To all those PV watchers

[kme]

That`d be me, then

 

[David40]

that's probably how it always will be. I will share my 2 best sites with photovoltaic:

Here you can see the amount of sun on your roof: PV potential estimation utility

Here is a pricerunner: Photovoltaic and prices. -Photovoltaic-prices.co.uk

Can you have a nice weekend!

 

[Steve3948]

I don't do PV but would be interested to see some photo's of how cabling from the inverter/isolators gets to the fuseboard or mains area. If its down the outside of the wall in swa, how do you terminate this if the fuseboard is in the dining room or middle of the lounge, don't want it looking like a factory install, it's domestic after all. If its done inside, is it flush or surface, I would not be happy with surface myself in my house, so what's the norm.

Also what do you think about the look when installed on the roof, or is it just about the money. For years council planning told you what colour tiles you could have and what you could not have, even making you strip your roof if you did not comply, now you can bang panels on a roof cover the tiles that you were told had to be in keeping with surrounding area and nobody care's a hoot.

 

[binky]

normally use conduit for down the outside.

 

[ProDave]

I deliberately limited the size of mine to just under 2KW, partly because that was a set of panels that would fit in a nice neat rectangle in one block together on an easy accessible roof.

Any more, and there would odd panels scattered about on the main part of the roof that's fragmented with dormers and gable ends.

As I drive around, the install that I think are ugly, are where they have panels in odd places, is fragmented groups, some landscape and some portrait.

Regarding wiring, it's no different to adding any new circuit. How well hidden the cable is, depends on the time and care taken.

 

[Jono Pashley]

Company we were installing for gave you a day to do the lot and we were travelling to jobs each day from south wales so everything was surface not much choice, didnt like it but money is money and at the time we couldnt be picky about who we worked for.

 

[ProDave]

Company we were installing for gave you a day to do the lot and we were travelling to jobs each day from south wales so everything was surface not much choice, didnt like it but money is money and at the time we couldnt be picky about who we worked for.

That's a "problem" with the way PV is sold / installed. It seems to be very much modelled on double glazing salesmen and DG company practice.

i.e promise the customer the earth, then do the job as cheap and cheerful as possible, with the customer getting no involvement, like do you want the wiring cheap and on the surface, or pay a bit more for a decent job.

I certainly would not be happy for a company to do any work on my house on that basis.

 

[Jono Pashley]

People who got our team were lucky we would go out of our way to keep everything as hidden as possible, some of the other chimps left places looking like a factory switch room.

 

[Steve3948]

That's a "problem" with the way PV is sold / installed. It seems to be very much modelled on double glazing salesmen and DG company practice.i.e promise the customer the earth, then do the job as cheap and cheerful as possible, with the customer getting no involvement, like do you want the wiring cheap and on the surface, or pay a bit more for a decent job.

I certainly would not be happy for a company to do any work on my house on that basis.

This was my concern, it seems very much modelled on the double glazing sales pitch

 

[kme]

Oh, it was!

Many of the "Solar PV assessors" (That isn`t the right word, but the right one won`t come to me at the moment......too much San Miguel tonight!) used to BE double glazing salesmen -

The customers thought they were getting a qualified bod, who knew what he was talking about.

We used to get in trouble, as Jono alluded to, when we refused to follow the plan agreed between the salesperson (promise `em anything, and get `em to sign up) and the customer ( "that nice man who came out said we could put the inverter in the kitchen cupboard / outhouse / garden shed").

Once I spoke to one of the guys - they had been told not to leave a customer until they had signed - and yes, he used to sell "everest" double glazing :slap

 

[binky]

Under the conditions of REAL membership, high pressure sales techniques are 'illegal' (wrong phrase but can't think of a better term. One of the good points about the recent changes is that you have to be MCS registered to sell PV, which has certainly got rid of a lot of sales only outfits,.

 

[steptoe]

the guy we had 'representing' the company was promising returns etc that were never going to happen,

and yes, he was merely a salesman, he couldnt even measure the roofs properly , we were having to change orientation and amount of panels etc regularly.

 

[Jono Pashley]

A saturday morning...arrive at job no scaffold on site so we left. Went back sunday supposed to be 16 panels going on....wasnt enough space for even 8 panels.