Solar PV is very popular at the moment with the lure of generating your own electricity and earning a great financial return with the Feed In Tariff. Certainly if you have a spare few thousand pounds this is a way of beating the credit crunch by getting around a 7-8% return on your savings. However, there are a series of pitfalls.

Some companies have entered the market just to make money, so they are using poor panels, poor equipment and worse of all fitting it all badly and some incorrectly. Eco Home Centre has heard so many horror stories about PV being mis-sold and then a range of follow-on problems that we decided to take some of the headaches out of the choice process for those people in SE Wales.

Eco Home Centre has identified three companies (you will always want to get three quotes) in and around Cardiff who we know have a good track record of installations and also offer a minimum set of guarantees and warranties on the equipment. So each of these companies offer a minimum of:

• 5 Year Workmanship Guarantee
• 5 Year Panel Guarantee
• 5 Year Inverter Guarantee (extendible up to a minimum of 10 years)

You will be able to get additional guarantees and warranties on some of their equipment choices (different manufacturers offer options on their goods).

Eco Home Centre would recommend that you focus on the Workmanship and Inverter Guarantees and Warranties. Inverters especially are very costly to replace - around £1,200 to £1,500, so having a 10 year guarantee with a 20 year warranty option is sensible.

If you are interested in PV in Wales, then contact the Eco Home Centre and we shall pass on your details to our three carefully chosen contractors so that you can get a high quality service and peace of mind.