A Solar Fast installer at work – credit Solar Fast Contact online >>
A Solar Fast installer at work – credit Solar Fast
Originally a trading name for Yorkshire energy firm Gas Fast, Solar Fast is now part of the Wickes group and one of the fastest-growing solar installers in Britain. We gave it second position in our roundup of the best solar panel installers in the UK, naming it ‘best for customer service’ and also praising its warranties and range of services.
Solar Fast installs just one brand of solar panel: the highly efficient 440W DMEGC M10-series panel, which it describes as a “Tier 1 panel”. In fact Tier 1 is a rating for manufacturers rather than panels. The rating system is developed by BloombergNEF and is a measure of how “bankable” or financially stable the company is (and by implication how likely it is to still be around in years to come to fulfil its warranty) but isn’t actually a measure of quality.
Solar Fast also supplies and fits solar storage batteries and EV chargers.
In this review, our solar experts explore the pros and cons of Solar Fast’s panels and services to help you decide whether this is your ideal partner for your switch to solar.
Solar Fast has only been trading under its name since 2021, but its history goes back two decades. The company has its origins in West Yorkshire energy firm Gas Fast, incorporated in 2006 – back when solar PV (photovoltaic) systems accounted for less than 0.01% of the nation’s electricity consumption.
That figure is now 5% and rising fast, so it’s no surprise that the newly-styled Solar Fast grew at an astonishing rate. In its first year of operation under the Solar Fast name it went from 10 to more than 100 staff and turned over £9 million. In its second year, it was garlanded with awards including Best Business Transformation at the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards and ranked 181 in the 1,000 fastest growing companies in Europe by the Financial Times.
Solar Fast says it has 16,000 customers across mainland UK and claims to have installed more than 47,000 solar panels, generating more than 10.4 million kWh (kilowatt hours) of solar energy. It says its installations prevented 8,320 tonnes of carbon from being released in a single year (2022-23), suggesting it has significantly reduced its customers’ carbon footprint as well as their energy bills.
Solar Fast, based in Castleford near Leeds, boasts five industry accreditations from bodies including the Energy Performance Validation Scheme (EPVS) and the Home Insulation & Energy Systems Quality Assured Contractors Scheme (HIES), as well as the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), which is essential for UK solar panel installers.
Solar Fast limits the brand of solar panel on its books. It currently only installs DMEGC’s powerful 440W M10-series panel, which boasts efficiency ratings of up to 22.7%, well above average.
The panels come with a 25-year product guarantee and a 30-year performance guarantee, which approaches the top end of what you’d expect from a solar industry warranty.
Solar Fast also includes a two-year workmanship guarantee with all its installations, which include EV chargers and solar storage batteries as well as solar panels, and pledges to monitor PV systems for 30 years after installation to spot and fix any problems. That kind of peace of mind is invaluable when you’re spending thousands on your home.
Solar Fast told us that it can install a system within seven days “if the circumstances are correct”. On the evidence of feedback from real recent customers, installations may take a couple of weeks to organise but just a single day to complete.
On paper, Solar Fast is a superb choice for your solar project. It’s a fast-growing company with years of industry experience and plenty of investment from its new parent Wickes. Its panels and other products are high quality, and it boasts an excellent website full of well-organised information for existing and potential customers, both residential and commercial.
But the real test of a company’s value is what its customers say – and in this regard, Solar Fast is outstanding. At the time of writing, Solar Fast has an average 4.7 (“excellent”) from more than 1,700 verified customer reviews on Trustpilot. Those numbers can’t quite match the 5,000 positive reviews for a longer-established name such as Project Solar UK, but with several five-star comments posted every day, Solar Fast’s reviews are catching up.
Reviews repeatedly praise fast work, professionalism and great communication. Customers mention that they received detailed proposals to help them understand what the PV system would offer and what the installation would involve. Customers are impressed with the helpfulness of the Solar Fast team, both on the ground during installation and on the phone before and long after the panels are switched on.
Solar Fast is also hailed by users as a good value solar installer whose quotes are transparent, competitive and realistic. More than one recent review mentions that the company’s quote offered the best balance of value and timescale, with cheaper quotes often wanting to take months to complete the job.
Even though Solar Fast’s customer reviews are coming thick and fast, the company replies to every single one. This suggests to us that the company is committed to keeping its customers happy and informed.
Here are a few representative user comments from recent weeks:
“Communication right through to installation has been excellent. Install team were very efficient, quick and kept to the timescales they gave. Install done in one day with no issues” – William Fox, August 2024
“Very rapid response to initial queries. Good detailed proposal and also quick to respond to further questions. Competitive price and rapid installation less than two weeks from order. Installers were polite, efficient and competent” – Tim Swift, August 2024
“From pre installation till now nine months down the line nothing is too much trouble. A first class service from a first class company” – Ian Bailey, August 2024
“From meeting Cal the sales representative, to the scaffolders to the installation team, all were very knowledgeable, very polite and ensured I was kept up to speed” – Lisa, August 2024
“From start to 14 months on we have been delighted. Clear honest quoting, no pressure sales, quality installation, proactive resolution of teething problems, significant savings” – Matthew, July 2024
If you hire Solar Fast to install your solar PV system, you’ll only have one choice of panel: 440W M10 series panels from Chinese manufacturer DMEGC.
While you may prefer a wider selection, we think there are advantages to Solar Fast’s limited range. The firm’s installers are specialists in working with that panel, and they can give you experienced advice about using it. They know how to optimise a PV system for DMEGC panels, and they ensure that system components and add-ons such as inverters and EV chargers are the best fit for them.
That said, is the panel any good? DMEGC is not as familiar a name as SunPower Maxeon or Panasonic, and we don’t feature it in our list of the best solar panels you can buy, although we may change that. This sleek black monocrystalline panel’s efficiency rating of 22.7% is one of the best on the market, which means it can generate good amounts of electricity even under overcast British skies.
A couple of customer reviews aren’t keen on the “made in China” element, but we don’t think it should be enough to put you off. The company has also been named as a “Top Brand PV” company by European renewables agency EUPD for seven years in a row. As we’ve mentioned, DMEGC is ranked by BloombergNEF as a “Tier 1” solar manufacturer, which means it is considered bankable, or worth investing in.
The panels are also good value and enable Solar Fast to keep its system prices competitive. You can buy a DMEGC M10 series 440W solar panel for under £80 from trade outlets, and to its credit Solar Fast says so on its website.
We do not recommend buying the panels for the lowest price possible and installing them yourself. Solar Fast offers the expertise and experience – not to mention the insurance – to install panels to the highest standard. As mentioned above, it also continues to actively monitor your panels for 30 years to catch any problems before they become serious.
In addition, Solar Fast offers guarantees of up to 12 years on its system components. For example, it guarantees its Lux inverters for 12 years and its Growatt and Solis inverters for 10 years, and includes a two-year workmanship guarantee with all installations.
“I am very pleased with the equipment used. The DMEGC 405 watt black panels look really good on (the) roof and are delivering excellence power, the Lux 3.6 inverter is easy to programme via app and info is really good” – Vince Beesley, May 2023
“The roof team removed any cracked tiles before starting on the panels, a point I had stressed as a concern. They arranged all the panels in a better way than shown on the plan. Against dark grey tiles 10 black panels blended perfectly. Completed by lunch time” – Alan John Doyle, Mar 2023
Solar storage batteries enable you to store the solar electricity your panels produce during daylight so you can use it after dark. Given that most households use most of their energy in the evening, adding a battery to your solar PV system can help you reduce your carbon footprint. If you decide this is right for you, Solar Fast can provide and install one for you – whether or not they installed your panels.
Unlike its rival Project Solar, Solar Fast offers plenty of information about solar batteries on its website. However, to find out which brand of batteries it installs we had to contact the company. At the time of writing, Solar Fast installs Greenlinx batteries, which have an unusually high DoD (depth of discharge) rating of 100%. This effectively means you can use all the battery’s capacity.
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