North East Contracts

North East Contracts is a commercial roofing and wall cladding specialist based in Arbroath. It provides a range of services to main contractors, local authorities, private companies and homeowners throughout Scotland and the Scottish Isles.

Home for the company is a 314 sq ft building, providing office space and a workshop. Keen to reduce energy costs and maximise on the benefits of solar energy, Jacqueline Hacking, Managing Director, said:

“When we first started feeling the effects of the energy crisis, we were concerned that the rate of energy costs were continuing to increase. I felt there was a need to offset our energy and look into a more sustainable future.

“Our heating supply is electric, and post-covid we built individual offices to allow segregation. Heating a lot of spaces is expensive and keeping our offices warm through the winter was our main concern. An additional consideration was the electric-powered saw in our workshop that is used for specific projects only.”

“We installed solar to offset day-to-day energy use in our offices, as well as periodic workshop use. We chose Forster Group for our solar installation after working together on several industrial roofing projects over the years. We have a longstanding relationship with them and trust their knowledge and experience of the solar energy field.”

Forster Group completed the installation of a 16.4kWp roof-mounted system for North East Contracts in May 2023 which comprises one Solis inverter and 40 JA Solar 410W panels.

Over the first six months, the solar panels provided a significant energy saving of 60% per month. Annually, this will have a major impact on the company’s energy bills, reducing total costs by approximately £2,000.

Forster Group also supported North East Contracts in securing an interest free Business Energy Scotland government loan for the solar panels, allowing them to make their investment with an eight year payback period.

“As well as seeing impressive results in our financial savings, we also have access to the manufacturer’s online system so that we can keep track of how much energy is being used. We can also monitor the amount of energy being taken from and put back into the grid and how much energy our solar panels are producing. This is a great way to track how self-sufficient we are and has been incredibly useful in allowing us to cut back. The system previously flagged an issue in which our heating system was using too much energy, so we turned off our additional heat pump and managed to half our usage.

“We’re thrilled with the performance of our solar installation so far and I will continue to recommend Forster Group as an established local company that knows the market. The technical team is incredibly helpful in providing analytical research to demonstrate cost savings and plan out the most effective solar solution to benefit their customers.

“The customer care from Forster Group has been second to none and our 10 year guarantee means they will monitor our solar installation to ensure everything is working at its most efficient capacity, making the journey totally stress-free.”