Solar Together

By using the electricity generated by your solar PV system in your home, you will significantly reduce the amount of electricity that you would normally purchase from your energy supplier. The current average market price for one kWh of electricity is 22.36p.

For example, if you have an annual electricity usage of 2,000 kWh, and you cover 1,000 kWh of that with the energy from your solar PV system, you would essentially be saving an annual amount of £224. This means that the biggest benefit of the solar PV system comes from decreasing the amount of electricity you import from the grid and using your own generated electricity instead.

Yes, Solar Together offers solar PV in combination with battery storage or battery storage on its own, in case you already have solar panels on your roof.

Solar PV panels are known as a “permitted development”. This means that for most domestic properties, planning permission is not required. If you are only having a battery installed, you will not need any planning permission.

However, if you live in a conservation area you may need planning permission.

If you want to install panels on a listed building then you will require listed building consent. If you want to install on a building that is not listed but within the grounds of a listed building then you will need planning permission.

If you think you need planning permission or listed building consent, please arrange this with your council as quickly as possible. It may take several weeks or months for the permission to be approved. 

Please note that an estimate is sufficient for registration, as the exact number of panels that can fit your roof will be determined during the roof survey. If you do not know your roof size during the registration, we can provide you with a regional average number of panels to use.

However, here are some tips to help you calculate your roof size:

• Try to count the number of roof tiles. The average roof tile is 30 cm by 20 cm, or 12 inches by 8 inches;
• Check how many times your front or back door – which has a typical width of 1 meter – fits within your walls;
• Use a satellite tool (e.g. Google Earth) that allows you to measure your roof by using the ruler.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to install solar PV panels on a roof dormer through Solar Together.

This is because the roof construction of dormers is not strong enough to hold a solar PV system. It is possible to install solar PV panels around your roof dormers. However, they may cast shade which could warrant the need for optimisers.

The winning installer will schedule the survey with you after you have accepted your personal recommendation and paid the £150 deposit. You will then receive a welcome email from the installer.

The survey often starts as a remote desk-based analysis and once this has been completed by the installer, you will be contacted to discuss the results and schedule a date for an on-site roof survey.

Please note that this could take six to ten weeks from the last day of acceptances.

For a solar PV system some components will likely be placed inside the house, such as an inverter and the in-home monitoring. Additionally, cabling will be installed from your solar PV panels to your inverter and electricity meter.

The installer will suggest a cable route that you have to agree with before they can proceed with the installation. Most of the time, the inverter is placed in your loft or in a remote area and connected directly to your power supply. This means that there will be two cables: one going from the panels to the inverter and the other from the inverter to your power supply.

If you can’t find the answer you need in our FAQs please contact the Solar Together help desk.

You can find the link to our contact form and our phone number if you click ‘Helpdesk’ at top of this page and then ‘Contact Us’ from the dropdown.

We ask you to pay a £150 deposit after you accept your personal recommendation to cover the costs of the roof survey undertaken by the winning installer.

After you have accepted your personal recommendation and have paid the £150 deposit, you will receive a welcome email from the installer.

For battery storage we use this as a way to recognise if someone is truly interested in accepting the offer. This also covers the survey of the property if needed.

For solar PV systems the survey often starts as a remote desk-based analysis and once this has been completed by the installer, you will be contacted to discuss the results and schedule a date for an on-site roof survey.

With thousands of registrants, it would significantly increase the operational costs for the installer if they would have to survey every registrant. This would affect the overall competitiveness of the offer they can make. Through our reversed order, the installer only needs to survey the properties of committed interested registrants.

Please note that this could take six to ten weeks from the last day of acceptances.