If it's not clear in this video, what we are highlighting is two aspects of the independent report paid for by the Greater London Authority to review their own Solar Together scheme. The report finds two problems with the scheme.. Firstly the failure of Ichoosr to run a sufficiently rigorous selection process of the installers, or even to reveal to the GLA the criteria they were using for this selection. Two of the five solar together installers used in the London scheme went bust. Secondly, the minimum quality required by Ichoosr for the products that could be installed. The reverse auction process (which Ichoosr state selects the lowest bidder), means that the bidders are incentivised to use the cheapest kit in order to win the bid. The recommendation of the video is that customers considering solar together should also get other quotes from installers not in the scheme, rather than thinking that they don't need to do their own due diligence because of the endorsement of the council or the fact that they feel they are in a group buying scheme. Please do share your own experiences and thoughts about the Solar Together scheme.
Thanks for calling all of this out, Tok - unbelievable the sheer lack of due diligence carried out by the council here (and I'm sure similar stories all around the country). I applaud you raising awareness on this on your channel - I will make reference to this video on mine.
I hope this video does well and the message gets shared widely. Reading some of the stories from homeowners who have suffered due to solar together is both heartbreaking and alarming to say the least. Industry practices like this need to stop. Keep up the great work with your channel 👍
Thanks! We're really enjoying making the videos - although they're very time consuming! It is a shame to read all the reviews, and I hope that people do the due diligence that is necessary for this type of investment.
@@spiritenergy_uk The issue is you get a little leaflet through your door, the kit looks good and the pricing schedule looks good relative to internet pricing - the problem I found is the bait and switch and when you look closely at the "home survey" you see that is has no kit specified - so you have no recourse. A 7kwh solar PV install should have an inverter suitable for it, but as I mentioned above they gave me a 3kwh inverter and after refusing to pay - eventually I got them to install a 6kwh one for an additional £350 but only after I got the G99 licence that they had no intent to apply for.
An excellent and very informative video, Tok. I am delighted with the system that you guys have put in for me. You weren’t the very cheapest, but nonetheless highly competitive and the workmanship is absolutely superb and the system is clearly well thought through and works seamlessly. Thank you.
As an electrician Im glad you have done this video i have seen some ruff solar together installs one for instance they found an old door in the loft and screwed eveyrthing onto this with the screws not done up on the isolators and covers just fell off. But as the home owner said its a great installation as the council recomend the company
Our council was pushing Solar together so I got an outline quote, it struck me that it wasn't going to produce much power and the price wasn't anything to write home about.
I wanted 20 solar panels that would generate 7.4kwh - I argued with the installers because they put in 18 - saying the roof was too small which is not the case. They then installed a 3 - yes 3kwh inverter...they bait and switched the batteries (for ones that were inferior in capacity and depth of charge), the bird protector. I had to apply for a G99 licence myself and then I had to pay an additional £350 for them to switch the inverter for a 6kwh - which is all I could get. The Council had absolutely no idea why I was angry and why a 3kwh inverter was not fit for the installation and zero interest in being involved even though they promoted the scheme. I would look at any house where they have been involved that has more than 8 solar panels (8 x 400W) because the inverters are probably undersized - and that is simply wasting solar panels. Oh - and finally they took all the additional plugs and connectors for the inverter and wanted to charge several hundred pounds for "installing an extension lead from the inverter as a make shift UPS".....That's my rant.
I used Solar together and found out the company that ‘won’ our local tender didn’t seem to know what they were doing when connecting panels to the inverter. It took me over 18 months to persuade them you couldn’t have unequal strings into a single MPPT inverter. Solar together and MCS where not very helpful when I tried to complain and didn’t seem to have the necessary technical expertise to understand what the problem was.
Thanks for you comment, Glen. I'm sorry to hear what has happened, that sounds like a nightmare. I'm surprised that they didn't have that basic level of knowledge and I dread to think about the amount of installations that did go ahead with that configuration with unequal strings into one MPPT. Thanks for sharing your experience.
@@catalinomocea6986 I'm happy to help out with a design / quotation - but we probably won't be the most cost-effective if travel is a big factor. Email me a tokc@spiritenergy.co.uk if you'd like to discuss the project.
@spiritenergy_uk It's not easy for the Nominated Technical Person (NTP) to become MCS accredited. I can guarantee Tok isn't a fully qualified electrician with Inspection and Testing qualifications. So tell me again how easy it is to become an MCS accredited NTP? What is easy is for an installation company with a single MCS accredited NTP to subcontract an unlimited number of installations out to other installers. That's the issue here.
My TL:DR version - A solar installer, who isn't part of the Solar Together scheme and who presumably is fed up with losing business on price, thinks Solar Together is a really bad idea.
Thanks for the comment. I think it’s a great idea. We don’t tend to lose business to Solar Together, but we do get people asking for help with faulty systems. There are a few issues with the scheme which are causing their clients a lot of problems. This video is intended to help people understand the potential risks. -Tok
If it's not clear in this video, what we are highlighting is two aspects of the independent report paid for by the Greater London Authority to review their own Solar Together scheme.
The report finds two problems with the scheme..
Firstly the failure of Ichoosr to run a sufficiently rigorous selection process of the installers, or even to reveal to the GLA the criteria they were using for this selection. Two of the five solar together installers used in the London scheme went bust.
Secondly, the minimum quality required by Ichoosr for the products that could be installed. The reverse auction process (which Ichoosr state selects the lowest bidder), means that the bidders are incentivised to use the cheapest kit in order to win the bid.
The recommendation of the video is that customers considering solar together should also get other quotes from installers not in the scheme, rather than thinking that they don't need to do their own due diligence because of the endorsement of the council or the fact that they feel they are in a group buying scheme.
Please do share your own experiences and thoughts about the Solar Together scheme.
Do a report on All Seasons Energy Ltd.. another crap installation company.. doing ECO4
Thanks for calling all of this out, Tok - unbelievable the sheer lack of due diligence carried out by the council here (and I'm sure similar stories all around the country). I applaud you raising awareness on this on your channel - I will make reference to this video on mine.
Thanks Gary. I'm very surprised that the councils still recommend this so wholeheartedly. Hopefully they'll look into it more seriously now.
This has nothing to do with local councils. This is solely an issue with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).
I hope this video does well and the message gets shared widely.
Reading some of the stories from homeowners who have suffered due to solar together is both heartbreaking and alarming to say the least.
Industry practices like this need to stop.
Keep up the great work with your channel 👍
Thanks! We're really enjoying making the videos - although they're very time consuming!
It is a shame to read all the reviews, and I hope that people do the due diligence that is necessary for this type of investment.
@@spiritenergy_uk The issue is you get a little leaflet through your door, the kit looks good and the pricing schedule looks good relative to internet pricing - the problem I found is the bait and switch and when you look closely at the "home survey" you see that is has no kit specified - so you have no recourse. A 7kwh solar PV install should have an inverter suitable for it, but as I mentioned above they gave me a 3kwh inverter and after refusing to pay - eventually I got them to install a 6kwh one for an additional £350 but only after I got the G99 licence that they had no intent to apply for.
An excellent and very informative video, Tok.
I am delighted with the system that you guys have put in for me. You weren’t the very cheapest, but nonetheless highly competitive and the workmanship is absolutely superb and the system is clearly well thought through and works seamlessly.
Thank you.
As an electrician Im glad you have done this video i have seen some ruff solar together installs one for instance they found an old door in the loft and screwed eveyrthing onto this with the screws not done up on the isolators and covers just fell off. But as the home owner said its a great installation as the council recomend the company
Wow. Thanks for sharing.
Our council was pushing Solar together so I got an outline quote, it struck me that it wasn't going to produce much power and the price wasn't anything to write home about.
I wanted 20 solar panels that would generate 7.4kwh - I argued with the installers because they put in 18 - saying the roof was too small which is not the case. They then installed a 3 - yes 3kwh inverter...they bait and switched the batteries (for ones that were inferior in capacity and depth of charge), the bird protector. I had to apply for a G99 licence myself and then I had to pay an additional £350 for them to switch the inverter for a 6kwh - which is all I could get. The Council had absolutely no idea why I was angry and why a 3kwh inverter was not fit for the installation and zero interest in being involved even though they promoted the scheme. I would look at any house where they have been involved that has more than 8 solar panels (8 x 400W) because the inverters are probably undersized - and that is simply wasting solar panels. Oh - and finally they took all the additional plugs and connectors for the inverter and wanted to charge several hundred pounds for "installing an extension lead from the inverter as a make shift UPS".....That's my rant.
Great video. Congratulations on all the new content over the last few months.
Thanks Simon👍
I used Solar together and found out the company that ‘won’ our local tender didn’t seem to know what they were doing when connecting panels to the inverter. It took me over 18 months to persuade them you couldn’t have unequal strings into a single MPPT inverter. Solar together and MCS where not very helpful when I tried to complain and didn’t seem to have the necessary technical expertise to understand what the problem was.
Thanks for you comment, Glen. I'm sorry to hear what has happened, that sounds like a nightmare. I'm surprised that they didn't have that basic level of knowledge and I dread to think about the amount of installations that did go ahead with that configuration with unequal strings into one MPPT. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Amazing video! Thank you so much for your advice, I was considering the scheme at one point but will stay well clear of it in the future!
Thanks for your comment - I'm glad the video was helpful.
@@spiritenergy_uk Geez how I wish you would do whole uk installations...😢
@@catalinomocea6986 I'm happy to help out with a design / quotation - but we probably won't be the most cost-effective if travel is a big factor. Email me a tokc@spiritenergy.co.uk if you'd like to discuss the project.
Does Solar Together require the installer to be MCS accredited? Of course it does.
So the issue falls at MCS' feet. Why haven't you pointed this out?
It’s very easy to be MCS certified. Not really a mark of quality anymore. That’s not the issue here.
@spiritenergy_uk It's not easy for the Nominated Technical Person (NTP) to become MCS accredited. I can guarantee Tok isn't a fully qualified electrician with Inspection and Testing qualifications. So tell me again how easy it is to become an MCS accredited NTP?
What is easy is for an installation company with a single MCS accredited NTP to subcontract an unlimited number of installations out to other installers. That's the issue here.
My TL:DR version - A solar installer, who isn't part of the Solar Together scheme and who presumably is fed up with losing business on price, thinks Solar Together is a really bad idea.
Thanks for the comment.
I think it’s a great idea. We don’t tend to lose business to Solar Together, but we do get people asking for help with faulty systems.
There are a few issues with the scheme which are causing their clients a lot of problems. This video is intended to help people understand the potential risks.
-Tok
@@MartinSuper7 Absolutely correct. This is simply an installer blowing their own trumpet. UA-cam is full of them.