Solar PV problems

smallfeet01

Hi, we had a solar PV installation put in Nov 2019, with an SEAI grant and a registered contractor.
Over the months we have had a number of 'fixes' and the contractor has become quite curt.
We purchased the system principally because I want to have hot water on demand (and save the planet of course), and right now, in July with this very warm sunny weather and long days, we have no hot water. We just came back from a week away with only the fridge plugged in, and still not hot water.
I understand how the battery fills etc, but with no electricity usage in a week surely there should have been enough overflow to heat the water.
The wifi monitoring stopped working some months ago.
In despair I contacted SEAI today and they tell me 1) contractor is no longer registered with them - and they can't, with GDPR, tell me why
2) they didn't inspect our particular installation, that's done on an ad-hoc basis when they BER test, and we didn't get selected
3) our warranty is with the installer OR we can contact the manufacturers of the individual pieces of equipment.

Has anyone found themselves in this situation? €11750 for the installation, and 20 months down the road, it's a bitter pill

TheChizler

How is the system set up to heat the water? Do you have a diverter connected to your hot water cylinder? Is there a controller?

smallfeet01

There is a 'Solar Boost' controller in the hot press and it's connected to the immersion heater.

I suppose it's not so much how to fix the problem, as the shock that going with an SEAI scheme seems to mean nothing and you can sign up to this with an SEAI-approved installer, but that doesn't seem to mean a thing as SEAI don't want to know if the company has gone into hiding

Treppen

Look up the company on CRO , if they're still active then exhaust all possibilities of writing to them (registered letter).
After that , try small claims court, that's probably as much as you can do.

Sleeper12

Not to rub salt in the wonds but they sold you the wrong solar type if you just want hot water. You could have gotten solar hot water rather than pv solar for a third or quarter of the price. It gives hot water most of the year round

Effects

I'd go straight to the small claims court, as well as trying all the other options. No point wasting time exhausting other options first.