Am I being cynical

Ubbquittious

Or is the domestic renewables industry in Ireland filled with lackeys who are just chasing the job of pottering about on some clueless person's roof for a day or two for €2,000?

Get in. Do a few weeks of a course in Dublin to become a registered installer for the latest SEAI subsidy racket. Get your signed white van and aim for the real softy softy money. Call to the person with plenty of money, target the person who knows nothing with your glossy brochures. Overquote & Overpromise and on the day see how shoddy a job you can get away with.

If anyone questions the rather steep price the first thing that always comes out is "OMG! d'Insurance! d'Insurance is so high if you and there are so many expenses like that running '172' Renault van on the PCP. We are all paupers really just living from one install job to the next"

The dream, of course once a suitable number of eejits fall for this scam and a regular flow of customers comes in is to don the suit and tie and have a couple of Polish fellas who you pay sub-minimum-wage to do the donkey work on your behalf while you cream the remaining €1800 or so into your pocket.

Eventually you move to Lanzarote where you have a Guinness tap running permanently to keep you topped up while you sit around a table with a bunch of similar old, beerbellied men guffawing about "D'you remember _____ politician who brought in the SEAI scheme, a great progressive thinking lad! we couldn't live like this without them"

Effects

How much do you think the panels and inverters cost?

Gumbo

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Or is the domestic renewables industry in Ireland filled with lackeys who are just chasing the job of pottering about on some clueless person's roof for a day or two for €2,000?

Get in. Do a few weeks of a course in Dublin to become a registered installer for the latest SEAI subsidy racket. Get your signed white van and aim for the real softy softy money. Call to the person with plenty of money, target the person who knows nothing with your glossy brochures. Overquote & Overpromise and on the day see how shoddy a job you can get away with.

If anyone questions the rather steep price the first thing that always comes out is "OMG! d'Insurance! d'Insurance is so high if you and there are so many expenses like that running '172' Renault van on the PCP. We are all paupers really just living from one install job to the next"

The dream, of course once a suitable number of eejits fall for this scam and a regular flow of customers comes in is to don the suit and tie and have a couple of Polish fellas who you pay sub-minimum-wage to do the donkey work on your behalf while you cream the remaining €1800 or so into your pocket.

Eventually you move to Lanzarote where you have a Guinness tap running permanently to keep you topped up while you sit around a table with a bunch of similar old, beerbellied men guffawing about "D'you remember _____ politician who brought in the SEAI scheme, a great progressive thinking lad! we couldn't live like this without them"

To answer your question, yes you are being cynical.
The equipment on a typical 2kw PV system could stand you 2k or very close to that alone.

Effects

€1900 ex vat for 1.5kw is what I've been quoted.
Fitting is €600 extra and being fitted by an electrician that's never worked on them before.

I think I'm pretty cynical when I have to ask people do they want a financial investment or a system to work as well as it can.

Buy some gear then test the datasheet claims against normal operating conditions and see how far adrift they are.

Look for a grid tie inverter that doesn't use power when there isn't enough input to export.

Find a batteryless DC immersun.

Check the electrolyte level of a maintenence free battery after 3 years daily service...if it's still alive.

Buy a lead acid mains battery charger, any charger, and a hydrometer. See if the charger charges a battery to Specific Gravity 1.275.

Test a factory fit split charge system see if you are even getting 10% of the alternator's rating into the second battery.
Test a split charge diode see if you are getting any improvement..or otherwise...how much otherwise...

Get a roofmounted wind turbine and stick a kWh counter on it.

Destructively test a leisure battery and an engine starter battery...play spot the difference.

Try to convince anyone that new is not better and flooded lead acid performs better than li-ion and AGM. Bring as much data to the party as you want it won't help.

Try looking at how much extra you have to pay for Irish spec GTI equipment compared to other countries so you can give power away for free to a supplier who says thanks and sells it to your neighbours.

Find an installer who doesn't consider certain embedded losses acceptable.

Find a recycler for an 18650 cell.

Find a split charge installer who recommends two alternators instead of half one.

Find a motorhome standard fitment that can work as a stand alone domicile for 3 days without being on it's knees.

Try convince a leisure craft owner that a gas fridge with a manual thermostat that is 8 times less efficient than a compressor is a bad and expensive idea compared to electric.

Look at the ratio of battery systems without battery monitors compared to the amount of cars without fuel gauges.

The reality is I'm not cynical, I'm a pragmatist.