localzuk Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 A quick one, has anyone got any experience of this organisation? Freeco They seem to be offering completely free solar systems for schools. Which obviously sets alarm bells ringing as, well, there's no such thing as a free lunch...
Pottsey Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 It says free access to the energy you produce but no mention of access to the money you make from producing electricity. It’s not very clear but I bet it works like the free solar panels on homes. The company keeps the money from selling electricity back to the grid while the school gets reduced energy builds by using the energy.
pcstru Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 A quick one, has anyone got any experience of this organisation? Freeco They seem to be offering completely free solar systems for schools. Which obviously sets alarm bells ringing as, well, there's no such thing as a free lunch... I've not heard of them specifically but one general scheme is they sell the electricity back to you over many years fixing the price you will pay upfront (it might vary upwards with inflation). If you have the cash, it is better to buy the system outright although the payback will be years (probably of the order of a decade), after which you are effectively getting your energy for free. It is (probably) not a scam but scrutinise the figures carefully - the last one I saw estimated energy use but didn't account for school holidays or even weekends (i.e. they assume a fairly constant 7/365 use).
localzuk Posted June 10, 2015 Author Posted June 10, 2015 (edited) I know about such schemes, but I'm trying to find out about this specific scheme and this company. It seems very odd to me. Its run by this guy - Mr Philip Lang Austin Director Profile - Endole, and this company has only existed since October last year. He also runs http://www.thelifechannel.co.uk/ which appears to be somewhat successful? Edited June 10, 2015 by localzuk
john Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 I know about such schemes, but I'm trying to find out about this specific scheme and this company. It seems very odd to me. Its run by this guy - Mr Philip Lang Austin Director Profile - Endole, and this company has only existed since October last year. He also runs The Life Channel - The UK's largest digital out of home TV network broadcasting into schools. which appears to be somewhat successful? Search for The Life Channel on here that should answer all your questions
localzuk Posted June 10, 2015 Author Posted June 10, 2015 Seems dodgy then! I'll bear this in mind for the meeting that has been arranged.
localzuk Posted June 15, 2015 Author Posted June 15, 2015 Well, we had our meeting today with the guy. Apparently, the panels are funded via pension funds. The company acts as the middle man, dealing with maintenance and installation etc... They package up, say, 300 schools that have these systems and sell that as an investment to pension funds. Apparently, they have £100m set aside for this. He couldn't, however, give us any names of any other schools that have had this done - as so far no school has. They're all still early days. He also attempted to get us to sign an agreement to progress the process - to authorise things like a survey to be undertaken (even though this wouldn't be done on-site, it would be done remotely) etc... The document seemed a little unclear also, as it stated that this process would involve gaining authorisations for the installation, and we could cancel the authorisation we had signed up until that point. So, it was unclear as to what we were actually signing up for - it didn't match what the guy said. To finish, we stated we could not sign a document like that on the spot, and it would have to be passed upwards for someone to check and authorise, which could take time. He was out the door in less than 60 seconds - saying that the scheme was too popular to do such a thing or some-such. So! My advice? Avoid. It just doesn't add up.
kennysarmy Posted June 15, 2015 Posted June 15, 2015 We are looking at having some additional solar arrays installed here. We will pay nothing. Someone comes to site, installs the PV arrays and they get the benefit of the feed-in-tariff until we've paid back the capital cost then we get the benefits. We use the electricity that gets generated. Sometimes you do get something for nothing..... See carbon trust....
localzuk Posted June 15, 2015 Author Posted June 15, 2015 Any organisation that won't do business unless you sign an agreement on the spot is not a trustworthy organisation. Not to mention, schools can't work like that!
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