Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2020

championc · 29-03-2021 09:15PM

DrPhilG wrote: »

There's a ban on naming suppliers in the thread, so you'll probably get edited.

I think you could ask for opinions to be sent by PM

DrPhilG · 30-03-2021 06:55AM

championc wrote: »

I think you could ask for opinions to be sent by PM

I know, I've probably sent 50 over the last 6 months on request.

I was just letting the other poster know that they were going to get in trouble for posting the name of an installer.

championc · 30-03-2021 07:07AM

DrPhilG wrote: »

I know, I've probably sent 50 over the last 6 months on request.

I was just letting the other poster know that they were going to get in trouble for posting the name of an installer.

No, I think the issue would be more if you made comments about a particular installer, particularly something negative.

DrPhilG · 30-03-2021 08:18AM

championc wrote: »

No, I think the issue would be more if you made comments about a particular installer, particularly something negative.

But the poster here was asking for comments about a particular installer, which is highly likely to lead to the situation you describe. Plus his comment has now been edited, just for naming a company.

Also the rule isn't just about negative comments. My solar PV quote is widely regarded as one of the best value this thread has seen. I have almost entirely positive comments about my installer, the only down side being that his CT clamp positioning needed adjusted.

Yet I have to keep his company name private, then respond to dozens of PMs asking for the info, rather than just posting it once and for all in the thread and saving the bother.

The rules as I understand them are more to prevent advertising than to prevent public negative comments about a company. Yet from an advertising perspective there is no difference in me saying "Joe Bloggs is the best installer in Ireland" or me saying "I know who the best installer in Ireland is, PM me for info"!

It's a stupid rule.

championc · 30-03-2021 08:56AM

I don't see a difference between asking someone to PM their experience with a Solis Inverter and a installer XXXXXX. If you want specific information or opinions on something, I'm not sure as to how you are going to get what you want otherwise

DrPhilG · 30-03-2021 09:06AM

I'm not even sure what point you're making.

The rule says no mentioning company names (a rule I think is stupid).

I pointed this out to the poster to prevent them getting in trouble.

The poster (or the Mods) have now edited it.

MAULBROOK · 30-03-2021 04:22PM

There was a shameless attempt by a chancer of an installer to post his company and phone on this thread a few weeks ago.
Personally the PM work perfectly as you can give your opinion on what pro/cons of a set up to go for.
No one is forcing anyone to send PMs or to respond to them.

DrPhilG · 30-03-2021 05:25PM

MAULBROOK wrote: »

There was a shameless attempt by a chancer of an installer to post his company and phone on this thread a few weeks ago.

Didn't realise that.

Still, the same installer could just post on the thread pretending to be a customer and then reply to the resulting PMs.

At least if posted publicly he could be quizzed and challenged.

slave1 · 30-03-2021 05:57PM

That installer would be found out, especially if sending unsolicited PMs

gomamochi1 · 30-03-2021 09:26PM

championc wrote: »

I don't see a difference between asking someone to PM their experience with a Solis Inverter and a installer XXXXXX. If you want specific information or opinions on something, I'm not sure as to how you are going to get what you want otherwise

How come the likes of richer sounds can have threads and give advice etc though solar installers cant?

slave1 · 30-03-2021 10:35PM

They’re paying for the privilege surely

blue chuzzle · 01-04-2021 09:05AM

in terms of the 50cm rule, is the apex of the roof an edge? would the test of an edge not be "can I fall off it"?

is there ambiguity there?

Boscoirl · 01-04-2021 09:10AM

According to my installer it’s 200mm from the top of the roof

KCross · 01-04-2021 10:01AM

blue chuzzle wrote: »

in terms of the 50cm rule, is the apex of the roof an edge? would the test of an edge not be "can I fall off it"?

is there ambiguity there?

Boscoirl wrote: »

According to my installer it’s 200mm from the top of the roof

The wording in the SEAI guidelines are

The distance between the plane of the wall or a pitched roof and the panel shall not exceed 15 cm;
The distance between the plan of a flat roof and the panel shall not exceed 50 cm;
The solar panels shall be a minimum of 50 cm from any edge of the wall or roof on which it is to be mounted;

They also have this in their checklist

Array is not minimum 500mm from roof edge
Array is not 200mm below the ridge tile

So, it sounds like the measurement is taken from the bottom of the ridge tile, not "the point where I fall off it"!

handpref · 01-04-2021 11:43AM

Has anyone gone down the non- grant route?
House was not occupied before 2011 so no grant available.

Looking for a recommendation for a standard solar install-
Just got a quote of €10,100 all in for a non battery 5kwp system which is crazy and makes one wonder what is going on.

Any advice on who does good work outside the grant system would be appreciated-

slave1 · 01-04-2021 11:56AM

handpref wrote: »

Has anyone gone down the non- grant route?
House was not occupied before 2011 so no grant available.

Looking for a recommendation for a standard solar install-
Just got a quote of €10,100 all in for a non battery 5kwp system which is crazy and makes one wonder what is going on.

Any advice on who does good work outside the grant system would be appreciated-

Grant/no grant should make zero difference, you should be looking around the €7k mark for that install, my 7.4kWp with battery setup was €8.6k before grant so that's what I'm going on...

KCross · 01-04-2021 11:58AM

handpref wrote: »

Has anyone gone down the non- grant route?
House was not occupied before 2011 so no grant available.

Looking for a recommendation for a standard solar install-
Just got a quote of €10,100 all in for a non battery 5kwp system which is crazy and makes one wonder what is going on.

Any advice on who does good work outside the grant system would be appreciated-

The choice is really down to two things...
- DIY/direct-labour
or
- Solar PV specialist company who provide a turnkey solution.

If you are not willing to do a DIY install then you are left with alot of the same companies to go the non-grant route as any SolarPV company worth their salt will have put themselves on the SEAI approved list. You can look at the SEAI website for the list of approved installers... its a long list so plenty to choose from.

The trick when getting a quote is to ensure you tell them up front that there is no grant for you and you want a competitive quote on that basis. The quote should be more competitive then.

You should be getting quotes in the €5-6k bracket for a 4-5kWp system.

01-04-2021 12:04PM

KCross wrote: »

The choice is really down to two things...
- DIY/direct-labour
or
- Solar PV specialist company who provide a turnkey solution.

If you are not willing to do a DIY install then you are left with alot of the same companies to go the non-grant route as any SolarPV company worth their salt will have put themselves on the SEAI approved list. You can look at the SEAI website for the list of approved installers... its a long list so plenty to choose from.

The trick when getting a quote is to ensure you tell them up front that there is no grant for you and you want a competitive quote on that basis. The quote should be more competitive then.

You should be getting quotes in the €5-6k bracket for a 4-5kWp system.

All which shows that the grant scheme is pointless and just pushes prices up.

Deagol · 01-04-2021 12:39PM

blue chuzzle wrote: »

in terms of the 50cm rule, is the apex of the roof an edge? would the test of an edge not be "can I fall off it"?

is there ambiguity there?

The rule is there to stop your solar panels being ripped off in a storm causing potentially extensive damage also to your roof. If you want to ignore them , feel free but please come back and let us know how you got on in a years time

DrPhilG · 01-04-2021 03:24PM

Sorry if I misunderstood though, the discussion earlier about whether it's 50cm top and bottom, or both.

If I remember correctly I had about 40cm top and bottom if I put in 2 rows on this garage.

But if the the 50cm is only for one and not the other, I could still double up.

Alternatively I suppose I could just put half a dozen landscape on a second row but it would look a bit odd.

slave1 · 01-04-2021 04:21PM

You have the grant now so can do what you want, that's an easy to access roof with a ladder, I'd Landscape them and then put in two more support rows, looks like you can get 18 panels up.
For ascetics it may be an idea to do sooner rather than later so you can have 18 identical panels.

TheCrank · 03-04-2021 11:50AM

Some recent quotes from 5 different companies.

14*320w panels - €9k (after grant)
14*320w panels and Eddi - €8.5k (after grant)
14*320w panels - €7.5k (before grant)
14*390w panels - €7750 (before grant)
14*390w panels and 2.4kwh battery - €9500 (before grant)

All advocated filling the roof with as many panels as it can take. The first 2 both manage the grant application and claim it for themselves. Both managed to keep a straight face when explaining how this "benefits" me.

Not one of the suppliers was able to give a proper answer when I queried their payback times. They all show the value of the electricity produced without any thought to how I can possibly use it during peak production periods. It was like they all came from the same school of PV brainwashing. "This system will produce 50% of your energy needs, saving you €650 per year." Eh, no it won't. Unless I get some serious batteries the majority of that power is going onto the grid.

Northumberland · 03-04-2021 12:17PM

It would be interesting if you could add the size and type of inverter that each of those installers proposed.

I went with an installer, 2 years ago now, who I now realised undersized my inverter - it is a solis 3.5kW, but can cope just about with my 14 panels, each not as big as yours, but I would now like to add a few more panels, and can not because inverter would then be seriously overloaded. So your peak generation would be 5.46 kW, I guess the Solis 5kW would just about cope with that - anyway - interesting to learn about the inverters proposed.

03-04-2021 01:15PM

TheCrank wrote: »

Some recent quotes from 5 different companies.

14*320w panels - €9k (after grant)
14*320w panels and Eddi - €8.5k (after grant)
14*320w panels - €7.5k (before grant)
14*390w panels - €7750 (before grant)
14*390w panels and 2.4kwh battery - €9500 (before grant)

All advocated filling the roof with as many panels as it can take. The first 2 both manage the grant application and claim it for themselves. Both managed to keep a straight face when explaining how this "benefits" me.

Not one of the suppliers was able to give a proper answer when I queried their payback times. They all show the value of the electricity produced without any thought to how I can possibly use it during peak production periods. It was like they all came from the same school of PV brainwashing. "This system will produce 50% of your energy needs, saving you €650 per year." Eh, no it won't. Unless I get some serious batteries the majority of that power is going onto the grid.

All those quotes are complete rip off. In fact some are scandalous.

TheCrank · 03-04-2021 02:29PM

TheCrank wrote: »

Some recent quotes from 5 different companies.

14*320w panels - €9k (after grant)
14*320w panels and Eddi - €8.5k (after grant)
14*320w panels - €7.5k (before grant)
14*390w panels - €7750 (before grant)
14*390w panels and 2.4kwh battery - €9500 (before grant)

They all said 5kw inverters apart from the bottom one who said 6kw. I mentioned this to the first lad who nearly had a fit. He said that there is no such thing as a 6kw inverter which is proof that my comparison quote is bogey. He also said that the grants will be abolished from May and if I don't do it before FIT arrives I will be charged €1400 for a new meter. I already have a smart meter. He said that it will have to be replaced for FIT and it will cost because I have already used my free meter upgrade on the smart meter. Seriously, that's what he said. It wasn't April Fools. I hung up on him.

I have given up on the project now. I refuse to be ripped off. All of those quotes, apart from the guy I hung up on, were after haggling. It is blatantly obvious that installers are including the grant in their prices (along with a hefty markup on materials).

championc · 03-04-2021 02:53PM

There are enough of us on here to advise anyone through a self install, although you must submit an NC6 Form to ESB Networks. Note of course that you do NOT need this to be signed off by an SEAI installer - not indeed an electrician. An electrician must be nominated on the form, and I believe the confirmation to proceed goes back to that electrician.

Northumberland · 03-04-2021 04:17PM

I have a 4.5kWp installation here in Ireland, which I had 'professionally' installed, and, after a huge amount of run-around and an appeal to SEAI, I eventually got the grant. I watched the installers fairly carefully. I then bought almost identical kit and freighted it to Kenya, I bought decent panels, very similar to those that I have here in Ireland, locally in Kenya, (made in China of course), but everything else, including the DC cable and the inverter and all of the alumunium roof mounts, batteries etc I shipped from Ireland or UK, and then I 'self installed'.

As someone else said on this forum, a different thread maybe, the only 'difficult' thing is getting people who know how to handle fairly heavy panels and to secure them firmly to your roof without damaging the roof or the panels or themselves. And there are of course certain risks involved in walking around the roof, and there is a need for scaffolding or similar, and all that requires insurance, so it is that which puts the price up (and also allows for a fair amount of profit to be made in the process I am sure). But the business of electrically connecting the panels together is dead easy, purpose built snap fits, and then bringing the DC wires down to where the inverter and perhaps batteries are installed, and then connecting all of that up is very easy indeed, at least once you have done it once or twice, or if you have someone experienced to help you.

In Kenya I had two things in my favour which made a self install quick, safe and easy - the first thing of course is that being on the equator, the ideal elevation of the panels themselves is zero degrees from the horizontal, and it does not matter what direction they are facing, so long as there is no shade, no South or North, they just need to lie dead flat. The second thing was that I had a two car garage with a strong flat roof that I could walk on, and no need for scaffolding, just a ladder or two.

One day of busy work with someone to help me, and all installed and running perfectly.

Deagol · 04-04-2021 11:55AM

TheCrank wrote: »

They all said 5kw inverters apart from the bottom one who said 6kw. I mentioned this to the first lad who nearly had a fit. He said that there is no such thing as a 6kw inverter which is proof that my comparison quote is bogey. He also said that the grants will be abolished from May and if I don't do it before FIT arrives I will be charged €1400 for a new meter. I already have a smart meter. He said that it will have to be replaced for FIT and it will cost because I have already used my free meter upgrade on the smart meter. Seriously, that's what he said. It wasn't April Fools. I hung up on him.

I have given up on the project now. I refuse to be ripped off. All of those quotes, apart from the guy I hung up on, were after haggling. It is blatantly obvious that installers are including the grant in their prices (along with a hefty markup on materials).

TBH, the two that are ~7.5k before grant (I'm taking that means 7.5k gross) are about right I would think. Material will be around 5k. By the time the guy employs a roofer and sparks, insurances, fuel, his own costs in time etc I think ~2.5k after costs isn't extortionate.

After I made a flippant comment about plenty profit from my own install to the installer and he bristled a bit - I had a chat with him about the process and profit margins and that and there's more to it than is apparent at first look.

Not the least, he had to come back down to look at a minor issue - he reckons a reasonable number of installs have some minor teething issues that need sorting so that's a cost he has to factor in.

You can of course do it all yourself but then you have no fall back in the case of damages etc.

MAULBROOK · 04-04-2021 01:11PM

Northumberland wrote: »

I have a 4.5kWp installation here in Ireland, which I had 'professionally' installed, and, after a huge amount of run-around and an appeal to SEAI, I eventually got the grant. I watched the installers fairly carefully. I then bought almost identical kit and freighted it to Kenya, I bought decent panels, very similar to those that I have here in Ireland, locally in Kenya, (made in China of course), but everything else, including the DC cable and the inverter and all of the alumunium roof mounts, batteries etc I shipped from Ireland or UK, and then I 'self installed'.

As someone else said on this forum, a different thread maybe, the only 'difficult' thing is getting people who know how to handle fairly heavy panels and to secure them firmly to your roof without damaging the roof or the panels or themselves. And there are of course certain risks involved in walking around the roof, and there is a need for scaffolding or similar, and all that requires insurance, so it is that which puts the price up (and also allows for a fair amount of profit to be made in the process I am sure). But the business of electrically connecting the panels together is dead easy, purpose built snap fits, and then bringing the DC wires down to where the inverter and perhaps batteries are installed, and then connecting all of that up is very easy indeed, at least once you have done it once or twice, or if you have someone experienced to help you.

In Kenya I had two things in my favour which made a self install quick, safe and easy - the first thing of course is that being on the equator, the ideal elevation of the panels themselves is zero degrees from the horizontal, and it does not matter what direction they are facing, so long as there is no shade, no South or North, they just need to lie dead flat. The second thing was that I had a two car garage with a strong flat roof that I could walk on, and no need for scaffolding, just a ladder or two.

One day of busy work with someone to help me, and all installed and running perfectly.

Wow sounds fantastic and chance of a few picks, would love to see the setup.

championc · 04-04-2021 02:02PM

Deagol wrote: »

TBH, the two that are ~7.5k before grant (I'm taking that means 7.5k gross) are about right I would think. Material will be around 5k. By the time the guy employs a roofer and sparks, insurances, fuel, his own costs in time etc I think ~2.5k after costs isn't extortionate.

Are you taking account of the fact the installers get prices at least 20% below the retail costs listed on midsummer.ie or solartricity.ie ? I bet your installer failed to reveal that little nugget of info !!!

Domestic Solar PV Quotes 2020

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