Solar Panel

How to Choose a Solar Panel Installer for Home

Solar panels are the most popular of all of the environmental technologies on the market due to them being easy to install and the attractive potential to generate free electricity - and therefore income – from them. However finding an installer when the number of suppliers in the marketplace has increased rapidly isn’t easy. What are the most important things to consider when choosing and installer – should they be qualified? Accredited? Registered? Would a national company be better than a local one?

Here are a few hints and tips to consider when making your choice from the vast number of suppliers currently on the market.

Location

Sometimes having a supplier that is closer to home can be beneficial when it comes to maintenance and support. Also you can take the opportunity to visit their premises if you want to see the kind of set up they have and meet some of the staff on the team who will be installing your solar panels. You may not get this opportunity with a bigger firm and may only meet your installation team on the day they turn up to do the job.

Accredited

All suppliers of solar panels must be professional, trained and experienced, and the industry has put in place an accreditation scheme – The Microgeneration Certification Scheme - that all of them must join if they wish to fit solar panel systems on domestic or commercial roofs and obtain Feed-In Tariff payments, whether that is on your behalf or their own. When it comes to training, there are no formal qualifications that anyone can take to be classed as ‘qualified’ to fit solar panels. However, each solar panel manufacturer and occasionally supplier will hold courses on how fit specific makes and models of panels. It pays to find out whether your installer has had this training, as someone who hasn’t may not understand the nuances of each particular solar panel model.

Established and experienced

Many of the best suppliers have been in business for several years when they decided to invest the time and money in developing their skills and services long before solar panels became ‘popular’. Often this can be a good indication of an installer that has done their homework and is intent on doing a good job and build a successful company. They’re not in it just to make a quick buck in a rising market. Also, the longer someone has been installing solar panels the more experienced they are at coping with and solving all the little problems that naturally crop up during an installation.

Feed-In Tariffs

Some installers have schemes to install your panels for free if they get to keep the Feed-In Tariff payments, so you get the free electricity only. Others only work to install solar panels for customers that will pay and own the panels, leaving you to benefit from the Feed-In Tariffs yourself and obtain free electricity. It really depends on what your budget and aims for the system are.

Price

There’s no denying that if you choose to buy the solar panels yourself and claim the Feed-In Tariffs the amount of money you will have to spend will be high, but once the cost of the equipment is accounted for what remains is the cost of labour, assessing the site and fitting the panels. There can be considerable variations between installers so it pays to shop around and obtain several quotes. You’re not necessarily looking for the cheapest, but it will help you to see what the average quote is and avoid those at the extremes that may either be cutting corners or inflating their costs.

Warranty

Good installers will give you a 5-10 year warranty on their workmanship and come back to sort out any problems. This can also be a useful indication of their confidence they will be providing you with a quality installation. They should also discuss with you the servicing that may be required and what to do in the event you have a problem with the system.

Recommendation

It goes without saying that a good recommendation from someone is worth its weight in gold, so ideally find out what other properties they have installed solar panels on and ask the owner for their opinion. Don’t necessarily go with just the customers they give you the details for, in case they are giving you the only customer they did a decent job for or it turns out the ‘customer’ is really a friend or family member.

Variety of products

The more brands and models installers carry the more likely it is they will have a solution that fits your property and your needs. Someone who tries to shoehorn just the one system onto every property do an installation for will not necessarily be looking to give you a fully customized solar panel system, and that can cause problems in the long run. All MCS-accredited installers are required to fit only approved products, but that doesn’t mean they should necessarily stick to just the one brand and model.