Labour isn't cheap now. My neighbour who is a joiner by trade charges £250 a day in rural Lincolnshire. He has so much work he can't keep up
Solar panels….?
- Thread starter Hicky
- Start date
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Labour isn't cheap now. My neighbour who is a joiner by trade charges £250 a day in rural Lincolnshire. He has so much work he can't keep up
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Deleted member 26715
Guest
VAT shouldn't be applicable as it's supposed to be zero rated on it all if all done at the same time. Although I suspect some installer are still charging it, just hidden elsewhere
I added an additional £1500 for mounting sundry items such as mounting, breakers etc. total hours 26, even at £50 an hour (sorry but that's excessive) it's only £2300 which still leave £2-2.5K unaccounted for. Yes there is reserve for warranty etc.
Yep, maybe I just live in the past, I have no objection to anybody making a good living & making a decent margin, but I just feel this is excessive, but it seems to be the climate we are currently in.
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
If you think £50 an hour for labour is excessive, you definitely live in the past. Very few skilled tradesmen will be charging that little nowadays.
agreed i paid £860 last May to have a porch roof re-tilled........material was £250, two roofers took two hours for the the other £610
no scaffold. just two ladders either side of the porch.
26 x £50 = £1300......
but you can be paying £150 an hour for a roofer and even more for a leccy , so thats 26 x £150 = £3900
Simply put, he may be profiteering - we all have to remember that the demand is high so that is pushing prices up not down. As above, my preferred installer is booked for the next 10 months so why would they charge less?
Having said that, with all professional installs, you are paying them for their experience, qualifications and knowledge. This will include the electrical aspects which are not a DIY job and also the commissioning of the system with whatever paperwork is needed. Some manufacturers will also insist on "professional install" to validate warranty so that is a consideration.
My electrician charges me £30+VAT per hour - he is excellent and his RPH reflects not just his labour cost but workmanship plus insurances, transport, accountancy and all other business running costs so yes, face value is higher but it's reflective of their running costs and for them to earn reasonable living.
When it comes to components, it's not unusual for any professional installer to add a 10% mark up on the items sold, if not more.
I'm guessing but let's say it takes half a day to design the install and order the relevant kit plus two men, two days to put up the solar panels then that's £1,300 then your electrician at say £700 including materials etc. then the headline profit is not quite as big.
The only thing you can do is discuss with them to get a better breakdown of costs?
If I understand the VAT changes, the panels and install are 0% VAT but the batteries are still 20% VAT
i dont think it is if you have it all installed at the same time......retrofit after is 20%, as i read it
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Deleted member 26715
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I'm with @jowwy on this one, if it's all done on the one invoice it should be 0% VAT on the whole thing
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
Batteries are still 0% if installed as part of the initial package.
20% if you add them later - though the actual install may be later, provided they are ordered at the same time.
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Deleted member 26715
Guest
How they deal with an install of panels, inverter etc. then the battery 3 months later when it comes into stock I'm not 100% sure.
Edit:- @Alex321 Beat me to it with the answer
Alex321
Veteran
- Location
- South Wales
Yeah, we are in the middle of that situation (but 6 months rather than 3 - their latest estimate is September!).
Alex,
Sorry if I've missed it earlier in the thread - what system is your install inc the pending batteries? Thanks
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Arjimlad
Tights of Cydonia
- Location
- South Glos
We have just had 15 x 370 JA Solar panels on the roof, with a Huawei 5kW Storage inverter and Huawei 5kW battery system.
So far so good.. I'm very impressed with the monitoring app, which shows almost real-time what the system is doing. I can see when someone switches the shower or kettle on from anywhere!
Yesterday we had a sunny day and generated 29.1kWh of which 30.48kWh was exported to the grid, and we were 97.39% self sufficient for electricity in those 24 hours.
Sadly we missed the sunniest part of July with it going live on 21st July. For the part of July when it was connected it generated 89% of our home electricity consumption.
I just need a bit of extra info to register for the SEG payments now. We are with E-on on a fixed rate which doesn't expire until next year, so our supply has to stay with them. It seems we can seek the highest paying SEG company though, so we can sell to another company.
Most of them pay 3p/kWh unless you also buy your energy from them. We used a local independent company (GasWorld) which has been trading since 1981, and the installer lives on our street.
So far so good.. I'm very impressed with the monitoring app, which shows almost real-time what the system is doing. I can see when someone switches the shower or kettle on from anywhere!
Yesterday we had a sunny day and generated 29.1kWh of which 30.48kWh was exported to the grid, and we were 97.39% self sufficient for electricity in those 24 hours.
Sadly we missed the sunniest part of July with it going live on 21st July. For the part of July when it was connected it generated 89% of our home electricity consumption.
I just need a bit of extra info to register for the SEG payments now. We are with E-on on a fixed rate which doesn't expire until next year, so our supply has to stay with them. It seems we can seek the highest paying SEG company though, so we can sell to another company.
Most of them pay 3p/kWh unless you also buy your energy from them. We used a local independent company (GasWorld) which has been trading since 1981, and the installer lives on our street.
