A week in Cornwall

[SolarCity]

So I've been down in Cornwall for the last couple of days and the place is covered in panels now. A hell of a lot of them on slate roofs and the vast majority of these are installed with hanger bolts. I know opinion is somewhat split on these but I'm firmly in the hanger bolts = bad idea camp. Time will tell if they do leak or not but I am only going on advice from roofers.

One particular job was on a community centre that we priced about 18 months back. It's a very long roof with some very strong shading issues. The layout is identical - literally identical - to the layout that I proposed. Of course, it is somewhat possible that the other installer came up with the same proposal as I did but I'm skeptical. Anyway, this job has been installed with hanger bolts and the inverters are nowhere to be seen - they had two choices, a very warm and inaccessible loft space or mounted externally. Our price included building a housing around the inverters with a door on. Looks like they went for the loft option.

Pretty frustrating to lose out on this as it looks like we have been undercut by someone pinching my design on doing a less thorough job.

It has got me wondering how many other times my designs have been pinched and handed over to a competitor.

 

[midgetman]

Not just on roofs either. Fields are springing up covered in the panels.
:sly:

 

[SRE]

It seems to be happening quite a bit - I stopped a while ago sending through anything that I thought could be used by another installer but it was only this week we lost out on a job for the sake of £200 on a job where we advised the customer on loads of things that the other 7 - yes 7 - people quoting for his system. Not really technical stuff either, how the roof hooks were fitted, distances from the edge, inverter location, cable size, distance between modules and despite us have the information the customer still went to a company 150 miles away who were £200 cheaper because they'd managed to squeeze him in next week!

Still fuming today!

We've now got a local guy buying and installing his own panels and getting someone to sign them off for him. The installations are hideous but he doesn't have to worry about MCS or REAL because some idiot is signing them off for him.

i've come to the conclusion that it doesn't pay to be decent or honest!

 

[jason121]

I am in the same situation quoted solaredge on job other installer quoted something different that will power up panels in event of shading ????? and he is 2 hours drive away
Still waiting for order

 

[dansk]

i've come to the conclusion that it doesn't pay to be decent or honest!

I came to the same conclusion years ago!

 

[Eco Deal]

I quoted solar edge to a customer I was 1000 more than other installer but he was selling cheap panels and inverters,

It shows people will buy cheap there one good thing their is a market for repairs etc in few years.

I have the domain www.solarpowerrepair.co.uk for future

 

[sedgy34]

You win some and you lose some simples