No MCS Self installed system- why would you do it!!!!

[redmile-energy]

Had a guy ring up a couple of days ago who was a local electrician who had put a system on his own house and was looking to get it signed off for the MCS. We've never got into this before but it was local and we agreed to have a look on the understanding that we took no responsibility for warranties etc... we would just assess that it was up to MCS standard to help the guy out.

When we got there the system was clearly not up to standard, 3 or 4 clips had been supplied totally wrong and were not even touching the panel so were serving no purpose. End clips were at the extreme ends of the rail, virtually half on half off- not good! Also the schuco rails had not been put on the right way round which invalidated the mounting warranty.

Basically the systems needs taking off and re-mounting, we've given the guy a fair price to provide a days labour and get it up to standard but he's not come back to us so god knows what his plans are. apparently the systems been on for weeks but he only just came round to sorting out the MCS- clearly very organised! The final icing on the cake is the fact that he paid £7500 for a 3.42 Chint solar kit from landmark electrical- litterally pants down prices, especially if it only pays itself back on its electrical savings.

Hopefully the guys learnt his lesson, and an expensive one at that- trying to save himself a few quid but showing no respect to those installers who have spent the time, effort and money getting their MCS and have thousands of hours experience.

 

[Noshocks]

Sounds like he got, and paid for, what he deserves, should be interesting when those end clips ping off!

 

[SRE]

Probably gone to mcscert :rofl:

 

[moggy1968]

is he in the south by any chance?
got a phone call asking me to cert a self installed system. didn't even bother looking, just said no!

 

[redmile-energy]

Hi moggy, no in the midlands. To be honest my first instinct was to say no but I gave him a chance because he said he was an electrician and it was his own house. I wrongly thought this would make him do a good job, just goes to show you should trust your instincts. Never came back to me but he told our install manager he thought we were a bit expensive!!!! we were going to charge him £700 to provide mcs cert and provide 2 guys for the day to help him put it right, funny how he thinks thats expensive but is quite happy to hand over £7500 for a system worth about £4500.

 

[vince66666]

Hello, i have self installed system, which is working very well and feed national grid 1-2,5 kw per day. I need MCS certificate for the feed in tariff ASAP. Please call 07411830511, email: [email protected], 71 Lensbury way,Abbey Wood, London, SE2 9SZ. Thank you

 

[PvNewbie]

Strictly speaking, MCS registered installers cannot sign off anyone else's work. A full paper trail should be maintained and traceable for each job, from initial quote to final sign off, using the installer's own approved sub-contractors.

 

[SRE]

We were asked to do 8 all within 5 miles of us for a landlord. We were already booked out which made it very easy to say no but I have a feeling if we hadn't have been we'd have been in a similar situation to Redmile. I'll keep it in mind if we're ever tempted to help someone out again.

 

[Dmeltd]

i got asked by solar king to do 5 installs for them, obv they would sign them off but people were just taking on far too much work that they could never complete on.

i said no, too committed to my own customers - whats the point in providing labour only anyway!

 

[redmile-energy]

PVnewbie we were signing the work off under a subcontract agreement so a lot of liability was taken away from ourselves. we were keen to cover ourselves but if the system was up to an MCS standard we would have been happy to sign it off, going to avoid in future though!