thriftenergy.co.uk Reviews 51

My external wall insulation has many flaws and is now cracking. It is still under warranty. I contacted the company and was put through to Dan, after much perseverance and several phone calls to repeatedly remind Dan that I still existed, he finally sent someone round. The lovely Paul then showed up and took lots of photos and said Dan would be in touch. After months of chasing, Dan told me that the wonderful Chris would now be dealing with it! And what a jobs worth! Chris doesn’t appear to know how to use a telephone, let alone return phone calls. I have been trying to contact him since July 2025 and have only managed this on 2 occasions and on both occasions he has said the same thing….” i’m just about to go into a meeting to discuss your property, I promise you I will call you back as soon as I have an answer. Now when I try to phone Chris he is either in a meeting or he’s just popped out of the office, he’s such a busy man…. Busy doing bugger all….We then get to September 2025 and I’m absolutely exhausted and exasperated by the whole thing. So I phoned the office again and asked to make a complaint and I get to speak to the lovely Sharon. I finally thought I was getting somewhere because she actually seemed like she was listening and she was concerned. What a fool I was, she was just like the rest of the company incompetent ineffective and a complete jobsworth so we are now in March 2026 and I’m still no further forward. However all is not lost, because I was sensible and I have all the emails, texts, and phone records, I have enough evidence to take this company to court and seek compensation this way. If you are sensible please please please stay away from this company.

A mixed bag - both good and bad: solar PV installation was not without issues. There arrangement of panels on the roof could have been spaced more tidily. We were told we could draw power from the battery through a power cut, but this is not the case, without extra isolating switches, or tapping off the battery in a different way, but both would involve intrusive additional work on our already crowded fuse cupboard and freshly decorated wall. Some new inverters contain the necessary components to obviate the need for external, manual isolation from the mains: that's the price for going in early at our own expense (we were not eligible for a grant). The installing electrician drilled through the power cable, which required excavation in the wall to repair. The final caulking to make good the finish was poor. It took six weeks after the works were completed before the scaffold was removed.
On the positive side, communication from the Newcastle office was very good: clear, punctual and professional. Issues were largely addressed promptly and politely. Also, the installation has been reliable, and our draw from the grid has reduced considerably across the year.
However, recently the system has developed a problem, which is most likely due to water ingress at the DC connectors. Thrift Energy pointed out that the installation warranty of 3 years had expired, so referred me to the inverter manufacturer. PV solar lingo is not my strength and it took a while to have my suspicions confirmed, that water ingress in the DC connectors is most likely the problem, which is not covered by the inverter manufacturer's warranty. Two stories up, checking DC connectors is not something I feel able to do (and even at ground level is the remit of qualified PV installers). ... but I know a company with direct experience of my setup - Thrift Energy and their installers. I seem to have been effectively blanked or ghosted by them, despite several emails sent, and phone contact. Living in a rural area it is not easy to get hold of trades in general, and PV installers rather a niche. After the recent heavy rain the PV solar installation is not working, and likely will not again until we get an extended dry spell. I wasn't expecting to get the problem fixed for free for an out of warranty repair, but some recommendations referrals, and directions to professionals who may be able to help, given their familiarity to terminology and the technology I would have been welcomed.
It is thus with hesitancy and some caution I would recommend Thrift Energy - good for communication, and the PV installation was working well ... until it didn't ... and they are likely better in their advice and experience than when we had our systems installed. But for aftercare following warranty expiry the experience has left me disappointed.

We had internal wall insulation, great job, house feeling warmer already, workmen treated the house with respect, great bunch of guys

I'll keep this as brief as I can.
Had solar panels and battery installed for about £11k nearly 3 years ago.

Thrifts measure/plan was incorrect and once fitted realised an additional panel could have been fitted.

A couple weeks after paying in full, I was asked to pay £7k balance from another employee I had no previous contact with. Then asked for proof I had paid. Did get resolved though after emailing someone else.

Scaffolders knocked the neighbours aerial and took lots of repeated attempts to contact and get it put right.

Conduit carrying cable from loft to ground floor was not inserted correctly in sleeve at mid point and popped itself free. Again lots of contact to get them out to sort it left me frustrated and got up a ladder myself to sort it. It later popped out the top end, obviously not long enough.

Bird protection, basically small piece of chicken wire around perimeter, cost £500+ VAT, which i thought was extortionate but I wouldn't get up there myself to do it so thought it best they done it all at the same time as the panels.

However, pigeons managed to pull it up at the top end (ridge tile end) and have been nesting underneath the solar panels. I paid a roofer to get up there today and he sorted it, but will have to come back again as he left an opening at the bottom so the chicks can escape and not be trapped inside.

Also, upon completion did not receive any of the documents I needed to register for SEG payments etc. Had to ask for them months later. Was not given any guidance about this important part, had to work it out myself.

The most expensive investment I have bought for the house and the level of support was poor and really difficult to get some attention.

Lastly, had a long power outage during the last storm and the battery was fully charged but could not be utilised? After searching online, the battery can be used during a power outage but the installer needs to fit a switch to make this possible. Why wouldn't I be offered this? Surely it is an advantage of buying a battery for £5.5k that you can use it during a power outage to keep the fridge on and combi boiler etc.

I would recommend searching for a company that has lots of good feedback or a recommendation. I notice Thrift has plenty of bad reviews but these were not there nearly 3 years ago.
Best of luck.

If you want a company to promise you lots of things but then have the manager not take your calls, not call you back & ignore your emails then this is the company for you.

Thanks Richie and Tay for a great IWI service very polite and professional work top job lads well done thrift and eon great service, thank you.
Kind regards
Steve Lane

Amazing work and very professional. Clean, tidy and informative. Can highly recommend.

Richie, Rob and Tay are professional and very efficient.

Thrift installed Solar panels under a home impovement grant - did not turn up on the day agreed (laughed at me when I chased it and treated me like dirt), scaffolding was left for FIVE WEEKS after the installation was done, causing water ingress into the house and damage to the roof. Wiring installation melted and smoked, taking out our heating and hot water on the coldest week of 2024. When attempting to escalate issues their 'Manager' Daniel did not respond to multiple emails and phonecalls over at least 6 weeks. Daniel also blatantly lied about my 'agreeing to change the date' when no-one ever called me. Certificates including how to even use the installation, warranty etc took months to arrive even after chasing multiple times.

Very fast and efficient service. We applied for a grant which was accepted and we have benefitted from solar panels. The team worked very hard and the system was installed within a single day. I would recommend this company.

Thrift were the providers of my thermal cladding via an EON energy grant.
It all started well enough with a knock on the door offering me free thermal cladding, the subsequent lack of communication and explanations made the installation a rather stressful and at times infuriating process though.

Eon handle the grant, Thrift do the installation and as far as I can tell a third party then does the work. Somewhere along the line, my existence as the actual customer seems to have been forgotten and I found the installation to be very disruptive to my life and has cost me a good portion of my mental health.

On the plus side, yes I have had over ten grand's worth of work done on my house, but as a professional person who work from home, who is in fact a project manager themselves (oh the irony), I was very disappointed with the assumptions and wordless peakaboo nature of the work going on, with the exception of a couple of text messages from Thrift I have had no communication or explanation of when people will be turning up, what work they will be doing, or how disruptive it will be.

I even rang thrift about this and they told me that there wouldn't be any builders on site for the next week whereupon I made plans to work from home for a week only for builders to turn up and start work the next flippin day!!!

I have had scaffolders arrive with no notice and fill the sides of my house with scaffolding that has blocked the shared access way for the terrace of houses I live on the end of.

I have had the flower beds that go round the sides of my house trampled and broken- with notice I could have dug them out!.

My wooden plant borders are broken from big work boots.

I have had people turn up to install extractor fans (there was no details of this given from the door knock) which has meant that I have had to reorder my kitchen as now there is a fan on a wall where there used to be a wine rack not to mention the day of chaotic noise as sundry tradespeople just arrived and made holes in the walls of my house whilst I tried to work.

At one stage my loo was decommissioned!

There was an assumption that I could/would provide water to the builders for making the cement etc- I don't have a garden tap and the solution offered was I just leave my (metered!) kitchen tap running all day and they just use the water coming out the drain pipe!!

I had my windows covered in opaque protective film whilst they did the plastering- good for protecting the windows but a bit crap for my house plants.

And none of this was explained or listed to me, if I’d known in moderate detail what would happen, why, how, and why , then I could have planned.

Every day I sit at home on edge wondering if/when someone in a hi vis is going to randomly appear on my property and just start working with no idea if this will be all day of for a few minutes (both instances happen regularly) let alone if it will involve power tools drilling into my wall.

I cant use the outside of my property to exercise or do my woodworking hobby as the scaffolding has blocked it all off and I have genuinely no idea when it will end as no one ever bothers to talk to me.

The people all seem nice enough and I did get a foreman visit at the start but by then I’d got scaffolding up already and just wanted it done band gone.

All this could be avoided with a simple itemised schedule of works, 'on [this day] we will be doing [this] which will involve [that], we will be starting on [X] and finishing on [Y]'.

Come on, that's hardly rocket science is it?

Shocking company how thay manage to get work I don’t no stay away from this company thay think it’s acceptable to leave roof tiles holding up with foam making excuses about can’t fix as there’s asbestos there that should of been removed before thay started other parts of there work looks a mess
Site manager Paul talks to like muck he thinks because it was free he can bodge jobs please if anyone’s had work done from this company get it checked out

Stay away from these
I’d get a surveyor to check all work that’s been done from this comp

Cold callers, putting litter through my post box.

We had a knock on the door from Thrift regarding EON grants as part of the council for Solar.
It was specifically asked of Thrift if we had to earn below a threshold or be on benefits as we are always not eligable which we were assured it was not.
Based on this we agreed to have a survey and booked time off for this. During the survey again it was confirmed that it was not required for the funding.
Low and behold a week later we are asked for proof of eligibility that we earn less than a certain amount. If the company answered our query up front instead of blagging a lie it could have saved both our times and using time off.

Great communications and assistance as always, their engineer talked me through a simple fix within one our of my email. Very professional and easy to deal with.

I have their solar panel installed in the summer of 2022.
It is 2024 spring and I am still yet to receive the document that I need to set up an account with British Gas for my output electricity. I forgot to ask for it and apply it first thing after the installation (arguably my fault, I would have expected more guidance from the agent who sold me this). I asked for the documents and he did provide some though not sufficient for BG. I requested again for it and it has been one year since I first asked for the DNO letter. I still not been able to get it.
The salesperson Mr Daniel Grace was great and perfect responsive, resourceful BEFORE the sale. He then disappeared unresponsive afterwards unless you keep calling their hotline and sending emails to their general emails and cc another colleague of his. Then you would get minimum response. It seems the whole company is not able to help you (they sound they want to), they would just keep referring you back to your salesperson. The panel works fine so far (I have to give them that, but the customer service is just unacceptable)

The issues were finally resolved 15/3.
I got my papers for generating income 1.5 year after the panels were installed and 0.5 year after I requested for it.

Like I said above, your salesperson will be the determining factor of your experience.

One good thing about thrift is their staff Ms Elizabeth Crozier who has been relentlessly to help solving my issues while the responsible person is not responding nor delivering. She has been responsive, honest and fair during my interaction with her and she is the only reason I am giving a three star instead of one.

I was given dates for my solar panels and electrician to come and connect them roof appointment got cancelled electrician kept his did the pre electricity stuff my roof date got moved to following week got to the day of insulation waited in most of day for site manager to knock and say it would be the next day they would be installing panels they came no problem in the morning I waited the rest of the day for electrician to come rang up about 2pm yes he's coming I rang at 4.15pm no he's not coming he's waiting for a part they will ring me to arrange a date in the future so I've got black panels on roof doing nothing

They are very rude and I heard him telling his mate on the phone how our house was too cluttered and he couldn't get proper access in the loft and how it woul come back on him and heard him slagging another customer off saying he had to wait for their friend to come and how they wouldn't sign the job off and so I told him to go but he was still on to his mate so my husband told him to put the loft hatch on and go then he had the nerve to say well if you change your mind huh if they're going to slag you off at least have the decency to sit in the van the attitude of the man was moaning about everything and very very rude

Recently had solar panels and a battery installed on my house. Everyone from the scaffolders, solar panel installers and electricians were polite and extremely tidy. Everything was finished within 1 day and I am generating so much electricity I am considering adding another battery. Highly recommended.

Solar Panel Installation next door in April. Ever since then I have had to put up with loud humming noise 24/7. At times it is so loud I can hear it over the television. Told neighbour about it and asked her to contact Thrift to look into it. Waited a month and then the electrician who installed the inverter and did the related electrical work came to my door. He was abusive, rude, kept shouting over me and wouldn't allow me to speak. He wasn't prepared to listen to anything. I finally had to scream at him to get out of my house. He was due to visit the day before but more than an hour after he was due I got a message saying it would be 8.30am the following day. My son was going to be here but he had to return to London so I was on my own. I live alone, I'm 79 years old and that kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable. I have looked into this problem with humming noise, it isn't unusual. One electrician who works in the industry told me it could be noise coming through the racks that hold the panels because they haven't fitted end caps to them. Another said it's vibration coming from the inverter. Apparently the inverter is fitted in the attic, facing south. It gets as hot as hell up there. Environmental health are now involved, they will be installing noise spectrum analysis equipment in a few weeks. I hope this will be settled then because I cannot put up with this constant noise in every room of my house. There appear to be a mixed bag of reviews regarding this company, I've done some research on them and I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

We have had these here for the last 2 months. They have between them contaminated the whole area!
Polystyrene everywhere, rubbish left daily.
Unsafe practices, not wearing hard hats, wiring left outside taped up, no warning they are working above.
No respect for property
As the rest say BUNCH OF COWBOYS