We cover Preston and South Ribble from our HQ in Clitheroe, about forty minutes up the A59. This is what solar actually involves on the city’s housing, from Plungington terraces to the new estates at Cottam.
From Princess Avenue, Clitheroe to Preston city centre. Close enough to survey every roof in person, which we do, rather than quoting from an aerial photograph.
Which way does your roof face? In Preston that decides more than anything else, and we will tell you straight if the answer is the wrong one.
Tesla, Fox and Aiko. A short list we know properly rather than a catalogue we half know.
Preston’s housing is more varied than the Ribble Valley’s, and the differences change the answer. The same array on three different streets can be a good investment, a marginal one, and a mistake.
Long rows with one usable slope each. Many run roughly east to west, so one side of the street has a south facing back roof and the other side has a north facing one. Slate on timber, plenty of chimneys, and planes that suit six to ten panels rather than sixteen. Which side of the street you are on matters more than anything else about the house.
The bulk of Preston’s owner occupied housing and, on paper, the best solar roofs in the city. Hipped roofs split the array across two or three slopes, so the design is about balancing east and west rather than filling one big south face. Concrete tile, standard fixings, and a quick install.
Around 5,500 new homes are planned across Cottam, Higher and Lower Bartle and Lightfoot Green, and roughly half are built. A lot came with a small in-roof array from the developer. Adding capacity or a battery to one of those is a different job from a first install, and worth understanding before you assume anything about what is already on the roof.
Preston has ten conservation areas. In four of them — Avenham, Fishergate Hill, Fulwood and St Ignatius Square — the council has made an Article 4 Direction, which removes the usual permitted development rights. Elsewhere, a rear facing array in a conservation area is normally fine without an application. In those four areas, assume you need to ask before anyone designs a layout. Fulwood is the one that surprises people, because it is a large residential area that nobody thinks of as historic.
A terrace has one usable slope, and the whole row faces the same way. On a street running east to west, the houses on the south side have a south facing back roof and the houses on the north side do not. Same house type, same street, and one is a good solar roof while the other mostly is not. We look at the street on a map before we quote, and if you are on the wrong side we would rather say so than sell you a north facing array.
Much of Cottam and Bartle came with two to four panels, fitted to satisfy building regulations rather than to run a house. They generate, but the inverter, the export meter and whatever tariff the developer signed the property up to all need checking before anything is added. It is not unusual for the better answer to be replacing the small original system rather than bolting a bigger one onto it.
If you are not on this list, ask anyway. Most of it is under an hour from our HQ.
Any installation has to be notified to them before connection. We handle it as part of the job rather than leaving it with you.
Almost every house in the city is on a single phase supply, which caps an inverter at 3.68 kW unless the network operator approves more. Fine for most arrays. It matters if you want a larger battery or an EV charger alongside, and it is a conversation for the survey, not afterwards.
Yes. Preston is flat and low, so it has far fewer of the hillside and early sunset problems that shape installs in the Ribble Valley. Panels run on daylight rather than heat, and a bright overcast day over the Fylde still generates usefully.
The constraint in the city is geometry rather than landscape: which way the roof faces, how many slopes it has, and what the chimney stack does to it in the afternoon. Those three things, and when the house is occupied, decide the outcome far more than the county does.
So we can look at the roof, which way it faces and which side of the street you are on.
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.
Usually not. Solar on a house is permitted development, with the exception of the four conservation areas that have an Article 4 Direction: Avenham, Fishergate Hill, Fulwood and St Ignatius Square. There, assume an application is needed and ask before you design.
Usually, but the developer’s inverter and export arrangement decide how. Sometimes it is cheaper and better to replace the small original system than to add to it. We check what is there at the survey.
Often not, and we will tell you. A north facing single slope in Preston is a poor solar roof. If the front faces south and you are not in an Article 4 area, a front slope array can work, but it is a different conversation about appearance and planning.
We do. For Preston and South Ribble that is Electricity North West, and it happens before connection as part of the job.
Yes. Penwortham, Bamber Bridge, Lostock Hall, Walton-le-Dale and Longton are all inside our normal area, and Leyland and Chorley beyond them.
A typical Preston semi or terrace is one to two days on site once the scaffold is up. New builds with an existing array can take a little longer if the original system is being replaced.