Just had to review and re-write this one, as I realised I forgot to mention my next little bit of madness...
We decided it might be interesting to investigate solar power. I got the urge to do this just as the government cut the Feed In Tariff by half, mostly because I had never quite got around to finding out what to do, but nevertheless I thought it would be worth a look.
Solar-panel man number one came around to have a look and tell me what it would cost. He had a quick measure and gave me some draft figures. Unfortunately he turned up exactly the same time as a friend who wanted a quick surf of the net to chase up her visa application for her summer holiday, so it was all a bit fraught.
M and I looked at the figures, and it seemed like a pretty good deal, even at the lower tariff. Better than having the dosh in a building society, anyway. But we had a few questions, so I left solar-man#1 a message asking him for a few answers... he said he'd come back the next day to discuss.
He came, he answered, and I signed on the dotted line. It looks like a plan with no drawbacks, to be honest, there's nowhere else to put the money that will give the same return at the moment. Obviously, I will be cursing if interest rates climb, but I can't see that happening any time soon.
Having handed over my cheque, I was expecting a call within a day or so to tell me when the surveyor would be coming out to do the "full survey" so he could do the technical design... by the 23rd I was getting a bit impatient (who, me?) so I rang and asked what was going on? Yes, we've agreed, yes, we've paid a deposit. It's up to you, chaps, but as I said to the salesman, if it takes more than a couple of weeks you'll be scaffolding around the conservatory...
That did the trick. Scaffolding up a flat back wall will be much simpler - and more importantly cheaper - than scaffolding around the conservatory. Solar-man#2 will be out on Jan 4th!
Solar-man#2 dully arrived today to do the "full survey". He was twenty minutes late, but I hadn't started panicking at that point - I figured he might have a backlog after the terrible weather yesterday.
Doing the proper measurements meant him getting into the back garden with his ladders, which was a challenge because I hadn't arranged for a clear path through the garage... but we got through in the end. He measured and scribbled, measured some more and then scribbled some more. He drank a cup of coffee, said that his colleague would be back to me with some more accurate projected output for the installation, which would be more conservative than the numbers the salesman gave me... but still assured me that the output would be better than they predict. We shall see.
Despite him having said that he hadn't looked at the file, he knew that I'd asked them to get the array up before the conservatory arrives... and was confident that we'd be all set up and generating lovely sunshine electricity within three weeks! His last question as he left was "would a weekend install be ok?" - too blooming right it would!
He also pointed out where the lead flashing on next door's kitchen extension isn't quite where it should be, so I ran round to let them know as soon as solar-man had gone. I do hope that there wasn't too much of yesterday's monsoon pouring through the gap...
So far I am quite impressed with Solar-gang -they've been quite easy to deal with. As always, we shall see...
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