DIY solar installs now eligible for Smart Export Guarantee payments

[Theo]

"5.8 Where you are unable to provide MCS or equivalent certification under clause 5.5, you confirm that you are satisfied that the generation asset has been installed by a competent professional and meets all required industry standards and guidelines. Octopus accepts no liability for any loss, damage or injury resulting from the installation."

which opens the door to DIY installs if you get them signed off by any sparky, or get the sparky to do the final connection (which you may need anyway for Part P purposes).

Payback time on a DIY install could be fairly short, as in my example:

on last year's tariffs so slightly longer now at 30p not 35p/kWh)

More detail in this video:

Theo

[RJH]

Good to know, thanks. Pro installs always seemed massively inflated to me.

And they don't always go smoothly - mate had panels installed on his newly retiled roof about 2 years ago. Still yet to get the required paperwork to receive the export income, and his roof now leaks where the installers broke a number of slates.

[fred]

Theo <theom+ [e-mail]> wrote in news:4vf* [e-mail]:

Sadly I can't see that a DIY install can satisfy the requirement of being, "installed by a competent professional". Ignoring that such installers are tradesmen and not professionals, it specifically states that a competent 'tradesperson' has to have been employed to meet the criteria. That requirement falls short even of the 'competent person' criteria required for DIY gas work. Yes, it could be declared as a 'competent pro' install but my view is that it wouldn't meet the criteria if challenged or if anything was to go wrong.

Sadly (again), not in my view but it could result in lower cost installations in collaboration with friendlier installers or part installers.

[GB]

What if it's been DIY installed by an accountant or solicitor, who is competent at his main job? :)