Solar panels not working

I had expected to be looking at beautiful graphs of renewably sourced power by the time the solar panel installers would leave on the Thursday. No such thing happened! Friday nothing happened either. On Monday I reminded the company; when would this process be finalised? I had already received the request for paying the final bill before the installers had even left the house, but I was not keen on paying that before the installation process had been completed.

On Monday afternoon I got an email from a lady of the company I had not had contact with before. She coolly explained that the inverter installed in my loft did not function with only six panels; it only would work after the additional five would have been installed. I didn't know what I was reading; they had just decided to put an inverter in the loft that would not work with the current setup? Without informing me? That really changed the entire deal. I had discussed the situation in detail with someone else from the company; the whole point of doing the installation in two stages was to start generating early on. And that had just been swept off the table. It meant I had agreed to pay for installers to come out twice with no reason at all, and now had panels on my roof that would just be sitting there, getting old and dirty and outdated and not doing anything in the process. That was not the deal! I sent an email back saying that I had a problem with this, and that I suggested they phone me to discuss the situation and find a mutually acceptable solution. They didn't.

I got an email back that did contain an apology, and an explanation that an inverter that could have worked with both setups would not be available for months. Nothing else. No acknowledgement of that by them unilaterally changing what they had delivered, I was being duped, and that that was a situation that needed to be dealt with. I was angry. You can't just shrug that sort of thing off!

I felt like they were trying to dismiss me, and I stepped up the assertiveness. I told them I had started seeking legal advice and that I wished them to compensate me for the incurred losses. This basically boil down to the power not generated, and the cost of having installers come out twice. I would never have agreed on the latter if it would have had no advantages, as it didn't now.

It got absurd from there. Or at least, it felt absurd to me. The company got back to me to suggest they just take my solar panels off the roof and give me a refund. How would that solve anything? So I rejected that. They then suggested something that made a lot more sense: putting two smaller inverters in the place of the one big one.

The situation is not resolved yet. One thing I know I want to do is get to the Small Claims Court and try to be compensated for the losses I have incurred. But the thing is: when to do this? I don't know what my losses are until I have a full 11 panel array that works. And the easiest way of getting that, in theory, is to just proceed with this company. But the atmosphere is not good at the moment, as you can imagine. If they bail out of the second stage of installation I will have to try to claim back the losses I may incur. And a lot now hangs on when I get my wall rendered. I have a renderer booked in, but I won't know when my roof will be ready for more solar panels until he is done. And he might just phone me the day beforehand saying he has covid and cannot come. And then what? Then it could take forever as tradespeople are not easy to find. I will want to seek compensation for a lot more loss if it doesn't work out with this chap! So I'm really wishing I have a fresh wall before the end of the month. That will keep the damage limited.  And in the meantime: watch this space for updates... 

Beautiful panels, doing nothing