Question: Worrying incompetance or just minor niggles in the last minute rush??

[Worcester]

@mjanesuk

Bruce B's comments above are the right way to go about this - the most important one is the correct MCS certificate, all the rest can be fixed 'at your leisure' unless you get 160+mph winds...

Keep a 'diary' / log book and right down all your observatiosn and date them, along with photos, - print out this thread and save it for future reference. - Photo document everything.

BiggsSolar and BruceB are two highly competent and experienced installers and their advice is well worth heading.

Take it step by step
1) Protect your investment - get the correct certificate (before anything else...)
2) Retain the £3k - it is your strongest lever.
3) Report them to REAL and MCS.
4) Get a 'third party' / another installer to do a complete snagging list of ALL the faults, and specify why they are at fault.
5) Get a written proposal from the company as to how they plan to fix EVERYTHING to your satisfaction.
6) Get that agreed / approved by the third party above
7) If their proposals are not acceptable tell them what is (or get the third party to) and get agreement to do everything.
8) They are legally entitled to the monies you owe them wether they remenber or not ..
9) Point out that you are looking to recover the additional costs associated with putting it right from them (the report and supervision)
10) Get the third party to supervise all the remedial works, and pay the third party out of the retention.
11) If the above fails, tell them that you intend to get a thrid party in to fix it all and that you will look to recover those costs from them.
12) When all is finished properly pay them the outstanding balance (even if a third party does all the fixes) less costs, including your 'inconvenience'
13) Don't threaten court action untill all other avenues have failed.

Hope that helps..

 

[Worcester]

You need to tread very carefully with your Fit Provider as :

"Providing an MCS certificate number for an installation that has not been correctly installed or knowingly providing false information on an application is fraud."

In your case, I would simply point out that the panels type specified is an error, that in their rush to get all the installtions completed in time, they put the wrong one in (truth!) and do not mention the other issues.

 

[mjanesuk]

Wow, what a response. Thanks for all the help guys, really appreciated.

The good news from today is that I spoke to MCS and they then added the panels, manufacturer and BABT details to teh MCS database. A quick call to the girl in the office at the installers co. and I now have the MCS cert with all the correct details on it.

Re. the contract, B. Gas said on Friday that it would be 3 weeks before i get any respones and they had 9000 applications last week and were already 3 wks behind. So I need to decide whether to speak to MCS before or to leave it and concentrate on the snagging list with the view of someone who understands what they are doing.

A lot od the problem was the trades coming on different days and seemingly never worked with each other before (the roofer said this was typical of this group), but I run a business and you need to understand the job and who you need. I have been less than impressed by the MD, Sales Dir and the panels 'expert' . All have told porkies, or just not read/understood the details (which is worse?). The MD even got the 'single string of 10', highlighted above, wrong. I have to insist that it should be 2x5 even with the backing of SMA who said it might blow the inverter and would min. invalidate the warranty.

I have started to go through all your comments and list the faults and what I feel should be done to redress, but Worcester's approach of an expert assessment seems the more b/w approach to take.

I will start by calling them tomorrow (now I have the MCS - even if the corrupt it) and saying I have a 'few issues that I will write up and send to them, so suggest they leave the scaffold up (its been up since the 22nd Nov anyway: 2 cancellations the evening before).

I am still trying to get them to send the G83 OK, but I'm not hopefull that they applied in the 1st place.

Question: With the Sunny Boy, there is a deal on the free 20yr warranty (OK only small beer, but..) can I apply for this myself with the serial no, etc, or would it have to be the installer?

 

[mjanesuk]

Have they earthed the array? - There should be an earth cable coimg from the rails to either an earth spike or the main earth depending upon your incoming supply type. (PME etc)

Just noticed this one. I'd like to say yes, but NO.

 

[moggy1968]

To be honest I don't think the insuarance is worth it. SMA can refurbish inverters for about 50% of the new cost, so less than the cost of insurance. It's like buying an extended warranty on your washer, just not worth it. Just IMHO of course!

 

[mjanesuk]

Oh great. more 70mph winds coming acording to the news. Maybe I should rope them down or run gaffer tape round the house (no not THEIR solution - yet)

 

[SolarCity]

To be totally honest, the fact that the electrican and the roofers worked as individual entities is not the issue. The issue is that both of them are diabolically incompetent.

Neither them should be anywhere near a toolbox or someone else's home and the fact that they work under a sign of quality like the MCS angers me far more than any of the recent changes to the FITs.

 

[mjanesuk]

@mjanesuk

Looks like either a schuco or a grey import 4000TL, it probably also hasn't been properly configured for the UK, so that will aslo need doing / checking, and if it's been generating for > 10 hours will need a bluetooth link and a GridGuard code to do it.

how can I tell if it is a grey/schuco import?

Would a better pic help, or the serial no. Actually, I presume calling SMA is the easiest way to find out. They are based just up the road in Milton Keynes.

 

[moggy1968]

When it powers up it should say G83 on the readout. switch off the AC isolator, then switch back on and watch the display and see what it says (in daylight obviously). It should take about 3 minutes to power up.If it doesn't say G83 and you feel confident enough have a look in the manual to see how to change the country settings. SMA inverters can be reconfigured quite easilly for different countries.I am sure someone will let me know if this is tricky as the inverter has been on and off a few times. some inverters you have to do this at first fire up, some within the first ten. I honestly don't know on this one as we always do the settings when we commission the system.

 

[mjanesuk]

Thanks. I might give it a go at the weekend. Not much chance of being at home in daylight at the moment! Though I am pretty sure it lights up when you tap the box - and changes the display.

Will poke my head up tomorrow, and try not to trip over the cables!!

 

[Earthstore]

Can I advise you on this, please don't touch it.
You have no earth's, no AC isolator, no seperate DC isolator. For the tiny amount of money that you would lose at this time of year, just turn it off at the consumer unit that they fitted, check that it is off, enjoy your turkey, raise your glass on the 31st to all of us in limbo land and sort it out properly in 2012.
I am sure you can find a local PV company to pop round and have a look for you, not just an electrician, as most do not even understand PV.
Earthstore

 

[mjanesuk]

There is an AC isolator just to the right of the inverter. But I appreciate the message of just leave it alone till is been inspected.

 

[smag]

Going back a few steps...sorry. You will not be able to fix another fixing into a K2 bracket as they are staggered from each other without going off-centre and hence damaging the 37mm rafter. Using a single 3.5mm dia screw (therefore not encroaching on the 4 x dia. to edge distance) with 65mm embedment will give you a factor of safety in the region of 5 depending on location, altitude etc.

 

[moggy1968]

and there's the problem, you can't use such a small screw for solar brackets, minimum is 6mm which breaches building regs, thats why you need to batten the rafter.
if you align the bracket carefully you can still get 2 screws into the rafter. we've done loads with this size joist and our 'miss rate' hitting the rafters is probably less than 1%.
of course if it's a plain tile roof there is a K2 bracket with the holes in alignment. on a pantile the only option is staggered.

 

[smag]

...you can use a washer to overcome the issue of the screw being too small though

 

[moggy1968]

no you can't. the washer doesn't affect the diameter of the screw thread and accordingly it's tensile strength

 

[bhmt]

Hi. Just a bit of clarification - I have met this company in Munich at Solar Fairs and I have asked them where their products are made.
They told me that they have 25% manufacturing power in ZNShine factory in China + they keep Quality assurance people there. So that would explain SDG branding and ZNShine MCS. It is not some little company which is changing labels on the products but big holding selling PV all around Europe. Like you mentioned mjanesuk, probably it was one of their first deals in UK and due to all that rush their certification was delayed what forced them to use ZNShine cerificate.