Find a Solar Panel Installer you can trust in Lewisham.

Just like other major house improvement projects, some specific requirements must be met to allow for the installation of solar panels on commercial buildings. The main reason why these standards and regulations were established is to minimize the risk of the solar system becoming an issue or potential hazard in the unforeseeable future. So if you’re thinking about buying and fitting new solar panels, you’ll probably want to know whether or not you’ll require to submit a planning permission application for approval before you can proceed.

Fortunately, the installation of solar panels on commercial buildings may be “permitted development which mean you won’t have to apply to the Local Planning Authority for planning permission. There are, however, some important limits and conditions which must be put into consideration in order to benefit from these permitted development rights. Some of the limitations include:

• The solar panels must be installed on a wall or pitched roof that should project at a maximum of 200mm from the surface of the wall or roof slope.
• Equipment placed on a roof should not be within one metre of the external edge of that roof.
• Equipment mounted on a wall must not be within one metre of a junction of that wall with another wall or with the roof of the building
• If the equipment is on the roof of a building, the capacity for generation of electricity across the entire site must not be more than 1 megawatt.
• In the situation whereby the panels are installed on a flat roof, the highest part of the equipment should not exceed one metre above the highest part of the roof.

In general, obtaining a planning permission is very important and as such, you must discuss your position with your chosen installation company before you proceed.

If you’re thinking about installing a solar thermal system in your house, it’s always important to put into consideration numerous factors before you proceed. While some solar thermal systems are suitable for use at home, there are also some that are suitable for businesses or organizations which normally requires a big amount of hot water like hotels, restaurants, schools, hospitals and many more. You’ll also find some types available in the market that are suitable for communities to satisfy communal hot water demands.

It should, however, be noted that solar thermal systems do not have the capacity to produce all the hot water demand of a house. In the UK, an average household will need an annual water heating of between 3000kWh to 5000kWh. Whereas, a solar thermal system is only able to meet about 40 percent to 60 percent of this demand.

With that in mind, it’s also worth noting that during the summer months when the solar radiation is at its peak and hot water demand is relatively lower when compared to other seasons, a solar thermal system may be able to provide all of your household’s hot water needs. This implies that during this period you may not find the need to operate your boiler at all. However, during winter or colder months, when you have a higher hot water demands in contrary to a lower solar radiation, a solar thermal system will only be able to take care of about 20 percent of your household’s hot water needs. And that ultimately implies that during this period, you’ll need to rely more on a alternative or backup source of heat like gas, coal, electricity, oil or LPG.

There are a few trusted companies in the UK that make solar panels. While there are other solar thermal panels out there that are made by Chinese and American companies, we’ll focus on the brands with a longstanding presence in the UK since these are the panels MCS-registered solar companies are likely to recommend to you.

Viessmann, Worcester Bosch, Solar UK and Dimplex make some of the best solar thermal panels in the UK. Dimplex and Viessmann offer both flat plate and evacuated tube solar panels, while Solar UK only offers evacuated tubes. Worcester Bosch’s Greenskies range are all flat plate collectors. Viessmann’s panels come with a 5-year warranty, while Worcester Bosch and Dimplex offer extensive 10-year warranties. However, Solar UK offer a comprehensive 25-year warranty and guarantee that the panels will deliver the same level of performance for 25 years!

We’d recommend choosing evacuated tube solar thermal panels because they are the most efficient. While there won’t be much difference between evacuated tubes and flat plates in the summer, in the winter evacuated tubes are much better at taking heat from the sun than flat plates. Since our winters are long and cold with few daylight hours, we think it makes sense to go with evacuated tubes. However, if your priority is looks over maximising efficiency, you might want to choose flat plate collectors since they sit flat on the roof and look more like solar PV panels, whereas the evacuated tubes will stick out.

Solar thermal panels are panels that can be used to heat your hot water. The collectors, which are either evacuated tube panels or flat plate collectors, harness heat from the sun and transfer it to a heat transfer liquid that heats up water that is stored in a hot water cylinder. You can use a boiler or immersion heater as a back-up in the winter or to heat the water up further to reach the right temperature.

Evacuated tube panels involve a bank of glass tubes mounted on the roof tiles, and while they’re usually more expensive, they’re more efficient than flat plate collectors. They’re exactly what they sound like – flat panels that can be fixed onto your roof tiles or integrated into the roof.

Having a solar thermal system will reduce your energy bills since heat from the sun is free, so you won’t have to rely on your traditional heating as much. You’ll also be doing your bit for the environment – if you have a natural gas heating system, you could save up to 295kg of CO2 every year.

Another benefit to solar thermal panels is that you might be eligible for payments through the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which is a Government scheme to encourage people to take up renewable heating technologies. As long as you have your system installed by an MCS-registered installer and you meet a few other requirements, you could receive payments of up to £525 per year for seven years. And since the average solar thermal panel system costs £5,500, you could pay off over half of your system just with these payments. That’s not even considering that you could save up to £60 a year on your energy bills if you have a gas system.

After making the very important business decision to go solar, you may also want to know just how long it’ll take to complete the installation process and start generating electricity. After all, generating electricity is the main reason you made the switch to solar system. In this post, we’re going to provide you with in depth details on how long it takes to install solar panels as well as the factors that may affect that time.

The entire process of solar panels installation and getting them approved isn’t an overnight process. You’ll have to wait for periods for each step of the process whereby one must be completed before moving to the next. The time required to complete each step can, however, vary largely depending on your location, the type of solar panels you opt for, the solar company you hire as well as the number of people that’ll be making the installation. Here are the steps to a solar system installation and the estimated time each are expected to take:

• Site assessment. Once you chosen your solar company, the first step would be to have a solar professional from the company to visit the site to examine the roof and other features so as to make sure that they’re able to support a solar system. From the initial contact to scheduling the site visit, this step can take up to 1 to 2 weeks
• Local permitting. This involves getting the right permits from your local authorities. This can take up to 3 to 6 or more weeks.
• Solar system design. This may take up to a week or two depending on whether or not you need design approval and also where the parts are coming from
• Installation. This step can take a week or two depending on the size af your solar panel and roof.
• Inspection. This step can take up to a week depending on where you reside and how quickly the inspector can visit.
• Utility connection. Depending on your utility company, this step can take up to 2 weeks.

If your solar panels are mounted on your roof and you require a ladder to reach them we would always recommend you get a professional to do the work for your own safety.