Door salesman trying to sell me £500 solar panels?

[theJMan]

A guy knocked my door yesterday, the guy had an Irish accent and reminded me a lot of Jedi Jim from the apprentice with the way he spoke. I found that to be ironic at the time so I actually bothered to listen to him.

He was trying to sell me this idea of having solar panels installed onto my roof. Apparently they are only £500 and could save me thousands. I was a bit meh, but the guy seemed to have a lot of valid reasons as to why I should have them installed and why they are only £500. I think he must have used some similar Jedi powers as Jim as he managed to convince me to have a free inspection anyways.

What I wanted to ask is what you guys think about all this, the guy left me his card and it says he is from the energy saving group???

any help would be much appreciated.

 

[SolarCity]

My advice would be to avoid them. There are plenty of firms that will install solar on your roof for free and they don't try and mislead the customer like Energy Saving Group do.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

You want to check out the website............... Solar PV in 1 small paragraph, pictures of Solar water and the blurb wanders into heating?????

 

[peterpatrick]

Hey theJMan

one of my friends had this done, he seems pretty happy with it, actually he won’t shut up about it.

I believe he had it done through the Energy Saving Group as well.

It looks like he has a whole bunch of panels on his roof, must admit it does look pretty futuristic.

I would not worry about it as you should be fine, just think of all the babes you will be able to score when you say “hey wanna come and see my solar panels” haha

Keep us posted on how it goes and good luck.

 

[Worcester]

@peterpatrick, having read your other posts, I see you are highly experienced in these technical matters. ::83:

@theJMan, 'free solar panels' (or £500 for a survey ... and then oops it won;t fit on your roof etc) is fraught with problems, check out some of the other threads in this forum, and what the Energy saving Trust have to say about them.

 

[SolarCity]

Hmm.... I smell something fishy......

 

[theJMan]

Hey everyone,

thank you for the responses, the surveyor is coming on Monday so I will just see how it goes.

I will bare in mind everything you guys have said.

I will let all of you know what happens, so watch this space.

once again Thank You.

 

[telectrix]

2 old sayings . 1. you don't get owt fer nowt. 2. if it looks too good to be true, then it probably isn't.

 

[Triplesolar]

Might be part of the lease-your-roof scheme whereby the company in question will legally "own" so to speak your roof and the space above it. Although you benefit from all the electricity that it produces, you wont be eligible for any of the FIT's or Feed in Tariff's which could amount to thousands!

 

[theJMan]

Surveyor come round today, he was a cheeky chap although not as epic as the Jedi Jim door salesman. He said my roof was fine for the solar panels and that I will be eligible for the £500 offer.

I asked him about how it works and he mentioned the whole feed in tariff thing, However if I wanted to keep the feed in tariff payments I would have to pay full price for the panels. This option would not be ideal for me as the same system would cost over 10k, of which I simply don’t have.

So I’m thinking about having the £500 deal as I still get a saving on my energy bills and the guy said I should make my initial £500 investment back within 18 months. This means I should be in profit after 18 months or so.

Overall the surveyor was friendly and was able to answer all the questions I had.

Not signed up yet to it, what you guys think?

Once again thank you for the feedback.

 

[liquidity]

Let me get this straight. You pay them 500 quid and they install panels on your roof and they get all the FITs. What you get is all the free electricity you can use.

I believe the Energy Saving Trust has revised their suggested percentage for what the average panel owner can use in-house to some 25% of what's generated. So if you generate 3000kWh per year you'll only use 750 kWh of that per year. At a typical price of 10p per kWh you'll save 75 quid per year. So (ignoring rising electricity prices) it'll take almost 7 years to recover your 500 quid; it's only after that point that you'll see any profit. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick but a far cry from "savings you thousands". More like spend 500 up front and over 25 years save you 1875 (again ignoring inflation and rising prices).

 

[Energetic]

Read the contract very very carefully. It is likely that you will not be able to sell YOUR home inside of 25 years without their permission and may be liable for a significant breach of contract fine if you do. There's not many people about that can absolutely guarantee they will be in their current home for 25 years... Seriously think this through very carefully, you have been warned by many here...

 

[JohnDee]

For goodness sake don't go there...... it's (probably) not a scam but they are taking the mickey, especially if you wish to sell your home part way through the contract.

 

[Noshocks]

I was doing a job in Burnham on sea last week, the local free papaer headline caught my eye, old lady had given this company mentioned £500 in April and not heard anything installed, other than excuses when contacting them.

After being contacted by paper they have now booked in the install, I would be very wary.

 

[dazzapsj1]

Do not touch Energy Saving Group I have spoken to several people who have paid £500 and not had what was promised all these rent a roof schemes need regulating the contracts are very scary.

 

[TedB]

Sounds like the old "tarmac your drive" scam to me.