PV trade prices?

[brman]

I've brought this to the arms to prevent a scrap in public

In the solar forum someone asked for prices of PV panels. The response was basically "not in public please".
http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk...y-forum/89415-average-pv-array-costs-now.html
So my question is: Why not?

Why is PV different from any other material cost discussion?

A genuine question, I am not trying to start a scrap really but wondering if there is something in the pv market that makes things more complex or sensitive?

 

[SolarCity]

This is a trade forum where Joe Public often visits to seek advice.

It is already difficult to sell PV when a customer accesses trade prices for panels and inverters on the internet. I've had it where potential customers are pretty much telling me what I earn. It's not that I can't justify what I charge, I'd just rather not have to point out the costs associated with running an electrical business.

We have trade only sections of the forum and I think these discussions should be had there.

I should point out that I don't believe this is any different from other electrical work or anything else for that matter.

I don't expect Cadburys to tell me how much the ingredients of their chocolate costs, I don't expect Land Rover to tell me how much the individual parts cost and I don't see why PV work should be any different.

 

[brman]

I have to admit I have never had that problem, I just explain to my customers how much it costs me to source materials (diesel, storage, time etc) and that they are actually getting them cheap

But fair enough.....

 

[SolarCity]

I have to admit I have never had that problem, I just explain to my customers how much it costs me to source materials (diesel, storage, time etc) and that they are actually getting them cheap

But fair enough.....

They can buy panels and inverters for pretty much the same price as I can, unfortunately.

Regardless, I don't want to have to explain to customers my other expenses.

Glad you've never had that problem. We get it fairly frequently. Ever since the likes of Screwfix etc. started selling electrical stuff to Joe Public.

 

[brman]

I wouldn't say I don't get it, but not often. Probably because I avoid quoting material cost at all unless asked specifically for it!

But like I said, I've maybe been luckly and not had much problems. Perhaps it would be different if I was dealing with higher value stuff like PV where I guess 15% on trade price makes more of a difference overall.

 

[Gavin A]

it's for the same / similar reason that trade wholesalers have different prices for the public and trade, to give us a fighting chance of actually making a living due to customers inability to actually understand the level of running costs we incur - way higher than any domestic electrical business for example.

If other sections of the forum are happy to discuss trade prices in public then that's up to them, personally I think it'd be pretty stupid to do it, but if you want to shoot yourselves in the foot then I'll just watch from the sidelines, if it impacts on my business though then I'd walk from any forum that allowed public discussion of trade pricing.

FWIW my breakdown of materials and equipment costs for customers is '1 x fully installed MCS certified solar PV installation as per the quote specification' or words to that effect. We don't sell individual components, and I won't break it down any further than this even if requested as it always leads to me wasting time with customers trying to shave costs when they haven't got a clue what they're doing, and actually adding to our costs in terms of the time taken to deal with their penny pinching efforts.

 

[Earthstore]

Just to add, if you are an MCS certified company VAT will be at 5% for all of the install, however if you buy the components yourself VAT will be at 20%, so it could end up costing you more not less.....