Switched-on people
Industry stuff for the industry buff:
A better way.
"I've witnessed many fantastic changes, innovations, and installation companies come and go. My fellowship with ethically-minded MCS solar panel installers goes back decades. Today, I offer my experience to ensure you gain real independence from this crazy geopolitical world."
Stuart Lovatt
Power My Home Solar Panels
Sundial House, 44 Panton Road, Chester CH2 3HX.
01244 722 607
Est. 2004.
If you look at the Russian flag, it shows a knight slaying a dragon. Interestingly, the pub at the United Nations headquarters is called The Serpent.
The BRICS nations are forging ahead with a Unified Digital Currency payment system (gold-backed) with an expanding national and personal membership. This geopolitical earthquake will leave the WEF/NATO/UN nations behind. What consequence for a UK solar industry so dependent on China and did we ‘sanction’ ourselves out of the future?
Boris Johnson met with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Kyiv on April 9, 2022 to deliberately prevent peace talks. This moment may bring the UK’s solar industry to a grinding halt, as other nations now line up to join the BRICs economic block, thus leaving NATO nations out in the cold.
I have given up looking for logic or balance. I better go take my medication, before I become normal, like the rest of them! LOL
The majority of people, certainly in Scotland, are installation solar pv to meet building warrant requirements rather than for the FIT income.
Seems odd they cannot get the higher FIT as new build qualifies for full RHI for heat pumps or biomass.
Looks like you will end up with the lower rate and with the new rules extensions to existing systems, do not qualify for FIT payments, you can not go that way either. Very interesting, thanks for the update!
For new builds a Domestic Energy Adviser cannot do a standard EPC it must be done by a SAP Assessor prior to applying for Building Warrant and must show the Solar. I cannot see a work around for the higher rate FIT.
Seems they are doing the rounds!
https://who-called.co.uk/Number/07937933923
Hi Norman
Is it not possible to do an EPC without the solar and one with the solar. My understanding is the property must be level D before the solar being added in order to get the higher FIT payments???
Hi
It seems to be a catch 22.
They need the solar in the EPC to get Completion Cert.
Yet OFGEM needs the EPC before the solar. Which came first the chicken or the egg.
Thanks for sharing.
Looks very amateurish on first impressions.
Reminds me when I took my car into a well-known branded brake and exhaust centre. I knew my brakes were fine, but after a free ‘health check’, suddenly I needed new disks and pads.
Guess my next article will be warning existing PV owners about ‘free health checks’.
Thanks for the heads-up Norman.
Latest letter doing the rounds of my pv clients. Any thoughts.
Latest “Replace Your Inverter” letter doing the rounds of my customers. They should be ashamed.
.
Hi Norman
Very good question! Does the person building the property need to install the solar before the EPC is done? I hate to answer the question with a question.
Hi Folks
Hope all is well with everyone.
Can anyone tell me how FIT and a customer build new house works.
My understanding is the panels need to be installed and commissioned before the Completition Cert issued and a first EPC produced.
Under OFGEM rules, however, the EPC needs to pre-date the MCS date so they cannot get the larger generation rate. Or am I missing something.
Hi Ray
You’re welcome. Thank you for the update and your help also! £1k is far better in your pocket than SSE. Amazing a few clicks of a mouse and you have saved a lot of money.
I hope this inspires more people to shop around for new energy suppliers, well done!
Hi Norfolk Solar.
I rang SSE re; F.I.T & they said that keeping this with them was OK, So no need to change to anyone else. I’ve gone with Avro Energy as their quote was over £1k cheaper.
So thanks all for your help.
Hi Stu
Not one hundred percent clarification but it should point Ray in the right direction.
Thanks for clarifying this issue.
Hi Ray
I am unsure if you have to move your FIT payments, when you change your energy supplier. Contact SSE and ask them. We normally recommend customers who install solar to register for FIT payments with Good Energy, as you do not need to buy your energy from them in order to receive FIT payments form them. That way you can move energy supplier without the hassle of moving FIT as well, if need be?
Hi
I ain’t ever heard of anyone changing supplier as in terms of Generation Export in the six years it’s been around.
As I don’t see any benefit in doing so, I personally wouldn’t give them any reason to ‘lose your paperwork’ and spend any of my precious time on their customer service lines.
Let us know how it easy it was if you choose to change?
1st off, Where is everyone?
I’m in the middle of changing Gas/Electric supplier, solely as the cost of SSE is over £1K a year more.
Can I/do I need to change SSE as my Generation export agents. As its them who pay me at present?.
I didn’t know MCS was asking people to report them.
Glad this practice is finally being stamped out by the renewable authorities.
Lots of companies are using this trick to con people,the most common being the solaredge 25 % extra line which again is not true.
Mcs are asking people to report these companies directly to the mcs.
Yes I received an e mail 4 weeks ago with a link,e mail came from carl at solar limpets.
Inverters have an operating temperature which you can find on their data sheet which is downloadable from the manufacturers website.
Vent tiles (near the ridge) and eaves vents can be added by roofers on the non solar side of the roof to improve airflow and convection cooling. Usually 3-4 are sufficient and we include these in our designs if needed.
Retro fitting is possible and fairly cheap compared to a failed inverter.
Hi Ray
No worries here. Inverters are designed to run in hot environments around the world.
In fact, solar is at the forefront of our humanities space exploration and they have to endure really extremes of temperature outside of the comfortable atmosphere.
Guys, I have a 4KW system with a Solar River Inverter in the Loft. (Bungalow) right now 4.40pm Im charging in excess of 3KW.
I went into the loft to check on the Inverter cos’ on very hot days I can here the fan running. (only just very faint)
The loft must be in excess of 40c + as I can only last 5 mins before having to exit.
Should I be thinking of additional cooling where the Inverter is?
Any advice welcome.
R
Finally have panels after 18 months of planning, financing and building work! Best thing I have ever bought. 2 months in and the electric bill is down 70% although lets not talk about the winter months ahead 😉 Big shout out to Stratford Energy Solutions who were brilliant. Now to wait for battery prices to drop 50%….
Everyone should always get ‘three’ quotes to compare prices and technology offerings.
Try our quote service that introduces only vetted and longstanding installers.
Hope this helps.
Do you know if Rhino Solar are a reputable company? My mum in Leicestershire is going to talk with them today, and i want to make sure she doesn’t get a poor deal. Thanks!
Hi Peter
Sounds like a product that has not yet been manufactured.
Hi Peter
Sounds like a product that has not yet been manufactured.
I know they make flexible PV rolls, so creating a lightweight flexible PV panel with magnetic properties to hold in place, with an easy fit set-up, could be a new after market product.
I know they attach PV tech to the solar-powered plane to give range, so can’t be unreliestic to suggest the same would happen with an EV equipped with additional input generator.
Anyone with knowledge/experience of fitting PV panels to vehicles? I’m particulartly interested in fitting one to the roof of an EV to extend its driving range, but have found little info so far. An article by Elon Musk dated from 2008 says it’s only likely to contribute 1% of annual power needs for an EV [so not considered by Tesla], but surely there are more efficient panels/materials now, as well as much lighter cars than Tesla make?
Comment seem to have disappeared.
Hi
Would anyone here be able to point me in the direction of a ASHP installation company?
Thanks
Hi
Would anyone in here be able to point me in the direction of a ASHP installation company. Preferably based in South East.
Thanks
No…but make sure you research the EPC requirements for this type of property.
Hi
Hope all is good. Ive been asked to quote for a 3.50 kwp system on a Park Home Roof within a caravan park. The owners live there permanently but there electricity bill is paid to the owner of the park each month. He provides them with a printed invoice for the unit used and cost. However they do have a standard metr with an MPAN number.
Any of the installers done one of these type of jobs.
Done. Best of luck. If I win donate the £20 to a Charity of your choice.
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The questionnaire should only take a few minutes and you’ll have the chance to win £20.
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Hello
I’ve got stuff going back to 2009 on an old laptop…..pre Google Drive!
I’ll dig it out and refresh my memory.
The issue lies with the original broad brush advice given by MCS and RECC. Because the export tariff was deemed at 50% of generation then installation companies drew up spreadsheets to show the remaining 50% as being used irrespective of the circumstances and life styles of the householder.
For example a working couple with a system on a south/east facing roof will be away from the house during the most productive period of the pv system.
I tended to use 40% and took time to explain to prospective customers why my projections may look less than on other quotes.
Things changed with the introduction of power diverters though this meant savings on gas or oil and not electricity unless you were an all electric house.
I’ll see what I can dig up from back in the day
Hi Norman
What is the earliest documentation you hold from the MCS,REAL, or RECC, about guidance to customer for
savings on their electric bills from a solar PV systems?
Going back to 2010/2011 solar PV installers where selling solar PV to customers saying that they would save 50% of the total solar PV generations.
Some companies changed this to 50% of customers electric bills and some even said the customer would save up to 90% off their electric bills.
The last two claims are totally false and customers have been miss sold a solar PV system and are right to claim against the company if they are still trading.
But here is where it all falls down when anyone wants to make a claim because they didn’t save 50% of the total generation from the solar PV system.
I’ve found an article from 2011 by Witch? Quoting that the
Energy Saving Trust Says that customers will save £70 on their electric bill rather than the £120 previously quoted.
If we use the information that was given to use as
installers and use the 50% of the total generation then the customer would expect to save the following from a 4 kWh which generated 3500 kWh per year.
50% of 3500 equals @ 14p per kW a saving would be £245.00.
As you can see there is a big difference from £245.00 to £70 on a customer savings per year.
The big question is who is at fault.
The installer giving the customer this information on electric savings per year.
or
The department which issue the information to the installers.
https://www.recc.org.uk/pdf/feed-in-tariff-scheme-guidance-for-consumers.pdf
If you or any other installers have this information on guidance on customer s savings going back to 2010 please email me a copy or just post a link on here.
Hello Adrian.
If it looks like a pig, sounds like a pig, smells likes a pig and walks and talks like a pig….then it very probably is…..a Pig.
Well, what an interesting visit from the sales person from ‘Suns Solar’.
First, he (I didn’t catch his name) didn’t know what he was here for and had to ask me what the office had called him in for. I told him: An energy assessment, new guarantee for the move from MyPlanet, PV+ system.
He asked me several questions about how my panels were doing, price paid, inverter used (inverter? try 16 of them), my current energy supplier’s tariff and a few other bits and bobs. He said my system was doing fine… so that was the assessment!
I asked him about what happened to MyPlanet: Mis-selling, so went under. Fortunately not when I got my panels in 2014, but things change. Or I did my homework and they sold me the system at the proper rate, whatever.
I noted that the guy hadn’t even opened his bag and kept looking at his phone… awkward. So I asked him about where Sun’s Energy now fit in to all of this, and did he have my new guarantee… He said that now that MyPlanet had folded, that if I had any problems then HIES will cover it and to contact them.
Maybe the clue to all of was pointed to by ‘Solar Stu’ and mentioned by the saleman: “We bought in MyPlanets customer lists”. Soooo, not taken on MyPlanet’s customers, just their names and details, to try and sell them more stuff?
The room goes quiet… I asked him about PV+. He said it was a bonus for those on the lower tariffs and that I could get more information on-line, but it improves output by 42% by reducing the voltage from 260 to 220, which is the energy you save…
But as we know, 47% of statistics are made up on the spot. This is also codswallop, having had a quick look at the PV+ systems. At best, they prevent badly installed systems from tripping out in high voltage conditions, at worse, they invalidate your installation. As for ‘Voltage Reduction’ mumbo-jumbo, it may just be me and my CEng, but I call pig-poo (that one’s for you Norman), like all the other Voltage Reduction schemes. Energy = V x I, as one goes down in normal systems, the other goes up, but the energy stays the same. There are cases and situations when efficiency of devices go up with a lower voltage, but in a house where a lot of energy intensive devices are purely Resistive, it’s codswallop.
I then asked about battery storage (Suns Energy advertise them on their site) and he said they weren’t worth it yet, had he really given up so easily? And I agree, from my previous experience. Even the Tesla systems just aren’t cost effective yet, not at the 8.5p/kwh tarrif we’re on! Maybe when the Li-S batteries come online I’ll look at them again (I’ve visited here, amazing stuff http://oxisenergy.com/)
So, after all of this, the salesmen left.. what a waste of 20 minutes. About as much time as it took to set up the hidden camera!
Thanks for all your input, I hope the summary helps.
Irony of Ironies.
A company in Scotland is recruiting salesmen to “Help and Assist” people who were miss-sold solar.
They are taking on ex solar salesmen as they “have the best experience of the market”
So the conmen that earned hefty commissions miss-selling you solar panels in the first place are now looking to earn more commission helping you fight the bad guys.
Google “Mis-sold solar” and you will get a heap of companies willing to help you get your money back for a hefty fee.
Here is the WHICH take on this:
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-complain-about-being-misled-by-a-solar-panel-sales-pitch
Very interesting, thanks. The fact they missed the appointment wasn’t a good start! Now for Friday.
Hi Adrian
This sounds like another double glazing sales technique based on ignorant salesmen. Enphase micro inverters (with the correct design) are probably the best solution for maximising production and nothing else can improve it.
As long as your original design was ok and not way off then you won’t be able to generate more energy by changing an isolator switch !!
P.S. the government is not saying “Thank you” and paying for anything !!
Please update everyone here with the results of today’s visit to enlighten everyone.
May I bring your attention to this brilliant ‘insight’ into what may be going on:
https://www.powermyhome.uk/pv-solar-panels/questions-about-solar-panels#comment-2880493602
Hope this helps.
Just had a call from a company that had taken over the paperwork from ‘MyPlanet’ that went under last year (together, but unrelated to, the winding up of the Gibraltan Insurance Underwriters). The conversation went well, saying that they are reviewing any complaints first, then doing a review of all other installed systems. All sounding good. Then the alarm bells started to ring:
– “We do a free health check” – Thank you
– “We give you your new Guarantees” – Okay, thank you
– “There is a possibility that we could also improve the efficiency of the system, by up to 30%, as the government, as a way of thank you to those that already have systems, is paying for the change of the isolators.” Dingaling… (really, Enphase shows my system is 98.3% efficient and an isolator’s just a switch, isn’t it?)
– “We have people in your area” Dingalingaling
– “This is a very limited offer and won’t be available again” Dingalingalingaling!
Is this one of the ‘scams’ I’ve heard about below?
I just have to ensure nothing going on changes anything to do with my feed-in and generation, nor changes my 25 year warantees on the Enphase Inverters or Solarworld panels that were installed in 2014.
Appointment at 1pm today… wish me luck!
I realise I have passed a threshold when I find myself arguing the point as to why I don’t want a ‘smart’ TV or toaster.