I’m annoyed. In fact, I’m rather angry, here’s why.
We have been contacted by concerned people who have had companies knocking on their doors, offering both upgrades as well as new systems. The promises have been quite exaggerated with rather extreme prices. So, let’s have a look at a few examples.
Case 1.
Our customer was offered panel optimisers to their existing system. It was claimed that they would increase the efficiency of their system by 20-30 percent. After research and simulations, it became clear that the benefit of the optimisers would have been minimal for the customer. The cost was 7500€ for 15 optimisers.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not knocking optimisers, they can offer advantages in certain conditions. My anger has to do with the customer paying 500€ per installed optimiser when the price of an average optimiser is around 60€ with vat included. In this case not only was the benefit exaggerated but very much also the cost. Our customer was happy he spoke to us, he turned down the offer.
Note! IEC regulations require the PV connectors are of the same make, model and type. The odds are that the MC4 PV connectors on the optimisers would have to be changed, along with the relevant connectors on the panels. This would have meant changing around 60 pairs of MC4 PV connectors, which I’m sure that the company offering the upgrade would have complied with, wouldn’t they?
Case 2.
A potential customer contacted us for a quote and was quite specific about what they wanted. They wanted “Glass-Glass” (bifacial panels) for a pitched roof. Okay, types of roofs 101 coming up!
They had been advised that bifacial panels were the best on the market and were perfect for the installation to his pitched roof.
Bifacial panels present an advantage where sufficient light can reach both sides of the panel. This would be on a flat roof with an elevated mounting system such as this:
Or on a ground mounted array like this:
When fitted “flat to the roof” with only a few centimetres from the roof surface, the second face of the panel is essentially dark and won’t present any advantage.
This fact was even confirmed at the GEF partner days by the representative of a solar panel company. Bifacial panels are indeed advantageous where they make sense, but not on a “flat to roof” installation.
Case 3.
We were contacted about a battery installation for an existing system. The customer had already signed an order with another company but wanted to check with us to be on the safe side. Once again, it was a “door knocking company” and the order had been signed there and then. Having the customer sign the order straight away is already a red flag. The cost for the 2 module 5kWh battery was 12000€, which is several thousand Euros more than what the cost should be.
Luckily with our help the customer was in time to cancel the order, but this was not so easy. I’m not naming names, but their customer service representatives were rather rude and were reluctant to send confirmation cancelling the order.
Together with the customer we discussed the need for a battery and at this point it did not really make sense for them. We all are very happy that they saved the money!
Businesses are there to make a profit, of course they are. To take advantage of peoples lack of knowledge and use it to make extreme profits is shameful. It also increases people’s suspicions about the whole concept of solar power. This makes it increasingly difficult for honest entrepreneurs to conduct their business.
SUN VALO is a business too, but we are not here to take advantage of people. We are here to help and present facts; facts taken from our own system and facts taken from customers systems. We present the facts in a way that can be understood. People are not stupid, or ignorant. Many simply have a lack of knowledge in this particular field. This makes it a potential gold mine for “door knockers” and “cold callers” and it is high time those practices were better controlled and only facts presented and extreme overpricing is called to account.