Hi all,
Recently just had my solar array fitted.
I’m just wondering whether my solar fitter has overcharged me for my installation as I’m not quite seeing the gains mentioned during the sales pitch.
I have a 5kWh system of 16 panels and a 3.6kW hybrid inverter with 5.2kWh battery.
I’ve been charged 16k for the system.
Please could someone advise?
depends a lot on where you live and the local labour rates and overheads. sounds very expensive compared to my area though might be cheap in London.
Tell me you didnt get only one quote?
PV wont be producing much in October - March
Yeh, seems a tad on the high side.
My neighbour has decided to follow my example and his highest quote for a 6.56kw 16 panel array, 3.6kw inverter, 5kw battery was £12,999.
Definitely shop around.
My battery was installed as a retro fit to a 10 year old solar array and I ended up using a chap from Fife in scotland and I am in North Lincolnshire. A combination of product available and price swung it for him - and the fact that he was very responsive to my enquiries. Currently, many installers are working flat out.
Of you want to check what your system should be generating (ish) then sign up to a free account with solcast. Put your system details in as accrutely as you can and it will give you a really good idea if what you should have generated and even a decent forecast of what you will over the next few days. Useful for deciding how much to charge your battery overnight.
althanator It's done; let it go! No point crying over spilt milk. Multiple quotes might have helped. On the other hand, there's a severe shortage of equipment for a solar install and the installers are very busy. Maybe it's just the local market forces that has enabled you to get your system installed at all. I know others on this forum were waiting the best part of a year, but maybe they were driving the installers to a price rather than a date.
When any contractor is busy they price new jobs high and low when they quiet. It's the way of world. They have no need to be competitive
Seems expensive, my system is similar with 14 x 370w panels (total 5.18kw) split east / west, 3.6kW hybrid inverter, 5.2kWh battery and an eddi. I paid 25% deposit back in May and the system was installed mid Sept. Total cost £9452.
I got a cheap install at the start of the year, due to getting multiple quotes. If I'd looked at customer reviews, I probably would have used one of the more expensive installers and had less grief!
I paid considerably less than you but it took me nearly 18 months to get the (1 day) installation finished.
I too would have used another company if I had read reviews.
Things to consider is that the cost of all these parts has gone up, as has inflation so installers will want more. On top of that demand is through the roof. Despite the fact that its all now VAT free, prices are well up on a year ago.
I had about 8 quotes from various companies (national and local) before taking the plunge, each one refining down the specification and then used to query the previous ones.
I ended up getting 18no. 380w panels (SW orientation), 5kW hybrid inverter and 2no. 8.2kWh 100% dod batteries for £13k on the nose. (ordered late May22, installed July22 (though the batteries arrived a month later).
As other have said, demand was crazy then and likely still is. my neighbours sysem was £1k less for a few less panels a month prior.
I now clock watch the app.... 😅
Ok so I am having 11 400w panels fitted tomorrow and a second 9.5kw battery. But also having extra wiring done. Full details are......
Remove current 2.5kw inverter that has 8x 295w panels attached. Replace inverter with 8kw Solis. Attach the old 8x 295w panels on mppt1. Attach the new 11x 400w panels on mppt2. Add new Giv Energy 9.5kw battery to current AC3 and 8.2kw battery. Rewire additional consumer unit, cut cables to length, make save (a previous installer left loads of coiled cable in the unit), Add extra myenergi harvi and ct clamp to upgraded solar. Total cost £7250. Some discount might be applied as my installer has missed the previous 2 arranged install dates. This is the third attempt since Easter this year. But the scaffold is up this time. Annoyed i missed all the Summer sun though!
Even EON were fairly well priced. I paid about £8500 (can't remember exactly) for 4.62kw system, 5kw inverter, AC3 and 8.2kw battery about 18 months ago.
At the moment £1100 - £1200 per kilowatt of panels installed with appropriate inverter sounds about right. Battery is whatever the current price is
It's not just price - DO NOT PAY THE FINAL INVOICE until they give you the DNO G99 approval or response document. Many installers are not bothering to apply for DNO approval for battery systems. I got six quotes for adding a single extra battery. The lowest quote was battery coat plus £750 labour, the highest cost plus £1750. Not bad for a couple of hours labour.
In my case 'the installer' said he had G99 approval. He didn't. Beware it's the wild west out there ...
Slartibartfast Totally agree, reminds me of the days of Double Glazing Salesmen door knocking every week (if your old enough to recall those, sadly I am).
We ordered our system in Feb 2022 - Hybrid 5kw Inverter, 8.5 Battery (got upgraded to 9.2), 14 x 405w panels (got downgraded to 400w panels).
Install was supposed be April 22, ended up with temp Inverter + Panels in May and waited till August 22 when they installed the GE kit but entire install had to be relocated into Garage (original install was due to be Loft) but no way was anyone getting a 100kg battery into the loft (well perhaps Thor or Captain America)
With the complete and utter disaster of missed install dates (somewhere around 8) we finally ended up a smig over £8k
althanator
I was quoted in March (installed in September) for a 5.6kW system PV with an 8.2kWh Battery with 5kW Hybrid Inverter, on 2 Strings (East and West almost) with DC Micro Inverters, with bird mesh around the panels and it was £13k. Devon.
In all honesty, you will see terrible gains now. I'm now getting about 4 or 6kWh per day absolutely maximum in this overcast weather. Back when it was sunny I was getting close to 30kWh!!!
The system sounds a bit overpriced, but if they were reliable and did a good job then maybe it was worth it.
I think the issues you will have are more to do with the bottleneck in the inverter (you will soon learn - only one hungry appliance at a time!) and the battery is a bit small.. even if you enter twilight hours on 100% then the 5.2 battery won't last all night (unless super frugal).
Are you on an off-peak tariff and do you charge the battery to 100% overnight? This is what you should do in this crap weather.
It's more likely that the system is mismatched to your usage.. did you tell them what your average daily consumption was?
Also, how much rewiring was required, and did you have the EPS backup wiring done?
cluelesscris Fife to Lincolnshire.. That's what I call keen!
I had a recent quote for £9,900 to supply fit 12x380w PV panels (so 4,560kWp or estimated 3,680 kWh per year (for my specific roof orientation) plus a 5kWh battery (and a 3kW inverter).
I didn't like the format of their quote, and have just used a local electrical to fit a 10kWh battery plus 3kW inverter system (no solar PV) for about £6,000.
I will decide in next weeks if to add Solar PV as well. I think I will see big savings to fill the battery overnight, and use it during the day (and target using only one big device at at time (dishwasher, washing machine, oven, kettle). Using solar PV to replace my cheap overnight electricity does not seem to make sense. I may start a separate thread on that 😆
BatteryOnly while you will see decent savings, keeping electric to sub 15p rather than 35p. You can not beat having your own generation. 15p a unit is still 15p, own generation is 0p per unit. I recently maxed out of my roof space with solar panels. Example yesterday, not very nice weather but managed to generate 9.6kw used 2kw in the house at the time, 6.9kw went into the batteries and 0.7kw went into the grid. My bill yesterday was purely the standing charge, which is sadly 37p per day at the moment :-(
Wow. Some quotes ar unreasonable high. I'm sure they can be cheaper. I paid for 10 Trina full black 390W panels east/west plus HY3.6 inverter tied with 5kw battery and paid £7.2k and I think it could be 5% cheaper as vat reduction. Also I have been quoted £14 for similar set-up be some other companies. BTW I have no idea why solar is so expensive in this country. My parents in Poland paid £3k for 4kw inverter and 4.5kw panels with out battery as they don't need it. Back when they installed it they export excess to grid and they can import 80% what they exported with out any charges. Pretty neat. They use grid as unlimited solar battery's.
THALL My bill yesterday was purely the standing charge, which is sadly 37p per day at the moment :-(
How do you only pay 37p per day? Mine is 49.5p
chris_p Yes. Same question. Even if my battery is 100% I never end up with only standing charge. My system always takes some from grid. Should I claim faulty system?
HipHopAst Sorry but that is not my question. Standing charge is different, I'm guessing @THALL has a fixed tariff from before energy cap changes?
Your 'issue' is not an issue. You will always see at least a little import as the inverter needs a bit of time to match the house demand, so the grid is briefly used. The battery likewise needs a few seconds to 'ramp up' to meet demand.
chris_p My Go tariff started July this year. I actually asked Octopus to swap my Go tariff to the newer version to avoid the £4k a year tariffs. The Go tariff is not affected by the price cap. Current go says 37p standing charge too, East of England. It is just cheaper than the current go 4 hour. I am really hoping they bring Go 5 hr back though......
Octopus Go Faster (5H from 2130) July 2022 v1
Standing Charge 37.65p/day
Period
Price (inc. VAT)
02:30 - 21:30
40.13p
21:30 - 02:30
8.25p
Does seem a little high.
£12.5k got me a 6.4kw of panels, 9.5kw battery, both a solis and givenery inverter, an eddi hot water diverter, bird protection, etc...
However, prices at the moment are sky high so you're probably paying a premium as a result.
That said, it's done now - enjoy your system. It'll take you a little longer to get the pay back, but you'll instantly start to lower your electricity bills. Even today which is grim where I am, I'm producing something which will help reduce my draw from the grid.
By way of example before the panels I was paying £6 per day for electricity on average, now it hasn't gone over £2.30 average - even if it's £3, that's a 50% reduction on average (admittedly it'll be lower in winter). Enjoy it, and don't worry about it. 🙂
magician2905 I got my 8.2 battery in the loft, it was fun lifting such dead weight (and that's where it will remain because I'm not going to move it anymore).
wmr1980 I paid £7.2k in May for 3.9kw panel + 5.2kw Giv battery and 3.6 inverter so your set up is reasonable priced. And my inverter + battery are located in loft as well.
HipHopAst My battery and inverter and systems are all downstairs in a well ventilated utility cupboard - 110kg of batteries in the loft was never going to be a good idea! It meant I could keep the loft full of the wife's crap 😆
My system was installed in July. I have a 3.2Kw system (8 x 400w panels), a Solis inverter and AC3.0. I also went for an iboost (cheaper version of the Eddie), bird mesh and a double socket that will run from the battery in a power cut. Originally I was going to get the 5KW battery, and prepared space in the loft. 3 days before installation they rang to say they couldn't get the 5KW battery for another 2 months, but an order of 8.2KW ones that they placed before Xmas and had forgotten about had now turned up. I jumped at the chance of a bigger battery, but unfortunatly it wouldn't fit through the loft hatch, so all my boxes are mounted outside on the house wall. As they are IP65 rated this shouldn't be an issue. In total I paid £8750 including the larger battery and I thought I 'd done quite well price wise. Panels are relatively cheap - it's the battery that costs! With just 8 panels and the inverters my system would have been £4895. With the smaller battery it would have been £7220. But I'm so glad I got the bigger battery.
althanator
The cost is now what it is. The benefits wont be seen until March when more UV is available from Solar. If you have a hybrid car (we have 2) a number of suppliers inc Octopus offer a Go rate which enables you to charge your car at cheap rates I pay 8.25p per kwh for 5 hrs overnight with Octopus. During that time we charge the battery, put dishwasher and washing / tumble dryer on, so much so that 92% of our electric is at cheap rate. I have 4.8kWh sys with 8.5kW battery. our average cost per kWh monthly is around 10p.
THALL
I have the same.
Karen TBH i wish i could install 8.2KWh battery or 9.5KWh because of its 100% DOD my its only 90% so in reality I have only 4KWh. Ill upgrade next year and add 2 extra panels if availability will be better.
HipHopAst only 90% so in reality I have only 4KWh
If your system was installed in May this year, your Batt5.2 should be 5.2kWh available to you. If it is 90%DoD, then it should have about 6kWh actual capacity. Our Batt8.2s installed in January are 200Ah (about 10.2kWh) capacity, of which 160Ah (8.2kWh) is actually available to us. They are effectively 80% DoD but we get the full capacity that we paid for.