How to complete your solar pre-install checks

To ensure that there are no nasty surprises on the day when we arrive, we need some information from you. Once we have this, we can start preparing for your installation.

So, what do you need to do?

As part of your pre-install preparation, you will need to provide the following photos:

• A photo of the front & back of your house (including your driveway and side access photos, if applicable)

• A photo of your electricity meter, incoming supply, and the surrounding area

• A photo of your consumer unit / fuse box (a photo of each if you have multiple)

• Preferred solar inverter location

• Preferred battery location (if applicable)

• Preferred EV charger location (if applicable)

• Your internet router location & spare ethernet ports

• Your MPAN number (this can be found on your electricity bill)

Simply email these to [email protected], and then you're done. We'll take over from here!

We may ask you to resubmit any photos if they aren't clear or what we are looking for. If there's any other information that we need from you, someone from our team will be in touch to let you know exactly what's needed.

How to make sure your pictures have what we need in them

Front, back & sides of your house

For the picture of the front of your house, we need to see the whole of your house as well as your driveway and property access. This helps us plan for your install and ensure it goes as smoothly as possible.

This photo is great because we can see:

• How the front of your property can be accessed

• Any potential obstacles for running the cables, locating equipment or scaffolding

• Any access restrictions when moving products, tooling or equipment around the property

On the other hand, the photo below is not great as we can’t see what the access is like!

The meter and surrounding area

We need this to check that your meter and electrical supply is in good working condition and see what other electrical equipment may already be installed. This may be inside the meter box outside your home or could be located somewhere inside your property.

A good example of a picture of the meter and surrounding area picture is here. It clearly illustrates:

• Meter cabinet with the door open

• Cables going in and out of the meter

• The fuse in the meter box

This one below isn’t such a good photo. It's really not helpful as it is cluttered, and we can't see the meter or the incoming supply.

Consumer unit / fuse box

This helps us confirm that your consumer unit is in good working condition and is suitable for us to connect additional equipment to. Your photo needs to show:

• The open inspection panel so the switches inside are visible

Equipment location

We need to make sure the equipment can be installed in the locations you'd like them to be. We need to see the area for each of the items you're having installed (solar inverter, battery, EV charger) to make sure there is enough room, and we can easily access the area.

Manufacturers recommend batteries are installed outdoors or in garages. We wouldn't recommend putting batteries in loft spaces and in many cases, we wouldn't be able to do this due to the weight and size of the batteries. Not to mention the potential structural impact with a heavy battery in the roof space.

Solar inverters can be located either inside or outside of your property, and we'd recommend installing this somewhere that's easily accessible so that you can check in on it from time to time. One of the more common installation locations is within an accessible loft space.

For EV chargers, the location is generally up to you, however our installation does not include groundworks so please consider the route from the electric meter to the charge point location. When using your charger, the charging cable itself cannot cross footpaths of other public areas. Chargers are generally installed on the front or the side of a property, next to your parking location, for ease of use.

Please take photos showing the location and surrounding area, along with any access restrictions to the area. To help us understand what you'd like where, labelling images with the name of equipment is super helpful, if possible, but a quick explanation in the email will be sufficient if you can't do this.

A photo of your router with the spare ports also helps us to understand your equipment requirements. Your new equipment may need to be hardwired to your internet router to get the best network connection possible, to ensure everything can be linked up to your apps for monitoring and reporting.

As much detail as you can provide will always be a big help. Multiple photos are greatly encouraged!

How to find my MPAN number

Your MPAN number is a unique 13-digit number that allows electricity providers to quickly and easily identify your meter. We need this to ensure we can facilitate any additional work that might need to be done to ensure a safe and compliant install. Where required, we work with your Distribution Network Operator to address any issues the installation may cause and also to let them know a job has been completed.

There are typically three places where you can find your MPAN number:

1. Electricity bill

2. By contacting your electricity provider (Such as British Gas)

3. Or, by contacting your local electricity distributor (Such as Northern Power)

If you’re looking for you MPAN number on your electricity bill, it will look like this:

For our preparation we will only need the last 13 digits that are circled above. Just a word of warning, sometimes the MPAN number is referred to as a supply number, but it will always constitute of 13 digits.

Can’t find my bill?

Don’t worry! If you cannot find your electricity bill you can call your provider and ask them for your MPAN number.

Who is my provider?

If you are unsure about who your provider is, then you can visit the Energy Networks Association website and enter your postcode. Once you do that, you will be given your provider’s name and phone number. Below you can see an image of a rough outline of electricity providers across the UK.

And that's it!

Hopefully you have found this guide helpful! Once your images are submitted, we will review your photos and let you know once we've progressed your order to the next step, or if we need anything else from you.

Keep an eye on your emails for updates and your confirmed installation date!

If you need any further help, please submit a ticket for us to get back to you or ring us on 0113 815 5366.