Choosing a solar installer: Things to avoid when installing solar panels – Part 3

Last two weeks I gave some things to avoid when contracting a solar panels installer. Summing up, you should:

1. Do your research to find a secure company.

2. Be sure your company is correctly qualified.

3. Beware of these companies that ask for all the money before doing the solar panels installation.

4. Be sure your solar panels warranty covers at least the first 10 years.

5. Ask for quotes from their last customers before contracting them.

Let’s add some more…

Things to avoid when installing solar panels uk

6. Ask the company if the solar panels they recommend you are sized specifically for your site, based on occupancy and current energy usage, or if it is just a standard size.

7. Never sign up in the first day. Take your time to think about what they said and offered, and do your research before and after meeting them. Solar panels will be there although you need two weeks to think about it!

8. If you are installing more than one technology system, check that each installer understands the other technology and if they are also working together or at least understanding what the other is doing. Check whether they have done a similar installation before, and ask for references or ex customers.

9. Once your solar panels are installed ask your installer to show you how to use it, how it works with your existing plumbing or heating and how to get the best out of the system. You have to know everything about your installation to get the best of it. Other way, you’d be wasting your time and money.

10. Once installed, check if your system is performing to it’s maximum potential on a day to day basis. Contact your installer and ask them to help you, the must give you a hand with that too.

Solar Panels Installers in Hampshire

Choosing a solar installer: Things to avoid when installing solar panels – Part 2

Last week I started to give you some tips to have in mind before contracting a solar panels installer. Let’s remind them:

1. Do your research to find a secure company, avoid these that have something suspicious, or don’t say who they are subcontracting or who they suppliers are.

2. Be sure your company is correctly qualified: All qualified solar panels installers in the UK must possess and MCS and REAL accreditation.

3. Beware of these companies that ask for all the money before doing the solar panels installation. The most usual deposit required is between 10 and 25%. Avoid these who ask for more or even the whole payment.

Things to avoid when installing solar panels uk

Once we’ve reminded these tips, let’s go for some new ones!

4. Solar panels must always have a warranty of at least 10 years. This solar panels warranty must be given to you by the company you have contracted. These warranties can be usually extended for 15 years more, that is, your panels can have a total warranty of 25 years. This warranty extension can be usually done for an extra costs, and is the only way to ensure anything is goint to be wrong for the next 25 years!

5. When contacting with the solar panels installers, asking if they have any quote for another customer could be a good idea. You could ask them if you can contact that customer, to know how everything went, if he was happy with the final product and if he is still satisfied with his solar panels. Don’t trust in these companies that avoid telling you about the customers they’ve had. That’s definitely the way to know if they are a scam company or if they are a real a good one solar panels installations business: If they actually have a satisfied customer, they shouldn’t avoid let you know about him, because they’ll be more than proud of their work!

Choosing a solar installer: Things to avoid when installing solar panels – Part 1

Are you interested in installing solar panels at home? When we decide investing a great amount of money in home improvements – as a solar panels installation in the UK could be – we have to make sure everything is going to be as expected. After researching a little bit on the Internet, and also thanks to my experience and knowledge, I’ve made a list of tips for those who are thinking in installing solar panels at home. Follow the instructions below to get what you want when signing a contract with a company for a solar panels installation:

1. Do your research to find a company that you like and is also in the area where you live. Find out how long they have been in the business and also if they subcontract any of their work, and in that case, to who (this is really important, because if they do it, you’ll also to research about the subcontracted company, and do the same process again).

2. Are they correctly qualified? All qualified solar panels installers in the UK must possess and MCS and REAL accreditation. If they don’t have these accreditations, you won’t be eligible for the Feed-in-Tariffs, that is, you won’t receive any money for the electricity you are generating. In addition, these accreditations mean that the company makes the highest quality solar panels uk installations, and also that its workers are perfectly qualified. Avoid all the companies that offer cheap installations, or any other advantage, if they don’t have MCS and REAL accreditations.

3. Beware of the companies who ask the money up front. Usually, a deposit of between 10% and 25% is required. But avoid these who want all the money (or even more than 25%) before proceeding with the installation: the company could be in a bad situation, economically speaking.

Here you have my first three tips for when choosing a solar panels installer. More info soon, keep on visiting!

My visit to Ecobuild

I went last Thursday to Ecobuild because I thought that could be interesting in order to keep myself up to date in solar sector.  There were lots of solar installations, all the walls of the stands were full of different kinds of solar panels, it was amazing!

I specially liked one installation for electric cars that consisted, basically, in an individual roof – when I say individual I mean one roof for each car – covered by solar panels. This roof was settled on four pillars, and one of these pillars had a plug to connect your car. Summing up, the solar panels absorb the sunlight, convert it in electricity and this electricity goes to the batteries of your car. Thanks to this new “garages” you won’t need to waste your own electricity, and, therefore, you will be saving money. Clever, isn’t it? 😉

As far as I remember, this new garage models are still a little bit expensive (I think they said something about £5,000!). In addition, not too many people here in the UK have an electric car, so in my opinion,  it’ll take a long time until this solar-powered initiative will be installed in the most part of the British houses. However, I believe this is definitely a good alternative for parking owners, specially the ones that are in the biggest cities, because sooner or later, more and more people will have an electric car, an they’ll need to park and also to charge it when they arrive to their destination. Why not opting for solar panels?

Apart from being staring as a complete fool to everywhere, I also had a chat exchanged my thoughts with some interesting people. By the way, if any of them is reading this, hello, and nice to meet you! 😀

Keep on visiting and please, feel free to comment or ask whatever you want!

See you soon!;)

Solar Panels Jargon: How Solar Panels Installators Talk! Part Two

Hello there again,

continuing with my last post about solar panels jargon, here you have the second part (I was lazy the other day!): SOLAR PANELS JARGON, PART 2!

Amorphous semiconductor: a semiconductor that is not made out of crystalline silicon. It is used to make some thin film solar panels. Although it’s easier to make than crystalline semiconductors, it’s also less efficient.

Balance of system (BOS): encompasses all components of a photovoltaic system other than the photovoltaic panels. This includes wiring, switches, support racks, an inverter, and batteries in the case of off-grid systems. In the case of free-standing systems, land is sometimes included as part of the BOS.

Base load: amount of electric power a utility must supply constantly to meet the demand for energy.

Grid tied/Grid connected:a solar system that is connected to the power grid and uses the grid as a backup source of power.

Monocrystalline panel VS. Multicrystalline panel (also polycrystalline)

The first one is made from a large, single silicon crystal and has a patchwork pattern. Monocrystalline panels are more expensive and more efficient than multi- or poly- crystalline panels. The second one is a solar panel that’s made from small silicon crystals oriented in lots of different directions. Multicrystalline panels are less expensive and less efficient than monocrystalline panels.

Solar constant VS. Solar noon

The first one is the average amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth’s upper atmosphere, equal to 1353 watts per square meter.Solar energy, solar power or solar electricity equals to power that is generated by the sun. The 2nd one is basically the time of day when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. This time divides the daylight hours for that day exactly in half. Solar noon may be quite a bit different from ‘clock’ noon.

Well, I hope you fancy this info about solar panels. Please, feel free to comment and also correct me if you think I’m wrong. I’m not an expert, only a fan!;)

Solar Panels Jargon: How Solar Panels Installators Talk! Part One

Hello there again,

I found an interesting article on the Internet about some technical words used in solar sector and I thought that It could be a good idea explaining some of them here. So… here are the following:

Amorphous (solar cells): Amorphous solar cells are a type of solar energy cells, relatively cheap and affordable. They’re called in that way due to the silicon material that makes up them is not highly structured or crystalized.

Drain-back systems:Drain-back are solar water heating systems that ensure that collectors never freeze, removing all the water inside the solar panels to a back bottle when the pump switches off.

Export tariff: The Export Tariff is, in addition to Feed-in Tariffs, the name given to a pre agreed bonus payment of surplus electricity your solar panels system exports to the electricity grid.

Feed-in Tariff (FIT): Is, basically, a payment you receive from the Government for the energy you produce thanks to solar panels, although you use it.

kWh (KiloWatt per hour): Is the unit of energy that lets you know the amount of energy your solar panels will produce in an hour.

kWp (KiloWatt peak): As kWh, KiloWatt peak is another unit of measurement for the maximum amount of power your solar system can generate (in other words, is the way to know the strength of your solar panels).

MCS (Microgeneration Certification Scheme) : Certification for products and installers in solar sector.

Photovoltaics (PV): Photovoltaic panels are made by photovoltaic cells, thin layers of semi-conducting materials that generate electricity when exposed to the sunlight.

Well, I hope this info can help you to know a little bit more about solar panels. Please, feel free to comment and also correct me if you think I’m wrong. As said in my presentation, I’m not an expert, only a fan!;)

See you soon!

Solar Panels Installer Hampshire

How solar panels are made

Hello there,

this is a video from Discovery Channel about how pv solar panels are made. Have you ever tried to do a solar panel on your own? It seems so easy in my screen!;)

Introducing myself

I’m a renewable energy lover. I believe in solar and wind power as the best way to produce energy, protect the environment and save the planet.

I decided to start a Blog because I find interesting exchanging knowledge and, above all, opinions and different points of view about renewable energies (solar, wind, rain, tides and geo heat).

Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, and Google among other things, we can find whatever we need, but sometimes, we don’t really know if what we are reading is true or not.

In next posts, I’ll talk about news in the sector, and I’d really love you to comment, so feel free to express your thinking.

 

Welcome to everybody!