MrTWales

Thanks - love the diagram. Did they say how much space you need between panels? Can you tell me how big your roof is and what overall (theoretical) power the panels would amount to? You have 12 panels there which is what I was coming up with, but I'm just assuming that the gap doesn't have to be huge and I was looking at 169cm x 105cm panels. In theory, 12 of those panels is 4.5kw/h (though less for the angles etc).

Just measured and, allowing for 30cm from the roof edges (not the wall edges as the roof extends a bit), I've got 6 meters by 5 meters. It seems like I could have 4 long rows of 3 panels potentially, which would be a decent size. No doubt there are a million reason why it won't happen though ... SIGH.

I hope you are right about the ridgeline point. I fired off an email to the council planning permission email yesterday but I'm not sure I'll get a reply. Not sure why you need 30cm from the edge. There must be a reason though. I guess it's not that much but it would be a miracle if you could use all the space with limited panel size options as you say. Is the east/west thing as they want to fit rows along the long edge to minimise the gaps? In my case I'd want to line the panels along the longer edge so hopefully that helps, but I'm not finding it easy to even get quotes at the moment.

It's not obvious to be how it works to be honest, but Google Maps shows me that some panels are certainly very close to the edge!

I can understand not wanting to go close to a top or side edge if the risk of the wind weakinging the roof is greater there, but I got the impression that they wouldn't want to go near the top of the dormers dormers. Not sure why that would be to be honest.

That is very interesting. I've looked into this as well and the current rules really annoy me. We are trying to do the right thing here so why are the rules making it awkward? For example, surely if the build with the panels on still meets the permitted developement rules in terms of height then you shouldn't need permission? This is the case with me as the overall height would still be below the 2.5m limit. What worries me is the text I saw that said "They should not be installed above the ridgeline" as this would always happen. It makes no sense imo for a flat roof but I think this is why the guy on the phone I spoke to believed that you essentially always need planning permission. Maybe the rules will change at some point though as it's nonsensical. The angle is intersting too as I don't think the efficiency loss is all that great if the angle is fairly flat (say 10 degrees or even less) and the upside is that you don't need as much seperation (as there is less shade) and the potential wind pressure is lower, so it may mean that you can fit more panels. Another thing is that I think there is a rule, unless you get planning permission, that you can't go within 1 metre of the edge of the roof. Not sure why this is, maybe a wind thing, but I'd want to go closer to the edge (esp as the edges can take more weight) so that maybe requires planning permission anyway. It may be that this only means that you can't be within 1 metre of the edge of the property (?), so you'd be OK on an edge that faces your garden. Not sure! My roof structure is pretty strong (I found a picture of a half built structure) but if you have a link to those roof mounts it would be interesting.

Honestly, this is so annoying. Just spoke to someone who said that the main house roof isn't really suitable due to the shape. They don't deal with flat roofs but he said that you always need planning permission (despite the low height) and there are likely issues with weight as the panels have to be weighed down as they can't attach them to the beams without risking leakage etc. Urghhh.

Oh feck. An installer just called and looked up the roof on their system and reckoned that, as you can't go anywhere near the edges, it probably wouldn't be worth installing panels on the front and side roof due to the dormas. Dammit 😞

Thanks. To be honest though, if I get solar then I think I'd like a smart meter as I'd like to know what is going on. I can't get my head around how it works when you have some solar but only enough to cover some things for some of the day. I assume that extra is needed is somehow drawn from the grid without you having to do anything as if by magic.

I had a look around and don't think I need planning permission based on the gov.wales site. Even with the extra height the build would still not hit the max height threshold.

Thanks. You may be right about the SEG stuff as I work from home so would probably use just about everything in the day, and could plan to use excess. One thing that has just occured to me is that I don't have a smart meter. My old distributor (sadly no longer around), Pure Planet, were going to install one but couldn't for some reason. They probably told me to contact the supplier but I never did as I wasn't all that bothered. Whether that's bad for getting solar or not I don't know. Anyway, it's dark but I took a few pictures!

That looks great! I've never seen that angle of panels before.

Thanks. That outside box has the electricity metre in and I guess is just where the grid is connected. It's just a white electric box to me! I guess I'm lucky in that the panels would go lenthways so the gaps wouldn't restrict quite as much as the other way around. I was thinking that you could fit three rows maybe. I did look at a chart that showed the optimal angle and direction and it looked like there wasn't all that much difference between something like 10 degrees and 30 degrees in terms of effectiveness. That may not be correct though, hopeful thinking maybe. I'm in Wales and as far as I can see the only restriction that could potentially apply is that I couldn't go within 1 metre of an external boundary. If it's viable than I'll need to look into SEG and maybe other tarrifs if any vary with peak/off peak times. This is something I'm putting off until I know whether it's a go'er 😉 I guess there is also the option of some on the roof and some on the room.

This is my second post - the first was very useful, larely in terms of how to think about a battery. My conclusion is that it's not worth it for me, at least not for now. I've been considering whether it's worth forgetting the main roof, possibly just for now, and having panels installed on an outbuilding. This is something like 20 feet by 15, fibreglass roof, sloped slightly (for drainage) towards south-west. It was built a couple of years ago to building regs standard I believe but it was not covered by builing regs as it's a permitted developement. They dug down a bit, so the heighest point of the roof from the outside is just over 2 metres so I don't think there are issues with it suddenly being too high and needing planning permission if panels are added (assuming the panels aren't too sloped, which I don't want as it would look silly). There is an electric feed there from the outside box where the electric comes into the house and it has it's own fuse switch inside this box. In the room itself there is a small customer unit. It seems like a way easier install than having to get on the roof and I'm thinking that if I then wanted some on the roof at some point then it would always be something close to a seperate install anyway given they'd need scaffolding etc. Am I correct in thinking that there would be forms etc needed, but the installer would / should sort that, and essentially the panels would to feed to a small-ish inverter (which I guess would have to be in the outside room) and then from there into the house vis this outside box? I assume that the supplier would need to be told (current Shelll as I got switched from a green supplier and I've not yet looked into switching)? It worries me a bit that this outside box (I don't know the technical name!) is kind of crammed inside as is due to the extra fuse for the outside room. Anyway, any comments would be great!

Thanks - to be honest, my main take away from this thread is the battery issue. I was kind of assuming that you'd get a battery unless there was a good reason not to (eg nowhere to put it) but now I'm thinking that it's more a case of needing a good reason to get one. Plus, I suppose it would be possible to add one at a later date? I wonder if any part of an install can make it easier in the future to do this. I'm not up on the technology, but what little common sense I have tells me that with so much focus on electric cars, as well as solar, we may see improvements in decent sized batteries in the next 5/10 years. We have a very efficient car (78 mpg is my personal best for a trip!), and don't do much milage, but our next car will 100% be electric and I can see that if you have this then it's going to use anything that you get from the panels that you don't use in the day. Geeze, 15kWh of power can get you that far with a small EV? That's nuts. I'd never have guessed that.

Thanks. We don't have a smart meter (so I guess I can't check use by time) but a lot of cooking goes on in the evenings, and there are four people in the house. Interesting thoughts though. I kind of thought that most instals now have a battery but it's more of a consideration than I thought (and that's before the space issue).

Thanks, looks like you are a little further down the path than me! Interesting points about the battery - I do work from home so could put the dishwashers, clothes washer etc on during the day, and the hot water tank is pretty new (it's like a giant thermos flask) with an emersion heater option so if that was linked somehow it would also help. Thinking about it, the oven is electric and we have two electric hobs so could use those rather than the gas hobs in the day. Nevertheless, I like the thought of at least some storage for the evenings. Whether or not it's worth it though, I'm not sure. I had a look on Gloogle Maps and got my ruler out last night, and I thought that maybe 11/12 panels or so could fit on the two south-ish facing roofs. That maybe optimistic but it's funny how some installs go close to the edges and some don't, and not all panels seem the same size (maybe newer ones can be smaller?). Some are just a rectangle, but others have some panels in landscape and some in portrait to use the space. I have the thought that so many costs are fixed so the more panels fitted the better, and any extra costs are probably worth it unless you just don't use much energy. Maybe that doesn't apply to panels on my garden flat roof though, not sure. It's not that far to the electricity meter so maybe that helps. I really should work out how much electricity we tend to use as you have, but I'm guessing that the 10kWh/day figure won't be far off. Maybe it's a bit more as there is basically always someone in.

Thanks a lot. I guess I should get some quotes but looking around it's not always that easy and I want to know exactly what to ask and be ready to just go if I am happy with a quote, rather than waste anyone's time. There isn't any shading on the south east front facing roof and hardly any on the south west (though the chimney may not help, or that of my neighbour). I just wonder how many they could cram up there, and whether the flat roof would help a lot too. It's such a shame that batteries are so freaking big and expensive right now!

Hi all, appologies if this kind of post isn't allowed but I've been pondering whether it's worth (*) getting solar panels installed and possibly a battery. The house was built in 2003 so the roof is in good condition. (*) I know it's probably going to amount to a net cost over a reasonable number of years, but I'm OK with this for the greater good if it's not too dramatic a cost. If I'm managed to do it correctly an image of my roof is attached. This is from Google Maps, with north upwards (so the front roof faces south east and the side roof faces south west). It would all be a decent size perhaps but for the dorma things taking some space (and I guess you can't have a panel on each facing south west?). I added a measurement line in white. In addition, I have a recent garden build that's about 20 feet by 15 feet (it's a games room). This is a flat roof, sloped slightly (for drainage) south west, with a fibreglass top. The wooden beams were solid and it was a proper build, even though it was a permitted development (so building regs didn't apply). It's only about 2m high so the height restrictions shouldn't be an issue. It does have an electric feed and it's own fuse box, but I've no idea what it would mean to electricity from there to the house. Every time I try Googling I confuse the hell out of myself! The other issue is where to store a batter as I don't have a shed. If it wasn't huge then maybe it could go in the games room I guess, but I think the attic would be too hot even with fans etc? Anyway, and comments about the potential would be appreciated!