Bought 7.5KWP PV system + 10Kwh battery
Nigel was fed up with wasting thousand of pounds each year in perpetuity, paying a small fortune to the utility provider that felt just like chucking the money down the drain. He’d been aware of the potential benefits that a solar installation could bring him, but had also heard of people who had gotten a system being profoundly unhappy with their results for one reason or another. From his research online and through conversations with people who’d already had solar put in, he was concerned to find out that many people had a system fitted which did not perform remotely as well as they’d been led to believe, while many more had something break down, and the company responsible either took an inordinately long time to rectify the fault, or in some cases had gone bust and couldn’t be gotten hold of at all.
He found out that many customers had paid exorbitant charges for work, and many instances of downright shoddy workmanship, particularly from the companies offering free solar installations on the ECO4 scheme, but by no means limited to them. He was also deeply concerned about the quality of advice he would get from a firms representative, and perhaps most of all he was worried about the level of aftercare and support he would get because he kept reading stories in online forums about solar customers who’d had very bad experiences in this regard. In short, Nigel wanted the terrific benefit that he knew solar would, in theory, bring him, but was worried about risking handing over ten thousand plus pounds to a bunch of crooks or cowboys, and ending up being left high and dry with a lot of expensive equipment functioning sub-optimally, or not at all.
Nigel spoke to several companies and had been visited by about 5 when Ecotekk knocked his door, and told us that he had been looking into getting solar but was close to giving up. He’d spoken to a large national utility company, a firm from Swansea that mainly did EV charging, plus a local firm other than Ecotekk that hadn’t been going very long.
We explained that sadly, renewable energy is just like any other in that there are excellent firms operating in the sector, as well as no small number of sharks and cowboys and all the well meaning but just plain incompetent ones in between. We understood that it was a minefield, but that he was lucky, not because we´d do him an incredible deal (although we did that for him also), but because we really know what we´re doing, and that more than anything else -and certainly more than any one else- we really care and will look after him.
Nigel asked us about our expertise and was pleased to find out that Ross, who ran the company and had come to do the system design for him, had been working in the industry at a senior level since 2009 and had done hundreds if not thousands of system designs, as well as making it his business to have the the most comprehensive knowledge possible in relation to the kit they were selling.
“I asked him what panels they did, and he said they offered the widest range on the market, but would recommend what was best for me after he’d assessed what I needed and conducted a survey of the roof space.
I was really pleased to hear this because the other companies all were pushing just one particular brand of panel, inverter, or battery and I wasn’t at all convinced they really had my best interests at heart so much as simply wanting to maximize their own profits!”
“I asked Ross so many questions but he was completely happy to answer everything. His answers made so much more sense than any of the other companies that came out. The other companies I´d spoke to, well they were either just an electrician that had done a solar course and checked a few panels in somewhere, or a rep from a large corporation, who was looking to push this panel or that inverter, and who might have been a bit more professional, but were even more limited in terms of what they knew about solar.
Ït was reassuring that I was dealing with real expert who focussed on system design and making sure the customer got the system that was right for them, rather than the installer.¨
Nigel decided that having free solar panels on the Eco4 scheme was great for people who had no other alternative -if they didn´t have the cash to buy their own system from true professionals like Ecotekk, and who were unable to get finance for whatever reason, but that in his case, he thought it made more sense to get the premium quality equipment from the real experts than some budget kit, checked in as cheaply and as profitably as possible, from a company who obviously didn´t really care about the customer and who apparently didn´t care either about bad reviews, knowing that people desperate to bring their bills down but with no other alternative available to them. Nigel had a beautiful home and he was rightly concerned that tradesmen ruching carelessly to fit his system as system as fast as possible with little or no concern for quality of workmanship; He also knew that it wasn’t possible to get a battery installed on the Eco4 scheme, and that the battery produced about half of the financial benefits entailed with getting solar were gained by synergising the solar PV with the electrical energy storage system (EESS).
So Nigel gave us his order for a 7.5kwp system with gorgeous, slim-line pure black Canadian solar modules, and an 11.5kwh Fox battery with Fox energy cube battery, which fitted neatly in his garage next to the 6kw inverter, and we took care of the rest.
Six weeks later, the Ecotekk fitting team arrived to begin the installation work. Four installers turned up bright and early, and worked constantly until the light started to fail around 6pm. The work was substantially done within a single day, with all the roof work done and the battery in place, so just 2 electricians including the head PV engineer had to return the next day to complete some minor work as well as undertake all the testing and commissioning necessary before the formal handover
One year on, and Nigel is even more delighted than ever in getting solar installed, and even more glad still, that he chose Ecotekk. “I was close to giving up” he said. It’s so difficult to find a company that you can trust. But you really can trust Ecotekk”. He told us that he’d “heard so many stories about people spending lots of money on solar panels that didn´t work properly, and when customers tried getting hold of the installers for support, they were nowhere to be found. Ross said to me that his phone was always on for one his customers, and that if I ever had any concerns, that I should call him any time. And he was true to his word -they´re always available when you need to speak to someone”.
Nigel’s new system saved him around £2000 in its first year. “It’s been doing around 80 units (kilo watt hours) a day, on a nice day, and saves me a couple of hundred pound every month.”
Nigel´s advice to anyone else out there considering getting solar panels installed: “The savings are incredible. Getting solar really is a no brainer. It’s just finding the right company thats the real headache. Im glad I spoke to Ross when I did, and glad that I chose Ecotekk. They´re all incredibly knowledgeable and professional, and they’re always available to speak to if you need them. “I would thoroughly recommend Ecotekk.” He says.
The Micro Generation & Energy-Saving Home Improvement Experts.