Man Days?

[DomB]

A customer was saying that one company he had a quote from would install their PV system in one day.

With a roofer & his labourer and a spark & his labourer I see two days as possible (4 man-days) but completing it in one day seems quite incredible - how many sparks can you fit in an under-stairs cupboard?!

Just wondering how many man-days people are installing their system in, & what the teams are made up of?

Cheers

D

 

[gr7]

4 man days on site, sometimes more if the internal cable run is awkward. This is based on one spark & one fitter.

 

[DomB]

Ta - so is that two of you getting everything done in two days?

 

[JulianC]

4 to 6 man days here for 2 of us, depending on site specifics. That's for a proper job - we take our time and do it well. If it takes an extra day, it takes an extra day. I've seen evidence of some of these one day installations and 'thrown in' sums it up well. DC cables lying across the roof, sloppy AC installation, that sort of thing. Not saying it can't be done well in a day, but I personally have seen no evidence to support this.

Having said that, a straightforward system on a straightforward property (does such a thing exist?) with 4 blokes on site (2 on roof, 2 doing electrics) could probably do a decent job in a day. Too many variables really.

 

[solarsavings]

I've never really understood this question.
We've done 4kw sanyo installs in five hours on some jobs and one where we could have flown to Florida and done the Keys on a pushbike and got home in the time it took. Ours seem to take as long as they take.

 

[DomB]

Thanks - agreed, it is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question but we're just looking at installing two a week and i'm trying to work out the logistics.

One team shifting two installs a week could be a bit of a push, and knackering!

 

[gr7]

There is at least a day's paperwork for each installation, more than one a week would not be possible as there is only 2 of us.

 

[JD6400]

Depends on the size and position !
But a straight forward 3-4 kw on a standard shape , tiled roof would be 1-2 sparks for one day and 2 roofers for one day .
This is with all the appropriate scaffolding in place.
10 kw on a barn roof would be 1 sparks for two days and 2-3 roofers for 2 days.
30 kw on a barn roof would be 1-2 sparks for a week and 2-3 roofers for a week.
50 kw on a barn roof would be 1-2 sparks for about one and a half to two weeks and the same for 3-4 roofers.
As for the barns the roofers erect the scaffold and install all nets within that time and have their own teleporter loader to lift the mounting system and modules on to the roof.
For ground mounts it all depends on site conditions and cable / moleing run lengths but they are carried out solely by 2-3 sparks as most of us are also digger and loader operators as well so we do not need any ground workers to operate the plant .
This is based on 10 hour days.
Hope this gives you a bit of a idea ?

All the best
Dave

 

[Worcester]

@dpelectricalltd,

That's the on-site work, then you've / someone's got all the permissions to sort, DNO, Planning applications and drawings, Structural assessment, structural calcs, test loads / proof loading of buildings, electrical design and drawings, mounting system design and loading calcs, string configuration, scheduling and ordering of materials, scheduling resources, (sometimes scheduling the owner!), then post install paperwork, DNO, handover packs, commissioning documentation. Plus all the time spent surveying the jobs, quoting, specifying, negotiating with owner, only getting 1 job out of x ..

(Reason for comments just so that any clinet looking on thinks it ends there !!!)

Oh and did I mention the cost of the money that you've spent before the client pays you....

So don't just include the 'day rate' for your time that is a long way off the real cost.

Our 50kWp jobs run about 22 days of project management and overheads, excluding marketing and sales costs.

Having said that we fully 'own' the projects, i.e. our customers have to do very little apart from say "that building" and then pay the cheques!

One project is already running a total of 30 man days and we haven't got the contracts signed or started on site yet (we will .. as we have a heads of agreement in place)

If it didn't come off (not all do) then those costs need to be recovered against other jobs, i.e. built into our overhead costs.

Life's fun!

 

[Worcester]

Having said that I have seen 2 x 4 kWp jobs done in a day , they were adjacent properties 100 m apart and the comapny had a crew of 9 there. 4 x roof 2 x sparks, 2 x gofers, 1 x project / site manager. Scaffolding was up and in place when they arrived, - it was up for about 1 week - 10 days at each site.

Still comes down to 4 1/2 man day per install though (that was one of the nationals)

 

[SRE]

We're small and we do 2 a week most weeks with the odd week where we drop down to 1 and have a bit of a catch up. 1 spark - day and a half then electrical & pv certs , 2 roofers a day for tiles, 3 roofers a day for slate. Install 4 man days tiles, 5 slate and 1 person full time in office doing surveys, paperwork, chasing stock - all the bits Worcester mentioned. 70% of our work is slate 2 a week is hard work but worth it at the minute if prices drop much further there won't be much to pay the overheads.

 

[JD6400]

Totally with you on that one Worcester , I did not explain the hidden work just the on site fitting side !
Having said that we are exceptionally lucky in the fact of we have a very high conversion rate , it is not that uncommon for us to be the only contractors asked to quote even when we recommend a comparison quote from our competitors !
We do not advertise and have only ever worked by word of mouth to obtain the client base we have which is mainly but not limited to agricultural / equestrian and plant room refurbishments.