Solar PV

Electricity from the Sun

Installing a Solar PV system will not only reduce your carbon footprint but can also reduce your energy bills by a significant amount now and in the future.

With the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT), a solar electric system is also a great financial investment whether it's for your home, or small business, or farm-scale solar power station. To get the most from your system and the benefits of he FIT, it is important to understand how the system will work on your site.

What is solar electricity?

Solar PV (photovoltaic) panels generate electricity from sunlight. This electricity is used as a supplement to your mains electricity, to power all your normal electrical appliances. They are a simple way to turn a roof or field into a green power station.

The benefits of this are:

You have already paid for all the electricity your PV system will ever generate.

You are then paid more than this per unit in FIT payments – making you money.

Every unit of solar energy you use is a unit of expensive grid energy you don’t use – meaning big savings.

You also get paid a small amount for anything you export.

The solar panels are fitted on your roof and convert the Sun’s energy into DC electricity.

A machine called an inverter then converts the the DC electricity into AC electricity that can be used on the premises.

We install a meter that records the amount of energy produced by the panels.

This energy flows into your fuseboard and is then distributed around your home’s circuits.

If you are using electrical appliances at the time, you will be using the solar electricity generated by your panels.

If there is any extra electricity it flows back, via your fuseboard, into the national grid to be used elsewhere.

How does a PV system work?

What happens during installation?

Installation is a simple process. On a residential home, a full installation takes no longer than 2-3 days and for larger installations it varies depending on the size and complexity of the individual project. We install systems ranging from small residential homes to Megawatt-scale projects.

The panels first need to be fixed onto the roof (or to the ground in an alternative situation) using a steel bracket and aluminium framing system designed for the kind of roof you have. They are also connected together via the wires on the back at this point.

At the same time, an electrician can run a cable from your fusebox up to where the panels are positioned and install the inverter. These components are all then connected, tested and commissioned.

Requirements

You are only really limited by the available space you have on which to site a system. A small domestic system could be as little as 10m2, whilst a commercial one might be 100m2 plus.

To get the best out of any system there are a few things to take into consideration:

Roofs with southerly aspects are best suited to Solar PV. South west and south east are fine – east and west will also work but will get less sunshine and therefore produce less energy.

A pitch between 30 and 40 degrees is optimum.

Shade is a problem. Look out for trees, buildings, chimneys etc. that could block the sun from your panels.

Maintenance requirements for Solar PV are quite minimal but planned preventative maintenance and system monitoring will make a difference to the long-term performance of your installation. We provide maintenance services to clients ranging from homeowners to large commercial enterprises.

Next steps

The next stage of getting a solar installation is to have a survey done (this is free and no obligation) so that we can provide an accurate quote for the work. We also frequently work from architects' plans for renovations and new build projects.

We’ll then send a fully itemised quote and leave the decision in your hands.

how solar works