Since solar power became the obvious choice, the market was flooded with solar system installers. Everyone is trying to get a cut of the pie, and in many cases it is the homeowners who just keep on losing out on the benefits.   Let me explain.

The following true story occurred earlier this year.

 
A friend of mine, which shall be named Steve in this story, called me regarding the “lack of savings” on his monthly electricity bill. He was under the impression that by forking out R140K for a solar power system he would at least save on his monthly bill and enjoy the return on his investment.

 
The problem was…His monthly bill was not much lower than usual. When following up with his solar system installer the answer he received was “Your system is working so there cannot be a problem”.

 
But you see…there was a problem. Steve was not saving money as expected. He asked me if I could take a look at his installation.
Now, just to make it clear, Solar 4 you does not supply after sales support for systems we did not install. And we did provide a quote to install his system – it was however R10k more expensive than his lowest quote.

 
With more than 15 years of experience, I had a suspicion of where the problem was. For me, it was the classic “I told you so…” moment. But I kept quiet and agreed to help. I sent over one of our well-trained electricians to have a look. It did not take him very long to confirm that Steve’s solar system had serious flaws. Because of that, he was losing out on at least R1 000 savings on his electricity bill.

 
Without giving away any trade secrets, the configuration of his solar system was not allowing optimal use of solar energy during day-time. This meant that whichever way you program the inverter – it cannot use solar energy it does not have access to, and the inverter could also not provide solar power to components it cannot reach.

 
Back in 2017 on one of my many visits to Deye (the famous manufacturer of solar inverters), I became personally involved in the research and development of the True Hybrid Inverter. The same inverter which is now the most popular inverter, worldwide. It is an outstanding inverter and a critical component of any solar power system to ensure you reap all the benefits of solar energy.

 
But you have to “wire” and program your whole solar system correctly to gain full use of your inverter. Something we pride ourselves in. At Solar 4 You, we even do remote verifications that the solar systems we installed, work as expected.

 
The expensive lesson for Steve was that fixing the mess of the “cheapest installer” cost him much more than he budgeted for.
Don’t lose out on maximum monthly savings. Trust the experts with more than 15 years of experience to fit your solar power system and ensure you save every cent you can.