We design and install solar and battery systems on homes across Lancashire and the North West, from a base in Clitheroe. Stone terraces, estate houses, bungalows and farm buildings. We will tell you honestly what your roof will do.
Based at The Former Ambulance Station, Princess Avenue. Local surveys, not a call centre.
Tesla, Fox and Aiko. A short list we know properly rather than a catalogue we half know.
Every quote starts with a survey of your actual roof. Never an aerial photograph.
Roof mounted arrays designed around your roof and your usage. We fit Aiko back contact panels, which the manufacturer rates at around 23 to 24 per cent module efficiency with partial shade optimisation at cell level. That matters on a small terrace roof, or one with a chimney in the way.
Tesla Powerwall 3 where an all in one unit suits, Fox where the design calls for something modular. Backup during a power cut comes from the Tesla Backup Gateway rather than the battery alone, so if that matters to you it needs to be in the quote.
Home charge points, and the wiring to run one off your own generation rather than off the grid. Increasingly the conversation that starts with panels ends up being about a car and a tariff working together.
Loft, cavity wall, internal wall, room in roof and under floor. Often the cheapest thing you can do to a house, and frequently the thing that should happen before anything goes on the roof.
We cover Lancashire and the wider North West from Clitheroe. If you are not on this list, ask anyway.
There is a lot of noise in this trade. Rather than tell you we are the best, here are the questions that separate a good quote from a bad one. Ask them of everybody you speak to.
Both happen. Only one tells you what a chimney does in December. An aerial image cannot see the structure, the consumer unit, or how a shadow moves across a roof through the year.
A generation figure that ignores shading on a shaded roof is not a figure, it is a guess. Ask what shading factor was applied and where it came from.
If the answer is about your roof rather than your usage, the sizing has been done backwards. Also ask whether the capacity quoted is usable or total, because they are different numbers.
Every pitched roof install needs scaffolding, including bungalows. It should be in the written quote rather than added later. The network notification is not optional either, so establish who is doing it.
Stone slate needs a different approach to a modern concrete tile. Get it wrong and it does not show up at commissioning, it shows up as a damp patch three winters later. Unglamorous, and one of the clearest lines between a competent installer and a cheap one.
We have written up what we know, in detail, for free. Start here.
Tell us about your house and we will come back with a straight answer about what your roof will and will not do. No cost, no obligation, and if it is not right for you we will say so.
So we can look at the roof, which way it faces and what might shade it.
It is on any annual statement, in units. A rough figure is fine.
The single biggest factor in how much of your generation you keep.
That is enough for a straight answer. If your roof is not right for it, we will say so. We would rather tell you now than sell you something that disappoints you in February.
The email button opens a message with the questions already in it. Fill in what you know and send it. We answer our own phone.
Yes, and the gap with the south of England is smaller than people assume, because panels run on daylight rather than heat or direct sunshine. What matters far more than which county you are in is what shades the roof, which way it faces, and when you are home.
Usually not. Solar on a house is normally permitted development. The exceptions matter round here though: conservation areas, listed buildings, and the Forest of Bowland National Landscape. We check this as part of the survey rather than leaving you to find out later.
Almost always. Older Lancashire roofs were built to carry stone slate, which is far heavier than a solar array. The exceptions are some non standard prefabricated post war construction types, which need a structural check first.
Usually yes. It depends on the existing inverter and how the system was wired, which we can establish from the paperwork and a look at the setup. A lot of Lancashire houses have arrays fitted years ago with no storage, exporting most of their summer surplus.
A typical domestic install is one to two days on site once the scaffold is up. Farm buildings and larger arrays take longer, and rural properties sometimes need grid work agreeing first.
No, not usefully. If your only clear roof plane faces north, your money is better spent elsewhere, and we will tell you so. East and west are a different matter and are perfectly viable.