Solar Panels?

A battery module... You can add up to 6 batteries per stack. (watch the video I linked). The price Ive been quoted includes shipping AND installation. The sigenstor controller/inverter is needed at the top of each stack. They can be either 1phase or 3phase and each stack can have 1-6 batteries of either 5kw or 8kw (any mix is fine), so min 5kw, max 48kw per stack.

Some tech specs on the batteries and various models of inverters for anyone actually interested: https://www.sigenergy.com/uploads/en_download/1693...

Fogstar wasnt one of the makes in the question though was it... There's always somebody who is very cheap in any market. Sigengery certainly isn't pitching to be the cheapest, its USP's lie in the tech stack (again watch the videos), but it doesn't appear to me to be twice the cost of the two brands actually enquired about above.

For clarity - yes, the Fogstar does seem a decent price. It does indeed include the BMS and is a consumer plug and go package.
When I said 'battery only' - that was to differentiate between batteries and inverter/chargers.

The cell price was just for reference... not suitable for an end user.
PM sent with more details.

ETA: Ah, your account doesn't accept emails.. PM me and I can give you some more detail if you like.

Givernergy 5.2kWh is £1249 - soon addes up..................

Fogstar 15kWh is £2500

It's standard ring fencing which is a pretty common activity in this sector. You'll have to wait for accounts to be filed to see whether any revenues are being passed through it but the normal purposes of the local corporate entity is for issuing the product warranties. It's a cheap way of putting a backstop on the risk in each local market.

Very many solar panel and battery consumer warranties are technically worthless because they're issued by an SPV rather than the parent so that in the event of a significant issue the parent business is completely safe, the SPV can default on its obligations as it has no means with which to meet them and the parent, if necessary can even quickly rebrand itself sales line, ditch all the SPVs and historic consumer risk.

There is a big retailer wheeze, especially used by Chinese factories which is to first use a reseller entity in China, this adds a brand and carries out the exporting and overseas contract work and serves as the first ring fencing act. These entities quite often are shut down every few years so as to bury liability risk periodically. These entities then set up SPVs in the local consumer market and these carry the local consumer risk such as warranties, legal compliance etc so can be shut down inside 24 hours if needs be.

And before I accidentally upset anyone by mentioning Chinese business tactics I ought to just add that if you happen to recognise this ring fencing practice it'll be because you do as the Chinese learned it from us and the US where it has always been used for selling stuff like double glazing and stuff sold in the back of comics etc.

The risk is that sometimes it's used because the factory is knowingly cutting corners or in some terrible cases fraudulently applying safety certifications.

We don't know precisely the specific scenario here but 167 City Road is an accountancy and nominee service provider so nothing at all to do with any of the Ltd that are registered under that address.

The sole director, MR YINGTONG XU resides overseas.

So what you are almost certainly looking at is an off the shelf Ltd purchased from the firm at 167 City Road who have also been hired to supply secretarial services and nowadays using nominee directors is generally not done as these U.K. service companies don't want to trigger AML alerts there will be one director put forward by the overseas parent company. In this case Mr XU.

The website talks about 500 employees etc. those will mostly be the factory workers, the work units bussed in each morning, beaten with sticks and then bussed back to the company accommodation dormitory (where the rent is mysteriously similar to their pay). And don't panic, this is another practice we invented here in Blighty and had e the world. We really perfected it when exploiting the Irish to build the railways. We'd force them to rent billets from their employer but leave just enough money left over to buy food from the company shop and beer from the company pub.

But it may be that those 500 employees aren't theirs as the website may be the brand agent in China not the actual factory.

While this all sounds dubious and poor form and potentially hugely dangerous to all the overseas consumers who might be hoodwinked by all this malarkey, we in the U.K. are absolutely fine as we invented it and gave it to the world. We took the medieval serf mechanism and rolled it into the Industrial Revolution and went out around the world teaching it and building a massive global empire. So what that means is that there is no one in the U.K. who doesn't know how and why this is done so no one in Britain is at any risk.

There's nothing inherently unreliable or not robust about that. Serial protocols/connections with separate controllers are an industry standard for control systems, likely hence why many devices use RS485/CAN. It means the system has a longer life too, since the controller can (in theory) be easily and cheaply replaced.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a company they have used that are Essex based, or anywhere based but willing to travel, looking for a relatively large install, up to 30 panels maybe and a decent sized battery and the other stuff that goes with it. Thanks in advance.

Artisan Electrics, based in Cambridge seem a decent, professional outfit: https://www.artisanelectrics.co.uk/contact/

You might even get your house filmed for their YouTube channel!