Latest Batches of Panels down in price

[garryh1.11]

How far will we see the price of panels drop to make the new tarrif worth while?
Who is cheapest for Canadian Solar and Suntech at the moment has anyone come across any good new deals??

 

[Jaycee]

How far will we see the price of panels drop to make the new tarrif worth while?
Who is cheapest for Canadian Solar and Suntech at the moment has anyone come across any good new deals??

I think most people are out there looking for work not buying panels at the moment

 

[screwdriver]

A little pessimistic. Those looking for work aren't the ones buying the panels at the moment..... I can't see them dropping as dramatically as before Xmas!

 

[solarcat]

I think the new tariff is already worthwhile with the current prices, but it's taking time for investors to do much about it. Those who didn't manage to get their PV installed before the 3rd are not in a hurry and most can afford to wait to see if prices drop any further. They probably won't drop much more unless manufacturers become desperate to the point they start dumping modules...
The other question is how much can we reduce the installation cost? My view is: not very much at all, especially if we work at this slow rate.

 

[solarsavings]

I hand delivered a quote to a pc that came via recommendation yesterday only to be told that they intend to wait until prices drop further can install prices drop much lower and still make sense with the intended drop in the fit too. The quote I dropped off was for an 2.88KWP Bosch system with Power one inverter for £6120.00p including.

 

[The Solar King]

Its a good price. People forget the overheads of memberships/compliance etc. Do you think this job would stack up for the customer at 16.5p FIT? (or even 13.5p)

 

[solarsavings]

Not a chance and I did explain that to them but they're convinced that prices have a long way to drop yet and it would be better to wait.

I've decided we're definitely out at 16.5p and may yet be out at 21p.

 

[The Solar King]

Please tell DECC in the consultation. In my opinion We need 21.5 + 1.5p export or a combination thereof until March 2013. It is easy to forget how far we have been shafted already and how large the cuts already are. Apologies for slight hijacking of thread

 

[babba]

I hand delivered a quote to a pc that came via recommendation yesterday only to be told that they intend to wait until prices drop further can install prices drop much lower and still make sense with the intended drop in the fit too. The quote I dropped off was for an 2.88KWP Bosch system with Power one inverter for £6120.00p including.

Thats a cheap quote people who sit on the fence for that price are daft...Will they pass an EPC with out doing extra work...

 

[solarsavings]

I've done plenty of telling to an audiance that can't or won't listen.

 

[solarsavings]

Thats a cheap quote people who sit on the fence for that price are daft...Will they pass an EPC with out doing extra work...

They live in a rural property, solid walls, oil heating so it's going to be big bucks to get to a D.

 

[JulianC]

People seem to forget that panel price is not proportional to installation price. The lower panel prices drop the less installation prices drop in response, as a bigger proportion of the price is made up of the fixed costs, like surveys, scaffolding and labour etc. I reckon the cost of installation curve is not far off flat-lining.

 

[babba]

I know the feeling, had nothing but rubbish leads this week, seem to be getting the dreegs of crap left over from the 3 march looking forward to april...NOT..

 

[babba]

And funnier new people getting MCS accredited.....NUTTERS

 

[babba]

They live in a rural property, solid walls, oil heating so it's going to be big bucks to get to a D.

Get back on the phone and beat them up..Probally find they are broke asses..people have the funniest ways of telling you...
Im broke

 

[Noshocks]

And funnier new people getting MCS accredited.....NUTTERS

I checked the MCS database yesterday, I half thought that installers would be reducung, how wrong I was, getting towards five thousand now for PV, thats a lot of twiddling thumbs!

 

[Eco Deal]

4122 MCS PV last time I looked

 

[balbecdaze]

Hi, I'm one of the nutters, I've been interested in PV for ~15 years and back then did a fair old amount of research into how to get into it - this is starting as a non electrician. Of course this was before Part P and the whole Domestic Installation. Couldn't really see a way of doing it then, no savings etc, so instead I teacher trained and became a science teacher. A couple of years ago I changed tack, having kept up with PV news and soon after the FITs started went into supply teaching instead so I could go to college, get my 17th edition etc. This (with a 2392 as well and a solar pv course, manual handling, working at heights etc). I feel as shafted as many of you, I've spent well over a year training, thousands buying kit, insurance and scheme registration all for nothing? Mind you I've done my first install finally, feel pleased as punch and one or two non-conformities notwithstanding should get my customer the 21p pre EPC cutoff.

Sorry about the moan, just saying that the MCS registration was just the last thing in a long line of steps to get into PV, and having done all the others I felt as if I may as well finish the job off. I'm not making any grand plans for the future though!

 

[babba]

Dont blame you having a moan thats what nutters do..lol..the market place is so tight at the moment and can only see it getting worse..the bright side is you have something to fall back on... 21p is not the end of the world but couple that with EPC doesn't help
Good luck on your new adventure..

 

[Noshocks]

4122 MCS PV last time I looked

I did say 'getting towards 5000', the last time i looked was when I registered and it was 1,800 !!

 

[Eco Deal]

It must of been lower than that noshocks because I register at around the 1200 and you was MCS before us

 

[Noshocks]

You may be right MEP, just makes the situation seem worse, I wasent over run with work when there were less than 1200 installers and a £0.43 FIT, even with a 30% drop in system prices thats a lot of installers/chancers/gravy train jump oners (delete as applicable) chasing the same level of work.

 

[babba]

Same level of work..WHERE..EPC will kill that level to about 40% me thinks...40% is me being an optimist...

 

[SolarCity]

And the firms that actually survey jobs correctly will be up against the crash, bang wallopers (buy a 4kWp kit, give the panels to the roofers, get an electrician to plug it - forget calcs, forget shading, forget everything)

 

[babba]

And the firms that actually survey jobs correctly will be up against the crash, bang wallopers (buy a 4kWp kit, give the panels to the roofers, get an electrician to plug it - forget calcs, forget shading, forget everything)

Been like that for the last three months...wham.. bam..gis your debit card details..

 

[SRE]

We've just quoted against one of the nationals who were doing 3.5kwp for .... wait for it ...... 16k!!!! I nearly fell of my chair - weren't Sanyo either.

 

[infinity]

Thats crazy! just quoted 4kw sanyo at £11K i thought that was pretty reasonable

 

[SRE]

There's a lot of telesales going on at the minute. This customer said as soon as he let the salesman in he wished he hadn't Seems to be talking to us ok but you can't count your chickens .....

 

[Gavin A]

we get a steady trickle of work on the back of these dodgy salesmen as with some customers it just stirs their interest enough to prompt them to get another quote to compare it with, at which point the difference between our approach and the dodgy salesman approach, plus our prices means we get the job most of the time.

 

[Noshocks]

Same level of work..WHERE..EPC will kill that level to about 40% me thinks...40% is me being an optimist...

I'm doing an install next month on a 160 year old cottage with stone uninsulated walls, customer arranged EPC himself, DEA said it would be a D rating on the phone when he described the house, low and behold it was a D when he came out, EPC issued, £45, luvely jubly, customer should have said he was after a C rating! Hows this possible?

 

[Gavin A]

I guess it does depend on a lot of other stuff as well like loft insulation, condensing gas boiler, heating controls, thermostatic rad valves, double glazing, low energy lighting etc etc. so D would certainly be possible for a solid wall house, particularly once you add PV into the mix.

 

[Eco Deal]

There are EPC loop holes !!! as an EPC is just on BIG SAP calculation which if you did manually it would takes weeks

hence software

 

[Eco Deal]

I guess it does depend on a lot of other stuff as well like loft insulation, condensing gas boiler, heating controls, thermostatic rad valves, double glazing, low energy lighting etc etc. so D would certainly be possible for a solid wall house, particularly once you add PV into the mix.

solar pv does not add more than 5 points on at most

 

[Eco Deal]

I will do a standard house Detached 1960's with no energy efficent products then I will slowly add items like loft insulation and cavity wall insualltion , energy bulbs , pv and I will post my finding on here so we can get an Idea of Points per Item on a standard house.

 

[Gavin A]

I may be wrong, but I understood it that the points per item actually changes depending on other items. So in the house with the solid walls it would gain more points for having a condensing gas boiler than a house with cavity wall insulation would gain from having a condensing gas boiler, because the heat demand would be higher so there would be more direct gains from the more efficient boiler... etc.

At least I'm sure that's what our EPC guy was saying.

 

[babba]

May be hope for us all yet...

 

[SRE]

I may be wrong, but I understood it that the points per item actually changes depending on other items. So in the house with the solid walls it would gain more points for having a condensing gas boiler than a house with cavity wall insulation would gain from having a condensing gas boiler, because the heat demand would be higher so there would be more direct gains from the more efficient boiler... etc.

At least I'm sure that's what our EPC guy was saying.

You're right - it's different for every house but ball park figures will at least give us an idea of what we're looking for. I should be ok but there's loads fo people who won't know where to start.

 

[yorkshiremike]

Will be interested to see what you come up with. I'm currrently taking a DEA course and the instructor was incredulous when I assessed my own house as it's a 3 bed 1955 semi and with a 4kWp PV system (it also has all LED lights, cavity insulation, 300mm loft insulation etc) it comes out at 92 (A rated) - there aren't any 1955 houses in the database at A, which is why he is incredulous. I haven't mis entered any data (at least that anyone has found yet), but the rdSAP software (current version, not post April changes) is adding 17 points on for the PV taking it from a mid C rating (75) to lower A. Even a more typical 2.5kWp system would have added 9 points, whereas it looks like going from 0 to 100% low energy lighting only adds 1-2 points.

 

[Eco Deal]

It does depend on 1000's of factors I will do it just to get a basic Idea !