Solar PV Panels

dfurn

Hi all;

I'm considering Solar PV and I've had surveys from the following companies:
Azure Eco Ltd
Solar Advanced Systems Ltd
GENr8 Renewable Energy
EOS Energy
E.ON
Marks & Spencer Solar
Tesco

Those of you who have read other forum messages will know that the installations by E.ON, M&S and Tesco are all really done by the Mark Group. I did have three survey visits set up for these but I called Mark and they sent just one guy who will send the same report back to the three companies. Be interesting to see what they come up with. The Mark surveyor said 'Yeah we do everybody'!

I've read reports of people having experience with a Tesco installation, but not seen too much info how any other smaller companies do. I feel a smaller company might give me better service, but I like the idea of going with a bigger company as well as they could be in a position to give better support to the system over 25 years. Having said that it's not like nobody has never had problems with a big company like Tesco so maybe that's not a valid assumption. Anyone have any thoughts?

I've not yet had any quotes back but they should make interesting reading.

Equaliser123

Save4ArainyDay wrote: »

Beware as that poster you replied to has only the one post on MSE!

Strange he/she has arrived here offering bargains - advertising I think it is called!

Only interested in the prices - already have a system.

Funnily enough, his website doesn't seem to work.

penrhyn

I'm assuming its a .co.uk website, there is one of those for totalsolar.

Save4ArainyDay

Equaliser123 wrote: »

Only interested in the prices - already have a system.

Funnily enough, his website doesn't seem to work.

Lol! He can't even get his website address correct! Would not recommend them - no attention to detail and poor quality control if the posting on the thread is anything to go by! :rotfl:

jackieblack

dfurn wrote: »

Hi all;

I'm considering Solar PV and I've had surveys from the following companies:
Azure Eco Ltd
Solar Advanced Systems Ltd
GENr8 Renewable Energy
EOS Energy
E.ON
Marks & Spencer Solar
Tesco

Those of you who have read other forum messages will know that the installations by E.ON, M&S and Tesco are all really done by the Mark Group. I did have three survey visits set up for these but I called Mark and they sent just one guy who will send the same report back to the three companies. Be interesting to see what they come up with. The Mark surveyor said 'Yeah we do everybody'!

I've read reports of people having experience with a Tesco installation, but not seen too much info how any other smaller companies do. I feel a smaller company might give me better service, but I like the idea of going with a bigger company as well as they could be in a position to give better support to the system over 25 years. Having said that it's not like nobody has never had problems with a big company like Tesco so maybe that's not a valid assumption. Anyone have any thoughts?

I've not yet had any quotes back but they should make interesting reading.

Like you we got a few quotes and more than one via Mark Group, in the end we went with E-On because their customer service was excellent (if a company can't be bothered when they're trying to get a sale, how help is their after-sales service likely to be?!) and they price-matched another quote we had from a comparable supplier. They weren't the cheapest but we thought their (matched) quote gave the best value for money overall. We also wanted to go with a company that we thought might still be around in 25 years time!
Although we were generally happy with how everything went, the weak link in the chain was definitely Mark Group, any problems we did have came from them but our E-On consultant took on every glitch/query and persisted with them until they were resolved.
had we gone with another company using Mark Group, not as helpful or persistant on our behalf, I'm not sure whether we would have got the outcome we did.

Lemoncurd

Those of you who have had a few quotes have you found that some of the companies have been a bit 'keen'?
We've had quite a lot of follow up calls and emails and one company rep even turned up on our doorstep unannounced to try and persuade us to reconsider giving them our business.

Normally when we get quotes for work we don't even have as much as a follow up phone call to check that we received the quote ok but in this case it has been repeated phone calls. Shows how competitive it is getting out there.

zeupater

Lemoncurd wrote: »

Those of you who have had a few quotes have you found that some of the companies have been a bit 'keen'?
We've had quite a lot of follow up calls and emails and one company rep even turned up on our doorstep unannounced to try and persuade us to reconsider giving them our business.

Normally when we get quotes for work we don't even have as much as a follow up phone call to check that we received the quote ok but in this case it has been repeated phone calls. Shows how competitive it is getting out there.

Hi

I'm pretty sure that this would be severely frowned upon by both MCS and REAL if they were to be contacted ...... Double glazing tactics in the regulated pv business sector ?, who'd have thought it !! :eek:

Z

sarajames101

malch wrote: »

it seems you have a very simular system to me 12 sharp panels rated at 2.16kW for which i paid £8500, or should say i have paid 25% deposit, i have not paid the balance as yet as the big selling point of the people i decided to go with was that the powerone Aurora would kick in at 125v unlike the 175v or 200v of other inverters. however after the system was fitted i noticed in the operators manual that the Aurora minimum input voltage for grid connection is 200v dc. i contacted the firm the next day and i am still waiting for an email from the sales guy or failing that from someone from the tecnical staff, still waiting after 7 days.

I think your becoming to bothered by the voltage this inverter kicks in at. Far more important things in some inverters, that can make up the difference in the voltage. Panels are also just as important, if not more, depending on type you have.

dfurn

jackieblack wrote: »

Although we were generally happy with how everything went, the weak link in the chain was definitely Mark Group, any problems we did have came from them but our E-On consultant took on every glitch/query and persisted with them until they were resolved.
had we gone with another company using Mark Group, not as helpful or persistant on our behalf, I'm not sure whether we would have got the outcome we did.

Very interesting comments, thanks. I do have this nagging feeling that Mark Group get so much business by being behind the front of major companies that they don't really worry too much about cocking up the odd job here and there. I must say the E.On person I spoke to on the phone seemed very knowledgeable. Good to know there is scope for price-matching. I was gonna try that anyhow but well done on getting that.

Gizmosmum_2

zeupater wrote: »

Hi

I'm pretty sure that this would be severely frowned upon by both MCS and REAL if they were to be contacted ...... Double glazing tactics in the regulated pv business sector ?, who'd have thought it !! :eek:

Z

Follow up calls are quite normal. One of the companies that we first contacted lost the job because they didn't bother to follow up. I was too busy to get things sorted out and the company that made an effort and followed up with polite non challenging emails was the one that got the job. I'd have been getting round to it now otherwise. It's acceptable under MCS and Real and some time ago when I had a team of staff providing impartial advice we used to do follow up calls then.