solar panel quote

[Gavin A]

I have to complete with prices around the £5500 using all Chinese equipment.
I spoke to one guy who signed up the deal and said he wasn't bothered about the equipment. I have to quote against these installers every week.
Which panel and inverter are popular with every body nowadays

why compete at the bottom end of the market?

We're fully booked til 2014 with mono-black SolarWorld + Steca / power-one / SMA installs, or LG Neon, or viridian, some of which would probably be in your area.

I'm finding we're actually competing quite a bit now with the national sales companies trying to charge £8-12k for 4kWp at one end, plus a few still going the dirt cheap route at the bottom end.

We used to do a value range, and hi spec, but generally the vast majority would end up going for the higher priced range, wanting quality rather than the absolute bottom end price, so I figured we may as well just focus on that end of the market and leave those who're constantly trying to bargain us down on price to others.

 

[jason121]

interesting. We use similar kit to yourselves, but some do prefer the cheap quotes. Out of interest how do you source the enquires. To be booked up we would need 1 solar job a day.

 

[SRE]

I'd rather do one job properly a week than 3 jobs dirt cheap for the same margin. We decided not to enter the rush to the bottom because it meant we were going to have to cut corners. Not sure how Gordon can squeeze an Immersun out of the gallium price that's like offering a 5% discount without taking into account the extra labour.

Not for me I'm afraid, there's no margin for error and no future sustainability in those prices. I now avoid people who go for more than 3 quotes, if it's price they are interested in then it's rarely a quality installation they're concerned about. In January we're re-installing panels for a customer who went down the cheap route and now has to replace his roof - that's usually enough to persuade our customers to pay proper roofers to do the job.

 

[jason121]

Its not about cutting corners. Inverters like Samil and panels suntellite make a cheap installation. Add to that a easi dec scaffold which has been paid for in the 2011 -2012 rush, prices can be low. I would rather do 3 PV a week than rewire someone's house. Started a bungalow today finish at 2pm. 16 panels.

 

[SRE]

Fair do's if that's all it takes you, but we have one spark & 2 roofers and never get it done in a day. Not sure why, although we never put inverters in the loft and that often creates quite a bit more work. Roof work if it's a tiled roof is often done in 5 - 6 hours but electrics always longer and most of our roofs are slate. Today's job - Panasonic cross rail, Immersun , solaredge on slate. Happy days

 

[whinmoor]

Fair do's if that's all it takes you, but we have one spark & 2 roofers and never get it done in a day. Not sure why, although we never put inverters in the loft and that often creates quite a bit more work. Roof work if it's a tiled roof is often done in 5 - 6 hours but electrics always longer and most of our roofs are slate. Today's job - Panasonic cross rail, Immersun , solaredge on slate. Happy days

No, I wouldn't expect to do that in a single day in December. That's asking far too much.

We had 16 panels in 2 rows of 8 up by 1pm on a flat tiled roof today.

 

[jason121]

Slate tiles add extra day. I prefer inverters in Garage but sometimes just no space.

 

[SRE]

Dear Santa - please can I have lots customers in plain tile large bungalows who value quality service and installation . Fingers crossed!

 

[SibertSolar]

OP - would choose either the P1 or the Eltek inverter, both offer good value. If comparing the Eltek HE-t with the Samil, I would have to say that they are not evenly matched. The HE-t performs similarly but has a number of added benefits - 10yrs warranty, HF transformer topology, wider range of compatible modules, DC switch (Santon), convection cooling (that Samil unit is fan-cooled I believe), wider operating temp range and, perhaps most importantly, a built-in webserver.

The P1 unit does offer twin MPP trackers so that's certainly something to bear in mind.

As others have said though, focus on the value, not the cost. That goes for the whole package, installer & equipment. Good luck with your choice though, I hope it works out for you.

 

[wersolaruk]

We are booked up til jan the 14th, a job a day is very achievable, all out inverters are per wired on a ply board, just connect strings in and ac. Run cable in conduit outside , then 1 way unit at mains with gen and ac isolator, if earthing is to do we leave it for the spark to pick up on a Saturday instead of paying all the lads to be on job. It's organisation which is key we hold weekly meetings to organise the week ahead and make sure every1 knows there jobs. A good survey report with details of inverter location and array layout saves the guys time to. We complete 6-7 installs a week.

 

[SRE]

I did hear recently about a firm in NE boasting about installing 3 a day. They were in training for one of the products and the manufacturer wasn't keen to supply.

Our slate install as suspected turned into a nightmare - wouldn't recommend Alpha for cross railing - really fiddly. Lesson learned it's back to K2 for us.

 

[wersolaruk]

Well it was not my firm. Maybe another. We work weekends. No more than 1 a day. No company in north east is installing 3 a day I can pretty much guarantee that.

 

[SRE]

Sometimes people get carried away ;-) definitely claiming 3 tho and not even particularly close Consett, Durham and somewhere else I can't quite remember ...

 

[wersolaruk]

There is a few company's round here claiming all sorts crazy. We are what we are at the end of the day size to medium size who do 1 a day don't want anymore to be fair it's a nice flow, not to stressful

 

[Berneray]

We are up in the North of Fife in Scotland. No way can you do two a day up here. Unless you are working wearing miners hats with lights.....

We are managing five a week....but then there are only the two of us and as we are in our late 50's we have granddad duties at the weekend.

It is just us ......or are we all having rather busy time just now..