A New Quote (What do you think?)

ely_ellis · 19 March 2015 at 11:39PM

I have just sparked (sorry) an interest in getting solar PV fitted as I have just bought a new house and wanted to see what the prices were running at.
I happen to complete a form in a local supermarket and within a day had a call to set up a visit for a quote.
They insisted my wife be there for the quote but didn't tell me the visit was going to last 3 hours and only then because we had to go out.
I'm only just starting, so don't understand a lot of it but this is how it was explained to me...
Anyway, down to the quote, see what you all think.
House: Semi-detached, need to utilise south facing and west facing roof with two sets of 5 panels.
Need to have micro-inverters because of the split and this is called the executive system.
Current yearly bill and usage, £390 (2800KWh)
Figures below were supposedly based on the worst case scenario.
System will generate 2002Kw per year, saving 71% (£278.85) on my annual bill.
The FIT will earn me £325 per year
Total is £603 per year.
The system, fully installed, complete 10 panel, micro-inverters, usage meter, software etc... wait for it... just ..... here it comes... just £12,120
No, that's not a typo!
Not to worry because my system over 25 years is going to save me £23,453 on bills and give me £12,010 in FIT giving me a total benefit of £35,463.
So, minus my super low £12,120 initial cost, that will give me a massive £23,000 of profit in 25 years.
As you can all see, that is an amazing deal that cannot be refused and coupled in with some credit by Barcleys at 9% APR, wow, its a must take deal!

Now, I'm not stupid and don't rush into things, and it was my first quote so I thought I better look around and the first port of call was this forum.

Fantastic information from people on here, makes me feel very bitter towards the guy/company that came to my home and took 3 hours of my life.
I don't want to mention the company, unless someone asks me, but I'd better get my free torch, 2 mugs and dvd for having a quote. (I wonder if the 2 mugs were supposed to be me and the wife?)

Hope you all have a good laugh at this quote, but seriously if they are going around with this sort of thing, I hate to think of the people that have fallen for it. Should something be done?

Cheers all
Martin

EricMears · 19 March 2015 at 11:57PM

ely_ellis wrote: »

I have just sparked (sorry) an interest in getting solar PV fitted as I have just bought a new house and wanted to see what the prices were running at.
I happen to complete a form in a local supermarket and within a day had a call to set up a visit for a quote.
They insisted my wife be there for the quote but didn't tell me the visit was going to last 3 hours and only then because we had to go out.
I'm only just starting, so don't understand a lot of it but this is how it was explained to me...
Anyway, down to the quote, see what you all think.
House: Semi-detached, need to utilise south facing and west facing roof with two sets of 5 panels.
Need to have micro-inverters because of the split and this is called the executive system.
Current yearly bill and usage, £390 (2800KWh)
Figures below were supposedly based on the worst case scenario.
System will generate 2002Kw per year, saving 71% (£278.85) on my annual bill.
The FIT will earn me £325 per year
Total is £603 per year.
The system, fully installed, complete 10 panel, micro-inverters, usage meter, software etc... wait for it... just ..... here it comes... just £12,120
No, that's not a typo!
Not to worry because my system over 25 years is going to save me £23,453 on bills and give me £12,010 in FIT giving me a total benefit of £35,463.
So, minus my super low £12,120 initial cost, that will give me a massive £23,000 of profit in 25 years.
As you can all see, that is an amazing deal that cannot be refused and coupled in with some credit by Barcleys at 9% APR, wow, its a must take deal!

Now, I'm not stupid and don't rush into things, and it was my first quote so I thought I better look around and the first port of call was this forum.

Fantastic information from people on here, makes me feel very bitter towards the guy/company that came to my home and took 3 hours of my life.
I don't want to mention the company, unless someone asks me, but I'd better get my free torch, 2 mugs and dvd for having a quote. (I wonder if the 2 mugs were supposed to be me and the wife?)

Hope you all have a good laugh at this quote, but seriously if they are going around with this sort of thing, I hate to think of the people that have fallen for it. Should something be done?

Cheers all
Martin

Read our FAQs then ask for a few more quotes; can pretty well guarantee all will be far cheaper than that one !

Micro inverters are fine if there's a shading problem but two sets of (unshaded) panels on different rooves can just as easily (& far more economically) be dealt with by using a dual string inverter.

It's exceedingly difficult to reduce your usage by anything like the amount of SP electricity you generate. You'd really need to be at home 24/7, watching monitors throughout day and rushing around switching stuff on & off to use 50% of it; 71% would probably mean you had to run all the lights during the day then grope around in the dark after sunset (maybe that's why they offer a torch ?)

If you did need to borrow money for the installation, do it with a mortgage additional advance (at around 3%) rather than a personal loan (actually, 9% is quite good for one of them but it's still a lot more than a more appropriate vehicle)

Martyn1981 · 20 March 2015 at 7:35AM

ely_ellis wrote: »

Hope you all have a good laugh at this quote, but seriously if they are going around with this sort of thing, I hate to think of the people that have fallen for it. Should something be done?

Cheers all
Martin

Hiya Martin (nice name, shame you spell it wrong

) thanks for that post it was a good laugh and informative. There have been quite a lot of posts like this spread over various MSE boards in the last year.

They annoy me greatly, especially as I know that many people will become confused over the huge amount of numbers thrown at them, and miss the fact that the install cost is simply too high for any chance of profit.

This thread, is getting old, but has the same story as you:

I've been a massive fool...My planet UK Solar.

Another thing that 'irks' me is that most (not quite all) of these stories seem to involve loans from Barclays. Whilst I appreciate that a loan, and what you do with it, aren't the same thing, I do think Barclays should think more carefully about who they are loosely linked with ..... perhaps a future miss selling is on the cards?

Back to PV, and reality. If you can work out a rough estimate of your roof sizes, then we should be able to take a guess at how many panels you can fit, and what your options are. As Eric said, no need for specialist equipment unless your rooves have shading, as there are loads and loads of inverters that will happily operate across 2 aspects.

Looking at your income estimates, I note that the FiT and export income figure of £325 is based on the current FiT and export rates ..... that sounds fair, but did they mention that these change on 1/4/15, so for you, at that generation, it would be £316.5.

As Eric says, leccy savings much lower, perhaps £120 (£80 to £160).

Have a read of the PV FAQs, and perhaps try section 5 to see how much you will generate.

Keep chatting, hopefully a 2.5kWp (10 panel system) will actually come in at around £4k or less.

Mart.

Martyn1981 · 20 March 2015 at 7:40AM

ely_ellis wrote: »

I don't want to mention the company, unless someone asks me,

Should something be done?

Cheers all
Martin

Hello again. £12k for 2.5kWp ....... I reckon that deserves a naming and shaming.

In the case of the thread I mentioned in my previous reply, if you Google their name, then you'll see "I've been a massive fool" appear on page 1. Sometimes a little people power can be a good thing. :j

Mart.

tunnel · 20 March 2015 at 8:39AM

ely_ellis wrote: »

I don't want to mention the company, unless someone asks me, but I'd better get my free torch, 2 mugs and dvd for having a quote. (I wonder if the 2 mugs were supposed to be me and the wife?)

Martin

I say name and shame, the sooner the rip off merchants are brought to boot the better. I'm asking you....who are they?

Let me take a punt, 1, Solarking, this company approached my father in a supermarket and he had a quote(vastly inflated). 2, solarstyle UK, similar to 1

Can I also ask, did the salesman actually get up a ladder and measure the rooves or did he just look up and say 5 and 5, I know full well what the answer is as no-one in a suit is going up on your roof.

If your serious about solar, post your rough location on here and hopefully you'll get some recommendations for installers that aren't going to take you to the cleaners, once you have some quotes...again, post them on here and you'll get all the advice you need, just read the many threads on here from the many very happy folk who sought help on these forums.

Thanks also for posting your experience on here, if it helps to stop even 1 person using the rip off merchants then it's done it's job!!

tunnel

Edit...£12k for 2.5kWp, That has to be record...def name and shame

1961Nick · 20 March 2015 at 9:06AM

£12K for 2.5kWh + exaggerated claims about solar usage & failure to use the post April 1st FIT is almost worthy of reporting to the local trading standards.

Their total FIT of £12K over 20 years would require RPI of 7%. That alone must be mis-selling.

ely_ellis · 20 March 2015 at 10:04AM

Hi all,

The profit over the 25 years was based on their estimate of increasing electricity prices, but still, what a whopper!
The company was/is BGE Company (Big Green Energy), or something like that, based near Manchester.
I noticed that they didn't leave any information or leaflets for me to look at after and the sheet with all the calculations on, has no company logo or company information. He didn't even leave a business card, just wrote his name and mobile phone number on the top of the page. I will scan and post it here later (omitting his name and number of course).

Regarding ladders, no he didn't go on the roof, he did measure the length and width of the house and estimated where the apex was, he also measured the angle of the roof from his car using some app, (so he says).

Yes, 1st April I could understand that!

Cheers
Martin

tunnel · 20 March 2015 at 10:17AM

ely_ellis wrote: »

I noticed that they didn't leave any information or leaflets for me to look at after and the sheet with all the calculations on, has no company logo or company information. He didn't even leave a business card, just wrote his name and mobile phone number on the top of the page. I will scan and post it here later (omitting his name and number of course).

Cheers
Martin

Any reputable company would leave full headed estimates and not back of a fag packet calcs, I'd like to know how the hell these companies still exist, there must be some really gullible people out there.

Edit, for your info you should be looking around the £3k mark for 2.5kWp or nearer £4k-£4.5k for higher wattage panels(3.27kWp(benQ 327W panels))

Sterlingtimes · 20 March 2015 at 11:29AM

The "wife must be present" thing is a giveaway. Unfortunately for Solarking they got hold of the wrong person (Sterling LLB) when they told me that "it is the law that the wife must be present".

The approaches by these companies appear to follow the timeshare model where husband and wife are subjective to three hour high pressure techniques. I have the same thing going on with Allen Ford who refuse to conduct business unless prospective buyers attend a three hour ordeal in their showrooms with a compulsory test drive.

ely_ellis · 20 March 2015 at 3:40PM

Although my wife was at home, other than saying 'hello' to the guy, she wandered off doing her thing. It was only when it was coming up to 3 hours that she popped in to remind me that we were going out and had to hurry.
Not knowing anything about costs and savings involved in solar PV, I could have easily signed up to this guy, but unfortunatly for them, I do NOT sign anything in my house from any caller, arranged or not.
We had a window salesman come about a month ago we got a quote for £1800, he then knocked it down to £1200 instantly. The alarm bells went off imediatly. We told him we would call during the week and out came the classic.... 'this deal is only for today'.
Unfortunately I lost my temper and told him immediately to leave my property. He protested along the way trying to back peddle with what he had said, but anyone who knocks of a 3rd and tells me only for today is a con man.
Cheers
Martin

ed110220 · 20 March 2015 at 4:40PM

ely_ellis wrote: »

Although my wife was at home, other than saying 'hello' to the guy, she wandered off doing her thing. It was only when it was coming up to 3 hours that she popped in to remind me that we were going out and had to hurry.
Not knowing anything about costs and savings involved in solar PV, I could have easily signed up to this guy, but unfortunatly for them, I do NOT sign anything in my house from any caller, arranged or not.
We had a window salesman come about a month ago we got a quote for £1800, he then knocked it down to £1200 instantly. The alarm bells went off imediatly. We told him we would call during the week and out came the classic.... 'this deal is only for today'.
Unfortunately I lost my temper and told him immediately to leave my property. He protested along the way trying to back peddle with what he had said, but anyone who knocks of a 3rd and tells me only for today is a con man.
Cheers
Martin

Three hours?! Did you not get bored or think it was a giant waste of your time? I emailed various installers and they simply emailed back reasonable quotes/estimates. One called to clarify something but that was all. No sales pitch at all, just one or more options to choose from and the prices.

Ed

A New Quote (What do you think?)

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