New Ofgem 5 day rule for customers to submit first kWh reading

[Bright_Light]

Hi,

A customer has just informed me that E-On have told him he must submit his first reading within 5 days. This came from Ofgem apparently but I have not heard about this before? Has anyone else heard this?

 

[stuart99]

I'm a customer eith eON and yes, its on their FIT application form which you can't submit unless you have an MCS number as well !

 

[Bright_Light]

OK, well that will make us installers a bit quicker with the paperwork! Thanks for your reply

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Thats why I take on the FIT registration for the customer too. Not only is it a nice bonus for them, but it allows for a more rapid completion of all necessary paperwork in one hit.

 

[steve Leese]

e-on are not the only one to do this, scotish and southern energy do the same now.

 

[pjcomp]

S&SE will only accept a start date after you've emailed them to tell them what you're doing, so it's best for the customer to tell them a week or two before installation, then they can claim from day one.

PJ

 

[SRE]

Are you sure they aren't accepting it - the paperwork I've read just says that the meter reading should be within 5 days of sending the paperwork off - not the system being commissioned. The only difference to payment is that whatever has been generated at the start won't be counted but the 25 years will start from a later date. I was so busy doing everyone else's that I didn't send my own in for 6 months - EDF were fine. My customers are telling me that Scottish Power have a 3 week backlog (three weeks ago so it will be longer now) so I'm not sure why they would be encouraging people to send in work even quicker ....

 

[TonyL]

I used was warned about this before buying and checked with my installer. It's yet anpother factor in choosing between a one man band and a larger company with support staff. The MCS certificate arrived the day after the install. I chose Eon for FIT payments because I had heard good things about them. They have been simplicity itself. I gave them split readings over the April rate uplift and they dealt with it no problem.

Conversely my brother in law chose Southern and 4 months later, he is still waiting for them to register his FIT and start paying. He doesn't doubt they will pay but they appear to be a bit flaky in their processes.

 

[cjapeterborough]

As a recent purchaser of a system I got caught by this with Scottish Power
They will only accept the eligible FIT date from receipt of a completed and dated application form with no errors.
The form requires the MCS certificate number...so you need this before you can send the form.

Now with the backlog they "lost" my first application and I had to send another recorded delivery a couple of weels later.
Following this the first one did indeed turnup which caused more confusion as I had appeared to apply twice.

Worked out in the end but a bit of a mess.

I made the mistake of paying before the certificate was issued and had to wait about two weeks for it.
(I didnt realise this would be a problem as the installation company told me FIT would be "backdated"......not true)

So my 2p worth for anyone purchasing a system dont pay in full until the MCS certificate is in your hands.

Now any Company taking the responsibility of offering a complete service re form completion etc and seeing the
FIT payments through would certainly get my vote when having to choose a supplier.

Not to be patronising in any way but I am sure there are significant number of customers who would find
the whole process confusing and ultimately lose time and money...just like me :-0)

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Your logic is sound, however you can not withhold payment until a certificate is produced, and neither can the installer with hold a certificate until payment in full.

This is the unfortunate nature of the industry at the moment as everything is evolving at a rapid rate. Rules change on a daily basis, and your installers would have been right at one point. Unfortunately you were hit twice, 1 with a delay in certifying, and 2 with the lost FIT application. This is were choosing the right installer is critical, any I will stick my neck out and say some one local is 95% of the time going to provide a better level of ONGOING service over a national company, might cost you a little more, but you will have better value for money in the long run.....

 

[Graeme Harrold]

I used was warned about this before buying and checked with my installer. It's yet anpother factor in choosing between a one man band and a larger company with support staff.

Totally disagree with this distinction between the two, however I would make some one aware between choosing between a flash in the pan start up and an established business. I ama 1 man band (with a little help) and I will catagorically guarentee I will out provide any national company on service, knowledge and customer satisfaction. Its what makes me stand out from the crowd. As a consumer you need to do your homework thoroughly and look beyond price and blingy sales pitches of big companies as many small family businesses will provide so much more. I at least will answer my phone most of the time, not just 9-5 monday to friday!!!

 

[SRE]

No comparison between the service provided by most smaller firms compared to the bigger guys. We do the installations ourselves so it's in our interest to make sure the customer gets the best possible service with that all important personal touch.

We recently had problems with a transformer, the customer was convinced it was the inverter, we knew it wans't but changed it over to put their mind at rest. DNO turned the transformer down and all was well. Customer referred her friend to us. Tell me which national company would have made the 3 x45 mile round trips to sort this out within a week of installation.

 

[dansk]

M&S Would ave.........:thinking2:

 

[dansk]

And they would have got a meal deal for 2

 

[SRE]

No loyalty points tho ...

 

[dansk]

Lol........

 

[TonyL]

Totally disagree with this distinction between the two, however I would make some one aware between choosing between a flash in the pan start up and an established business. I ama 1 man band (with a little help) and I will catagorically guarentee I will out provide any national company on service, knowledge and customer satisfaction. Its what makes me stand out from the crowd. As a consumer you need to do your homework thoroughly and look beyond price and blingy sales pitches of big companies as many small family businesses will provide so much more. I at least will answer my phone most of the time, not just 9-5 monday to friday!!!

Everyone starts somewhere and it is a joy to see a succesful small business. I am one !

I wish I could have used a local company, let alone a small one, but none of them impressed me. To a man, they wanted to drill 10mm fastenings into 35mm trusses without any additional woodwork. As an ex boat builder, or even just using some common sense, it was clear that this approach is utterly inadequate. The sheer stress points on the remaining 66% of the material either side of the fastening are ripe for failure and that's before you consider that the membrane integrity has been breached to make the join thus introducing the risk of rot.

Structural integrity calcs and Building Reg self certification is a horribly weak area in the whole process. I forsee many instalations are going to cause houses to fail surveys during a sale when the RICS surveyor goes into the roof and looks at a) how the panel load is transferred to the roof structure and b) whether ANY evidence of water ingress is present near the fastening points in years to come.

That comment applies very eqqually to large, medium, small nad one man band installers.

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Structural integrity calcs and Building Reg self certification is a horribly weak area in the whole process. I forsee many instalations are going to cause houses to fail surveys during a sale when the RICS surveyor goes into the roof and looks at a) how the panel load is transferred to the roof structure and b) whether ANY evidence of water ingress is present near the fastening points in years to come.

That comment applies very eqqually to large, medium, small nad one man band installers.

Its started to a certain extent with MCS accreditation calling for calcs now, so will hopefully stamp out the problem before too long, however those who have gained accreditation in the past 6 months or so who do not keep up to speed may still be installing substandard anchors for the frame....only time will tell.

 

[solarsavings]

that's before you consider that the membrane integrity has been breached to make the join thus introducing the risk of rot..

I think you misunderstand the purpose of the membrane.

 

[TonyL]

Perhaps I do misunderstand it's purpose. I think it's the barrier of last resort, after tiles have failed or been refitted around something.

Under the PV installs that I have seen, there are usually tiles missing - as opposed to carefully cut out to the create the absolute minimum required size hole. Or replaced over proper hooked anchor points which require no missing tiles. Or used under a lead flashing like every other item sticking through a roof

What is the acceptable standard?