Monique and her family installed a 3.85kW system to maximise return from the Feed in Tariff

Monique and her family had already taken the first steps towards being green (recycling regularly, using low energy light bulbs etc) and making sure their house was energy efficient but after reading an article in the Observer about the benefits of the Feed-in Tariff decided to give our London branch a call and look into turning her roof into a power station.

Monique’s large south-east facing roof was perfect for a 3.85 kW system made up of 22 Sharp 175W panels. The system was sized so that the family could benefit from the highest Feed-in Tariff rate 41.3p and have the biggest system possible ( the rate drops to 36.1p for systems over 4kW) The system will stop over 1700Kg of CO2 being released into the atmosphere and will generate around £1600 of yearly savings for the family meaning it will have paid for itself within 10-12 years.

Prior to having the system installed they also fitted a Wattson energy meter (pictured below), this visually indicates how much power the household is using, and was a great way to teach their children about energy usage.

After the solar system was installed we reprogrammed the Wattson  so that “at a glance” the family could also see how much energy the solar system was generating.

Deciding I was very interested in Solar PV was the easy bit, but I was somewhat wary of choosing the right company.For a start I ignored anyone that dropped leaflets, or came to our door, since they all reminded me of double glazing companies.  Having read some articles in newspapers and a Grand Designs magazine, I contacted the Energy Savings Trust (http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk) who gave me a list of MCS Solar PV Installers, which I used as a starting point to contact potential companies.  In the end I received quotes from 5 companies, and Southern Solar stood out in various ways. Firstly, the contact by telephone and subsequent house visit was by far the most informative as well as being totally non-pressurising. Secondly, their quote was the only one to give a complete breakdown of parts and labour, the others only gave a total price.  Thirdly, their quote was actually the second-lowest - lower than either small family-run businesses or another large solar company.  Fourthly, they were the only one to point out that my roof needed some strengthening.  When I asked the lowest-quoting company about this, they asked me to pay for a structural engineer, without being able to predict how much extra cost their recommendation might lead to.

Once I decided to place my order, everything went very smoothly - my system was installed within 3 weeks, and the team that came out were great - efficient, tidy, polite, communicative.Having installed in November, I'm now looking forward to some longer sunny days next year!'     Monique, Surrey 2010