Recommend solar panel installer

Colin4444 said:
What criteria for getting battery, suppose always better to get?
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Always get a battery. At the moment, feed-in tariffs are relatively generous so you can charge it on cheaper overnight rates and export your excess solar for FiT. In the future if FiT's are less generous, you'll have it there to support a higher consumption level of your solar by not charging it overnight.

In my case (June 2024), excluding the kWh battery from my quote was only a €1250 reduction in price - great, I said, I'll take two please! Not so fast, adding a second 5kWh battery would cost another €2,250 - heaven knows why! But where otehrs have said to get a hybrid inverter so you have future options, I would just get the whole lot done now as the wiring/breakers etc will be done for you now at the cheapest time. You can always replace the battery with a bigger one (as I have) or add more smaller units. Costs are falling fairly rapidly so I would build this into my investment plan - you won't really regret having 15-20kWh of battery - worst case you can use it to electrically heat a room or run an immersion at a cheaper rate than gas.
 
FB asking to take photo to confirm my identity now.. they know what they can do with that...
Twas an alright page, has alot of people with great knowledge but more who think they are experts after having their system in place for 6 months..
Can be hard to differentiate between the experts and waffle..
 
I am put off by the fact that group use Facebook as their platform.

They should have a standalone independent website like AAM which doesn't invade my privacy every chance it gets. Doesn't require an intrusive sign up process and doesn't monitor my every move and utterance and sell it to advertisers.
 
CharlieMac said:
They should have a standalone independent website like AAM which doesn't invade my privacy every chance it gets. Doesn't require an intrusive sign up process and doesn't monitor my every move and utterance and sell it to advertisers.
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Yeah, but that all takes time and money. The people on there are happy to share their knowledge for free, expecting them to also pay for the privilege and hassle that goes along with maintaining such a platform is bonkers.
 
Get in contact with 5 suppliers that are listed on that group that people have recommended. See which ones price wise / communication etc you like. Post the best 3 quotes with the names of the installers back to the group get feedback and after that delete your Facebook account.

Some people have saved thousands of euros because of that group because unfortunately some solar installers act like it's the wild West when it comes to pricing
 
Like mugsymugsy said, get multiple quotes. I got 3 quotes when I got mine and got quoted for 3 very different systems even though I had the same requirements for each.
One didn't have an outdoor solution which I wanted.
Another was €2K above the solution I finally got (and was lesser than what I got in the end).

Many suppliers will try to say you don't need a battery. I dont' know why. If I'd taken that advice with what I know now I'd have been very annoyed.
Placing the inverter and battery, indoors / outdoors is your choice (as long as the system is rated for outdoors). Our attic is a bedroom so I didn't fancy a big inverter and battery sitting beside a bed.

All of them were only going to place panels on 2 aspects of my roof. When I asked about the third side our installer explained what was needed (optimisers) and we went with that. Our house is basically East / West facing with a small (enough for 3 panels) area on the South facing. The South unfortunately is in shadow at this time of the year as there's a house beside us but for all of the summer it gets sun as it's higher in the sky.
I mention this because I was talking to my neighbour this year and I asked him why he didn't put any panels on his South side. He told me he thought he could only put them on 2 sides as that is what his installers told him. He only had a small South side too but he had no shadow so he should have been doing better than me.

We've been in credit since April and will have to pay a small bill in December as we have a fair bit of credit built up.
The battery is a game changer. No matter how cloudy it is during the summer we don't have to use any peak time electricty as we pull from the battery. Then if it's sunny at all the battery gets topped up and excess sold to the grid.
Even on today (an OKish day in November), my battery charged up at 2am. Our house has been using that since 8AM day and is currently at 82% (at 3PM). Our 12 panels generated 2kWh today which all went to battery or load. It's not a lot but it's dull. During the summer our highest day was about 35kWh.
From the grid today we used 8.7kWh (thats charging the battery at the EV rate and house usage up to 8AM).

The company we used was Q4 Energy. They're not based in Dublin but they do Dublin and their after sales follow up to questions was very good.
Get your list of questions and contact multiple suppliers. Then compare.

Note if you decide on your installer before the end of December get your application in for your SEAI grant in before the end of the year. It's valid for 8 months (I think). It'll decrease by €300 in January. You can't apply for the grant without knowing who your installer will be.
(Double check all this paragraph and don't just take my word for it, it's all from memory of what I did last year).
 
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Blackrock1 said:
Rookie numbers :D

We used 14.5k units last year (HP and EV) 4 person household.
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I see that and raise you; we used 20k in 2024 and 22k the prevous year :p

5 person household, EV (20k kms pa) and heat pump, and not the klmost airtight house in the world, im afraid to think of whar the numbers were before insulation and windows upgraded
About 5k kw generated from PV panels so grid usage 5k lower

House on very exposed site with elevation over 300 metres
 
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@mugsymugsy @qwerty5
This is excatly when Im doing, getting various quotes.. mad how the different companies say very different things :)
Seems to be difficult to get ppl out to do site survey - only had one so far.. waiting on about 4 others to get back to me, some since last week..

One today was saying that we could only get max 6 on the sunny side, without realising that their are some obstructions (air vent and a glass panel for light).. asked about site survey and waiting for response (responses before this were very quick)..

These are all providers that were recommended from the group..
The one earlier today advised that they would bring out extra panels on the day and would squeeze them in if they could, and would also decide on battery placement on the day.. seriously are ppl going for this? Before I pay a penny I want to know exactly what Im getting and where its going!!
 
Yeah. I was a bit surprised about how adhoc they all are with the amount of panels.
They have to leave a certain amount of space to get the grant. They guesstimate the amount of panels that can go up and will charge you for that. My guys were guestimating from the ground but when I brought them up to the attic they climbed out and got a better number as they could measure accurately. Get as many as you can. Panels are cheap.

For the inverter / battery if you're putting outside you can put it anywhere. They will put it wherever you want. It's just running a cable from the panels to the inverter and one to your fuse board (I think). So near the fuse board is best if you want to avoid a long bit of white plastic running down the side of your house. I put mine at the side of the house as it's reasonably sheltered and I don't have to look at it day to day.
 
I dont like guestimates :) Seems a funny way to do business, could be a tactic to keep the quote lower and then can charge you extra on the day!!
I like to know how many and where their going first..

Have another provider whose quote came with 2 ways to pay, this is without battery:
1. €5,300 up front with 2 yrs installation warranty
2. €750 plus €63 for 120 months with 10-year installation warranty = €8310, so an extra 3k for the warranty..

Is installation warranty just a gimmick?
 
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Colin4444 said:
I dont like guestimates :) Seems a funny way to do business, could be a tactic to keep the quote lower and then can charge you extra on the day!!
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You hear plenty of stories where the number of panels had to be reduced too. It's more likely to be a matter of time, it takes time to measure properly meaning they get to visit fewer sites in a day increasing their costs.
 
@Leo have yet to hear that.. you think you would as ppl like to moan - like me here now :)

Sure they could use a laser thingy to measure? or the guy who was out with me knew based on the number of tiles i.e. something like 3 tiles is the width of panel...

Its not a moan as much as trying to understand how business is done, do ppl really fork out 7+k on guesswork..
 
Get your price based on x number of panels - there should be a general consensus across the different suppliers. Then get in writing what happens if on the day they reduce the number of panels or can put on an extra.
 
The number of panels that can be accommodated may vary a little, depending on:

" Size (different manufacturers produce different size panels, with larger new model panels typically producing higher performance ratings)

* Positioning (sometimes, you'll squeeze an additional panel in, by laying the panels horizontal rather than vertical (or vice versa))

In reality, there shouldnt be any more than one (full size) panel in the difference, per side of roof, no matter who does the work, or what brand of panels you buy.

Panels are also the cheapest part of the kit, normally running at less than €350 each, retail (and will often be discounted, if part of a full installation), so you can work out the numbers fairly quickly, yourself. Just ask how much per extra panel, if you really want to bottom it out, in advance.

My view is that you should always take an extra panel, if they can fit it (while continuing to meet SEAI requirements), it'll be there, earning its keep, for the next 25 years !
 
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