South West

But the former director of Solar Technik has now started up a new company, again selling solar panels.

When we filmed a Solar Technik presentation in 2006 the salesman was trying to sell a solar system even though the house wasn't appropriate for solar panels.

Solar panels: not always suitable

The presentation was full of exaggerated claims about the possible savings.

We invited the new company for a presentation, where again, the salesperson couldn't seem to stop exaggerating the possible savings.

Ultimate Energy

Solar Technik went bust in April 2007 owing nearly £1.5m to creditors and leaving many people unhappy.

However as long as someone isn't struck off as a director, there's nothing stopping them from starting a new company, and that's exactly what Solar Technik director Floyd Lewis did.

He set up a new solar firm called Ultimate Energy.

But in August 2007, Mr Lewis and Ultimate Energy were reprimanded by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

They had to promise that they wouldn't mislead the public by inflating potential savings on bills or saying their system would pay for itself.

Inside Out wanted to see if Ultimate Energy had cleaned up its act, so we again rigged up a house with a camera and invited them in.

Sales claims untrue

The sales pitch

Ultimate Energy's salesman was happy about the suitability of our house for solar power and made a number of claims as he tried to sell the solar system.

These included saying that up to 95% of his own hot water is provided by the system.

When we asked Ultimate Energy about the claim that up to 95% of hot water can be provided by their system, they told us "anybody with any modicum of common sense would immediately know the claim of 95% success with an English winter is an absurdity."

They also said their marketing material states a figure of 40%.

But later on, they told us their salesman has his own system which he thinks does a lot better.

The salesman was also filmed claiming the system will produce a 40% reduction on the fuel bill. 

As the total hot water is normally responsible for less 25% of an household fuel bill, this claim seems very much exaggerated and could be a breach of the undertaking given by Floyd Lewis to the OFT.

Ultimate Energy told us it's entirely untrue that they claim their system will reduce fuel bills by 40%. Later they also told us the system should give a 40% reduction for the hot water bill only.

The solar expert's view

After the Ultimate Energy presentation we had the house assessed by solar expert Ian Preston from the Centre for Sustainable Energy.

He suggested that topping up the loft insulation could save the householder up to four times what a solar system would.

Floyd Lewis says his business is run properly and that the company's sales people follow a specific script. 

We're now passing on our findings about Ultimate Energy and Floyd Lewis to the Office of Fair Trading and Trading Standards.