Over the last year, I have found a plethora
of Companies have started hard sales campaigns to sell products or services to existing Solar
PV owners. This has not really been helped along by the availability of
databases that can be purchased detailing solar owners contact data, making it
so much easier for them to get in contact.
Many of you existing solar owners will have
had calls or letters from organisations proposing to make your system work far
better than it currently does. While most of the products are good, in most cases here, it is the selling
that is suspect, along with the highly inflated prices to go with it.
To give you a ‘heads up’ on current sales
company’s promotions, I have compiled a short list below:
1 1) Solar Edge optimised systems.
The technology works well to minimise shading problems on solar panels with
some clever technology, and will boost generation for part shaded systems.
However, the salesmen are indicating far higher gains, and a far higher price
than an ‘honest’ company would charge. If your solar is in the clear and has no
shading, the Solar Edge system will never pay for itself. A recent example I
was told by a customer the dodgy salesman quoted £5400 for a system that should
have been just £3000.
2) Voltage Optimisers . For very
few solar owners, their grid voltage is quite high, causing the inverter to
shut down when it is sunny. For this 2% of people, a voltage optimizer will
sort the problem, bringing the grid voltage down. Sales guys are selling them
to just about anyone and at hugely inflated prices, ie £3000 instead of £500
3)Maintenance Contracts. Many
people are getting a misleading letter, telling them their solar installer is
now out of business. That statement is not true for around 20% of people, so is
being investigated by Trading Standards. This particular company (and I'm sure others
too), are selling expensive maintenance contracts amounting to £250 a year.
Your system will only need a 5 year check at best for around £100. You can keep an eye on the panels being
clean and your system is working in between times by yourself.
3)A very naughty company are even
calling people to tell them someone is going to come and maintain the system
for free as part of their warranty that is just about to expire. The maintenance
will not end up free, as they will expect you to sign up for monthly payments
or whatever they can get away with. In addition, as part of any solar warranty,
there is never a maintenance included. Don’t be fooled!
There will be other scams and highly priced
devices being sold over the phone, not only to Solar Owners, but to anyone. The
best advice as always is never to buy anything from telephone sales.
If you would like some idea of pricing for
Solar PV add on products, call us at rudgeenergy.co.uk
