Solar Panels UK - is it worth it?

[Envchem]

Hi all, Really interesting the posts of this topic although there are some that make me feel complete noob with the level of technical information.
I am at the point where I am trying to get some quotes since we decided to move on with some home improvements.
Anyone aware of decent installers in the north west area?
I have one quote so far which is 16k for 16 330W panels (equally split on my west/east orientated roof) and one powerwall. I may be wrong but I think it is a bit on the expensive side?
Any help would be appreciated

 

[PITA]

I'm not bothering with solar, i'll just wait for a power cut

Northern Powergrid sorry for Storm Arwen trillion pound compensation error

Customers hit by power cuts in Storm Arwen erroneously received cheques for trillions of pounds.

www.bbc.co.uk

Cashing that Cheque would be funny.

I never realised (until I got my own) that Solar Arrays are Grid-Tied in the UK... so if there's a Power Cut... All Solar Arrays stop working. This is to prevent power accidentally flowing back onto the Grid Network while engineers are working.

So 99% of all the Solar Arrays you see on peoples roof tops, all stop working in a Power Cut... even on a bright sunny day, which seems crazy really.

The only exception, is if you have Home Storage Batteries and automatic Grid Isolation. Like a Tesla Powerwall 2 and Gateway 2 device.

 

[PITA]

I have one quote so far which is 16k for 16 330W panels (equally split on my west/east orientated roof) and one powerwall. I may be wrong but I think it is a bit on the expensive side?
Any help would be appreciated

Sounds about right from my experience... providing you get the Tesla Gateway 2 as well for that price. Also depends on the quality of the panels.

Think I paid £18,000 for 18 x Sunpower Maxeon-3 400w panels, one Powerwall 2 and one Gateway 2.

 

[Envchem]

Hi mate. Thanks for the prompt response. Yes the system is with Gateway included. That puts me a bit at ease
We went recently through replacing our windows, doors etc and blimey the solar panel market is even more dodgy

 

[Avendit]

Hi mate. Thanks for the prompt response. Yes the system is with Gateway included. That puts me a bit at ease
We went recently through replacing our windows, doors etc and blimey the solar panel market is even more dodgy

Urgh, the heat pump adverts I get on Facebook... °shudders°.

 

[PITA]

Urgh, the heat pump adverts I get on Facebook... °shudders°.

Yes... in my experience, these are the dodgy ones... my ranking is:

1. Heat Pumps

2. Plumbers / Gas / Electricians / Tilers

3. Scaffolding

4. Driveways

5. Double Glazed Windows

6. Solar & batterys

 

[Dilly]

Yes... in my experience, these are the dodgy ones... my ranking is:

1. Heat Pumps

2. Plumbers / Gas / Electricians / Tilers

3. Scaffolding

4. Driveways

5. Double Glazed Windows

6. Solar & batterys

I remember the days when double glazing was top of the list closely followed by driveways (from motorway leftovers)

 

[Washout]

Yes... in my experience, these are the dodgy ones... my ranking is:

1. Heat Pumps

2. Plumbers / Gas / Electricians / Tilers

3. Scaffolding

4. Driveways

5. Double Glazed Windows

6. Solar & batterys

Don't forget car dealerships - Tesla have at least knocked that one off the list...if only they can do the same in other areas.

 

[HenryT]

Hi all, Really interesting the posts of this topic although there are some that make me feel complete noob with the level of technical information.
I am at the point where I am trying to get some quotes since we decided to move on with some home improvements.
Anyone aware of decent installers in the north west area?
I have one quote so far which is 16k for 16 330W panels (equally split on my west/east orientated roof) and one powerwall. I may be wrong but I think it is a bit on the expensive side?
Any help would be appreciated

Not particularly helpful, but I used a firm from Southport called EEC (European Environmental Controls) very recently who sadly I can't recommend.

I went with them as their pricing was comparable with the other quotes I had and I was reassured by the fact they were the only firm I approached who actually did come out to do their own survey. They salesman/surveyor was quite pushy but I wasn't phased by that and had no problem pushing back where I needed to. The work they did seems good and the kit used also seems fine (panels and a battery), and is running well now.

The problem I had (and still have) is their after sales support is non-existent. The commissioning was wrong in that the clock was set incorrectly meaning the battery was being charged partly during 'peak' period but worse still was the fact it was then discharging back to the grid, to the point the battery was down to 18%. At this point we don't have an export tariff in place - work in progress currently. So I was buying electricity at peak price and then giving it back to the grid for free. Perfect.

It took a couple of days and multiple calls/emails to get the discharge problem resolved, which in the end they had the inverter manufacturer do remotely. I was able to sort the clock out myself. I have other questions about the set up/performance which they are again referring me to the kit manufacturers to resolve and clearly don't want to engage at all following the install.

It does feel very much like the double glazing market of the 70s/80s and without doubt the firm I used are not interested once they have had your order.

 

[RedMod3]

Disagree with Heat Pump installers being at the top of the list as the company that installed our air-air did a very good job at a fair price. I rate them 10/10.

 

[PITA]

Don't forget car dealerships - Tesla have at least knocked that one off the list...if only they can do the same in other areas.

Oh... I binned them 20 years ago, and do all my own servicing (cars & motorcycles) after they've done the first run-in service...

In fact I have all the official Cam Timing tools for BMW... which my BMW Dealer point blank refused to supply me... but I bought from a BMW dealer in Croatia ... I phoned around Europe until someone sold them to me

Tesla is a refreshing change.

 

[Avendit]

Disagree with Heat Pump installers being at the top of the list as the company that installed our air-air did a very good job at a fair price. I rate them 10/10.

Oh yea, our team was top notch too. But there are going to be a lot of disappointed & ripped off punters in the coming years with your elderly neighbours being missold crap heatpumps with them installed and trying to work with their 25 year old single pipe heating system (and other more novel failure modes).

Which will lead to a backlash of publicity just when we really need to be pushing electrification of heating and adding well installed insulation to everything. And you -know- all the articles in the daily mail will deliberatly fail to differentiate between bad tech, bad sales processes and bad installs.

 

[Envchem]

Not particularly helpful, but I used a firm from Southport called EEC (European Environmental Controls) very recently who sadly I can't recommend.

I went with them as their pricing was comparable with the other quotes I had and I was reassured by the fact they were the only firm I approached who actually did come out to do their own survey. They salesman/surveyor was quite pushy but I wasn't phased by that and had no problem pushing back where I needed to. The work they did seems good and the kit used also seems fine (panels and a battery), and is running well now.

The problem I had (and still have) is their after sales support is non-existent. The commissioning was wrong in that the clock was set incorrectly meaning the battery was being charged partly during 'peak' period but worse still was the fact it was then discharging back to the grid, to the point the battery was down to 18%. At this point we don't have an export tariff in place - work in progress currently. So I was buying electricity at peak price and then giving it back to the grid for free. Perfect.

It took a couple of days and multiple calls/emails to get the discharge problem resolved, which in the end they had the inverter manufacturer do remotely. I was able to sort the clock out myself. I have other questions about the set up/performance which they are again referring me to the kit manufacturers to resolve and clearly don't want to engage at all following the install.

It does feel very much like the double glazing market of the 70s/80s and without doubt the firm I used are not interested once they have had your order.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated mate. This has been helpful since I was thinking of calling this company due to proximity.
I am currently evaluating these two: Solar Power Specialists and Solar PV installation, sensible priced repairs and online shop. Call the experts..

Any feedback on them?

 

[qwickshot]

Air to air (which is standard air conditioning) is a whole different ball game to retrofitting air/ground to water into an existing wet system though and has far more complexity and considerations.

 

[GlynG]

Hi all, Really interesting the posts of this topic although there are some that make me feel complete noob with the level of technical information.
I am at the point where I am trying to get some quotes since we decided to move on with some home improvements.
Anyone aware of decent installers in the north west area?
I have one quote so far which is 16k for 16 330W panels (equally split on my west/east orientated roof) and one powerwall. I may be wrong but I think it is a bit on the expensive side?
Any help would be appreciated

I live in Leicester but i used EEC who are based in Liverpool, they do a range of panels and battery storage inc Powerwall, They are diabolical regarding making contact and not brilliant when you call them but did a good job. you could get a quote though as they had a fellow whos job it is to visit customers and provide a quote.

 

[MrBadger]

Anyone aware of decent installers in the north west area?

Not sure if Gavin (iirc) at Leeds Solar would be of any help. He knows his stuff and won't be in the game to upsell... I have no personal experience, but he was a contributor on a forum that I use to frequent and certainly knew his stuff and had happy forum members who were also very knowledgeable so knew if what he said was right or wrong.

The Solar Specialists

The solar specialists, installers of great value Solar PV systems with panels from Sanyo, Schott, Hyundai, Up Solar, Suntech and SMA Sunnyboy, Aurora Power-one inverters covering Leeds and West Yorkshire.

www.leeds-solar.co.uk

 

[HenryT]

Any feedback is greatly appreciated mate. This has been helpful since I was thinking of calling this company due to proximity.
I am currently evaluating these two: Solar Power Specialists and Solar PV installation, sensible priced repairs and online shop. Call the experts..

Any feedback on them?

Atlantic Renewables and GlowGreen Ltd were the other two I had quotes from - didn't pursue either as they were both done remotely. Call me old fashioned, but I wanted to meet the co I went with and in particular to use a firm who were on site to do their own survey.

In the event I could probably have picked any of the three - was always going to be a shot in the dark without previous experience.

 

[Yachtsman]

I’ve been talking to Synergy Power of Coventry who have been extremely helpful, carried out a site survey & spent a couple of hours helping me understand which systems/combination of components met my requirements. Obviously not installed as yet but I able to recommend them at this point.
Finally settled on a 12 x410kWp array split across 3 roofs each with SolarEdge optimisers, SolarEdge/EV 5kW inverter charger, PW2 & gateway. + installation & commissioning etc.
Now waiting for DNO approval.

 

[btc1k]

I’ve been talking to Synergy Power of Coventry who have been extremely helpful, carried out a site survey & spent a couple of hours helping me understand which systems/combination of components met my requirements. Obviously not installed as yet but I able to recommend them at this point.
Finally settled on a 12 x410kWp array split across 3 roofs each with SolarEdge optimisers, SolarEdge/EV 5kW inverter charger, PW2 & gateway. + installation & commissioning etc.
Now waiting for DNO approval.

How much is that, if you don't mind me asking? £18k?

 

[Cwmwd]

Just out of interest, has anyone looked at shares in the Ripple's co-op wind farm as an alternative to home solar? Looks like a decent alternative if you've not much room on your roof or facing the wrong way. Presumably less hassle as well as you don't need to get surveyors and builders and fitters traipsing all over the place drilling holes.

EDIT: Here's a link... Ripple Energy: Super simple. Powerfully green.