Contact Solar
Bird mesh - in the contract, not fitted
Mesh is on the kit list and in the agreed price. Installers left it on 14 Aug saying another team would fit it. Ticket raised 17 Aug. Contact rang 18 Aug: their crew cannot fit it (health and safety, panels close to roof edges). A sales representative then offered £30 per panel, asked me to scope the retrofit myself, and gave the name of a panel-cleaning firm (Solar Panel Cleaners UK Ltd) to contact - a company with a Companies House entry but no contact details I can find. Scaffold was still up on 18 Aug. What the paperwork says: "Bird Protection (inc. in System Price)" on the signed proposal and "Bird protection" in the order confirmation of 12 June; nothing in either, or in the installation booking, says it is fitted by anyone other than Contact Solar.
Next: Quotation in hand and forwarded 21 Aug: GBP 995 inc VAT, all 22 panels, 5-year guarantee. Contact Solar: arrange the fitting or settle at this cost, and authorise the retrofit in writing either way. (The GBP 30/panel offer = GBP 660 - the documented real cost is GBP 995.)
Contact Solar
Scaffold removal
Still up on 18 August. Useful if the mesh is fitted quickly; otherwise it needs a date to come down.
Next: Tell me the planned strike date.
Contact Solar
Certificates and handover pack
RESOLVED 21 Aug: the handover pack arrived by email - MCS certificate MCS-02897239-P (dated 18 Aug, commissioning date 14 Aug, 10.56 kW, MPAN confirmed), G99 final commission, two-inverter schematic, Sunsynk manual, FAQ and final quote - alongside the NICEIC and export certificates already held. Everything needed for SEG registration is now in hand.
Next: Me: register for a Smart Export Guarantee using the MCS certificate and MPAN.
Contact Solar
System fault - inverter / battery
One inverter was showing only INTERMITTENTLY through the first weekend (15-16 Aug). I flagged this in person on Monday 17 Aug - before the first payment was taken that afternoon - and asked Jack to check the system: "looks OK", "can't see any outages". Something not right on site from 17 Aug. Support (18 Aug 12:38) saw an inverter reading as switched off and asked for a full power-cycle; done by 12:58 with no effect - the same state now shows on both inverters and the battery is draining unusually fast. The inverter display at 11:25 on 18 Aug (photo below) shows the unit OFF, 0.00 kW from the panels and 0.0 kWh generated that day, batteries held at 20%, the house drawing 0.55 kW from the grid and the inverter showing 0.0 Hz on the grid side - i.e. no generation and no battery use. Escalated to a senior technician 18 Aug 14:40. On 19 Aug 08:48 the side switches were checked and photographed: ON/OFF ring lit, PV switch at ON - so the obvious explanations are ruled out. The generation meter read 70.6 kWh total output since install at that time; it will be re-read daily and the figure published here. Chased 20 Aug 12:24 - no reply by end of day. The promised 24-48 working hours from the 18 Aug 14:40 escalation expired 20 Aug afternoon: the response is now OVERDUE. Rang 21 Aug 10:28 (recorded): reception implied a visit is being arranged but nobody had told me; support were unreachable and a same-day callback could not be promised.
Next: VISIT BOOKED - Wednesday 2 September, offered by the service team 24 Aug 12:55 after an attempted phone call, accepted 13:05, confirmed by their installs team 13:22. The item stays open until the system is actually working. Formal letter response on the remaining five requests still due by Friday 29 August.
Contact Solar
Sunsynk monitoring - link the plant to my account
Handover team asked me (18 Aug 08:39) to register on Sunsynk Connect and reply so they can link the plant they created. App installed and account registered 19 Aug; the app shows nothing until the plant is linked.
Next: Replied 19 Aug 12:28 with the registered address. Contact: link the plant as owner; confirm the string-to-inverter mapping and whether the app shows per-string power.
Contact Solar
Contract paperwork - discrepancies to be confirmed in writing
Everything is now signed: the warranty (18 Aug), the proposal physically on site with the installer on 17 Aug - which I signed to keep the process moving and to get access to the monitoring data so I could verify the system myself - and the full 21-page digital pack on 21 Aug, after reading every page. The digital signing went with two emails putting queries on record. The final pack differs from the June original in ways that need answers: the paperwork is re-dated 21/08/26 ("Ordered on 21/08/26") though the order was agreed 11 June and installed 14 August; the payment schedule boxes are blank; the public liability insurer is an unfilled template placeholder; and the contract promises a 6-YEAR workmanship guarantee where the warranty document signed on 18 Aug says 2 years. The pricing is unchanged and both the bird protection and the Pod Point charger remain listed as included.
Next: Contact Solar: confirm in writing (1) the payment schedule is six instalments of GBP 2,238.84 with no other charges or hourly rates, (2) the name of your public liability insurer, (3) that the 6-year workmanship guarantee governs.
Contact Solar
Handover pack checked line by line - four things to resolve
Read the 21 August handover documents in full on 24 August. Most of it is in order; four points need answering. (1) BUILDING REGULATIONS: the NICEIC certificate carries the line "THIS NOTIFICATION IS A DRAFT AND NOT SUBMITTED" printed on its face (eNotification 41175057, work completed 14/08/2026). If the notification was never submitted there is no Building Control record for the installation, whatever the certificate otherwise says. It also gives the address as "Ribby with Wrea" where the MCS certificate says Wrea Green. (2) OPTIMISERS: "Module-level PV Optimizer 3 x TS4-A-O" appears on the system page (p3) and in the quotation kit list that makes up the GBP 18,595 standard system price (p11) - in the ORIGINAL proposal behind the 11 June agreement and in every version since, including the post-install proposal signed on 21 August. Unlike the Pod Point charger and the bird protection, which each carry their own "(inc. in System Price) GBP 0.00" line, the optimisers sit inside the priced kit list itself. The MCS certificate's product list names only the panels and the mounting rack, so no document anywhere records them as installed. If they were judged unnecessary that may well be reasonable - but it needs to be said in writing, with the price adjusted, rather than left silent. For what it is worth our own shading model of the house finds exactly three panels (the lower south row nearest the east wing) taking early-morning self-shading in the summer months, which is the pattern three module-level optimisers would be specified for. The as-built schematic drawn 18/08/26 shows the four strings (6+6 and 5+5 across the two inverters) and does not show any optimisers. Please confirm whether the three Tigo units were fitted and to which panels. (3) WORKMANSHIP GUARANTEE: this is the good news - the pack DOES contain a Workmanship Guarantee stating "6 years from completion of the installation services", signed 21/08/26. That answers the question raised on signing. However the address on it reads PR4 2EP; the property is PR4 2EJ. A wrong postcode on a guarantee document is worth correcting now rather than at claim time. (4) INSURANCE-BACKED GUARANTEE: the contract says the customer is registered with HIES and that "the insurance provider will send the policy documents direct to you... at no additional cost to you". No policy documents have arrived. Please confirm the registration was made and name the insurer.
Next: Contact Solar: confirm the Building Regulations notification was actually submitted (or submit it), confirm the optimisers, correct the postcode on the workmanship guarantee, and confirm the HIES registration and insurer. Points 1 and 4 also sit inside request 4 of the 21 August letter, due Friday 29 August. On the optimisers specifically: the TS4-A-O is sold as a retrofit unit - it clips to the module frame and connects inline on the existing MC4 leads, so fitting three of them is a roof-access job rather than a rewire, and the sensible moment is the site visit already booked for 2 September.
Me (customer)
Pod Point 7 kW home charger (in the contract)
In the signed proposal ("Pod Point EV Charger - inc. in System Price") and the order confirmation ("1 x Podpoint 7kW Tethered EV Charger"). Pod Point supply and fit it under the funded referral scheme (Pod Point email, 17 Aug). I completed the funded order myself: application submitted 19-20 Aug, order CONFIRMED by Pod Point 20 Aug 08:31, and the installer's customer portal is set up, and the pre-installation survey was completed the same evening (received 17:57; installer reviewing the answers and photos). Nothing needed from Contact Solar on this any more.
Next: Pod Point / installer: confirm the installation date.
