The latest Social Energy News
Neon Reef Limited and Social Energy Supply Ltd have become the latest suppliers to collapse, leaving around 30,000 and 5,500 domestic customers respectively. Social Energy Supply were one of five suppliers ordered by Ofgem last week (12 November) to pay a combined £575,000 for failing to meet payment deadlines for the feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme. The company owes £28,735.
We value your feed back and want to assist new customers get the facts about Social Energy.
We want customers to post their Social Energy reviews of their experience regardless of who installed the system.
There are many conflicting reviews of Social Energy out there on the web and it is our belief that the vast majority of these negative reviews are connected with the initial sales pitch and the projections of savings and income from the Social Energy App used by installers.The projected saving and especially income seem high.
Many people are confused about the relationship between Social Energy and the installer. To the best of our knowledge there is only one installer with a direct relationship with Social Energy. Their CEO is a large shareholder in Social Energy. Confused? So are we and that is why we no longer install the kit. If we can not understand the system, the income, the relationship between the various fractions of Social Energy then how can we expect a customer to do so.
Be wary of cold calls using the sales pitch “like having a little stockbroker working for you 24/7!” Hmmm, we leave you to make your mind up on that one.
Let’s see if we can get some comments from real customers to help clear this situation up.
Please ensure that you provide as much information as possible. We are particularly interested in the following;
- Was your system installed with new solar panels or retro fit.
- Which battery system you had installed.
- Where in the country you live (just approximate is fine).
- How long the system has been installed.
- How you rate the customer service from your installer.
- How you rate the customer service from Social Energy.
- We would also like to know if you are / were aware that Social Energy is a separate company to the company that installed your system.
- Have you had any issues with your installed system?
- Would you recommend your installer or Social Energy.
- Any other comments would be welcomed.
Other storage systems are available.
The comments made on this page are believed to be genuine and truthful from real customers of Social Energy systems. Light Group Holdings Limited accept no responability for the comments made.
There is a little forum on Martin Lewis website TheMoneySavingExpert
The latest Social Energy News
Neon Reef Limited and Social Energy Supply Ltd have become the latest suppliers to collapse, leaving around 30,000 and 5,500 domestic customers respectively. Social Energy Supply were one of five suppliers ordered by Ofgem last week (12 November) to pay a combined £575,000 for failing to meet payment deadlines for the feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme. The company owes £28,735.
This is what a battery system can do when it works for YOU and not THEM. This system is by Givenergy.
Hi. I am sorry to say that I plan on leaving Social Energy after the 1 year I’ve been with them. After getting the original estimate of what credits and discounts I should expect, I’ve been massively disappointed with the very small level of credits, considering how often I’ve seen my stored power being pulled. I think their portal is fab and really user friendly now it’s an actual app instead of web based app. Thanks for your advice, Andrew, on how I could maximise my battery benefits – I think your advice from the very start of my initial enquiry has saved me a decent amount of money and now I plan to switch to Octopus Energy to make even greater savings.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the update. This is exactly the type of review (good or bad) we are looking for.
I hope the move to Octopus goes smoothly and please feel free to call me if you need any assistance setting the system up.
Regards,
Andy
Yer, I agree. I have only received around £4 per month from export which is crazy considering I was told at least £50 per month. Also, I switched my gas from Social energy too as it was double that of other popular providers. I wish I hadn’t bought solar panels I’m now I. Debt because if the false promises made at the sales stage.
I had a similar experience with Project Solar and Solar Energy. They sold me the panels with the expectation that the tariffs paid would cover the cost of the system and break even after 7 years! There is no chance and today my search led me here due to a big hike planned by Social Energy in prices of their energy and standing charges. They give the impression that because of the unique way their energy supply and app works you cant change unless you sacrifice this. I should also say that I am in the middle of a legal process against them as the panels are giving the indicated return on investment.
This is the kind of experience that gives Solar PV a bad name. False promises!
I hear these horror stories all the time yet the bosses of these companies laud themselves as Eco warriors. They are no more Eco than Donald Trump!
These false promises are made so that the price of the systems can be hiked up. I have a theory on the price they charge which is based on the monthly cost when the order is on a finance deal. It is the old “pay for itself” line that the no win no fee lawyers love.
You might want to check out how much has been set aside to settle miss selling cases by your afore mentioned company. The info is public and can be found on the latest accounts lodged at Companies House.
A solar PV system and battery storage (also wind turbines) is first and foremost about reducing carbon emissions. Second is the money saving. As long as the system can pay for itself in a time frame that the customer is happy with then great.
If you want to know exactly how a PV system works and what it will do for you then give us a call.
PS. We are removing yet another Social Energy System for a customer down near Bristol.
I wish I hadn’t bothered with social energy and having the solar panels and battery system.
I’m paying approximately £2000/year to the loan company,they said the tariff and savings would cover this.
In 12months the tariff payment was £202.00 so a complete waste of time and money .
The app on my phone does not connect to the heating,therefore I am unable to switch the central heating on for months.They are reluctant to send out an engineer and there phone service is poor and unhelpful.
Wish I never bothered with them.
Hi Huw,
To be fair to Social Energy it sounds to me more like you were miss-informed about what the system can do when it was sold to you. Social Energy dont do installations but, of course, they are linked through shareholding with a large solar installer.
The central heating system sounds like the sales company just added that on to make you think you have got more for your money. Contact the installation company and get them to sort it out. Because you used finance, the finance company also has a responsibility under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act. If you get no joy from the installation company then I suggest you contact the finance company.
Please note that this is just my humble opinion and is in no way meant to be taken as legal advice.
Good luck.
Had my Social Energy system for over a year now. Payments have been small. Had 14 panels and a 4.5kw battery installed. They say you have to wait 90 days for the system to settle down. The most annoying thing recently has been to see virtually all of my solar heading to the grid and they are draining the battery too. I’m now moving to another company. Generated 3.2kw today which went to the grid and I will get peanuts in return. In a way it’s theft. Just pulled the Ethernet cable from their box and the battery went from 27% to 35% in a short period. The export light stopped flashing and I’m now using my electricity generated to charge my battery.
Good on you Rick.
Remember, its your kit, you paid for it. Dont let some one else have your energy.
So can you disconnect from social energy and just keep the energy in your batteries at all times?
Hi Lynn,
Yes you can. Best to get someone qualified to do the work but basically you take all the Social Energy bits off to leave yourself with a SolaX AC coupled battery that will work for you and not “them”.
Good luck.
How do I know which cable to pull please. I have been with Social Energy for 4 months now and haven’t received a bill. They say there are technical issues! So fed up with our battery being emptied to the grid during the day and not even running our house at night.
Since grid balancing started we have reached our normal bill for a month in only 8 days.
Hi Norma,
Further to our conversation yesterday, I hope you have made some progress sorting this out.
Feel free to call me if you need more help.
Following your advice we contacted out installer “Infinity Renewables” they said to contact SE and ask to be switched off Grid Balancing and to be returned to normal . Yesterday SE said that this could be done but would take up to 2 months but they would raise a request. Last night and today I can see that our battery is behaving normally and having contacted SE again they have assured me that yes the grid balancing has stopped.
Battery is filling nicely and we had free electric till 7 am this morning.
Hi we are having same problem they keep taking power from battery then we have to buy electric when it get dark ?
Hi,
We had a really bad (hindsight) salesman, all those false promises, no electric bills, earn £50 a month trading 24/7 etc etc.
Infinity renewables installed our system.
5.8 Kw Solax triple power battery, X1 battery inverter and incorrectly supplied , to my discovery 4 months later, Growatt 2000 line inverter, it was supposed to be a Growatt 3400 Mylar. 8 x 300 w panels.
I rang them on discovery of the incorrect inverter, I discovered the engineer hadn’t picked up the inverter in the morning and had to get it sent to him 100 miles. When confronted the head office they told me they invoice for the 3600 but fit whatever is most suitable !!
They stated the inverter should be smaller than the solar array to make it more efficient.
But…..
They still came out and swapped it for a Zanussi X1 3.6t and fitted 4 more panels this time being 360w each making a dual array.
I was confused why we have an inverter and then a second (the Solax X1) to charge the battery. Still am, I understand converting back to DC to charge battery but why not plug the array straight into the Solax X1 ??
We’ve had countless problems, our battery, no matter what we generate daily is drained by the grid and rarely gets to 40%.
They also take all your generation that’s spare and leave our battery to charge via grid overnight, costing us dearly.
This is despite the Solax X1 being in “scavenger mode” priority the household.
As far as I can see we offer a service to the grid to help with demand and recharge via grid to supply this demand.
We honestly thought the battery would power our house at night or help a little on a dull day.
On installation the engineer also didn’t register the battery, update its software or set it up, after complaining for 3 months that the battery stayed at 99% eventually social Energy looked at it online and set it up. The installation company ignored us for 3 months until we put in a complaint.
As for the salesman apparently he’s off long term sick.
The other major thing is…. we don’t have Solax cloud access to our battery or inverter, apparently only social energy is allowed this !!!
You don’t have access to the settings or accurate, intricate data the system, your system!! Produces, it’s all hidden !
When speaking to social energy and the apparent‘ system designer’ you sell energy all day and night and buy back but from your credits
“So think of the thing in your loft isn’t your battery…. think of the grid as a huge battery cloud, you feed it and take a little back. The battery only holds 65p of electricity anyway and you may end up at worse paying an extra 5p a day”
This is all so wrong. If I knew how I would cut the energy being able to flow to the grid and use it or lose it and use the grid only when needed.
It looks like we’re stuck with it, no way around it ?
Our energy bills are high and we visit this house 5 days every 3 months and only have 1 power using device, the fridge at 30w continuos rising to 130w for 5 minutes every 1 hour, yet our last bill was £40 !!
If anyone can possibly advise or help, please do….
Hi Steve,
Pull the plug on the system and change energy providers.
The battery will revert to a standard SolaX (might need to set up the cloud) and then you buy electric from an energy provider of your choice. We like Octopus but chose whoever you like.
Even the large solar installation company who’s proprietor owns about 28% of Social Energy (all public info from Companies House) have stopped selling Social Energy Systems. I wonder why.
I am posting up a couple of screen grabs showing how a standard Givenergy storage system works for you the customer and not the energy provider.
“Social” Energy indeed. Reminds me of the George Orwell line (amended slightly) “All animals are Social only some are more Social than others.”
Similar story, I was told i’d make £50 a month and never pay a bill again.
my battery rarely goes above 25%.
I can be generating 3.6KW with a 10% battery at max DOD and household using 100w the rest all goes to grid, yes 3.5kw.
I’ve searched the net for days about this and this is the only place I’ve found relative.
Social energy say this is the whole point of the trading but it seems to me the inverters (and the reason why you can’t access them) are programmed to prioritise the grid.
okay the battery charger/inverter may be set to ‘self usage and battery’ but if the grid tie inverter is redirecting prior to that it doesn’t get a chance.
I find it highly disturbing you are not allowed direct wifi access to your battery, inverter and charger settings despite its your equipment in your house.
if anyone can advise ?
I’m guessing unplugging the LAN as above is the only real answer or changing equipment which would mean huge cost and void contracts/warranties !
I’ve been with Social Energy since Nov 2019… they took until March 2021 to get me the smart meter needed to trade. During that time they paid me £60 in credits for my surplus energy! £60 for almost year and half of solar generation!! Crooks. They kick the can down the road as long as they possibly can so they can keep profiting off your solar while paying you a pittance… and that was only after I complained that they appeased me with some payment. Now that my smart meter installed, it is clear to see that their AI prioritises the grid and not your house. I’m still waiting to see what sort of return I get on next months bill with the new smart meter, although I suspect they will kick the can along further and say they need 90 days to learn the house habits… despite me being a customer for a year and a half… probably using the smart meter excuse again. Additionally, the installation of their kit makes it impossible to use my Zappi to charge my car with surplus solar. Very annoying. If I could go back in time I wouldn’t have used Project Solar for the install, who pushed Social Energy hard in their pitch. I fear the system and set up will not make switching supplier easy.
Hi Pete,
Switching energy provider is easy. I have many customers that were on Social Energy and simply pulled the plug.
Just do it.
Been with social energy about 15 months since getting panels and battery installed. Social energy app constantly tells us we are exporting when we opted out of export. And even at 2am this morning it said we were using 1.5 kWh of electricity when there was barely anything switched on in the house.
Would welcome recommendations on who to switch to??
Hi Martin,
This is a very common comment we are coming across along with the battery discharging to the grid and then charging back up from the grid and hence costing customers money.
Whilst I could recommend an alternative energy supplier it does come with a warning. Please do your own research.
Ok, so warning over. Try Octopus or maybe Bulb.
Octopus have a tariff called Go. It gives you four hours cheap off peak energy. They also have Agile. A bit more complicated using 1/2 hourly tariffs.
Use a battery system to charge up from your PV when you have generation greater than your demand. Also, if needed, charge up the battery from cheap off peak energy to use during peak rates.
Don’t sell back to the grid from your battery. Keep it for your own self consumption.
Happy to discuss with anyone that wants to pick up the phone and call us or just drop me an email.
Andy
PS I will post up a couple of screen grabs I have just taken from a Givenergy battery system.
I’ve had a similar issue and been with them about 2 years. I have not received much at all in credits and had to give 2 months notice to stop trading. now 5 months later Uswitch seems to think my address is non-domestic. I’ll have to keep chasing SE for an answer on this. I’d like to change to Octopus Go that has cheap rates in the morning (about 5p).
When trying the solax app I could not see my system on wifi but that may be down to the ethernet lead plugged into it. If possible id like to try and program my battery to charge from grid during the cheap rate hours. This would be really good during winter.
I have just [4 June 2021] published a comprehensive review of Social Energy on Trustpilot, which you might like to comment on. In short my electricity bill has come down from approximately £180 in March – June 2019, without solar panels, to around £100 in March – June 2020, just with solar, and now to less than £10 in the equivalent quarter in 2021. The latter saving, from 2020 to 2021, can only be attributed to Social Energy. I wasn’t sold any false promises as I actively contacted the company direct. Whilst it might be possible to obtain similar savings via Octopus, and indeed I would welcome an open comparison, some of the comments on this forum appear to be completely at odds with my own experience of the company.
For the record I have no financial or other equitable interest in Social Energy!
Hi Martin,
That is great to hear. Hopefully this will show that we truly do want the good and the bad.
That is one hell of a saving just from the PV. Can you tell us a bit more about the system? How many panels, size of inverter, roof pitch and elevation, location in the UK? Is it Devon?
If you have an electric bill that would be even better. How much is the standing charge with Social Energy? I would have thought that would be more than the £10 for the quarter.
What was your consumption level in March to June 2019 and then in March to June 2020? Can you tell us the full annual breakdown and not just the March to June quarters.
Many thanks.
We have 16 x Q Cells 335Wp Qpeak Duo All Black panels and a Solax X1 Boost 3.6T inverter. Sorry, I don’t know the exact roof pitch but it is a standard hipped roof facing broadly south-east with some shading from trees when the sun is low in winter. We are 100 m above AOD and, yes, a large 5-bed detached house in Devon, which is also used as a B&B. Sun Gift Energy, from Exeter, did an excellent job of putting the panels up at the start of last year and they estimated an MCS SAP calculation of 5,697 kwh and a PV Sol calculation of 5,412 kwh if that is of any assistance to you?
The standing charge is 0.2057 per day and we are paying 17.05p/kwh which, I believe, is the highest for any region. So the standing charge is circa £19 a quarter but the export credits and grid savings are set against the unit costs and standing charge.
My Trustpilot review does give more information but I repeat here that our consumption in March – June 2020 was 548 kwh as against approximately 1000 kwh in March – June 2019. I don’t have reliable annual data yet as the solar panels were only put in during the first quarter of 2020 and we had an initial problem with the inverter that, remarkably, was solved remotely by someone in China. I can however say that historically we were using approximately 4,000-4,200 kwh pa, which did not vary much during the seasons, and that in the third quarter of 2020, from June to September, we used 539 kwh. We do always try to use things like the washing machine, dryer and dishwasher during the day.
Hi Martin,
That is great, thanks for the system spec.
One of our best performing systems is also with Q-Cells but using Enphase microinverters and a 9.6Kwh AC coupled battery using time off peak when required.
It was installed on 20th March 2020 and by the end of June 2020 it had made 2376Kwh (SW facing with partial shadow across the garage array). In that period the property consumed 2343Kwh of electric of which 2156 came from the PV and battery.
Systems work best when, as in your case, the performance of a system is not exaggerated and the customer, as in your case again, understands how to get the best from their renewable energy plant.
False promises and exaggerated projections damage the industry we are in.
Well done Martin and well done to your installers.
Regards,
Andy
ps. Any one else out there with a positive Social Energy story to tell?????
So last month (non stop sun) I generated 760kwh … I exported 180kwh. I was charged for 680kwh. They charge my battery from grid, they discharge it to grid … can I take them to court?
Hi Rafaj,
Unfortunately I am not a lawyer so I suggest you seek legal advice.
Take them to court? Hmmmm, not sure. Complain and seek compensation, probably. Especially if the sales rep from the whichever company sold you the system lied to you. I took a call today from a chap that had signed up to solar and battery storage on the basis that it would save hime £1200 per year. Absolute tosh. 9 panels! No way. The sales rep also rang his manager who was also in on the “scam” and they offered to discount the system down from £20,000 (yes, twenty thousand) to £12,000 if he ordered there and then.
We know who the company is and we know they have set aside about 3 million quid to settle miss selling complaints.
I have a recording of the conversation (our phones record all calls for the benefit of both customer and us) and I am considering publishing a transcript.
Not sure, I welcome comments on the matter.
Shall I name and shame them?????????
Yes please.
Hi Simon,
You already have named them.
🙂
I purchased the battery back in Feb 2020.
It was Installed in July 2020 so I have now been with Social energy for a full 12 months!!
The savings have been an insult!! Less than £70/p/a.
I will be switching to octopus energy when I get time to speak to one of there guys.
In my opinion, just don’t touch social energy or project solar.
The app based system is fantastic but don’t be fooled by pretty pictures
Installed January 2020. All the facts and figs were based on 9 panels. Installers could only fit 7, I am guessing that is a common misleading sales pitch. We are 2 old fogies, very frugal with utilities using absolute minimum as income is one basic state pension. However despite bright sunny early mornings, we are early risers, our pre installation smart meter shows 80p used overnight funding energy efficient fridge freezer. How is this?
Hi Kim,
I cant comment on the “misleading sales pitch” but this does happen on occasions. Even to us 🙂 A surveyor will measure the roof and when the fitters actually get up there they find it is too tight. Not all solar panels are the same size.
I would suggest you try and contact Social Energy directly and ask them to check the system. It could be that the battery is charging up at night like other people have commented on.
We took out another system this past Monday as it just wasnt doing what it was supposed to do. The customer earned almost nothing and the system had a mind of it’s own. She now has a battery storage system that works for her and her only.
Good luck and keep us informed of how you get on with Social Energy.
I purchased a 12k system with battery, around 12 months ago, there have been some savings, but no where near those promised. When looking at the app, I’m frequently importing more than I’m using, which has never sat well. When queried with S.E. they advised that this was surplus green energy & the battery managed the balance & would work in my favour.
Now S.E. Will be ceasing trading, can you advise which will be the best company to transfer to & can I stop direct charging from the grid?
Hi Rob,
You can remove all the SE bits from the system and have it run as a basic SolaX (if it is SolaX) system.
The promises made by various installers were total bulls**t. You need to realise that one of the largest shareholders in SE was / is also the owner of a solar installation company.
If you paid on finance or credit card you can try contacting them to get some money back.
Good luck.
I have cancelled my Grid Services Agreement with Social Energy as I want to use the power that my battery has stored, however I no longer have the SE App so I do not know how much is in the battery. Is there an alternative App I can use to keep tabs on my battery storage and how much power I am pulling off the grid? My PV solar panel system was installed by Infinity Renewables. Any advise would be gratefully received.
Hi Colin. I assume you have a SolaX battery. If so then you can either contact your installer to set up the SolaX Cloud or contact SolaX. The SolaX cloud should be setup as part of the installation but customers were not normally given the login as Social Energy wanted you to use their app. Try 0845 689 6009 for SolaX technical help.
All the best.
Hi Admin,
Thank you for your prompt explanation, most useful. I will reply and explain how it goes.
Regards
Colin
Neon Reef Limited and Social Energy Supply Ltd have become the latest suppliers to collapse, leaving around 30,000 and 5,500 domestic customers respectively.
Social Energy Supply were one of five suppliers ordered by Ofgem last week (12 November) to pay a combined £575,000 for failing to meet payment deadlines for the feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme. The company owes £28,735.