Solar PV installation guide

Welcome to our installation guide.

This is a guide for installing a retrofit solar PV installation on a domestic property. The guide will walk you through your solar PV Installation.

Meet the team

We’ll usually send a team of four to fit each home system – a project manager, two roofers and an electrician. We match skills within each team carefully to make sure we cover all necessary areas of expertise. Your project manager will be responsible for making sure your project is completed on time and to our high standards. They’ll also explain the system to you and answer any questions.

How long will it take?

Most installs can be completed within one to two days, but some will run into three – for example, we’ll take more time when installing on roofs with slate or rosemary tiles as they’re more fragile. We can usually tell which projects are likely to take longer than a day, so we’ll be sure to let you plan for this well in advance.

Do I need to do anything?

All you need to do is give us access to all the spaces we’ll need to work in – both inside and out. We’ll also need to use your electricity supply, water and toilet. We promise to keep any disruption to a minimum and tidy up before we leave.

What’s in the van?

On the day of your install, before we get on the roof and start putting anything on, you’ll see us unloading all sorts of complicated-looking kit. Here’s what everything is:

Solar panels

All the solar panels we stock are made up of individual solar cells, covered in an antireflective glass sheet, surrounded by a lightweight aluminium frame. The weight of the panels can vary between 15 and 30kg depending on the size and manufacturer.

One of our more popular panels, the Suntech mono-crystalline 250W panel, shown on the left, for example weighs 19kg and is 1.6 x 1m in size. You can check the specifications of your panels on our website.

Roof anchors

These are the stainless steel hooks that screw into the rafters of your roof, forming a base for the mounting system. The roof anchors are hidden from view once the panels have been fixed on to the roof but are nonetheless a crucial part of your system.

There are many types of roof anchors, and the one we use will depend on the type of roof tiles – there are different types for slates, rosemary and concrete tiles amongst others. Our in house technical team will assess which ones to use after we carry out your site survey.