Help with solar/battery quotes

gabbro86

Hi all,

We decided to finally bite the bullet and gather a few quotes for solar panels and battery storage for our house. It's a fairly sizable 5-bedroom detached property in the South East. Current average yearly electricity consumption is about 6-7,000 kWh (we have an EV), likely to increase as we look at potentially installing a heat pump in the next 2-3 years.

We went to a few "big names" for quotes. Do we maybe need a couple local installers too to complete our view?

Here are the quotes we received. They all include bird netting and PV optimisers, unless differently specified:



Our preferred quote would be from E.ON currently. We asked Octopus to increase the number of panels to at least 16-17 (clearly it can be done, all the other suppliers have done it...) and they came back saying they need a physical survey, which won't be until February.

Does anyone have experience with Sunsynk inverter/batteries? Any comments on the quotes? Any other "big names" we should be looking at?

QrizB

JA, Aiko and DMEG panels are all at the basic end of the market. They'll work on Day 1 but durability might be a concern.

Sunsynk kit is OK, Fox and Duracell are a bit "meh". Are you planning to put the batteries indoors or outdoors? Batteries don't like being cold and not all come with heaters.

Also there are some poor choices in there, for example Wickes putting a 3.6kW inverter with 7kWp of panels. That's just lazy.

Over on the Green and Ethical forum you'd get some better suggestions. In the middle of last year, for example, @Screwdriva was suggesting that a system with 24 Eurener 500-watt panels and a 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall should only be £13.5k:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81489658/#Comment_81489658

I would have hoped that you could get a system with Eurener panels and a Powerwall for the same sort of money that EON are asking.

Hopefully Screwdriva will see that I've tagged him and will be along with his own thoughts.

gabbro86

I have to say, all suppliers, one way or another, needed MY help to come up with decent quotes. Although I provided them with my consumption figures, they all still started with not enough panels and small batteries! I keep feeling like I'm having to do the work myself.

I'll post to the Green and Ethical forum too, thanks. It feels like I do need to contact some local installers though.

Screwdriva

gabbro86 said:

I have to say, all suppliers, one way or another, needed MY help to come up with decent quotes.

@QrizB is spot on - the quotes shared represent poor value, especially when the low quality of unethical kit on offer is factored in. 

Assuming you can fit 19 panels (going by the max. # on list of quotes you've shared), here is what installers I use to help others offer:

19 X Eurener 500W Bifacial panels
  1 X Tesla PW3 (13.5kW) with Gateway 2 for whole house backup.
 
~£12.5K installed with G99, bird netting and 10 year workmanship warranty included. Add £200 for every additional panel they can fit and I recommend fitting as many as you can (upto 26).

I'd veer away from all the brands above as none offer the safety, software, reliability and performance (especially outdoor cold weather) track record of a Tesla PW3.

I would not recommend proceeding with any installer who does not perform a zero obligation in-person survey of your roof before finalizing your preliminary quote. Hope this helps! 

gabbro86

Thank you very much for this. It's good for me to have an idea of what figures I should be looking to achieve, and what kind of kit!

I went on the MCS website and looked for local installers with decent reviews, reached out to 6 and got surveys booked with 2 already.

@Screwdriva I can see from your signature you're in SE London, so not too far... happy to receive your recommendations if you have time please 🙂