Average pay for Solar PV work? Opinions

[alarm man]

When a cheap painter does 80 and you are looking at absolute minimum of £5 a day (1200 a year for part P) (480 for registration, say 100 for courses, 60 for meter calibration, 150 for lost day for assessment and say 100 for notification, say meter has 4 years life 150 a year, 50 for new leads and batteries). You will probably be running a van, go through 250 a year in tools etc etc. How is 120 a day good money. A plasterer earns more and all he has is a whisk, a bucket and couple of trowels, working from 8-3.

a plasterer is a skilled job also,its not just about a bucket and a whisk,

 

[markfxy]

never known a plasterer work till 3

 

[19simon]

Not saying it's easy. Just saying that not more tools are needed. I regularly have to take SDS, combi drill, hand tools, long drill bits, wood bits, masonry bits, circular saw, fein, meter, screws, plugs, filler, crimps, trunking etc etc just to do a small job.

 

[robsparky1975]

This is a going rate in the present climate,for a sparks working for non jib registered company they offer £12-13 an hour average,this is how the trade has been so much devalued as too much supply of "electricians",i got laid off from a firm last august(now self employed)the take home pay was £380 a week,no overtime,no where else to go,2 kids,wife,mortgage,i needed to scrape myself out of bed in the morning as so fed up with it,so understand how you feel,and on many occasions felt to tell the boss to shove it.so redundancy done me a favour.

 

[bumcrack]

What's killed it is all these disneyland training courses, where any old plank can call himself a 'tradesman' after a 2 bob course..

Whatever happened to 4&5 year apprentiships ? !!

 

[19simon]

Nothing to do with training courses inmho. Those guys dont know what they are doing, so are slow and have poor recovery per hour. Whats killing the trade is early retirees with a pension who just want to get out of the house and dont need to earn much. Many of these guys are competent and willing to work fro diddly squat as they have a regular pension income and no mortgage.

 

[powervan]

well he got to get to the pub plastering isnt rocket sience BUT ITS BLOODY HARD WORK AND TAKES ITS TOLL ON THE BODY !! crippled by 55/60 if u survive the shocks u will be poor but can walk to post office to get ur state pension!!umm if there is one!!

 

[alarm man]

Nothing to do with training courses inmho. Those guys dont know what they are doing, so are slow and have poor recovery per hour. Whats killing the trade is early retirees with a pension who just want to get out of the house and dont need to earn much. Many of these guys are competent and willing to work fro diddly squat as they have a regular pension income and no mortgage.

you should be on stage mate..

 

[powervan]

bumcrack u nailed it there mate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! alarm man (on the stage) got to be better than on the roof!! on serious note (yes i can be) this forum has SAVED ME say no more!!!

 

[powervan]

u sure ur a sparky!! ok sds/combi drill/hand tools/long drill bits(for those far to reach places) wood bits/masonary bits/circular saw/meter/screws/plugs/crimps/trunking YES but FILLER!!! behave u will give us a bad name!!! ps with all them tools u dont happen to have a LDV van ?do u?????

Not saying it's easy. Just saying that not more tools are needed. I regularly have to take SDS, combi drill, hand tools, long drill bits, wood bits, masonry bits, circular saw, fein, meter, screws, plugs, filler, crimps, trunking etc etc just to do a small job.

 

[moggy1968]

I think there is some confusion here about what you have to turn over as a company and what you get paid as an employee. One of the problems with the poor rates is guys getting laid off by companies, then going self employed and working for the same hourly rate they were getting paid at. You simply cannot run a company on £120 a day.
You need to cover van, advertising, insurance (van and professional), registration fees, tools etc etc.
On general electrical work with me and one employee on 14k a year we had to turn over £4500 a month to break even, and I was the worst paid person in the company!
Day rate needs to be minimum £160, but most are £200-250 for general electrical work. solar should be more. those of us with solar companies know what the margins are, and paying a trained professional £120 a day on those margins is an insult.
hourly rate should be minimum £30, because you also need to take into account traveling time and the actual time you have to book a job for as against how long it actually takes.
Oh, and here in the south coast you can't support a familly on 31k a year!!!

 

[Des 56]

In case its not old hat
I know nothing of the PV world,however I managed to just about catch an item on 5 live that Carillion have announced whilst in discussion with minister,that hundreds of solar installers are to be made redundant

 

[SolarCity]

Running a business a couple of years ago, we were lucky to earn £120 a day. Work just wasn't out there. My partner and I ended up moving our business into partitioning and suspended ceilings where we earnt more than we did as electricians - and we found work.

We spent weeks without any work at all and it was a constant nightmare. The worst one was losing a job which consisted of 3 months work. We put a very keen price in as it would have kept us going. We lost out to a firm on an eye watering price. After materials, there was just £3,000 left for labour. We heard from the builders that they cut through a fibre optic cable on the first day which cost them £1,000 to have put right and they had three men there for the entire time.

The problem with being an electrician is that the market is swamped with people with no possible way of determining which ones are the good ones. Price wins out time after time and getting NICEIC registered couldn't be easier.

I'd work for £120 a day, running a business, just to keep a roof over my head. What other choice do I have?

 

[smarthomeuk]

Joe 79, the going rate that we have been working at is £600 an install, for a roofer, labourer and spark. Most can be done in a day but they can be long days. the easy one let you get home a little earlier.

 

[Joe79]

Many thanks for all the views and advice. A well deserved break now and hopefully a new job at the end of it since I doubt i will work for this outfit anymore.