You say that local installers dont have marketing teams ... but you guys have videos like this, which are definitely marketing, and a head of marketing on your team. But that is a good thing, its a great way to show customers you are competent and give them confidence in your service, values and conmitment. It is worth acknowledging that the "local solar" market is a bit of a nightmare - and even there, there are sales focused companies that want to sell you a particular system (for a cut of the profits on equipment) and then subcontract the installation. There are lots of local companies not as vertically integrated as Spirit seems to be. And at the same time, there are nationwide companies that are vertically integrated. So im not sure if its as easy as national vs local!
I would have to say I agree. If you're looking to install solar, doing your due diligence and talking to a diverse handful of installers, whether they be local or national, is always a good idea. It isn't as black and white as it would seem, but doing so should help avoid the experience not meeting your expectations. Luckily for consumers, the market, for now, is still in a place where the power is in their hands, and they're able to get quotes from a broad range of companies, and don't have to settle for an out-the-box solution. Regarding Spirit having a marketing team. Admittedly it's somewhat ironic, but the argument I would make (which you succinctly pointed out!) is that it's always been our philosophy to provide as much transparency and information as possible. Thank you for your viewership, Luke
I had a quote from Octopus and local supplier. I have a complex roof but the office based Octopus sales gave me a quote from Google maps, which I said did not work, they wanted a deposit before visiting. The local firm came out no quibble saw the issues and did a proper design and site survey free of charge. Also Octopus only offered one battery option, instead of several, Octopus kept offering a discount if I signed up before any visit. Guess who I went with, the local supplier even though they were slightly more expensive, this was June 23.
Thanks for your video. I think one of the key factors is whether technical issues can be resolved. This could be a firmware issue or bug, electrical mistake or hardware install problem. Knowing as a consumer who to trust with these concerns is real headache! Personally, I think a small company will be more concerned about negative reviews so is more likely to put the effort in to resolve a problem. I company like Octopus probably will largely shrug and and will be on your own unless it's a fairly obvious fix. An intermittent problem is going to be an especially difficult one to resolve.
Hi Susanna, thanks for your comment. I would completely agree with your points here, and you're right that reputation is everything for smaller businesses that operate within local communities. We always recommend getting multiple quotes and that one should be from your local family specialist.
I’ve used Spirit energy to fit my two Powerwalls and I have to say they were very professional in their work. However a number of years prior I had solar panels fitted by a small local company and they did a dreadful job that required another company to come in and at extra cost put things right. It seems in the early days of solar there were a lot of cowboys in the unregulated business and unfortunately for me the company that first installed my panels went bankrupt so I had no recourse on them.
Your company website ROI calculator doesn’t work properly on the battery page in Safari. It forces me to input x3 battery storage solutions when I only need one. This is because there is no “none” option and the form validation also requires every field to be filled in even when pressing the back button. Please fix it? 😄
Hi Andy, we’re based in Reading. We do national installs for commercial jobs but not for residential I’m afraid. For houses, we cover about 2.5 hours from Reading at the moment. Do drop me an email if you like.
From someone who doesn’t yet have solar, I think you’ve compared an honest, good company like yourself to the big national ones. The concern is a lot of small independents are not like Spirit. Unfortunately I’m outside of your 2.5 hour catchment area.
Spirit was founded in 2010, 15 years ago, and we hope to be able to provide an outstanding service to our customers for the next 15 years and well beyond that.
Smaller, local installers with great reputations are positioned very well for the future of solar. Big company also means big overhead. And from what I've seen in the US, they're just as vulnerable to going under.
You say that local installers dont have marketing teams ... but you guys have videos like this, which are definitely marketing, and a head of marketing on your team. But that is a good thing, its a great way to show customers you are competent and give them confidence in your service, values and conmitment.
It is worth acknowledging that the "local solar" market is a bit of a nightmare - and even there, there are sales focused companies that want to sell you a particular system (for a cut of the profits on equipment) and then subcontract the installation. There are lots of local companies not as vertically integrated as Spirit seems to be. And at the same time, there are nationwide companies that are vertically integrated.
So im not sure if its as easy as national vs local!
I would have to say I agree. If you're looking to install solar, doing your due diligence and talking to a diverse handful of installers, whether they be local or national, is always a good idea. It isn't as black and white as it would seem, but doing so should help avoid the experience not meeting your expectations.
Luckily for consumers, the market, for now, is still in a place where the power is in their hands, and they're able to get quotes from a broad range of companies, and don't have to settle for an out-the-box solution.
Regarding Spirit having a marketing team. Admittedly it's somewhat ironic, but the argument I would make (which you succinctly pointed out!) is that it's always been our philosophy to provide as much transparency and information as possible.
Thank you for your viewership,
Luke
I had a quote from Octopus and local supplier. I have a complex roof but the office based Octopus sales gave me a quote from Google maps, which I said did not work, they wanted a deposit before visiting. The local firm came out no quibble saw the issues and did a proper design and site survey free of charge. Also Octopus only offered one battery option, instead of several, Octopus kept offering a discount if I signed up before any visit. Guess who I went with, the local supplier even though they were slightly more expensive, this was June 23.
Thanks for your video. I think one of the key factors is whether technical issues can be resolved. This could be a firmware issue or bug, electrical mistake or hardware install problem.
Knowing as a consumer who to trust with these concerns is real headache! Personally, I think a small company will be more concerned about negative reviews so is more likely to put the effort in to resolve a problem. I company like Octopus probably will largely shrug and and will be on your own unless it's a fairly obvious fix. An intermittent problem is going to be an especially difficult one to resolve.
Hi Susanna, thanks for your comment. I would completely agree with your points here, and you're right that reputation is everything for smaller businesses that operate within local communities. We always recommend getting multiple quotes and that one should be from your local family specialist.
I’ve used Spirit energy to fit my two Powerwalls and I have to say they were very professional in their work. However a number of years prior I had solar panels fitted by a small local company and they did a dreadful job that required another company to come in and at extra cost put things right. It seems in the early days of solar there were a lot of cowboys in the unregulated business and unfortunately for me the company that first installed my panels went bankrupt so I had no recourse on them.
Your company website ROI calculator doesn’t work properly on the battery page in Safari. It forces me to input x3 battery storage solutions when I only need one. This is because there is no “none” option and the form validation also requires every field to be filled in even when pressing the back button. Please fix it? 😄
Thanks, it’s not broken it’s forcing you to compare three options. I agree that this is silly and will get it changed. Thanks.
Do you do national installations?
I looked on your website a few days ago but it looked like you were Cambridge based?
Hi Andy, we’re based in Reading. We do national installs for commercial jobs but not for residential I’m afraid.
For houses, we cover about 2.5 hours from Reading at the moment. Do drop me an email if you like.
From someone who doesn’t yet have solar, I think you’ve compared an honest, good company like yourself to the big national ones. The concern is a lot of small independents are not like Spirit. Unfortunately I’m outside of your 2.5 hour catchment area.
Thanks for the comment. I’d recommend going to solar-power.co.uk to find a local specialist like us. This is a network that we’re part of.
Competition in my dojo
No competition. Spirit won't even exist in 5 years time, but Octopus Energy will.
Spirit was founded in 2010, 15 years ago, and we hope to be able to provide an outstanding service to our customers for the next 15 years and well beyond that.
Smaller, local installers with great reputations are positioned very well for the future of solar. Big company also means big overhead. And from what I've seen in the US, they're just as vulnerable to going under.