Making changes to your roof during a Sunsave Plus subscription

In an ideal world, you’d make any changes to your rooftop before switching to solar, but it doesn’t always work out like that. 

Sunsave Plus means you can get a solar & battery system at no upfront cost and start saving on energy bills straight away, whereas you might not have the cash for a roof upgrade until several years down the line. 

If you choose to change your roof during the Sunsave Plus subscription, it may not interfere with your system at all, and in many cases will just cause a temporary interruption to your solar generation while the roof works are carried out. Just let us know in advance of conducting any roof works and we’ll give you a quote for the removal and then reinstallation of your solar system. 

In some cases, the changes to the roof may be so substantive that it might be tricky for you to continue with solar afterwards, but we will do our best to find a solution for you that works.

Let’s run through a range of different scenarios.

Uninstall and reinstalling your system

If you make any changes to your roof that mean your system needs temporarily removing, you have two options. You can either ask Sunsave for a quote to do the job, or find a different company. 

If you would like Sunsave to remove and re-install the solar system, please let us know in advance and we would be happy to provide a quote.

If you use a different company, we may need to send a roofer and an electrician to witness the process to ensure that your system remains protected under the Sunsave Guarantee, and there may be an additional charge for this.

Roof replacement

If you’re thinking about upgrading your roof felt or tiles, in the vast majority of cases this won’t prevent you from sticking with solar. Your solar panels will need to be removed so that the felt or tiles can be replaced, but once your new rooftop is in place, the panels can be reinstalled. 

If you materially change the type of roof tile, the reinstallation of your solar panels may be a little more complicated than the first time around. For example, if you change basic clay roof tiles for something fancier like Yorkshire Stone, the panels might require different (or additional) mounting equipment and fittings, which may come at an additional charge to you.

It’s very unlikely that your new roof tiles would be completely unsuitable for solar panels.

Vaulted ceilings 

The elegance of a vaulted ceiling can be pretty hard to resist, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to say goodbye to your solar panels. Given that the work happens underneath your roof, your system won’t need to be uninstalled.

However, if your inverter and battery are in your loft, these may need to be moved to an alternative location before your loft is removed, and your DC cabling may need to be rewired. For instance, you might be able to put them in your garage, or in another room in your property.

A vaulted ceiling can make things more difficult if your solar panels ever require maintenance, which is certainly a possibility. If the issue is external and can be solved with scaffolding then that’s fine, but if it’s a problem with the cabling on the underside of the roof then it may not be such a smooth process. 

Our maintenance team may need to construct a platform inside your home so that they could access the cabling on the underside of the roof, and may also need to remove part of the ceiling to do so. This is naturally quite a messy and expensive procedure. 

If you think there’s any chance you may want to get a vaulted ceiling at some point in the future, it would be great to know this before we do your solar & battery installation, so we can install your battery and inverter in another location, like your garage, and run the DC cabling outside your property.

Loft conversions

Converting your loft is an excellent way to expand the living space in your property, and if it’s happening on the opposite side of the property to your solar panels then it won’t be an issue. 

However, if the conversion is happening on the same side of your roof as your solar panels, you may have to choose between one or the other. 

Your solar panels will need to be removed before the loft conversion, but getting them back onto the roof after the conversion will be very tricky, or even impossible. 

That’s because, in the vast majority of loft conversions, the new extension will have a flat rooftop, which generally won’t be suitable for solar panel installation. The solar panels would need to be secured with ballast, which would increase the weight of the system from around 20kg per panel to over 80kg, and a flat roof would not be able to support this weight. What’s more, the additional weight may eventually cause leaks, as rainwater naturally accumulates on a flat rooftop.

Most of the flat roof solar panel installations you see around the UK today are on large commercial buildings, with rooftops that are stronger and able to support the weight of ballasted solar panels. 

Even a sloped dormer roof can be an issue, as the available surface area for solar panels may be smaller than the previous roof space, so we wouldn’t be able to fit the same number of solar panels back on and your system would be much smaller.

Velux windows

In the case of velux windows, it all depends on where you want to put them. If they’re part of a loft conversion, it’s highly likely you’ll also have a dormer with a flat roof, and so continuing with solar isn’t really feasible. 

If you want velux windows on an angled roof and on the same side as your solar panels, your system will need to be removed so that the windows can be installed. However, the windows will significantly reduce the available space on your roof, and so you won’t be able to reinstall the same number of solar panels. 

Even if you aren’t getting many velux windows or they’re particularly small, installation best practice means there must be 300mm of space between a solar panel and a velux window. This means you can put some of your solar panels back, but you won’t be generating as much clean electricity as before.

Summary

In many cases, upgrading your rooftop will not interfere with your Sunsave Plus system; it will just require temporary removal and reinstallation of your system, which we would be happy to quote you for. 

If you’re planning a change to your property in the future and you’re not sure how it will affect your Sunsave Plus system, feel free to discuss it with one of our experts and they’ll be able to advise you on the best approach. 

To sign up for Sunsave Plus, answer a few quick questions below and we’ll get in touch.

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