Solar options (mind field)

Screwdriva

handful said:

I was very impressed with the rep and the company have extensive experience, don't subcontract anything and also do some installations for Octopus. They have a LOT of 5 star reviews on Google and Trustpilot. Rather than advise the cost in the quote, can I ask for some guidance as to roughly what this "should" cost and the quality of the provided materials? We have a bungalow with plenty of S/SW facing roof space but we are not huge users, hence the modest installation. The quote I have is taylored to our usage with payback etc all specified. Thanks in advance!

Panels are another obscure and cheap Chinese brand. Solax has really mixed reviews from installers and customers alike.  I wouldn't pay a penny over £6.8K for what is on offer.

Perhaps more importantly, should we start with what your annual electricity consumption is and whether you plan on investing in a heat pump anytime soon? 

QrizB

Screwdriva said:

I wouldn't pay a penny over £6.8K for what is on offer.

We seem to agree on the price, which hopefully reassures @handful that we're not low balling it!

I'll just note that CHINT are a huge Chinese manufacturer of electricals and appearto be  6th largest on Bloomberg's list of Tier 1 manufacturers.

https://www.vicoexport.com/en/58668/tier-1-list-of-solar-panel-manufacturers-q1-2025/

They might be cheap but they're not exactly obscure.

Screwdriva

QrizB said:

I'll just note that CHINT are a huge Chinese manufacturer of electricals and appearto be  6th largest on Bloomberg's list of Tier 1 manufacturers.

https://www.vicoexport.com/en/58668/tier-1-list-of-solar-panel-manufacturers-q1-2025/

They might be cheap but they're not exactly obscure.

I should correct myself - when I say obscure, I mean not a brand widely installed with substantial penetration in the UK. 

These days, the Chinese brands most widely marketed are Aiko, DMEGC, JA Solar followed by Jinko, Trina, Canadian Solar etc. All are available wholesale at < £50 per panel with poor ethics galore. Wouldn't recommend them unless the installation was free via ECO4.

handful

QrizB said:

handful said:

... can I ask for some guidance as to roughly what this "should" cost and the quality of the provided materials?

The solar PV (without the battery) should be under £5k, in my opinion, assuming easy access to your roof (it's a bungalow after all). The battery retails for about £1600 on top of that.

So less than £7k all told?

As for quality, it's mass-market kit. Nothing special, but likely to last to the end of its warranty.

Thank you. My quote is significantly higher than that!

handful

Screwdriva said:

handful said:

I was very impressed with the rep and the company have extensive experience, don't subcontract anything and also do some installations for Octopus. They have a LOT of 5 star reviews on Google and Trustpilot. Rather than advise the cost in the quote, can I ask for some guidance as to roughly what this "should" cost and the quality of the provided materials? We have a bungalow with plenty of S/SW facing roof space but we are not huge users, hence the modest installation. The quote I have is taylored to our usage with payback etc all specified. Thanks in advance!

Panels are another obscure and cheap Chinese brand. Solax has really mixed reviews from installers and customers alike.  I wouldn't pay a penny over £6.8K for what is on offer.

Perhaps more importantly, should we start with what your annual electricity consumption is and whether you plan on investing in a heat pump anytime soon? 

Thank you for the response. My annual consumption is quite low, estimated in my Octopus account as 2671kwh per annum. I don't intend to invest in a heat pump anytime soon although I could possibly be persuaded. We currently have a gas combi boiler and central heating and log burner (sorry for admitting to that in this group!) 

With the price you have quoted, is that for the parts or are you including the cost of installation? Thanks

Screwdriva

handful said:

Thank you for the response. 

We are all here to help! 

handful said:

With the price you have quoted, is that for the parts or are you including the cost of installation? Thanks

I'm not an installer so I can't quote for anything. I use a small network of installers to help others with their Solar installations and have learnt wholesale/ retail pricing from them as a result. The £7K estimate for the quote you shared is the fully installed price I would expect to pay for what is on offer. It's very cheap kit for an installer to procure. 

handful said:

 My annual consumption is quite low, estimated in my Octopus account as 2671kwh per annum. I don't intend to invest in a heat pump anytime soon although I could possibly be persuaded. We currently have a gas combi boiler and central heating and log burner (sorry for admitting to that in this group!) 

In that case I would skip the battery and go for 10 or more Eurener 500W bifacial panels paired to a SolarEdge inverter. Total cost would be ~£5.2K installed.

Your consumption is too low to justify the additional cost of battery for the foreseeable. That said, if you insist on one, the Powerwall 3 (13.5kW battery) paired to the same panels would cost you under £11K installed. 

handful

Screwdriva said:

handful said:

Thank you for the response. 

We are all here to help! 

handful said:

With the price you have quoted, is that for the parts or are you including the cost of installation? Thanks

I'm not an installer so I can't quote for anything. I use a small network of installers to help others with their Solar installations and have learnt wholesale/ retail pricing from them as a result. The £7K estimate for the quote you shared is the fully installed price I would expect to pay for what is on offer. It's very cheap kit for an installer to procure. 

handful said:

 My annual consumption is quite low, estimated in my Octopus account as 2671kwh per annum. I don't intend to invest in a heat pump anytime soon although I could possibly be persuaded. We currently have a gas combi boiler and central heating and log burner (sorry for admitting to that in this group!) 

In that case I would skip the battery and go for 10 or more Eurener 500W bifacial panels paired to a SolarEdge inverter. Total cost would be ~£5.2K installed.

Your consumption is too low to justify the additional cost of battery for the foreseeable. That said, if you insist on one, the Powerwall 3 (13.5kW battery) paired to the same panels would cost you under £11K installed. 

That's interesting, thanks again. I thought the justification for having a battery was that so once charged, I would then benefit from selling units back to the grid? Or would I still be doing that as long as I was generating more than I could use? Sorry for the novice questions! Do you know any installers that would cover Somerset?

Screwdriva

handful said:

That's interesting, thanks again. I thought the justification for having a battery was that so once charged, I would then benefit from selling units back to the grid? Or would I still be doing that as long as I was generating more than I could use? Sorry for the novice questions! Do you know any installers that would cover Somerset?

Yes and yes, you'd export everything you do not use for 15p per kWh or more without a battery (rates will vary in the months and years ahead). 

handful

Screwdriva said:

handful said:

That's interesting, thanks again. I thought the justification for having a battery was that so once charged, I would then benefit from selling units back to the grid? Or would I still be doing that as long as I was generating more than I could use? Sorry for the novice questions! Do you know any installers that would cover Somerset?

Yes and yes, you'd export everything you do not use for 15p per kWh or more without a battery (rates will vary in the months and years ahead). 

Thank you. My thoughts about a battery are that we use probably most of our electricity at night with lights, tv, an electric heater in the living room to suppliment our gas central heating which we often don't bother turning on at all because we are quite active. It tends to be log burner or electric heater only in the evening once we sit down. The 15p sell rate concurs with what the company that quoted us. I think my main reason for seriously considering solar is to future proof our supply and cost of electricity to some degree and I think a battery helps to do that. Did you have any recommended installers that I could contact that would cover Somerset?

Screwdriva

That is the logical assumption most have about batteries but there is a threshold of electricity import below which the cost of the battery will never be offset against the savings within the warranty period. This varies with each increase/ decrease of prices/ export tariffs but it hovers around the 4000 kWh per year mark.  Below this, it makes more fiscal sense to use the grid like your " virtual battery" and sell to it when you are overproducing and take from it when you need it. 

When/ if you get a heat pump in the future, it would likely be a good time to revisit a battery. 

Happy to help any MSE forum member- feel free to DM.