RE: Re: Solar PV ?

[Marcus Warrington <marcus.warrington@xxxxxxxxxx>]

James,

8 weeks was about the same lead time as mine, which are due to be
installed=
on Monday :). I think all the (decent) installers are very busy at the mom=
ent, given the greater awareness of the Fits scheme, the imminent increase
=
in electricity costs and very sunny weather we've been having recently.

I managed to get 3.99KWh passed by our DNO (Electricity North West) but
the=
y are now *trying* to backtrack to 3.84KWh. My installer was telling me
tha=
t the DNO's use different nominal voltage values for their calculations.
No=
rthwest use 240V so we are fortunate that our maximum is 3.84KWh but I
gues=
s WesternPower use 230V to compute their maximum hence 3.64KWh. He was
also=
telling me about another client who's DNO wanted to charge them =A34500 to=
go above the 16amp limit! That's effectively =A34500 for an extra 190Watt =
(3.80 to 3.99)

When "Tesco" quoted for our install they wouldn't quote for
anything over 3=
.64KWh because of the potential issues with DNO's,and they still came out
a=
s the most expensive quote, even against others quoting for 3.99!  When
Tes=
co rang me back to ask what I thought of their quote I told them I had
deci=
ded to go with a cheaper quote. The lady on the phone then immediately
offe=
red me a 20% discount, dropping their quote from =A313999 to =A311200 and
s=
till with =A3200 clubcard points. Tactics like this really annoy me,
basica=
lly inflating the initial charge and then reducing it if the customer
doesn=
't accept it.... needless to say they still didn't get my custom!

I guess your pretty much south facing to get those annual estimates.

Marcus

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of J=
ames Fidell
Sent: 19 July 2011 17:45
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Re: Solar PV ?



Well, I've just sent off the deposit and contract for my own solar PV
installation. Lead time is six to eight weeks for the installer I've
chosen, but he was by far the most professional and confidence-
inspiring of those I saw.

I'm having 14 x 260W panels installed which is slightly lower than I'd
have liked or have space for, but apparently Western Power (our DNO) are
exceptionally inflexible when it comes to the 16A/phase limit for
export.

Estimated output is between 3000 and 3100 kW per year, which I think
I'll be happy with.

James



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------------------

<*> Join the Automated Home Forums
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbulletin/