Case Studies & Testimonials
Here are some examples of customers who have had Sun Switch systems installed on their homes. If you're interested in having a free, no-obligation PV survey of your home, simply contact us today.
Mr Murphy and Dr Penn
Mr Murphy and Dr Penn had a 8-panel, 1.68 kWp Sun Switch system installed on the south-west facing roof on their house in St. Albans in May 2011. In its first year, the system is expected to generate £557 in savings and avoided cost, and save 739 kg of carbon dioxide.
Here, Mr Murphy tells us why he decided to have a system installed and his experience so far:
“We'd initially been thinking about installing solar panels on environmental grounds, and then, as we saw energy prices rising relentlessly, we wondered about the financial advantages, too. We went into it a bit more and learnt about the Feed In Tariff incentives, which of course made it a lot more attractive. We looked at a few suppliers, but were worried about the number of people jumping on the bandwagon, and the lack of response or real local representation. We got a quote from a major national installer, which was efficiently done, but again there was no local contact, and we let it rest for a while.
Then we saw an informal presentation by Sun Switch's Phil Ainsworth on domestic energy efficiency (loft insulation etc), which led onto a discussion on solar panels and Feed in Tariffs (FIT). We were impressed by Phil's down-to-earth approach, and asked him to do an energy audit and give us a quote for solar PV. It's been great dealing with Phil - he lives locally, and is really responsive to emails, which has made us feel a lot more comfortable about what is a pretty big investment for us. Since he did our energy audit, he knows the house well, which I'm sure helps us all.
Our house faces southwest, with a hipped southeast facing side roof, so we had plenty of discussions about which roof would be better for the panels. Since we're often at home during the day, we decided on the south-west facing roof, on the grounds that that would give us power when we could use it - with the FITs it makes a lot more sense to run your dishwasher, say, partly on solar-generated power during the day, than to export that power to the grid and then have to run it off bought-in power from the grid when the sun isn't shining.
We have a couple of Velux windows in the roof, so a nice neat array of panels wasn't going to work, and we had some fun working out how to arrange things. Phil was really receptive to our ideas and concerns, and we bounced proposals back and forth for a week or two, eventually coming up with an arrangement that squeezed eight panels in, giving us a theoretical 1.68 kW peak output.
Naturally we hesitated about the overall cost, but soon realised that the return on our capital was likely to be almost double what we could get from a building society, and tax-free, too, so in the end it wasn't such a hard decision to make.
Once we'd signed up, everything went really smoothly, the whole operation seemed very joined up. The whole team, from the main office admin, through the system designers, the scaffolders and the installers all worked together very efficiently, and our (many) questions and concerns were dealt with quickly and patiently. For example, while the scaffolding was up, we wanted to be able to paint our soffits and fascias, so they were able to arrange a lower-level platform for us to use after the panels had been installed. No problem. The scaffolding and installation teams were a pleasure to work with - punctual, polite and helpful. And while parts of the installation were intrusive - they had to get into the roof space, obviously, and route a cable from the inverter down to an export meter under the stairs - disruption and mess was kept to a minimum.
The installation took half a day longer than the estimated two days, because they had to take great care on our rather fragile roof tiles, but the system was up and running, generating electricity, straight away.
We have a gizmo (solar powered, of course) in the sitting room where we can see how much power we're generating from minute to minute, day to day, and month to month, which is really useful, although you can get a bit obsessive, checking it every time you go past. It's also great to see that we're producing power from sunrise to sunset, even when it's cloudy! We've had a few 10kW hour days, and we've approached the peak output on a number of occasions, even in this decidedly dodgy summer. So far we're averaging over 6.5 kWh per day, and even on the very dullest days we get over 2.5 kWh (although these numbers will obviously go down once the summer's over). Now we're just waiting for our first cheque from our electricity suppliers…”
Vaughan Dean, Bedfordshire
Vaughan Dean, one of our Sun Switch System Designers had a 8-panel, 1.68 kWp Sun Switch system installed on the south-east facing roof of his house in Bedfordshire in October 2010. Here, he tells us why he decided to have a system installed and his experience so far. Vaughan says:
“For us, the decision to install solar PV panels on our roof was easy. Even though the roof is not ideal, the generous "feed-in tariff" payments enable us to get a good return on the investment. PV panels would normally be mounted on a south facing roof where possible but in our case the south facing roof is compromised by some chimney breasts and is rather shaded by some nearby trees. The best compromise was the east facing roof which, in fact, faces just south of due east.
I had sufficient space on the roof to install 8 panels which combine to give a peak rating of 1.68 kWp. This means that I can expect to be generating about 1.68 kW on a bright day.
When I design a PV system for a customer I calculate the predicted "yield" of the system which means that I calculate how much energy it will generate per year. In making this calculation we consider a number of factors including the pitch and orientation of the roof and, of course, we have to consider how bright the days are going to be and how high the sun is going to be at differing months of the year. Thankfully we have some sophisticated software to help with these calculations!
Calculating the predicted yield is an essential part of the design process since it determines how much money the owner will be paid by the feed-in tariff arrangement.
I followed the standard process to calculate the predicted energy yield for our own system and arrived at a figure of 1205 kWh per year. This means that we can expect payments of £594 in the first year if we include the savings we can make by not having to buy so much electricity from our supplier - this is how I calculate the return on investment. The feed-in tariff payments are index linked to the Retail Prices Index and they are tax free so we can expect this rate of return to continue. If our roof were facing in a more southerly direction we would see a significantly greater return.
Sun Switch solar PV systems have a generation meter installed so that the electricity supplier (E.ON in our case) knows how much to pay us. The generation meter also allows us to monitor precisely how much power the system has generated and we can compare the "actual" generation figure with my own "predicted" figure to see how accurate my calculated prediction was. So far we are bang on target!
The excellent rate of return was the primary reason for our investment in solar PV panels. My private pension plan is a disaster at the moment and I had the choice of making more payments into the plan or finding a better investment elsewhere. The solar panels win hands down!
Installation was easy and the team took just two days to complete the work. We just had to fill in a feed-in tariff payment request with E.ON and now we receive payments quarterly.
The fun part is using the free electricity when it's available. We have a little portable display meter which we keep in the kitchen and this shows us how much power we are generating at any moment. Marie particularly likes the fact that we can use the washing machine or the dishwasher at a very high temperature and the energy cost is zero – it all comes from the sun. Since installing the system we've had quite a bit of interest and we often get a knock on the door when a passer-by is interested in it. We are always happy to show the system to anyone who wants to see how it works and how we use it.”
Paul Hussey, Milton Keynes
Paul Hussey had a 10-panel, 2.10 kWp Sun Switch system installed on the south facing roof of his house in Milton Keynes in October 2010. In its first year, the system is expected to generate £848 in savings and avoided cost, and save 1,014 kg of carbon dioxide.
Paul says:
“We were looking for a retirement investment that would give a long-term reliable return, was index linked and that contributed to reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Already a user of solar water heating - which works very well - we researched solar PV. We were very impressed with the Sun Switch survey and the fact that they presented hard analytical data, not a lot of sales spin. They costed three options for us and the information was clear, enabling us to make a decision without uncertainty. The installation was swift and professional and since then has performed well for us. It's good to get a sunny day that is also helping to run the house!”
Catriona Morris, Broughton Village, Milton Keynes
Mrs Morris had an 18-panel, 3.78 kWp Sun Switch system installed on her south-west facing roof in October 2010. In its first year, the system is expected to generate £1,443 in savings and avoided cost, and save 1,825 kg of carbon dioxide. Mrs Morris says:
“I wasn't sure about having 18 panels fitted on a character property, but I'm absolutely delighted with my system. The installation was so quick and easy with no mess at all. The panels blend in nicely with my roof, and it's terrific that the system has no moving parts and there's no maintenance to worry about. I was impressed with the Sun Switch system designer who surveyed my house. I didn't feel like I was being 'sold' a system. I've become a solar PV evangelist and I'm telling all my friends about it!”
Andrew Spencer, Stony Stratford
Mr Spencer had a 12-panel, 2.52 kWp Sun Switch system installed on his south-east facing roof in August 2010. In its first year, the system is expected to generate £1,028 in savings and avoided cost, and save 1,217 kg of carbon dioxide. Mr Spencer says:
“I have a good understanding of energy efficiency and renewable energy, so I knew the benefits of installing a solar PV system: I'll be keeping future bills down and saving vast amounts of carbon dioxide. Financially, it's a great return on my investment. Plus it's great to hold the real-time display in my hands and watch my savings and income go up and up.”
Steve Garrod, Woburn Sands
Mr Garrod had an 8-panel, 1.72 kWp Sun Switch system installed on his south-facing roof in October 2010. In its first year, the system is expected to generate £693 in savings and avoided cost, and save 811 kg of carbon dioxide.
“We really wanted to minimise our carbon emissions by generating our own clean power. The entire Sun Switch installation was quick and easy without anything for us to worry about, and we’re delighted with the results.”
See more photos of our solar PV installations
We've completed lots of installations around the country. You can see more photos on our Flickr account, including:
Critical changes to the Feed in Tariff scheme.
Alison Cutland,
Sun Switch sales manager
We have over 20 years' experience of helping people improve energy efficiency in their homes. Read about our heritage or contact us for a free, no obligation visit from a PV system designer based in your area.
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