Solar servicing

I had an email from my installer concerning servicing the solar system. Has anyone had this experience and if so what did they do, also was it an agreement for the warranty?

Not normally a warranty requirement. Ask them what it entails...

• You can check that your generation is as expected yourself, so confirm that everything is operational
• Cleaning the panels is generally not worth the cost as it rains a lot in the UK
• You can visually inspect the cabling for any physical damage (from rodents, etc) yourself
• Electrical testing of the AC circuit would be part of your periodical whole-house electrical installation condition inspection

neil_hartup I’ve had my solar FIT array for 7 years now. Absolutely no maintenance or inspections done on it at all.

I record quarterly generation for FIT payments and over the years there’s been no obvious panel degradation or drop off off performance. Some later years have been higher than earlier years, just normal solar ups and downs.

When we had the scaffolding up for our new GivEnergy installation a year ago I took the opportunity to wash the panels. Apart from a few bits of lichen on the corners of a few panels they were in excellent condition and really didn’t need cleaning. They were much cleaner than the roof tiles.

If your installer wants to charge for this solar service then its a money making scheme in my view.

If you had the older 10year warranty then it was fit and forget.
The newer stuff with 12 year warranty does require various health checks along the way, which are chargeable but equally sound like they can be done remotely by Giv. See here: https://givenergy.co.uk/faq-the-givenergy-12-year-warranty/

Either way nobody will be anywhere needing the health checks yet and therefore this does sound like a bit of a waste of money being pushed by your installer. The systems are incredibly passive with no moving parts, not even fans, so other than maybe checking for loose connections I can't think of much else they'd be actually doing.