Solar panels and home batteries in East Yorkshire.

How a solar enquiry works

You don't need to know what you want before you send the form, because that's what the survey is for.

If you'd rather talk it through before filling anything in, ring me first.

Have a recent electricity bill to hand when the call comes, or the yearly usage figure from your supplier's app. A photo of the meter and the consumer unit helps too, and it's worth knowing roughly how old the roof covering is.

Panels and batteries

Panels make electricity while it's light, and the house uses what it can as it's made. The rest goes out to the grid unless something stores it. Whether your roof suits panels comes down mostly to shade and the state of the tiles or slates.

A battery does the storing. It holds the daytime surplus for the evening, when most homes use the most power.

A battery can also work with no panels at all. It charges from the grid while the rate is low and runs the house while it's high. That only adds up on a time-of-use tariff, so whether a home battery without panels is worth it depends on when the house uses its power.

Farm sheds and business roofs are a separate case. Most of their power is used in daylight, and panels there come under a different planning class from a house.

An electric car often comes into the conversation too. Systems that combine solar with car charging go through Alectrona, but a standalone EV charger is a job I take on myself.

Do solar panels need planning permission?

On most houses in England, no. Panels on a house roof are permitted development, so there is no planning application to make, as long as they sit close to the slope of the roof and stay below its highest point (a chimney doesn't count).

Listed buildings are the main exception. Panels on a listed house, or on a building in its grounds, are not permitted development, and alterations that affect the character of a listed building need listed building consent as well.

Inside a conservation area, roof panels are normally fine, but panels can't go on a wall or balcony facing a road without permission. On a flat roof in a conservation area, the council has to be asked first whether it wants to approve the details.

Panels on a frame in the garden come under a separate class, with limits on height and size and extra checks near a road or the boundary in protected areas.

A council can also take these rights away in particular streets with an Article 4 direction. If the house is in a conservation area, ask the council's planning team before the survey. For most of the coast that's East Riding of Yorkshire Council, and for Scarborough and Filey it's North Yorkshire Council. In Hull it's Hull City Council.

VAT on solar panels and batteries

Solar panels installed in a home are zero-rated for VAT under HMRC's relief for energy-saving materials. Batteries are covered as well, including one added to existing panels or fitted on its own.

The zero rate runs to 31 March 2027, and then the reduced rate comes back. If the work could run past that date, check which rate the quote assumes.

The relief applies to an installation. Panels or a battery bought to fit yourself, or from a retailer who doesn't fit them, carry VAT at the standard rate, and so does work on business premises.

Solar near the sea

Salt in the air gets into anything fixed outside, and a solar system puts electrical parts on the outside of a building, such as isolators and junction boxes.

On the coast those parts need enclosures and cable glands made for salt air. A corroded isolator stops being a reliable way to switch the system off.

Panels can be tested for salt-mist corrosion to IEC 61701, the standard for modules that spend their lives in damp, salty air. For a roof that faces the sea, ask whether the panels being quoted have been.

Wind is the other coastal load. A roof that takes the full force of onshore gusts needs to be sound before anything is fixed to it, which is one more reason to look at the roof covering first.

Paperwork to keep afterwards

Once a system is in, its circuit is tested and certified to BS 7671, and that certificate belongs with the house's other electrical paperwork. Keep the system's handover pack with it, because a buyer's surveyor may ask to see both.

Getting the house's wiring ready

Panels and batteries join the house's existing wiring, so that wiring needs to be sound. If it hasn't been inspected for some years, an electrical condition report beforehand shows whether anything needs putting right first.

If the report turns up something that needs doing, I'll say so and explain why. I won't push work the house doesn't need.

The consumer unit is where the new supply joins the house, and an older board may need a consumer unit change before anything else is connected. Like the condition report, that's my own job, priced separately from the solar system.