Questions regarding Rolec Solar of Doncaster

[miggs62]

Go easy with me as this is my first post here.
Just had Chris here from Rolec of Doncaster and he gave me the following quote for a PV system.
We live in an East/West facing mid terrace house, and he proposed a 16 panel 4kwp system. He said he would 8 panels on the front and 8 on the back. I will quote direct from his figures and you tell me if it's good or bad.
KWP is the total size of the array installed - 4.00.
KK is the irradiance in your post code - 893.
SAP is the shading factor - 1.
SAP calc is KWPxKKxSF - 3572.
Assumed 50% savings usage - £480.
Feed in tariff returns - £513.
Export tariff returns - £85.

The cash price is £9900 or free using the following calc's.
£129.72 per month for 120 months (10yrs).
Interest charge would be £5531.
Arrangement fee £135.
Total payable would be £15566.40.

I know there is a lot to take in but I have come to a place where I am hoping for some honest advice.
Thanks Again
Stephen Middlehurst

 

[whinmoor]

The price is very high. All the figures are ridiculously optimistic. The yield is based as if all the panels are facing south. On an E/W split you are looking at 2832kWh per year, not 3572.

You're then looking at:

FiT: £407
Export: £67
50% Savings: £198

Total: £672

Rather less than quoted. They should be reported for mis-selling.

We need to know the brand of panels and inverter to tell you if they are any good.

If you're in Widnes, why not get a local firm or 3 to quote for you? It's a fair way from Doncaster if there should be a problem in the future....

 

[miggs62]

Sorry about that, I should have said. He said the panels would be Solar World and they would be using Enphase Microinverters.

 

[whinmoor]

Decent kit but I'd recommend getting another quote or two from companies more local to you.

 

[saint]

All the companies that I have come across mis-selling are suggesting enphase. I'm not saying they are mis-selling cos I don't have all the info but they are saying a shade factor of 1 (I.e. No shading ) so no need for micro inverters. Also £9900 is about £3k too much. £15+k is crazy. As others has said get local quotes and look for some thing that starts with a 6.

 

[miggs62]

Thanks to everyone who has replied, although more are very welcome. I can see what you are saying and I filled out a form earlier which should get me 3 or more "local" quotes in the next few day's. As for Rolec I think I will be giving them a call in the next couple of day's. Thanks Again.

 

[miggs62]

I have started to get phone calls now from firms who a lot more local than before. 1st one is coming Friday, 2nd on Monday.
I phoned Rolec earlier when I got in from work (6 till 2 this week) and cancelled everything with them. They where ok about it to be honest, quite civil. They tried to get me to stay of course. When the salesman was here yesterday he offered me £400 as an incentive. They called this the "Utility bill bridging payment agreement". The salesman has just called me and added another £1000 onto this. This £1400 would have been paid approx 2 weeks after completion, I still said "no thanks".

 

[Gavin A]

did you get that quote in writing?

if so can you please send a copy of it to RECC & MCS complaints department as that is blatant miss selling, completely against the rules.

We'll happily cover widnes, use quality kit, experienced installers, give accurate performance estimates, and would be at least 30% cheaper than their list price, depending on scaffolding, roof type etc. Or if you have that level of money to invest, and the roof space, maybe you'd be better looking at a bigger system, eg 6kWp on an east west split can work very well.

 

[Gavin A]

Thanks to everyone who has replied, although more are very welcome. I can see what you are saying and I filled out a form earlier which should get me 3 or more "local" quotes in the next few day's. As for Rolec I think I will be giving them a call in the next couple of day's. Thanks Again.

just so you know, those firms charge all the companies who quote around £40 each lead, often selling the leads to 4 companies, so that automatically adds £160 to the price they need to charge based on a 25% success rate, In reality given the actual number of drop outs, costs of sales vists, quotes etc you can be looking at more like £500-1000 extra just to cover the costs of all the ones that don't go ahead.

If you want a good price from a quality localish firm, then it's far better to do some research and go direct as a lot of the good firms are busy enough not to even use the lead generation companies, so you get 4 quotes from the more desperate sales led companies in the area who'll either over charge you, or be engaged in some sort of race to the bottom on prices and won't be around to honour the warranty due to their unsustainable pricing.

http://www.leeds-solar.co.uk/quote if you'd like a good honest quote.

 

[miggs62]

did you get that quote in writing?

if so can you please send a copy of it to RECC & MCS complaints department as that is blatant miss selling, completely against the rules.

We'll happily cover widnes, use quality kit, experienced installers, give accurate performance estimates, and would be at least 30% cheaper than their list price, depending on scaffolding, roof type etc. Or if you have that level of money to invest, and the roof space, maybe you'd be better looking at a bigger system, eg 6kWp on an east west split can work very well.

Thanks again Gavin, yes I have all of his quote in writing in front of me now. I have a few firms coming to me in the next few days, depending on what they say, might give you a ring.

 

[miggs62]

Well the first of the "local" companies came to see me today. A man from Harvest Renewables, Bury, came and was so different from the one who came a few days ago. He came into the house, and we had a chat about what I was looking for. He took some measurements, did some calc's and after about an hour he went on his way. Not a single mention of money at any stage. He said he will now away do some more final calc's and come back to see me in a couple of weeks with some option's. The only thing he said about money was that the system could cost approx £7-£7.5k, but the final systems could be tweeked up or down a little bit to suit my budget. Now for the next one on Monday.

 

[SRE]

I'd honestly suggest you do as Gavin says - the vast majority of decent solar firms don't buy in leads, they don't need to because they work on referrals and reputation. Just go the MCS installers list, put your post code in and you'll be provided with a list. Next do your research about panels and inverters so that when the installers come to price you understand what you're being offered. That way you make the decision about what's right for you not what's right for the installer. You wouldn't buy a car or house without researching (I hope) solar is no different it just may take a little longer. You're much better installing a good, welldesigned and installed system in January than a poorly designed and installed system before Christmas.

I'd also make a plea that you send the information from Rolec solar to RECC and MCS. You were savvy enough to smell a rat, many of their customers aren't.

As installers we can't do anything about these rogues but you can help someone else less fortunate than you. I had a similar case over the sumer with a different firm but with similar tactics, the guy was suicidal when I spoke to him. He ended up taking out a lower rate bank loan to pay off a finance agreement that had a ridiculous rate of interest. If you could stop one person from being in the same position it would be worth the effort of reporting this firm.

 

[miggs62]

Thanks again for the advice, SRE. Like I said yesterday, the firm who came yesterday where a lot better than Rolec. No mention of monay at all, (really). He mentioned it at the end, but it wasn't pushed like Rolec. The more I read, the more I am being informed about solar systems. It's place's like this where you get the real help.
Thanks again to all who have posted.

 

[miggs62]

Just a brief update as to what's happened over the past few days. Had a visit last Friday from Harvest Renewable's last Friday. He came into the house did some calc's, measurment's and stayed about an hour. He left saying he would phone me Wednesday to discuss the quote with me. He indicated it would be approx £7-£7.5K. Yesterday I had a visit from Agenda Renewable's and he came across as the best overall. Although he has already e-mailed the lowest quote (earlier today), he also pointed out a slight problem with my roof, which the other's didn't. The Agenda quote came all in at £5900. There was no problem with question's, the man who came owned the company and came across as very good. Just need to sort out the roof now.