Prices????

[Marvo]

my website got hacked today by an iraqy !!!!

That would have doubled my hits I think I'm jealous!

*Tears*

You'd think the Iraqys would have better things to do (like rebuilding his local town) than hacking a UK solar website.

 

[SRE]

Normally add £500 for scaff

Ok, so I'm not a million miles away with my quote - thanks I was a bit worried!

 

[Energetic]

Well done - good price. I know I keep repeating myself but it's nothing to do with the price to the customer being too expensive the market is just slow as a result of the negative publicity.

Agreed, it's about confidence not price. An accountant told us recently that if you put prices up 10% you can afford to do 25% less work for the same profit. This is probably based on slightly more stable market than ours but you get the idea...

Sell yourself and hang in there...

 

[SRE]

Things are warming up a bit - we've got another job in and a firm enquiry from a customer 15 months ago. I'd just like to know where the goal posts are now to avoid kicking an own goal!

 

[pvman]

I've just done a add-on 1kW to an existing system (1kW) for £3k but I know the customer and no scaff needed. For a 1.5kW I would be around the £4800 mark

I've just had a quick look and would be the same as Somecamel at £4800

 

[Gavin A]

fwiw, I just quoted someone for £6750 for a 3.8kWp cheap end system.

We've always had a policy of undercutting or matching tesco prices, and it's done us well so far, so I'm going to stick with it, plus we'd be ok if we could get 8-10 of those jobs a month even at that price (chance would be a fine thing right now mind), and we have the capacity to do 25-30 a month if the work were there.

We also offer higher spec systems at higher prices if people prefer to go that way, but tbh Upsolar + aurora is a pretty good combination IMO anyway.

at the other end of the scale, we've got someone trying to decide about a 4kW sanyo system that we've just managed to get under 10k, but they're still trying to decide between 3 companies apparently.

I'm not sticking these prices on our website just yet mind coz decc sodding well referenced our prices in their last report on costs, and we were the cheapest in the report for 4kW systems, so if we lower our web prices there's a good chance decc will pick up on it and use this as justification for further cuts.... arse.

 

[SRE]

Just a thought Gavin - is it not worth considering the 10% argument that Energetic's accountant has? That's what we're doing. I'd rather do one job than 3 for the same level of profit - it's served us well so far and Tesco jobs are so limited that we've won every job we've bid against them on. I just worry about the race to the bottom ...

 

[Energetic]

As far as i know we have never once come up against tesco on a quote... Sheltered round here maybe...

The 10% 25% thing appears to me to make even more sense in this industry where there is now so much bloody paperwork and hassle with each job. Sturctural calcs and EPC's do not add any profit.

 

[pvman]

I agree with SRE and others, if we race to the bottom with prices we will never be able to get the prices back to a sustainable level. If you can only make £500 after parts and labour I don't think it is worth it once you take into account all the other costs and then the warranty on top.

I think the only way is to wait for a year until lots of people give up their mcs and hope for lots of inflation busting electricity price rises. In a couple of years if you are planning on retiring pv wil make sense regardless of any fit.

 

[Somecamel]

Anyone else care to admit their pricing at the moment? Thread is over a month gone.

I just banged a 4K out for £6500 (ouch), done a 3kW for £6400 and got another 2kW for £5000 but have a commercial 4kW for 8200

 

[cbw]

£8100 inc Power one 16A Ltd 16 hyundai black 250W 10 year warranty on inverter and panel desk top display (Which turns out the inverter requires reprogramming as dates all wrong!!!)

Made OK profit but required 2 lifts of scaff

 

[Somecamel]

Sounds good, I'd scrap the desktop display, Have you tried Geo Solar PV monitors, installed first one the other and was a great, better than them damm watsons

 

[cbw]

No....Not tried them, will google now!

 

[Somecamel]

I got one off of uswitch but shopped around for the 2nd one got it a bit cheaper, there is a sensor that sits over the light on the generation meter and counts the flashes, then a separate display for the home

 

[SolarCity]

Sounds good, I'd scrap the desktop display, Have you tried Geo Solar PV monitors, installed first one the other and was a great, better than them damm watsons

I can't stand them. We've had loads go faulty.

If a neighbour buys something that conflicts with them then they need reconfiguring. If your customer isn't clued up then you end up having to go back to them. I won't be installing any more of them.