Solar Panel Installationin Winchester & Hampshireby the Electrician Who Quotes It

We fit all-black monocrystalline modules as standard because they suit Hampshire's mix of brick, flint and tile far better than silver-framed panels, and modern all-black modules no longer cost meaningful efficiency to achieve it. Panels are clamped to aluminium rails that are through-fixed to rafters, not battens, with flashings or hooks appropriate to your tile or slate profile.

Inverter choice is where a system is won or lost. A string inverter is the right answer on a simple, unshaded roof. A hybrid inverter is the right answer where a battery is included now or planned later, and it must be sized for that future battery rather than for today's array alone. On roofs with unavoidable shading we look at panel-level optimisation on the affected string rather than accepting the loss across the array.

Recent installs give a realistic picture of specification and cost: 10 panels with a Fox EP6 5.76kWh battery and Fox inverter at £6,995; 13 panels with two Fox 5kW batteries at £8,500; 12 panels with a Sigenergy 10kW battery and 5kW inverter at £8,900. Every roof is different, so yours is quoted individually rather than sold off a price list.

Winchester and the surrounding villages throw up plain clay tile, concrete interlocking tile, natural and fibre cement slate, and the occasional flat or low-pitch roof on an extension. Each takes a different fixing: hooks under interlocking tile, flashed brackets on plain tile and slate, and ballasted or bracket-fixed frames on flat roofs where the covering must not be penetrated.

East-west split arrays are frequently the better choice on Hampshire semis and terraces. They produce a lower peak than a single south slope but spread generation across morning and evening, which matches when most households actually use electricity, and with a battery in the system that shape is often worth more than a higher midday peak.

Where a property is in a conservation area or affects a listed building, we will tell you plainly at survey what is likely to be acceptable and what is not, rather than quoting for an array that will not get through.

Solar without storage sends surplus daytime generation to the grid; solar with storage keeps it for the evening peak, which is when a typical household spends most on electricity. We fit new battery systems and retrofit storage to existing solar, so a system installed by somebody else can still be brought up to date.

If you drive an electric car, the two jobs belong together. We are OZEV authorised for EV charger installation and fit Fox, Zappi, Ohme and Wallbox units, so charging can be scheduled to run on solar surplus or on a cheap overnight tariff and the load can be managed alongside the rest of the house.

Energy monitoring ties it together: seeing what the house generates, stores and consumes is what makes behaviour change stick, and it is what tells you whether a further battery module is worth buying.

Domestic work is usually a single-day installation on a pitched roof, with the array sized around household consumption and a battery to cover the evening. Paperwork, certification and handover are all completed the same week.

Commercial installations - workshops, offices, farm and light industrial buildings - are sized around a daytime load profile instead, which often makes them the stronger case: businesses tend to consume most of what they generate as they generate it. Larger roofs bring three-phase supplies, half-hourly metering data, and access and scaffold planning around trading hours, all of which we handle as part of the quote.

In both cases the same person surveys, designs, installs and certifies the work, and the same 2-year workmanship guarantee applies on top of the manufacturer warranties.