from school (I think our science at my girls school focussed on things like how to starch a tablecloth and dissecting frogs!)

On the upside, our emergency funds pot hit and passed £20k so I have made up about £3k of the truck cost so far there.

EssexHebridean

Could you let me have the details of the outside suitable battery you're looking at please SL - those sizes and prizes are sounding rather interesting!

That's a pain about the truck - I guess a lot will come down to what other issues it has if any which might come down to bite you before you get the value from an expensive fix?

peb

The response on the solar situation does sound positive, I'm hoping that you can arrange for the work to be independently inspected once done 😬.

Halifax area is lovely, if you could arrange a short holiday whilst the truck is fixed - or does it have to be taken rather than driven?

Suffolk_lass

More bad news about the body work of the truck. It is such an unknown quantity we have flipped back to the option of bringing it home and selling it as a predicted MOT failure with lots of under bodywork restoration needed; basically as it was when we bought it but being honest about its condition and taking half off the price we paid.

As we discussed yesterday, Mr Sl has previously written a couple of cars off and each time the event cost us about £5k and it also impacted his or our NCD. this is like a third one, and better to take it on the chin than try to dupe someone else.

I'm afraid this occupied my brain for most of the day and I really need to get on with my studying today. I also need to take dog for annual checks, ask vet about cat and knowing "her time" and then this evening I need to go over to the bee group I part-manage.

I had to shop yesterday and I have blown our budget for the month - I should have added the other £50 I considered and then didn't as I am already over half-way through that with a milk bill to go. Annoyingly, there is half a make-weight, rather nasty looking potato in the bag of TTD from Sainsbugs. And the milk I took out of the clearance shelf that is short-dated had no money taken off it. It is too far to go, just to complain. It just leaves a bad smell, as my Grandma used to say.

Mr Sl used my desk and computer for his three-hour meeting last night and left me with 0% charge in the mouse and 23% in the keyboard. So no work possible, even after he finished. I charged the mouse overnight and the keyboard is plugged in now. So a bit of study is my next task before I get dressed and take the dog. He loves the vets!

Suffolk_lass

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81889452#Comment_81889452

If you google Dyness - Power Dept for the 5kw, PowerBox for the 10kw, I got a range of suppliers of battery only prices. I expect you know that the inverter needs to be a hybrid in order to be able to take power from the grid if you want to charge up your batteries on a cheap/free tariff period. Ours was upgraded to this as part of the solar set up (panels, wiring, boxes, connectors). We just need to know how fast it can charge up the batteries to 10KW - there would be no point in having 3 if the inverter or batteries are too slow to be fully charged after the cheap rate overnight

Watty1

A dog that loves the vets is a joy. Both of mine have been happy to go.

Sorry about the truck. Such a hard one.

Suffolk_lass

Up with the larks at 05.30. A quick review of finances. Still undecided what to have as an alternative to the truck. I'm going to have a bit of a look this weekend. We plan to leave at 9.00, and I shall follow him home as I don't feel over safe, leaving him to it.

Spendywendywoo

Sorry to hear about your truck, sounds like a steady plan though.

foxgloves

Oh dear, what a hassle about the truck. There's always something, isn't there?