Solar PV in Hampshire: what a realistic system looks like

Orientation matters less than people think

South is best, but an east-west split is not the disaster it is often made out to be. An east-west array generates less in total but spreads generation across the morning and evening, which frequently matches household consumption better than a single midday peak — and self-consumed electricity is worth several times more than exported electricity.

Shading is the variable that genuinely hurts. A single chimney or tree across the array at the wrong time of day can cost more than a poor orientation.

Sizing: match the array to the load, not to the roof

The temptation is to fill the roof. The better question is what you will actually use. Adding a heat pump or an EV charger changes the answer substantially, because both convert surplus generation into something worth far more than the export rate.

• No heat pump, no EV, no battery — a smaller array sized to your daytime base load usually pays back fastest.
• With an EV charger — a solar-diverting charger such as a myenergi zappi turns surplus into displaced petrol, the highest-value use there is.
• With a heat pump — winter generation is low, but shoulder-season surplus offsets a meaningful share of the load.
• With a battery — shifts summer surplus into the evening; the economics depend heavily on your tariff.

The electrical half of the job

Solar PV is an electrical installation. It needs the consumer unit assessed, protective devices specified correctly, isolation and labelling done properly, and certification issued. Many solar companies subcontract this.

We do not. BBI Heating is an NICEIC Approved Contractor, and solar PV electrical work is listed among the electrical services we carry out. The same firm quoting the system does the electrical work and certifies it.

Solar PV or solar thermal?

Different jobs. Solar thermal heats water very efficiently and does nothing else. Solar PV generates electricity you can put anywhere. We install both, and can also fit solar electric immersion boosters that use surplus PV to heat your hot water cylinder.

One point of transparency: we are not MCS certified for solar thermal installations. We say so on our solar thermal page and we say it here.

Questions we get asked