How a job runs
Five steps, and the first one is not the roof
Most of the difference between a good solar install and an expensive one is decided before anyone puts up a ladder. This is the order we work in and roughly how long each part takes.
Meter data
We ask for a fortnight of half-hourly readings from your smart meter, or a manual log if you do not have one. That gives us a consumption curve rather than an annual total, and the curve is what an array should be sized against. It is free, it is not a commitment, and if it shows solar is a poor fit for your household we will say so at this point rather than at the quote.
Two weeks
typical
Survey
On the roof, not on an aerial photograph. Pitch and orientation measured, a horizon scan for shading through the year, the covering and the battens inspected, and the consumer unit and earthing checked. Where a roof needs work before an array goes on it, this is where that gets found.
Half a day
typical
Design and quote
An array sized to the overlap between what you generate and what you use, a string layout, an inverter specification, and a written quote with both payback figures on it: the one every quote prints, and the one after degradation, export tariffs, maintenance and one inverter. No pressure, no expiring discount.
Three to five days
typical
Install
Scaffold, mount, panels, DC and AC first fix, inverter, isolators, commissioning and a system test. Longer where slate has to come off by hand for an in-roof tray, and longer again if the weather closes in with the roof open.
Two to four days
typical
Handover
MCS certificate, electrical installation certificate, DNO notification, your export tariff application, and the operating and maintenance manual. Then, one year on, we send your quoted figures next to what the meter actually reported.
Two weeks after
typical
Paperwork
What you are handed at the end
Five documents. Ask any installer for this list before you sign anything; the ones who hesitate are telling you something.
MCS certificate
Registers the installation and is what an export tariff application needs.
Electrical installation certificate
The BS 7671 certificate for the electrical work, signed by the person who did it.
DNO notification
Confirmation your distribution operator has been told the array exists and at what capacity.
Operating and maintenance manual
Panel and inverter datasheets, warranty terms, isolator locations and the service interval.
Handover figures
The quoted generation and payback, in writing, so there is something to compare the meter against.
Next step
Step one costs nothing
Send us a fortnight of meter readings and a postcode. We will tell you whether the roof is worth surveying before either of us spends a morning on it.