Dodgy Solar Panel Deals
Ten of fourteen solar thermal sellers in an undercover test overstated how much a household would save. The warning signs have not aged.
Editor’s note. This report dates from 2010. The rules on misleading sales have since been restated in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and installers of solar panels and heat pumps are expected to be certified under MCS. For current advice see how to choose a solar panel installer.
Photo: division, CSIRO via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
Shady solar technology sellers misled consumers to get sales, an undercover consumer investigation in early 2010 found. Ten out of 14 solar thermal installers exaggerated how much homeowners could save by generating their own heat, and five companies gave a quote without visiting the house.
Some firms promised savings that bore no relation to reality, and some piled pressure on the homeowner to sign up immediately or risk losing a one-off "special offer". Trading standards officers who reviewed the evidence judged that two of the firms had potentially broken the law with their sales tactics.
Why the tactics matter
It is an offence for a company to make misleading or false statements that cause consumers to buy products, and to deprive people of the time needed to make a careful choice.
The trading standards officers involved felt that the precise nature of one firm's savings figure made the claim appear carefully calculated, and so even more misleading.
How the test was run
The study was carried out in early 2010 on a property in south-east England. All visits were filmed and calls recorded, and a solar heat expert and a trading standards officer checked the results. The report was sent to solar trade bodies and to the government department then responsible for energy.
The year before, the Office of Fair Trading had received around 1,000 complaints about the solar industry, a high number for a sector with roughly 100,000 installations on UK homes at the time.
