The best time to install solar and storage isn’t after the project is finished — it’s while the walls are still open. Ted was renovating his Cairneyhill home and came to us early, which meant we could specify the consumer unit, isolator runs, cable routes, and DNO paperwork around the system from day one, rather than retrofitting around them later.
What we installed
- 10 kWp solar array — 22 panels, pitched to make the best of the roof orientation
- 10 kW hybrid inverter — solar, battery, and grid handling in one unit
- 10 kWh battery storage — paired with the hybrid inverter for daytime charging from solar and evening discharge
- Consumer unit and first-fix wiring specified with the future system already in mind — no ugly add-ons, no surface-mounted conduit, no compromises
How the numbers fit together
The three figures measure different things. The 10 kWp array is the panels’ peak output. The 10 kW inverter is the most power the system can deliver to the house at any moment. The 10 kWh battery is how much energy it can store — roughly an evening and night of typical household use.
What matters for the battery is how fast it can charge and discharge, and that is set by the battery and inverter together, not by the headline capacity. We matched the array, inverter and battery to Ted’s roof, his expected consumption and the supply, and handled the DNO application for the inverter size as part of the job.
Why renovate-and-install together
Doing it in one go means:
- One round of electrical sign-off, not two
- No chased walls later to pull battery cable through finished plaster
- Consumer unit sized correctly first time — not upgraded a year later when the system goes in
- Cleaner install, lower total cost, faster commissioning
Outcome
The system is sized to cover the vast majority of the household’s consumption through the lighter half of the year, and to meaningfully offset grid import through winter. Once Ted’s back in the finished house, he starts generating, storing, and using his own power from day one — no second-phase disruption, no patch-up job.