Free Solar “Health Checks” and “MOTs” – what you need to know
A number of our customers have received a letter purportedly from the “British Trading Solar Association” offering a free health-check for their solar PV system. A quick Google search finds no actual business of that name (although they have chosen a similar name to a legitimate industry body). However, it does throw up a number of reports of scam letters from the aforementioned organisation and from other unsavoury types with similar motives.
You may wonder why anyone would offer such a service, but if you were to take them up on their benevolent offer you would be visited by a someone claiming to be an “engineer”. This “expert” would tell you (without any real test equipment) that your system is somehow defective and that their particular portfolio of products would save the day.
Unfortunately due to threats of legal action, I no longer name any of the other organisations that are participating in these activities, but any company that sends out such marketing materials or makes cold calls cannot be reputable.
If you believe that there is something wrong with your system, get a reputable company to inspect and test your system (with real experience and diagnostic equipment). If your system is producing consistent yields that are similar to those projected when you purchased it, leave it alone.
Update 18 November 2019:
Two customers have contacted me today to say that they have received a letter from “EVO Energy Solutions” offering a “free MOT and service”. Curiosity got the better of me so I looked them up via Companies House. If you’ve received that letter I suggest that you also check them out. You’ll find that the director of the company has a string of dissolved companies behind him, some with very interesting Google results.
