April 24, 20233 yr Quote gosolr Our all-in one solar subscriptions give you all the benefits of a full hybrid solar system. Without any hassle. For a simple, fixed monthly fee https://www.gosolr.co.za/what-you-get Medium R1740 per month A once-off setup fee of R1740 8 x 455W mono solar panels; 1 x 5kW hybrid inverter; Minimum 5,1kWh lithium battery Add an extra battery (200Ah) for R690 extra per month. Your new total would be R2430 per month Large R2900 per month no matter how much energy you use A once-off setup fee of R2900 secures installation, Certificate of Compliance and municipal registration 14 x 455W mono solar panels; 1 x 8kW hybrid inverter; Minimum 10,2kWh lithium battery Was considering Medium option with extra Battery but Large seems better.. Any thoughts? opinions? Experiences with them ?
April 25, 20233 yr I had a neighbour ask me to review their contract and have looked into them for friends. Most important detail some people miss: GoSolr is rent-only. i.e. you never pay off the system, you never own it. The main take-away is that at the moment it seems their initial sales and installation are great, the equipment they install is great, but once it's installed it's very very difficult to get hold of them, especially if they need to make any changes/fixes to the system. Hello Peter will give you a lot of stories along those lines too. 2 different neighbours who have them said the same thing. Having read through their terms and conditions, I highly recommend you read any contract in detail. There's quite a few 'gotchas' that may or may not be of concern to you. In particular these stood out for me: The monthly cost will increase "based on CPI". It's generically worded enough that they could abuse it with pretty high increases annually if they wish. They reserve the right to at any stage switch to billing you based on the kWh the panels produce instead of the fixed monthly fee. If they do this, you have 30 days to _notice_ they've done this and demand they change the billing back, if you don't notice it, then you're stuck with being billed for the power the panels produce regardless of whether you use it or not. If they ever decide to connect the system to export power, they get the full financial benefit of all exported power. i.e. you sign away rights to that "income". If you cancel the deal - including e.g. if you sell your house and the new owner doesn't want the system - they will come and remove the system but will not do any maintenance on the building such as filling holes or anything like that. I get that it's to protect them from owners demanding they repaint walls and excessive stuff, but the way it's worded makes it sound like they'll do the bare minimum when removing and leave you with the effort of cleaning up. On the bright side though, the penalty for cancellation and even early cancellation is not high, something like R10k (I can't quite remember amount, but I know it was way less than I thought it would be) Doing some maths, if you plan on living in your house for more than 5 years, you're better off finding a rent-to-own solution or getting financing. If, like my neighbour, you plan on selling in 2 years time anyways, then it's not a bad solution.
April 25, 20233 yr I looked at Go Solar but went with Solar Advice as I want to own it - I won't be selling my house for many more decades to come even if things go Zombicide on us. @Hyarion gives a good low down on what I came across as well.
April 25, 20233 yr A friend of ours went this route. She seems a little disappointed. I think most of this could have been avoided with some advice given before the purchase. One complaint is that the geyser and stove aren't backed up. She's not a technical person, and the sales staff should have assumed that she was not so minded and should have explained to her that a 5kW system isn't going to back up an entire house. She probably wouldn't have opted for a different solution, but she would have had more realistic expectations. The second complaint was that they arrived, and immediately and without any explanation installed on the kitchen wall. OK... that's where the DB is, but it's also a busy room in this house. Now she has fans whirring in the room where she does lots of entertaining and two big, ugly lumps on the wall. They then moved everything to the garage. After she agreed to pay an extra R2500 up front. Again this should have been discussed beforehand. The kitchen wall still needs patching. The system she got seems OK. I'm not sure about the financial proposition, but she says she took advice and it's the best solution for her. But my observation should be that a lot of people who opt for these solutions want just that: a solution. They don't know what a kWh is, nor do they care about peak loads and managing SOC. They just want to be spared load shedding and save a bit of money. GoSolr should be doing some explaining up front and managing expectations.
April 25, 20233 yr Author 1 hour ago, Hyarion said: I had a neighbour ask me to review their contract and have looked into them for friends. Most important detail some people miss: GoSolr is rent-only. i.e. you never pay off the system, you never own it. The main take-away is that at the moment it seems their initial sales and installation are great, the equipment they install is great, but once it's installed it's very very difficult to get hold of them, especially if they need to make any changes/fixes to the system. Hello Peter will give you a lot of stories along those lines too. 2 different neighbours who have them said the same thing. Having read through their terms and conditions, I highly recommend you read any contract in detail. There's quite a few 'gotchas' that may or may not be of concern to you. In particular these stood out for me: The monthly cost will increase "based on CPI". It's generically worded enough that they could abuse it with pretty high increases annually if they wish. They reserve the right to at any stage switch to billing you based on the kWh the panels produce instead of the fixed monthly fee. If they do this, you have 30 days to _notice_ they've done this and demand they change the billing back, if you don't notice it, then you're stuck with being billed for the power the panels produce regardless of whether you use it or not. If they ever decide to connect the system to export power, they get the full financial benefit of all exported power. i.e. you sign away rights to that "income". If you cancel the deal - including e.g. if you sell your house and the new owner doesn't want the system - they will come and remove the system but will not do any maintenance on the building such as filling holes or anything like that. I get that it's to protect them from owners demanding they repaint walls and excessive stuff, but the way it's worded makes it sound like they'll do the bare minimum when removing and leave you with the effort of cleaning up. On the bright side though, the penalty for cancellation and even early cancellation is not high, something like R10k (I can't quite remember amount, but I know it was way less than I thought it would be) Doing some maths, if you plan on living in your house for more than 5 years, you're better off finding a rent-to-own solution or getting financing. If, like my neighbour, you plan on selling in 2 years time anyways, then it's not a bad solution. Thanks That is basically what I have see. as well looking at Hello Peter slightly concerned with support but I have experienced with most installers after sales support is non existent due to the workload they have with new installs currently, i just go directly to the supplier for assistance. De Installation Fee R30,000 start then seems to depreciate after 3 years or so, no concrete items in documentation on that. That is a bit of a concern but manageable Flat Roof Fee R7340 and callout fees R650.. 20-30 days notice is important.. but does seem to suite my dads scenario of retiring in the cape soon.. not planning a long term.. They’re payments also doesn’t seem to make a dent on the capital outlay in they’re documentation even after 8 years you sit with 200k.. to pay off so not good for longterm but 3-5 years of use/rent seems good call centre sales was good and did mention 6-8 weeks waiting period but as soon as deposit is made the quicker you get on the list they say.. had a look at Alumo as well but they want a big 10k deposit upfront but similar pricing R3k a month but for a smaller size system..
April 25, 20233 yr Author 7 minutes ago, dhlotter said: i have opted to go through gosolr. @Hyarion said exactly what I experienced. installation time was 3 weeks and the installed last week of January this year. i logged a fault about 2 weeks later and was only assisted in this week. so be careful of that. i liked the flexibility of it. where with rent to own or financing your own equipment, you are liable for it. with gosolr they are. if something breaks they will replace it. the contract period is 3 years and you can renew, remove or buy it out and the end of the term. they push heavily for you to just renew the contract at the end of the term. they provide the following settings out of the box. Thanks I am assuming these settings can’t be changed and system only powers lights, plugs etc. as they manage the system as stipulated Any extra cost for splitting db etc. and install location?
April 25, 20233 yr Author 26 minutes ago, cbrunsdon said: I looked at Go Solar but went with Solar Advice as I want to own it - I won't be selling my house for many more decades to come even if things go Zombicide on us. @Hyarion gives a good low down on what I came across as well. Thanks How was the Solar Advice experience? Do they also only power essentials and do not export to Geyser, Pool Pump
April 25, 20233 yr Author 3 minutes ago, dhlotter said: you are the admin of the device and can change the settings as you please. you have the ability to remove them from the authorizations, but this would also mean they are not able to pick up any faults. alternatively, you can authorize them as a "ordinary user" which will allow them the ability to monitor without changing any settings leaving that part up to you. Thanks That is useful to know that you are not locked out so you must basically size the system to cover from sunrise to sunset or do they allow you to Grid charge if needed? not that it is ideal..
April 25, 20233 yr 55 minutes ago, BigBear said: Thanks How was the Solar Advice experience? Do they also only power essentials and do not export to Geyser, Pool Pump Very good experience and they suggested keeping the geyser and aircon on non-essential. I already have a solar geyser so no problem. They asked during a virtual onsite inspection where to place the unit. They had no problem on the day of installation first discussing where to place it. Amazing army of ants who grafted who arrived early and only left at 18:00 to ensure I had everything up and running. The aircon was placed on non-essential as I only ordered a single 5KW battery instead of two. I took an 8KW inverter with 4,5KW of panels (ten). They will be putting the aircon back onto essential when my second battery arrives. We tripped the battery this morning during load-shedding so realised why the second one is important. * Enquired in January. * Finance approved in February - that was an excellent experience. * Installation April. Demand is insane and a friend who bought cash with another installer had the same Jan-April timeline. Solar Advice needs to improve its communication, a bit of an issue I have because I specialised in email communications for e-commerce for a decade so I expect weekly updates. The feedback I will be giving the owner who I just discovered is an ex-colleague. He has always been passionate about solar.
April 25, 20233 yr Author 18 minutes ago, cbrunsdon said: Very good experience and they suggested keeping the geyser and aircon on non-essential. I already have a solar geyser so no problem. They asked during a virtual onsite inspection where to place the unit. They had no problem on the day of installation first discussing where to place it. Amazing army of ants who grafted who arrived early and only left at 18:00 to ensure I had everything up and running. The aircon was placed on non-essential as I only ordered a single 5KW battery instead of two. I took an 8KW inverter with 4,5KW of panels (ten). They will be putting the aircon back onto essential when my second battery arrives. We tripped the battery this morning during load-shedding so realised why the second one is important. * Enquired in January. * Finance approved in February - that was an excellent experience. * Installation April. Demand is insane and a friend who bought cash with another installer had the same Jan-April timeline. Solar Advice needs to improve its communication, a bit of an issue I have because I specialised in email communications for e-commerce for a decade so I expect weekly updates. The feedback I will be giving the owner who I just discovered is an ex-colleague. He has always been passionate about solar. Awesome feedback Thanks Geyser etc. on Non Essentials is fine would just like the ability and savings of feeding excess solar back to reduce grid usage if possible looking at a similar setup but if it is only essentials 8kw will be overkill for us was just asking support if it is possible to go with 1x battery initially and add more of needed later on
April 25, 20233 yr 2 hours ago, BigBear said: Awesome feedback Thanks Geyser etc. on Non Essentials is fine would just like the ability and savings of feeding excess solar back to reduce grid usage if possible looking at a similar setup but if it is only essentials 8kw will be overkill for us was just asking support if it is possible to go with 1x battery initially and add more of needed later on Yes, the excess is fed to non-essentials when Eskom is on (which makes sense because when Eskom is off, non-essentials are also off). Told the installer I was going to add extra batteries and he had already taken that into consideration before I spoke to him. He made sure it was mounted with enough space for the extra battery. Solar Advice responded immediately with a quote including installation when I contacted them to add an extra battery. No problem adding it later on. We are buying it cash but financing, rent-to-own, the bulk of the system. Edited April 25, 20233 yr by cbrunsdon
January 11, 20242 yr *Be careful - GoSolr wants to take your electricity credits for feeding back into the grid.* I had my system now for about 8 months. After a rocky installation, the system worked very well with no issues and saved me quite a bit of money. As we all read in the media, a large amount of work is being done to allow clients to feed back into the grid. This extends the client savings, but also it assists the country in resolving our energy crises. I contacted GoSolr to start setting it up and was met with the most confusing feedback. The first feedback ( in writing, I have the e-mail ) is that GoSolr does not support this, and if they do ALL CREDITS WILL GO TO GoSolr. This is obviously a concern so I asked them where it was disclosed. They said it was in the sales call, but now very conveniently they can not trace the sales call ( even though I could tell them the exact date and time I spoke to Bianca Lombard ) The last contact was with Uzair Abrahams, Rendani Tshikudo, Mishka Charles, Sibonelo Mvubu and Miranda Sibulawa. Uzair undertook to give feedback in 30 days which I agreed to as it seemed fair. The 30 days is now two weeks overdue and I heard nothing from them. I asked specifically if they felt the written feedback was wrong and credits would go to the client, but they refused to comment on it. This obviously makes a GoSolr system much less cost-effective. In fact with the savings I'm seeing, I'm better off uninstalling their system, paying their penalty, and taking a system from the offers we are seeing from the banks. Be very careful of signing with these guys.
January 11, 20242 yr 1 hour ago, Danie Jordaan said: *Be careful - GoSolr wants to take your electricity credits for feeding back into the grid.* There were rumours swirling a while back that this was their long-term plan, However if you look at their FAQ (image attached), they refute this and indicate that clients selling back is on the cards. I guess the "I" in this is actually them... Yikes... Edited January 11, 20242 yr by JayMardern
January 11, 20242 yr @Danie Jordaanthank you for such honest feedback. So many ppl will never share a negative experience. This GoSolr outfit seem very flashy & having seen pics of a lot of their installs, what caught my attention was quite a few non compliant technical stuff but my main concern was how on earth do they generate revenue. I guess it makes perfect sense now that, they will receive all the rebates for the electricity production. I guess it's their equipment after all. It comes as no surprise to me that selling energy back to Eskom is not in place & I don't think the Grid infrastructure can handle it anyways. As reports have indicated that in the Western Cape & Northern Cape the Grid SSEG is already at full capacity & cannot accept any more feed in power. Good news for KZN & Gauteng but the production is not as favourable. But there is capacity that can be added. Security will be a major issue in these provinces.
January 11, 20242 yr 4 hours ago, Danie Jordaan said: I contacted GoSolr to start setting it up and was met with the most confusing feedback. The first feedback ( in writing, I have the e-mail ) is that GoSolr does not support this, and if they do ALL CREDITS WILL GO TO GoSolr. But Eskom or your municipality will still bill you no? Not GoSolr. So they will have to take the feedback that they can measure (and this should be pretty accurate) and apply some multiplier to it, and then add that to your account with them.
January 12, 20242 yr 17 hours ago, JayMardern said: There were rumours swirling a while back that this was their long-term plan, However if you look at their FAQ (image attached), they refute this and indicate that clients selling back is on the cards. I guess the "I" in this is actually them... Yikes... Yeah, that FAQ is confusing, as the easy thing for them would have been to simply refer me back to that in the multiple telephone calls I had with them. They however refused to simply correct the e-mail I received that said credits will go to them. So unfortunately the only actual in-writing proof I now have clearly state that they keep it.
January 12, 20242 yr 16 hours ago, Steve87 said: @Danie Jordaanthank you for such honest feedback. So many ppl will never share a negative experience. This GoSolr outfit seem very flashy & having seen pics of a lot of their installs, what caught my attention was quite a few non compliant technical stuff but my main concern was how on earth do they generate revenue. I guess it makes perfect sense now that, they will receive all the rebates for the electricity production. I guess it's their equipment after all. It comes as no surprise to me that selling energy back to Eskom is not in place & I don't think the Grid infrastructure can handle it anyways. As reports have indicated that in the Western Cape & Northern Cape the Grid SSEG is already at full capacity & cannot accept any more feed in power. Good news for KZN & Gauteng but the production is not as favourable. But there is capacity that can be added. Security will be a major issue in these provinces. CPT is quite vocal that it will be available. So the bottom line is that GoSolr is not keeping track. Reasonably a CapeTonian will believe they will be able do it, but unfortunately not with a GoSolr system. I see now on my HelloPeter complaint they started replying privately to me saying someone would contact me, but no surprise - no one did.
January 12, 20242 yr 14 hours ago, Bobster. said: But Eskom or your municipality will still bill you no? Not GoSolr. So they will have to take the feedback that they can measure (and this should be pretty accurate) and apply some multiplier to it, and then add that to your account with them. According to them, the system is rented so the credits go to them. After three telephone calls with them, they still have not confirmed that this is not the case and credits will go to the client. So the last feedback still stands. Below is the e-mail they sent me: " The council will require you to change your meter to allow the feedback to happen. The cost of this meter is R10 500 payable by the client. Please also note that the rebates you would receive from feeding back into the grid would go to Gosolr as you are renting the system from them. Kind regards, MISHKA CHARLES COMPLIANCE ADVISOR T 010 880 3948 E [email protected] Need support? 010 880 3948 or [email protected] "
January 12, 20242 yr 1 hour ago, Danie Jordaan said: According to them, the system is rented so the credits go to them. After three telephone calls with them, they still have not confirmed that this is not the case and credits will go to the client. Is this in the contract that you sign with them? Like the small print in the footer on page 28? This is going to be a problem, or a nasty surprise, if a municipality starts mandating registration of SSEG and wants customers to move to a tariff with sell-back. Even if you like the idea of selling back, you won't be happy when GoSolr say "no! That's ours."
January 12, 20242 yr I was not impressed with GoSolr when I reached out to them for a quote. They were unable to provide me with 2x inverters in parallel. Apparently they do not allow for any inverters to be connected in parallel. They insisted on small power panels and were very limited in the brands and equipment on offer and the fees were high I felt. If there is really no other way you can get solar but to rent it, then I guess one of the rent or rent to own solar companies is better than nothing but ideally try and finance the system and buy it outright as opposed to going the rental route. I recall one of the rent to own companies charging me for installation and then charging me for a project management fee. Combined this alone came to around R50k. I cannot justify such an expense. The installers approve by the banks were also very expensive when it came to the pricing of the equipment. I can see lots of unhappy GoSolr clients in the future.
January 12, 20242 yr 3 hours ago, PsyCLown said: If there is really no other way you can get solar but to rent it, then I guess one of the rent or rent to own solar companies is better than nothing but ideally try and finance the system and buy it outright as opposed to going the rental route. I think there are many options to scale a system. Panels being the easy one. Inverters choose carefully. A good call is to try and get what could be the end state here. This would be my call to start even if small. The one rent to own option I saw from my boss for a rental system was so high that it wasn't worth it by a long shot. Edited January 12, 20242 yr by Scorp007
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