Changes to FIT coming sooner that we thought!

[PowerFlexEnergy]

So on top of the design, suitability checks, making sure that the customer has no other systems working, providing drawings, schematics, providing quotes in the right format, providing a maths model of payback, you will have to have a look at the boiler, the cavity wall insulation, the loft, the windows, the freezer, draughts excluder and the windows.

Or we pay a consultant £750 to come and and tell the customer he has to spend £4000 getting the house up to band C before we can offer an install.

Plus of course you will be competing on price with 25,000 installers all chasing 10% of the volume that is available now.

All to be able to offer a 5% return on capital tied up on his roof.

At least with a bank you can get your money back. Or maybe not if they go skint as well.

 

[ACEELEC]

please find attached document released this afternoon outlining timescale and paymentsView attachment 001_3373-solar-pv-consumer-guide.pdf

 

[TedM]

EPCs have to be carried out by certified Domestic Energy Assessors. Costs vary but should not be much more than about £50 for a normal house. This includes a standard report that details the grade for the house as it stands, what improvement work can be carried out and what the resulting grade would be.

Carrying out the work to get to a grade C (or as high as is possible if C isn't attainable) can be done over the following 12 months. But AIUI the 21p rate won't get paid until that work is done.

 

[moggy1968]

and the cost of that work will negate any value from the tariff, same as it did under the old grant system and some older houses will never achieve that level

 

[solarfred]

EPCs have to be carried out by certified Domestic Energy Assessors. Costs vary but should not be much more than about £50 for a normal house. This includes a standard report that details the grade for the house as it stands, what improvement work can be carried out and what the resulting grade would be.

Carrying out the work to get to a grade C (or as high as is possible if C isn't attainable) can be done over the following 12 months. But AIUI the 21p rate won't get paid until that work is done.

So a subsidised job at £50? Subsidised by whom? (no need to answer that). Gi's a job - I can do that.

 

[TedM]

It's not a subsidised amount. That's what a DEA can charge for about half a days work. That also includes a (I think) £9 certification fee for entering the EPC onto a central database.

All the DEAs got shafted when the government binned HIPs so there are more DEAs than work at the moment. Sound familiar?

One of my neighbours is a DEA, and pretty bitter about it too.

 

[moggy1968]

yep, they did rodger them as well at no notice. felt pretty sorry for them at the time. job one week, dole queue the next. better get used to it though!!!!!

 

[solarfred]

Unbelievable....
When HIP's came in I put my house "on the market" with my local agency and said it stays there until I decide to sell. That way it was outside the regulation which I considered to be insulting.

 

[Maff]

Earlier this month the government had a meeting with the big 6 and came away telling us to 'switch' to find a better deal, then a month later they rip the spine out of the solar PV industry, funny but i bet there is a statement from the big 6 coming saying that they are freezing their prices.
Our freind Gregg banging on about each consummer having to subsidise the FITs at £27 a year, buts it ok for EDF to make £125 a year out of my pocket.

We are a newly accredited company (2 man), we have no jobs on the books, as we were in the middle of an advertising strategy,we went to Brum on Friday made some nice contacts now it seems all for nothing.

If anyone in West Kent/East Sussex needs a hand rushing through any installs give me a PM

 

[Mark Davey]

please find attached document released this afternoon outlining timescale and payments001_3373-solar-pv-consumer-guide.pdf​

excellent info, please can you tell me where you found it??

 

[solarfred]

That's all very well but the planning office is allowed to sit on an application for 8 weeks! So all the time and expense already expended will be for nowt but the council will cash their fee cheque for telling us we do not need planning permission - go ahead with your planned installation. Sorry but it will only be worth slightly less than half what you proposed though. The bonus is, if you are quick, we will not send a man round to charge your client a few thousand to upgrade their house to maintain that level as the poor sods will have to do from April 2012.

 

[jupestar]

We've two church's who have just shelled out £500 each for pre-planning, and planning fees. We put in for DNO at the same time to cover risk of not getting installed before the 'planned' April cut (Doh). Three community centre's doing the same, a sailing club and a squash and tennis club. All lost out on planning applications. Not to mention all the farmers.

If they were MP's i'm sure they could expense these costs.

The loss of margins won't kill it customer confidence will.

 

[solarfred]

The loss of margins won't kill it customer confidence will.

Spot on!! It's a "trust" thing.

 

[GreggElectrical]

I have exactly the same problem with a church. Because they are fitting a new stainless steel roof the work was scheduled for Feb to meet the FIT deadline. It has been in the planning for over 6 months!

 

[TedM]

please find attached document released this afternoon outlining timescale and payments001_3373-solar-pv-consumer-guide.pdf​

excellent info, please can you tell me where you found it??

That looks like an updated version of the EST document that was leaked last week.

 

[Scooby]

Every PV installer - and customer - should be writing to their MPs citing actual examples of the damage being done, of which there are many on this thread alone. They need to understand the reality of this unanticipated cut, bearing in mind that the population at large, and many installers too, had good reason to believe nothing would change until next April. We have been completely wrong-footed.

Keep the language un-emotive and inoffensive. Don't be sarcastic, belligerent or rude. The actual stories themselves speak more loudly than any snide comment, so cite cold hard facts; churches losing £100s of pounds on wasted planning fees, domestic customers potentially losing deposits as they feel it unviable to proceed, companies laying off apprentices, companies even folding...

If you have a story to tell, then tell it.

 

[The Launderer]

I dont think it will make much difference but I have written to my MP again and asked for her comments. First letter has had no reply so far

 

[seprim]

Every PV installer - and customer - should be writing to their MPs citing actual examples of the damage being done, of which there are many on this thread alone. They need to understand the reality of this unanticipated cut, bearing in mind that the population at large, and many installers too, had good reason to believe nothing would change until next April. We have been completely wrong-footed.

Keep the language un-emotive and inoffensive. Don't be sarcastic, belligerent or rude. The actual stories themselves speak more loudly than any snide comment, so cite cold hard facts; churches losing £100s of pounds on wasted planning fees, domestic customers potentially losing deposits as they feel it unviable to proceed, companies laying off apprentices, companies even folding...

If you have a story to tell, then tell it.

You nailed it Scooby

Well done

 

[SolarCity]

I've written to my MP - I actually do this quite a lot anyway as I'm a bit of an opinionated so and so (not that you'd tell, right?!)

Normally get a non-generic reply within a week or so.

 

[series530]

Every PV installer - and customer - should be writing to their MPs citing actual examples of the damage being done, of which there are many on this thread alone. They need to understand the reality of this unanticipated cut, bearing in mind that the population at large, and many installers too, had good reason to believe nothing would change until next April. We have been completely wrong-footed.

Keep the language un-emotive and inoffensive. Don't be sarcastic, belligerent or rude. The actual stories themselves speak more loudly than any snide comment, so cite cold hard facts; churches losing £100s of pounds on wasted planning fees, domestic customers potentially losing deposits as they feel it unviable to proceed, companies laying off apprentices, companies even folding...

If you have a story to tell, then tell it.

I have just written to my MP - the first time in my life to ever have done so.

I have received a lot of useful and helpful advice from people on here and want to try to give something back. My letter wont make a difference. Who knows though: if we all do it, maybe something will happen.

Fingers crossed for all of you.