ESE Solar レビュー 6,355

Excellent service visit. Engineer was on time, friendly and efficient. He also
offered useful advice on possible upgrades like additional batteries.

Visit was on time and carried out in professional manner. Current benefits about batteries explained but no pressure. Also informed about electric boilers with batteries. Not provided by ESE but good to know for the future as sounds a good alternative to heat pumps, with a bit of further research.

Had the panels for a full year now, claimed back over £450 in exported power through octopus energy.
Though did not start exporting until June when MCS certification came through.
Bills are now £70-80 per month so approximately £1300 per year saved.
Now tweaked the system to boost in cheap time tariffs so future projections for this year could be £1500.
Great system with two 5kwh batteries.

Following my review at the beginning of January where I raised the question of whether ESE Solar was going into liquidiation, I got a couple of responses. One was from Samantha on January 30th

"We’d like to reassure you (and anyone reading this) that ESE Solar remains fully operational, financially stable, and committed to supporting our customers and delivering high-quality solar solutions. No crystal ball required"

However, after being unable to move forward with getting the promised refund for my missed SEG and FIT payments, I see that their accounts are now showing as a month overdue with Companies House.

I was asked to send in documentation supporting my claim for missed SEG and FIT paymens which I did on the 5th February - nearly 7 weeks later and I have not even had an acknowledgement that my email was received.

The two lads that did it were very knowledgable and very clean and tidy

The engineers were, as always, on time, got on with the job, answered all of my questions and helped me to put my garage back together when they had finished. I am very impressed with ESE, their operatives and office staff.

Prompt, efficient service from knowledgeable people. Very pleasant to deal with.

Amazing how quickly they can get reviews removed, but 5 months without use of our batteries due to a fault that needs an on-site visit!! Unacceptable, disgusting service. Quick to sell, quicker to cast customer service aside. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE 10 YEAR 'WARRANTY'!

The operative was very pleasant he explained everything

Helpful person called me
knew my situation and the discussions i had already had
would be better if the company name came up on the mobile - I nearly did not answer because it was a cold call and did not identify the caller

In 2013, I had 16 solar panels installed on my roof. The installer set up a FIT contract for payment of excess energy sent to the grid. The assembly has worked correctly over the period.

In 2025, I decided to upgrade the panels for the following reasons:

1. The output had declined by about one third due to aging.

2 I have purchased an electric car and want a system which will charge the car. The present system is inadequte for that purpse.

3 I postulate that inflation is likely to increase in the coming years and that will offset the pay back time for the installation.

I contacted Ese Solar on the basis that they advertise that they have 10 offices around the UK and are a leading installer of solar panels. In their advertising , they give 12 favourable Trustpilot ratings.

The plan was to create two circuits.

Circuit 1
This is the original circuit. The only change would be to connect 9 new solar panels to the existing circuit.

Circuit 2
This is a new circuit produced by Ese Solar comprising of 7 new solar panels, an inverter and a 5kwh battery. This would be eligible for a new contract with Octopus with excess energy earning 0.15p per Kwh.

WHAT ACTUALLY OCCURRED
Ese Solar did not create a new payment scheme with Octopus for the second circuit.

Circuit 1

Unfortunately, the output was wired so that in bright sunlight, up to 5.5 Kwh was passed through an Immersun Diverter rated at 3.2 Kwh. This caused the Diverter to give a message of overload.

CIRCUIT 2
This circuit has been beset with problems.

A National Grid letter states this this circuit requires submission of a G99 certificate to obtain planning permission.

Octopus state that payment for excess energy can only be made after submission of a G99 certificate and a MSC certificate.

Ese Solar revealed after the installation that they are not a certified solar panel installer and so are unable to provide the two certificates.

Ese Solar sent me a link to Octopus to set up a payment contract. This is a two stage process. A fee is required to obtain the G99 certicate. The second stage is the production of a MSC certificate.

The MSC certificate is for the installer to guarantee that the circuit meets certain installation standards. The second circuit requires a MSC certificate for the new circuit. This circuit did not exist in 2013 when the msc certificate was issued and was therefore ineligible to certify that circuit 2 met the installation standards. Octopus refused to create a contract and therefore all the power sent to the grid from this circuit has had no financial reward.

The battery system should provides the full power when the solar panels are inactive. At times that occurs but on other times the battery remains idle.

An additional problem is that an emergency switch is provided to turn off the solar panel outputs for maintenance etc. When this switch was turned off, the circuit constructed by Ese Soar loses the programed data for the inverter . The result is that power cannot be used for household appliances. Ese Solar technician addressed the problem in Ocrober 2025 and declared that he had resolved the problem.

On 5.3.26, I had cause to switch off the panels using the emerency switch. When the power was restored, the inverter from circuit 2 again has lost its programmed data. Ese Solar were informed and sent a ticket acknowledging receipt of the request to have the inverter reprogrammed. I was informed by Infinity Innovations that this reprogramming requires an an engineer and it is not a procedure that I can undertake.

In October 2025, Ese Solar were asked to either address the above problems or remove the installation.

They have not addressed the problems.

In December 2025, the credit card company suggested that I seek to have the installation assigned to a credited installer. I was unable to find an installer who would take this assignment.

I have informed Ese Solar that the system that they introduced is being discarded as waste as its performance is unacceptable. They have not responded whether they would like to collect the waste. The new installation is due to be installed in 4 weeks.

I paid for the installation via credit card and am in discussion with the credit card company concerned with re-embursment of the financial outlay for this installation.

I have arranged a meeting with my M.P to try to have government make it mandatory for solar panel installers to be regulated to avoid this type of experience.

BUYER BEWARE NO MCS OR FLEXI-ORB CERTIFICATION AND POOR SUPPORT:
I am writing this to warn potential customers to think twice before doing business with Ese Solar. They are not members of the MCS microgeneration scheme or Flexi-Orb which has a serious long term implications for your home and investment.
ISSUES WITH PROPERTY RESALE:
Although not a legal requirement if you intend to sell your property most estate agents, solicitors, mortgage lenders and buyers demand a MCS or Flexi-Orb certificate to prove the installation meets credited safety standards. A way round this is to take out indemnity insurance but this involves additional cost which you the homeowner will have to swallow.
NO SEG OR FIT PAYMENTS:
To receive smart export guarantee payments for the energy sent back to the grid almost all UK energy companies require a valid MCS certificate. Without it you cannot sign up for these schemes meaning you will loose out on the financial returns of your solar panels. Furthermore, if you have batteries make sure that they are correctly registered, as companies like Octopus will require this verification before accepting you onto the SEG scheme.
VERY POOR AFTER SALE SERVICE:
The after sales support is virtually non-existent. It is impossible to speak to a person. A phone call results in a pre-recorded message informing you a link will be sent to raise a ticket and then you have to wait for a reply that rarely comes.
DO NOT FALL FOR SALES PITCH:
My advice is not to be persuaded by the strong sales pitch. ESE Solar will take your money, move onto the next customer leaving you with a host of administration and financial problems. Instead look for a fully accredited MCS installer to protect yourself from a nightmare called Ese Solar.
Contract reference: ESE-MTANNSUB8847

The engineers were punctual, respectful and efficient. However, check-up appointments are only offered 'when they are in the area', with little advance warning, which could result in a missed opportunity and a wait for a further year.

Great service

They turned up on time carried out the work to a high standard and cleaned up the site.

Everything was done so efficiently

Excellent service

I have been with thus company for several years and found then to be excellent. Their staff are always polite, prompt and knowledgeable about the products.

I bought my system around 2 years ago. Everything has been fine and the system worked well until recently.

Suddenly the system stoped working correctly 27 days ago so I raised a ticket with ese solar. They contacted me within a week and said they would get an engineer to come out and the pre booking team would be in touch. That was 3 weeks ago and I still have not been contacted by the pre booking team at all! This is despite sending numerous emails. When trying to ring I was informed that I needed to raise a ticket and that is the only way to contact them.

I am very disappointed with the maintenance service provided and extremely disappointed in the lack of communication.

Before this incident I would have recommended ese solar but after this I don't think I would any more.

Unfortunately, our experience with this solar panel installation company has been extremely disappointing and problematic at nearly every stage of the process.

Initially, we were told that a specialist would visit our property to prepare a proper installation plan for the panels. However, no one ever came. As a result, when the installation team arrived, they had no plans and lacked the appropriate tools. The panels were installed in a non-optimal way – one of them is shaded for around 60% of the time, significantly reducing the system’s efficiency. Although, after our intervention, the company agreed to install an optimiser, this issue should never have occurred in the first place.

During transport, it also turned out that one of the panels was damaged, and the team did not bring the carbon offset monitor. We were offered a refund for this, which we declined as we wanted a complete system. Initially, we were told to wait around two weeks for the work to be completed, but after multiple phone calls, this was reduced to one week.

In the meantime, the installation stopped working, and the inverter began showing an overload error. When the team returned, it turned out that the system’s protections needed to be changed because the circuit breakers were tripping. Only after this adjustment did the system start working again.

Another major issue was the lack of documentation. We waited around a month to receive the full set of documents, and even then, not everything was provided. In order to sign a flexible tariff agreement with Octopus Energy, we require an MCS certificate, which we never received. Instead, we were sent a link explaining how to proceed without it – but this involved an additional cost of around £200. Furthermore, this process also requires a DNO document, which we have also not received.

Since November, we have been trying to contact you regarding the missing documentation. The only response we received was that the request had been forwarded to the appropriate department. Despite numerous follow-ups, we have not received any further response.

During this time, the installation stopped working again. After multiple attempts to get in touch, no action was taken, and it took approximately three weeks before a technician finally visited. Alarmingly, the person who came was not even aware of the previously reported issue.

Additionally, the finance company that provided the loan for the installation has also attempted to contact you on our behalf. They even offered to reimburse the £200 cost for the required documentation, as this had not been mentioned beforehand. Despite this, we are still unable to obtain the necessary documents. We have also tried contacting the energy provider directly, but have received no response.

At this point, we are in contact with a lawyer and are considering taking legal action due to the failure to meet contractual obligations and the financial losses we have incurred as a result of being unable to fully benefit from the installation.

It is particularly disappointing because your offer initially seemed attractive, and we had recommended your company to friends and neighbours. Unfortunately, given our experience, we can no longer recommend your services.

We urge you to resolve this matter as soon as possible, especially given the current rise in energy prices.

Update:

Following my previous review, I have now received a response from the local electricity network operator (DNO – Electricity North West).

They have confirmed that no G98 or G99 application was ever submitted for my solar installation by the installer.

This means that the system was installed without being properly registered with the network, which is a fundamental requirement in the UK. As a result, I am currently unable to complete the process with my energy supplier or register for an export tariff.

I find this extremely concerning, as handling DNO applications is a basic responsibility of any competent solar installation company.

I am now in the process of resolving this issue directly with the DNO, which should never have been necessary if the installation had been completed correctly from the start.