Solar Panel Potential

NedS

As others have said, lots of potential for solar there, on large East, West and South facing aspects. No reason to discount this property that I can see if solar is important to you. The only thing I would check is how much shading there is from surrounding trees. If viewing on a sunny day, have a look at any shading at the rear and sides of the property, or potential for shading when the sun is lower in the sky as there do seem to be trees to the South and S/E.

As the project/roof is slightly more complex than your average "slap 8 panels on a south facing roof", I would give careful consideration when choosing an installer that is able to work with you to achieve your aims and to maximise the potential of that great roof, should you decide to purchase this property.

Reed_Richards

Surely when you buy a house the vendor has to show you an up-to-date EPC?

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82067593#Comment_82067593

Yes, any property for sale will be required to have an EPC. You can search for it online knowing the postcode. That said, my personal view is that they are pretty useless and often wildly inaccurate so their usefulness may vary.

We recently had an EPC done for another property, and they gave a poor rating (D) citing below average lighting efficiency as there were still a couple of old incandescent light bulbs in use is some side lights that never got switched on (hence the bulbs hadn't ever been replaced), and no smart meter (wrong) as they obviously missed the IHD in the kitchen and failed to open the meter box right next to the front door to look. Being "fully double glazed" also apparently scored as poor. From recent gas bills for last winter, I can see the property has a heat loss of around 3.5kW which is pretty good for the size of the property (3-bad bungalow with large conservatory)

Screwdriva

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82067576#Comment_82067576

Thanks for sharing. I have the following 5 thoughts:

1. You would be wise to panel as much of the surface area of the roof as you can. I would.
2. Most battery inverters have 3-4 string inputs, so you will need a SolarEdge (optimizer) or Enphase (micro inverter) to cover all 5 internal facing roof aspects. The reason for this is rather straightforward - optimization allows for as many panels as you can fit within reason, on as many aspects you have.
3. You can then AC couple a battery like the Tesla Powerwall 3 to a SolarEdge system, given your heat pump ambitions and the likely desire for whole house back up.
4. I estimate you will be able to fit 38 X 515W bifacial panels on the concealed aspects of that roof. Expect this to cost ~£20K all inclusive (panels, inverter, PW3). This should more than cover all usage and generate strong export earnings.
5. If budget is a concern or if G99 application does not yield the full 11KWh allowance, you could 1) reduce 12 panels, effectively deleting 2 aspects 2) This would allow you to delete SolarEdge system entirely and DC couple 26 X 515W panels directly to the Powerwall 3, which takes 3 string inputs. This will reduce total cost to ~£14K, while still delivering superb generation and export potential.

@NedS is correct when cautioning on the choice of installer. You will need one who has experience with complex roof installations and who is ambitious enough to deliver on either option above. Most will try to convince you to travel the path of least resistance (for them).

I realize some of this may be a bit confusing, so feel free to follow up with more questions and some of us will do our best to advise. Hope this helps with your plans!

P.S. If it was my home, given the glass surface area, I would invest in an air to air heat pump that allows for heating, cooling, domestic hot water and underfloor heating. This Samsung was shared recently and is a great example.

algray

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82067593#Comment_82067593

An EPC is valid for ten years, so what he currently has, even if it's for virtually a different property, probably fulfils the need for an EPC.

Thank you all for your input. It's been terrifically enlightening!

sheenas

Look like plenty of option for East and West Panel configurations

Qyburn

I don't know how widely available it is but the installer who surveyed our Shed had an application on his phone that superimposed the predicted sun onto the camera image. So for example he could tell it to simulatsimulate the sun in early March and it drew align across the screen showing where the su would be.

Trees can throw a surprisingly long shadow. I don't know where this house is, but at ours in mid Winter the sun is only 9° above the horizon. Conversely in Summer it's high enough that we get generation from a S (191°) facing roof even at 06:00 when the sun's in the NE.

NedS

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82069915#Comment_82069915

The flip side of this is that in winter we don't see that many sunny days (or at least it feels that way) and there is no shading when it's cloudy (so no additional impact), but you can still get useful generation on a cloudy day (for example, we can still generate enough to power the heat pump on a cloudy day in winter)

But yes, surrounding trees and buildings will cast shadows in winter. We get a shadow from next doors chimney move over our panels during the day in winter, and early morning and late afternoon sun falls behind trees as the sun is so low in the sky at that point shortening the direct irradiation period even further. Normally there is little you can do about this unless the trees are your own and you can reduce the height of them.

Screwdriva

I could be wrong but I think OP shares that the tree line behind the house is to the North (making the patio area South facing)?

If so, there will be no shading and an oversized system should easily cover household usage for 9+ months of the year.

Qyburn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82070133#Comment_82070133

That's your read as well, but the second picture shows some cover to the S or SE. Obviously not shading in the afternoon, and possibly not ever.