After months of research and getting 3 quotes (2 national, 1 in Bucks) I went to the company that was local. I also did lots and lots of reading about their filing on Company House, reviews from Trust, Google and Social Media websites. I even made a few enquiry phone calls to test their phone service (only rings 3 times before picking up). Before I spend that much money I wanted to be sure, and Chiltern Solar (SR) ticked all the boxes.

My survey and only Point of Contact was Gary; nice chap, very much a sales man, but never gave me the hard sell. He answered my questions in a communicative manner; no techno BS like some of the other salesmen did.

Survey done, deposit paid and within a couple of weeks the scaffolders came one day early,

• Day 1 – The scaffolders came and done within 3 hours
• Day 2 – Solar boys arrived, by the end of the day finished installing the panels. Electrician began installing my GivEnergy system
• Day 3 – Solar bird protection installed. The electrician finished installing hardware but not able to start the admin part (Commissioning etc)
• Day 4 – Electrician came back to finish all the hardware admin stuff. There was a minor issue with the inverter WIFI (even though I requested hardwired ethernet). By the end of the day, I was able to access the portal and app.

As I write 14/10/23, 2 weeks on a couple of negatives, the scaffolding is still up, plus i had to buy a canopy for the inverter and battery as part of GivEnergy’s warranty (which Chiltern didn’t know). I’ll end of some positives, the sub-board had to be installed outside which they modified for free, the ethernet run they installed for free and the canopy was extra purchase, but they sent an engineer quickly installed for free.

• Installed external power board without charge (no room indoors)
• Installed Canopy without charge
• Moved Solar to Inverter feed cable to make as i requested, without charge
• Answered most of my questions same day
• They always answer the phone promptly and most of the time they can answer my phone calls immediately.
• A little more expensive, but i slept well knowing i had great peace of mind
• Some gaps in knowledge when it comes to exporting to grid process.
• GivEnergy system was new to the installer, but managed to sort out some connection issues.
• Scaffolders came a day early, hence Solar (over 2 days) was installed sooner
• I asked for an ethernet line to be installed. Installer wasn’t aware of a DIP Switch that needed to be configured, but he sorted it out quickly.