Hi guys.  

What do you think about renting a solar service.  Gosolr offers packages ( Medium to Xlarge) according to your household needs. They install the equiment ( panels, battey and inverter) and you rent it as long as you wish. There is a fee for terminating the contract that is based on how long you have rented the equipment.  They do yearly inspections to check if everthings ok and if something goes faulty they replace it. According to them they also upgrade the equipment every few years. 

Rental for a medium system ( up to 900KWh per month - 8 x 455W panels, 1x 5.5 KWh lithium battery and 5 KW hybrid inverter) is R1580 per month. They did not do a formal quote, so I do not know if there is a yearly escalation.  I first wanted to know your opinion and if anyone else is maybe using their services, their opinion.

Thanks

I think it is a feasable option if you just dont have the cash or access to finance.  Very popular in the US to do it like this.  Just check in terms of if you ever want to sell your house what their contract says about that. What is the minimum contract term?

My household "savings" on monthly electricity bill is about R1000-R1500 per month depending on solar production/consumption for a system of same size that you mentioned.

Let us know more details once you have properly spoken to them and checked everything out.

 

Well, if it's just short term I can see the appeal of something like that. However, long term it's a little sussy...

So, after a year you would be paying R18,960. Now you can get an 8kW inverter and batteries for between R50K and R60K, the panels are an additional R3-5K depending on the panels you get. If you plan on using the service for 2 years or more, then you are spending money when you could be saving money instead. If you're only planning on using the service for a couple months then it's great and will save you from having to drop huge amounts of cash.

The other thing is that you have no control over the system and they probably won't let you expand if you feel like you need additional panels or another battery to make it through a particularly rough patch of loadshedding. For power users or people that want this on a permanent basis buying a system would be better. If you are worried about the costs you could always buy the inverter and battery first, then get panels when you got extra money and add another battery one day if you see fit. You don't have to buy an entire system at once, but be ready to spend more than R50K on a decent inverter and battery to start.

Thanks guys, but I decided against it. Its a indefinite contract and you must pay a fee to cancel it. They do not want to disclose the cancellation fee beforehand.  I think I will rather go with what you recommend and buy a system bit by bit.

 

Thanks

 

Madalyn

If that's the case then good thinking Madalyn, it sounds dodgy but I hope you find the system you need. If you are wondering how to decide what system you should get, we have a couple topics where people have discussed how one would go about spec-ing a system or feel free to ask if you need any assistance 👍😎

We had a family friend enquire and apparently the pay back to get out is enormous. I asked to see the thing but still waiting. Either way you bascially tied in forever or a large payout even after the 3 years where I believe you can purchase it out right. 

I see there are rent to own options as well

I have googled rent to own and there are , like with everything in life, pro's and cons.  I think I shall buy an 8KWh inverter and maybe 1 battery at first. Then later on add to the system.  I just need a supplier with a reputable aftersales service and a good installer.  I'm staying in Pretoria.  Any suggestions?

The people renting the systems out are making money out of it.

IMO it would definitely work out cheaper if you can buy it yourself outright or take the money out of a bond to do it.

If you are looking at a rental as an option, I would definitely have a very close look at the contracts before signing anything. 

When I calculated the ROI on my system, with enough batteries for 6hrs of load shedding, it worked out at 4.5 years including interest costs etc 

I think that will probably come down a bit with the latest announced price increases.  

A relative has gone the rent route and is very happy. Fully compliant, very neat and exceeding expectations. Not at all interested in getting side tracked by having to source and manage something she knows nothing about and isn't interested in. 

 

 Thanks everyone..

On 2023/01/13 at 1:56 PM, Madliz said:

Thanks guys, but I decided against it. Its a indefinite contract and you must pay a fee to cancel it. They do not want to disclose the cancellation fee beforehand.  I think I will rather go with what you recommend and buy a system bit by bit.

 

Thanks

 

Madalyn

That is dodge AF that they cannot or do not want to disclose the cancellation fee.  I believe they HAVE to be able to disclose this according to the CPA.

4 minutes ago, Douw G. Gerber said:

That is dodge AF that they cannot or do not want to disclose the cancellation fee.  I believe they HAVE to be able to disclose this according to the CPA.

Indeed, but I can imagine they won't disclose it over the telephone. They MUST disclose it in the contract before you sign, and I think they would have to explicitly tell you.

There is a cancellation fee of around R20k. Buying the system after year 2 or 3 will cost around R200k. The great benefit is the lack of maintenance from the home owners side. Please bare in mind that your insurance must be able to cover the leased solar. Saying this, be cautiois as some cities dont allow the generation of more that 5kw being fed back into the grid. Ethekwini Municipality for instance wont allow me to install a large Gosolr option. I need to figure out why.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10 hours ago, Kaeyane said:

There is a cancellation fee of around R20k. Buying the system after year 2 or 3 will cost around R200k. The great benefit is the lack of maintenance from the home owners side. Please bare in mind that your insurance must be able to cover the leased solar. Saying this, be cautiois as some cities dont allow the generation of more that 5kw being fed back into the grid. Ethekwini Municipality for instance wont allow me to install a large Gosolr option. I need to figure out why.  

 

Curious to understand what maintenance is needed on solar systems...? I've had mine for over a year and haven't needed to do maintenance

This is a simple thing to understand. It is like leasing a car. If the finance companies were not going to make a profit, they would not be in the game.

So, avoiding rent-to-buy will always be cheaper because you can access the funds or because you have saved the money. 

The calculation is for each of us. We understand that rent-to-buy is not the cheapest, but it may be the most expedient if we want solar and we want it now and we don't have the cash sitting around.

DO NOT BOTHER! Once you sign the contract they forget who you are. I am a first hand victim of the Solar Rental Company . I could write pages on the negative service and experience I have had with this company. As a stake holder in over 100 other solar property installations Solar Rental Company will NEVER obtain another installation from me.