We'd rather show you the workings than tell you we're trustworthy.

Broadly, £5,500 to £11,000 for panels only depending on size, and roughly £3,500 to £5,000 on top for a battery. Every price we quote includes VAT (currently 0%), scaffolding and paperwork. The calculator uses our real price bands, so the payback figure it gives you isn't built on a number we invented.

Usually eight to twelve years. Faster if you're home during the day, have a big bill, a south-facing roof and a battery. Slower if you're out all week on an east-west roof. The calculator shows you your year, and shows you the version with no energy price inflation too, which is the pessimistic case.

Yes, finance is available. We'll show you the monthly cost next to your estimated monthly saving so you can see whether it's roughly cost-neutral or not — because sometimes it isn't, and you should know that before you sign.

Our calculator assumes 6p per kWh, which is the best rate currently open to everyone regardless of who installed your system. Better rates exist — some suppliers pay 15p to 25p — but they're tied to specific tariffs and conditions, so we won't build your payback on one you might not qualify for.

It runs to 31 March 2027 and then goes back to 5%. On a £9,000 system that's about £450. Worth knowing if you were planning to do this anyway, not a reason to rush a decision you haven't made.

Most pitched roofs in reasonable condition are. What matters is direction, shading and the state of the tiles. Due south is best, east-west is genuinely fine, and due north usually isn't worth it. If your roof needs work in the next five years, do the roof first — we'll tell you that rather than fit panels you'll have to pay to take off again.

For the vast majority of homes, no — it falls under permitted development. Exceptions are listed buildings, conservation areas and flat roofs where panels would sit more than 200mm proud. We check this before we design anything, and we tell you before you've spent a penny.

Both are possible. Flat roofs use a ballasted or bolted frame at an angle, which changes the layout and sometimes the planning position. Garages and outbuildings work if the structure takes the load and the cable run back to the house is sensible. We'll look at it on the roof check.

Fitted properly, no. Anchors replace tiles rather than drilling through them, and the weatherproofing is covered by our workmanship guarantee. If your roof is already near the end of its life we'd rather you replaced it first.

By default everything shuts off — that's a safety requirement, so nobody working on the network gets a shock from your roof. If you want power during an outage you need a battery with a backup circuit fitted, which is an extra piece of kit and extra cost. We'll price it if you want it, and tell you honestly how often you'd use it.

Barely. Rain does most of the work in the UK. A clean once a year is plenty, and many people never bother. The inverter is the part most likely to need attention at some point, usually around year twelve.

There's no commission structure here that rewards it. Oversizing looks great on a brochure and terrible on a payback calculation, because the extra generation mostly gets exported at 6p instead of saving you 26p. Our calculator caps the suggested size against your actual consumption for exactly that reason.

Yes, provided you have a hybrid inverter. That's why we fit one as standard even when you're not buying storage on day one. With a string inverter you'd be replacing the inverter as well, which is a few hundred pounds of false economy.

Panels typically carry a 25 year performance warranty and a 12 to 25 year product warranty depending on brand. Inverters are usually 10 to 12 years, batteries 10 years or a set throughput. Our workmanship guarantee is insurance-backed, so it stands even if we don't. Ask any installer which of their warranties are insurance-backed — the answer is revealing.

Two reasons. It's a standard your installer has to be audited against, and without an MCS certificate you can't register for an export tariff — so you'd be giving your surplus electricity to your supplier for free. If a quote is unusually cheap, check this first.

The system stays with the house and the warranties transfer to the new owner. It generally helps the sale — an EPC bump and a lower running cost are easy things for a buyer to understand. Just remember to hand over the MCS certificate and monitoring login with the keys.

Usually four to six weeks from design to switched on, and most of that is the DNO application and scheduling scaffolding. The install itself is one or two days.

No. The roof check is done on a call with satellite imagery. If we need to physically look at something we'll arrange it with you first, and it's still free.

Send it to us. If it's genuinely like-for-like from another MCS certified installer, we'll match it. If it isn't, we'll show you exactly where the difference is and you can decide whether that difference matters to you.

We'll tell you, on the first call, and that will be the end of it. A north-facing roof, heavy shade or a small bill can all make it not worth doing. We'd rather lose the job than fit something you resent in year four.