Sandringham Game & Country Fair

[solarsavings]

We spent saturday at the sandringham country fair and this year there was only one renewables company with a stand there. The company is based in norwich. I had a chat with one of the sales guys who showed me their displayed prices which were 4KWp Pansonic HIT250 system for £6200 inclusive or a 4KWp sharp system for £5000 inclusive.

I walked past several times during they day and tbh they weren't that busy.

 

[SolarCity]

their displayed prices which were 4KWp Pansonic HIT250 system for £6200 inclusive or a 4KWp sharp system for £5000 inclusive.

You have to be kidding me, right?

 

[solarsavings]

I kid you not. I've just been checking panasonic prices and for the life of me I can't see how they're doing it.

 

[whinmoor]

Maybe they did their own deal with the manufacturer directly and imported the kit themselves?

 

[SolarCity]

Sharp aren't exactly the cheapest either. The price is ludicrous - and pointless. God only knows how much they pay their blokes - or, for that matter, how on Earth they can afford to pay for sales guys and sales stands.

 

[whinmoor]

We could barely get the Panasonic panels, inverter and mounting kit for £6k let alone fit it to someone's roof. Perhaps "inclusive" doesn't include lots of extras?

 

[Gavin A]

wtf?

those prices are either impossible, or Panasonic are playing silly buggers with their pricing, and these guys have access to panasonics at around 30-50% discount off the prices we can get them for. We had to put our prices for them back up to £8.5k after we'd flogged off our remaining stock of the panels in July (which we'd managed to get rid of at £7999, but made sod all on)

I'm off to check up on our pricing again though as I think there have been some price drops, but not that significant.

 

[pvman]

Surely at those prices they aren't planning on sticking around to honor any warranty. How do you convince customers that they need to pay a fair price if they want their installer to still be in business in 10years?

We can offer systems from £6k but if we go any lower we will be making nothing and then all that will happen is someone will go lower again.

I know long term things will be ok as renewables is a good sector but it's going to be a tough for a while.

 

[Eco Deal]

They probley tell customers its sanyo then put a cheap black poly up.

 

[SolarCity]

Having heard about this and then read about the VAT changes and the 5,333kWh bullcrap on the main forum I really do worry about the future of this industry - especially with a Tory government overlooking it all. I sometimes wish I'd have just took the easy life and become a fireman or something.

 

[solarsavings]

The company was called solar pro(something)and had photo's of installations they had carried out for norfolk county council on numerous buildings including county hall. They also had photo's of several businesses in norwich that i recognised with some pretty large systems. They look like sanyo's on county hall.

The guy also said they install lots of systems for a farmers buying group and seldom install less than 20kwp for them and more usually around 50kwp. When I questioned their prices he said they were only interested in what they were doing and that they continue to make money and keep their blokes busy.

Prices in east anglia are obviously heading to the floor with several compaines around markc installing 4kwp systems for 5 grand and i bet by christmas that will be down to £4500.