"Simplee Solar" / Energy Watch

tom154uk

I will answer this question as you seem to think that because you have a solar system they are all capable of achieving the same results, the fact you have 5sqm of collectors tells me straight away that you have a flat plate system, this system is designed for use in countries such as Spain, Portugal and the like, countries that get good weather all year around. It does not surprise me at all that you get little benefit from it.
The system we provide is an evacuated tube system using a double parabolic back plate; it is capable of collecting 95.6% of any available radiation. Please do not try to tell me your system is evacuated tubes as using 5sqms during the summer months would cause it to over heat and vent out, it would be impossible to dissipate the excess heat.
And the facts are that the average household in the UK use between £10 and £14 per week to heat their domestic hot water, so we will take £12 per as an average.
So using those figures allowing for 4 weeks holiday
48 X 12 = £576 per year spent heating domestic hot water.

Which would mean that as our system has been tested by experts and is capable of providing 73.6% of the average dwellings hot water £576 X 73.6% = £423.94 per annum.
As I have stated in the investment comment I put on here, I have been very conservative concerning my figures, for example if I had put inflation and fuel inflation into the first part concerning the £7000 investment the truth is that the return to you would have been considerably lower, and also if I had used the true fuel inflation the pay back for our solar system would be considerably shorter.

As for your comment about me insulting other members on here, i find your attitude astounding, what your saying to me is that everybody else on here can be insulting to us, comments such as liars and such like, but we have to take that and be polite back, typical I can see your one of life’s professional moaners and about sums up the comment I made about this being a nanny state and people not prepared to take responsibility for their decisions.

I am in the process of contacting many of our 1000,s of customers to tell them about this site and if they wish maybe to put some comments of their dealings with our company and the performance of their solar system i.e.: savings they have made etc.

But I’m sure after reading the rubbish on here that you will all think that it can’t be true as it sounds like we do actually supply and install a very good product, and that would mean you wouldn’t have anything to moan about.

PS. To all you cynical people out there, Russia have shut down the gas pipe to Belarus, but that wont worry you lot as it cant affect us in little old England as we are to dont have anything to do with Belarus do we.

trisontana

Tom154UK, will you also be contacting the hundreds of people who complained to Trading Standards about your company?

I still don't believe that figure of £12 a week for heating domestic hot water. I pay £25 a month for my total gas bill. This includes both DHW and central heating. In the summer, when the central heating is not working, my gas bill drops to £25 for three months. So it looks as though I am only paying £2 a week for my DHW.

To quote paul-h :-

"In the UK, you can expect to save around 50% of your annual DHW costs (note - NOT total heating bill) - according to the UK Digest of Energy Statistics, average DHW usage is around 24% of total gas usage in the average home, which amounts to around 5000kWh per annum, or around £150 per annum. You could expect to save around half of that, or around £75 per annum. Certainly not £330."

So where do you get your £12 a week figure from ?

debbie__harbison

Happy and completely satisfied customer

I live in the Yeovil area. Three and a half years ago I INVESTED in a Simplee Solar system. My property is all electric, my bills are lower now than they were prior to me having the solar fitted.
I would like to point out that the cost of electricity has risen over 60% in the past three years in my area. So surely you don’t have to be a mathematician to work out my savings. I originally purchased the system out my concern for the environment but the financial savings have been a pleasant surprise.

trisontana

debbie__harbison wrote:

Happy and completely satisfied customer

I live in the Yeovil area. Three and a half years ago I INVESTED in a Simplee Solar system. My property is all electric, my bills are lower now than they were prior to me having the solar fitted.
I would like to point out that the cost of electricity has risen over 60% in the past three years in my area. So surely you don’t have to be a mathematician to work out my savings. I originally purchased the system out my concern for the environment but the financial savings have been a pleasant surprise.

So how much did the system cost you, and how much a year are you saving on your domestic hot water heating ?

paddytess

I feel I have to reply to rex moany about the rudeness and general tone of his posts.I am sorry that my grammer and lack of paragraphs aren't to his liking but I will get over it no doubt! I seem to be castigated for passing an honest and truthful comment on my solar system,all I have said is that I am satisfied with my dealings with simplee solar and what a can of worms have been opened! I do not work for the company or have any dealings with the company yet some posters seem to think they can call people liars with no foundation whatsoever,how rude can you be and is it really necessary to try and belittle people on their use of grammer.I notice some posters have posted thousands of replies on various topics,I prefer to go out of the house on occasions.I also notice the vast majority of people do not have a solar system,so therefore it is a fair enough assumption to say that they do not know anything about solar power.It is also possible.. just possible that some of these posters are from rival companies.The poster who said truth or consequences and would I be prepared to have visitors to my home to see my system.No I would not! I certainly dont want anonymous people coming round my house.would YOU!!.The gentleman from simplee solar has thrown open an invitation to yourself to visit his premises I think thats fair enough dont you?

paul_h

tom154uk wrote:

I will answer this question as you seem to think that because you have a solar system they are all capable of achieving the same results, the fact you have 5sqm of collectors tells me straight away that you have a flat plate system, this system is designed for use in countries such as Spain, Portugal and the like, countries that get good weather all year around. It does not surprise me at all that you get little benefit from it.

I wouldn't say that a 50% saving is 'little benefit', I would say it's very good.

You are quite correct that I have conventional collectors. The system provides 100% of our DHW requirement during the summer months, but no systems, including evacuated tubes, can provide any more than pre-heating during the winter months - it's a physical impossibility at this latitude as there simply isn't the energy in the sun.

The advantages of evacuated tubes in the UK are another myth peddled by solar installers - your statement about these systems being more suitable for use in the UK is very misleading. They do have many advantages, but their efficiency at these latitudes is not one of them. Evacuated tubes are more responsive to direct sunlight and are more efficient than plate collectors at higher temperatures, they are ideally suited to use in southern European countries.

That said, evacuated tubes do offer an overall improvement in efficiency, and this allows the arrays to be smaller and lighter - but the costs of evacuated tubes are around 3-4 the cost of flate plate collectors for a given area, and this makes no financial sense in the UK.

Flat collectors currently provide the best price-performance ratio by some margin.

I did look at the possibility of changing my collectors for an evacuated tube manifold system, but found there was no advantage whatsoever. When they fall off the roof, I might consider it if the price is right...;)


I see we have more forum newbies / satisfied customers...:rotfl:

paul_h

paddytess wrote:

It is also possible.. just possible that some of these posters are from rival companies.

Do you think I registered 18 months ago and made 900+ posts just so that I could have a go at SS now?

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

trisontana

I shall ask the same question to paddytess. How much did your system cost and how much a year are you saving in domestic hot water heating? From these figures we can work out how long the system will take to pay for itself. Simple really !

MORPH3US

trisontana wrote:

I thought I would just post this statement from the Building Services and Environmental Engineer website :-
"The trade price for a complete system ranges from £1100 to £2500 — depending on size, type and manufacturer. Installed price ranges from £2500 to £5000, including VAT at the reduced rate of 5%.

Devils advocate time....

@ Simplee Solar, how would you respond to the above comment? It seems that by charging £5000 to £7000 for a solar system that the BSEE claim should cost £2500 to £5000, you are ripping people off.

I would also like to know from all these "satisfied customers", do they not feel upset that their solar systems should have cost them up to £2500 less than they paid!?!?!

M

tom154uk

MORPH3US wrote:

Devils advocate time....

@ Simplee Solar, how would you respond to the above comment? It seems that by charging £5000 to £7000 for a solar system that the BSEE claim should cost £2500 to £5000, you are ripping people off.

I would also like to know from all these "satisfied customers", do they not feel upset that their solar systems should have cost them up to £2500 less than they paid!?!?!

M

If you had bothered to read one of my earlier posts instead of thinking you’re clever, you would have seen that I have already stated that our company makes about 9% profit.
Out of this we pay 33% corporation tax, as well as high personal taxes that enable the some of the less fortunate people in this country to have a better standard of living.

So if you take 5% V.A.T off £7000 the price is about £6666.69
9% of 6666.69 = 600

So if we were to reduce the price by £600 the new price would be £6400 and we would break even.
No earnings = no tax
No profit = no corporation tax

Also we wouldn’t be in business very long which would mean our customer’s warranties would be worthless, and then you would all be writing how we ripped people off because we couldn’t afford to revisit our customers to put any problems right that might occur.

Maybe you would all prefer if the company closed now and we lost everything and became destitute, then we could stand on street corners harassing people into buying the big issue, at a profit margin of over 80%
But it’s ok to over charge people if you’re destitute.


Here’s one for you all to think about:
B&Q are advertising solar panels for around £2500 WHAT a brilliant deal
Flat plate collectors by the way

Here’s a challenge for you all. You try and buy those panels for that price.
What actually happens is they cant sell them to you direct, they pass your details on to one of their approved installers who then visit your house to give you a quote to install the system, and by the way you have to pay £40 up front for this privilege, if you buy the product from them then the £40 is deducted from the price, if you decide not to buy, well hard luck your not getting the £40 back.
We have got estimates for these systems form B&Q total price in excess of £5500
And this is for a flat plate system that really is not suitable for the climate of the UK.