Headache with Solar Panel System

LTTX on 02/05/2018 - 12:18
Last edited 07/05/2018 - 12:13

Add on 07-05-2018:
Thanks for everyone's comments and suggests.
Thanks for the help of Consumer Affairs of Victoria, the inspection and services was started from the day before yesterday.

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10kw warranted system installed, not working well, ask for service, no show up, stopping rental payments, payout required.
Help and advice please.
Bellow are the relevant communicative email.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are in receipt of your letter dated the 12th of April 2018 in reference to wishing to return the goods listed on your rental agreement.

We will request a payout for the rental agreement and advise in you in due course as the final amount outstanding and to where you may return the goods. Noe as per the contract the goods must be returned in good working order and all costs associated with their return will be borne by yourselves.

Feel free to call me if you have any questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Energylease,

After hopeless trying, we ask to return the poor product and refund.
At the moment, we will stop next payment which start from 3rd of May.
We hate to do this but sorry have to.
Some relevant document are attached.

Regards,

J Pty Ltd

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Dear Louisa,
Thanks for your response.
We will wait for one more month.
Hope things go well.
Best regards,

J Pty Ltd 20-02-2018

From: Admin Powerhouse Solar
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 11:18 AM
To:
Subject: RE: Service request for Bays[Attn:Roulisa]

Hi there,

As I mentioned during our last conversation, your case has been forwarded to the installer who was responsible for your installation in VIC. They have not yet given us an estimated time for an inspection. We have used all avenues to contact the installer but have not been able to reach them, this is the first time we deal with them as they were used by old management.

Powerhouse Solar have been under new management since August 2017 and the old management have been uncontactable. We have been working to solve this issue for you with as little information left behind by the old management. We value our customers and their needs are important to us, this is why we have chosen to take on your case. It is important that the installer responsible for your install is the same installer that inspects your system as he is aware of the installation process, this information is vital to diagnosing the problems of your system.

Regarding your payments, this is a contract between you and the finance company. Please speak to your finance company before you stop any payments as this may affect your credit rating.

We understand your frustrations during this ordeal but we kindly ask for your patience and understanding as we try our best to rectify this issue for you.

Kind Regards

Louisa Fepuleai
Administration

Phone: 1300 708 577
Web: www.powerhousesolar.com.au
Unit 10/ 46-48 Jedda Rd, Prestons NSW 2170

From: Bays
Sent: Monday, 19 February 2018 2:33 PM
To: Admin Powerhouse Solar <[email protected]>; Powerhouse Solar <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: Service request [Attn:Roulisa]

Hi Louisa and relevant manager,
Please do something and solve the issue or we will stop the loan payment later.
Regards,
J Pty Ltd
19-02-2018

From:
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2018 1:31 PM
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: FW: Service request for Bays [Attn:Roulisa]

Hi Louisa,
I attached newest elec bill and meter display image here for your reference.
The meter tell that Solar produced 488kw in 40 days so only 12.2kw per day in summer season.
Please do something to fix this issue ASAP.
Best Regards,
Ro

Electrical & Electronics

Comments

  • SBOB on 02/05/2018 - 12:31

    Help and advice please.

    stopping payment is not a wise move..

    • ESEMCE on 02/05/2018 - 12:41
      +1

      Legal advice is required to review the contract and determine whether stopping payment is a wise move.
      The new management isn't trying very hard to resolve the issue if they're hiding behind the "we can't contact the installer" excuse after 3 months of no reply.
      But the contract may not have a performance clause.

      • Dumax on 02/05/2018 - 12:53

        Legal advice is required to review the contract and determine whether stopping payment is a wise move.

        Stopping payment is not a wise move because the finance is with a 3rd party company - it would have absolutely no impact on Powerhouse Solar.

        • ESEMCE on 02/05/2018 - 13:01

          Yep, gotcha.
          What a HEADFUKC!
          Paying a third party for a service that the first party isn't providing!
          Good luck @TTX, you're going to need it!

          Still need to seek legal advice on what you can do besides paying to get the issue rectified yourself.

  • tunzafun001 on 02/05/2018 - 12:37

    Contact the Energy Ombudsman in your state.

    • spal on 02/05/2018 - 13:20

      Also maybe the financial services Ombudsman, because as as rightly pointed out by scubacoles, you are paying for finance to a third party, and may not have any non-performance remedy clauses to get out of your finance contract. You may find that either you will have to continue making the finance payments or pay the full payout figure, and pursue issues with the system itself being fit for purpose with Power House Solar.

    • TTX on 02/05/2018 - 13:54

      Thank you very much.Tried and not successful. Here is the message from the website:

      Please check that the company your complaint is about is a member of our scheme and specify the company your complaint is about in your complaint description.

      If the company is not a member of EWOV, then we cannot help you with your complaint.

  • kipps on 02/05/2018 - 13:37

    Have you got access to the inverter's production/voltages/etc graph?

    488kw production in 40 days on a 10kw system is low. It is possible that the inverter is cutting out during periods of high voltage. This could be a problem with the grid itself or a wiring fault in premises.

    You really shouldn't stop payment to the finance company without proper legal advice. If they terminate the agreement then this may escalate the payment of instalments and will make everything much, much worse.

  • Euphemistic on 02/05/2018 - 13:43
    +1

    So is it 12.2kWh per day EXPORT or GENERATION? Our 4kW system generates on average 18kWh, and we typically export around 7kWh per day (averaging all seasons). We USE 11kWh of our solar generation per day and it only gets counted on the inverter login, not the electricity bill.

    How much energy does your house use? Using a scaling factor to guess what a 10kW system would do for us we'd generate 18/4*10=45kWh, so would export 38kWh with current usage patterns. If your home/business is using a lot more than our house, you would expect that the export figure would be lower. Is it possible that your usage is 45-12=33kWh per day while the sun is shining?

    This is one of the problems with renting the solar panels from one of these big mobs. The installers dissapear and you get stuck talking to someone who has no idea what your system or usage is like and only collates the bills.

    Edit: Our daily usage is low because mostly there is noone home during the day. I installed our system to futureproof our energy bills while we had funds available, not specifically to save money.

    • TTX on 02/05/2018 - 14:08

      i just knew i got a few cents rebate on every bill

      • ESEMCE on 02/05/2018 - 14:45

        What are the numbers Previous reading and current reading) for the Solar Export meter reading on your most recent bill and is it an actual reading or just an estimate?
        Looking at the $ is irrelevant and looking at your net export is similarly irrelevant.

      • Euphemistic on 02/05/2018 - 16:36

        So you need to work out how the system is actually working.

        Assuming the bill is taking about exported kWh: Is it a business or residence? If a business it’s pissible you are using that much electricity. If a residence unless you are using AC 24/7 then it is a lot of usage.

        If the bill is talking about the total generation then there is something wrong with the system.

  • oscargamer on 02/05/2018 - 15:07

    As already said, stopping payment is the last resort and may not be the best outcome for you…………

  • playswithfire on 02/05/2018 - 17:01

    The meter tell that Solar produced 488kw in 40 days so only 12.2kw per day in summer season.

    Something's not right there. Our 4.5kw system throughout summer was doing 20+kw per day, and our roof gets no sun from 3pm due to trees. A guy I worked with last year had an issue where the grid stopped accepting his inputs due to high voltage, and his inverter shut down - maybe that's happening?

    As others have said - stopping payment is not ideal - you need to work with the installer to get this fixed.

  • RockyRaccoon on 02/05/2018 - 18:36

    What amount of KW has been allowed by your energy company.

    If your energy supplier has a limit eg 5KWH, your 10Kwh system can only export 5kwh the rest you have to consume yourself.

    Also 1 phase vs 3 phase power affects how much you can export

    Keep in mind 10kwh is a theoretical maximum, and agian maximum only, earlier and later in the day this will be lower.

    More details here (Vic supplier limits at the bottom)

    https://www.solarchoice.net.au/blog/solar-system-size-limits…

    • ESEMCE on 03/05/2018 - 07:50

      Even if it was only 5kW inverter, 10Kw worth of panels ought to be generating WAAAY more than 10kWh electricity every day, I'd back a 10kW system to generate close to 10kWh even on the dreariest day in the middle of Winter.

    • Euphemistic on 03/05/2018 - 13:25

      Rocky, you are confusing kWh with kW. kW is a measure of the power at any instant. kWh is the sum of the kW over a period of time. You should be using kW for your post.

      ie my system is 4kW, 16x250w panels. It has a theoretical max of 4kW, but in reality tops out about 3.5kW due to the panel orientation. Over a sunny day the power produced starts a 0W, ramps up to 3.5kW and back down to 0W depending on the sun angle. During that time it will produce around 23kWh of power, of which we seem to use around 11kWh at home.

      As scubacoles has said, a 10kW system should output close to 10kW midday in good conditions. The inverter will determine how much of that is fed back into your system, and how much is back to the grid. This amount will be measured in kWh.

  • [Deactivated] on 04/05/2018 - 22:16

    You didn't really say what the problem is. I am gathering it is not producing as much electricty (savings) as you expect.

    You can google up a calculator that will tell you how much it should be producing and take into account your local weather, angle, orientation etc and you can see if this lines up with your expectations.

    I have heard stories of people are not reading things correctly eg thinking the figure on the power bill is the output of the system.

    You could check out the whirlpool forums they are pretty good as far as whirlpool forums go.

    Ultimately the company not being able to get in touch with the installer or the company changing hands is not your problem, you have no contractual agreement with the installer, if there is a problem it is the responsibilty of the company you paid to install the sytem to fix it, If they don't then contact consumer protection in your state.

  • garyfbne on 05/05/2018 - 11:29

    Hi

    Two possible approaches here
    1. fix the system yourself and avoid further pain. If I was in Sydney I would take a look at it FOC, but maybe I can help find you an experienced installer. If you can pm me with facts and photos, machine models etc I can ask an electrical engineer working in solar to suggest where to start looking.

    2 Complain to the Clean Energy Council. Lets hope you used certified installers.

    To All - for goodness sake this is a 10 to 20 year investment avoid the cowboys and the pain and used a certified CEC installer … Even qualified electricians can make a mess when it comes to solar… (sometimes)

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