Choosing an installer is always a tricky business, so YouGen asked Stuart Houghton, of Abacus Renewable Energy, who installed our photovoltaic solar panels, what his top tips are. Watch the video, or read on, to find out:
1. Find out how long they’ve been in the business.
2. Ask if they will subcontract any of the work out, and if so, to who.
3. Are they qualified electricians?
4. Ask for recommendations from previous installations – either find them on YouGen, or ask for names and contact numbers of previous customers and follow them up.
5. Make sure the quotation is comprehensive – it should itemise all the equipment.
6. Get companies to give an estimate of how much the system will generate (so far Stuart’s predictions for our system have been spot on).
7. Ask for advice on the size of the system, don’t be sold on a system on a standard size kit.
8. Ask what the benefits of the different modules is.
9. Get a really good feel for what the person’s like. Talk to them and make sure you feel they really understand what they are talking about, and are an engineer, not just a salesman.
10. Make sure they look at the fuse box and look at the structure of the roof.
And one addition from me: if you want to benefit from the feed-in tariff, then make sure you use an MCS accredited installer and product.
About the author: Cathy Debenham is founder of YouGen – renewable energy made easy. This was first published on the YouGen blog.
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