Solar · Thanet
Solar panels in Margate
From the terraces behind the seafront to the larger houses in Cliftonville and the estates towards Garlinge, installed by electricians based in Thanet.
Margate is mostly older housing, and older housing is mostly good news for solar. Victorian and Edwardian terraces have steep, simple slopes with no hips to work around, so a run of panels goes on cleanly and the electrical work is a short route down to a board that is often on the ground floor.
The two things that come up more here than inland are the sea and the leases. Salt air is hard on anything ferrous, so the mounting hardware and the fixings matter more than they would ten miles south. And a lot of the larger houses in Cliftonville are flats, where the roof belongs to a freeholder and consent has to be in place before scaffold goes up.
Planning
The Old Town and parts of Cliftonville are conservation areas. Roof panels usually still go on without a planning application, but there are conditions, and anything listed needs consent. It is one of the first things checked at the survey.
The roofs round here
Victorian terraces
Steep slate or tile, front and back. The rear slope is often the better one, and the flat roof on a rear extension can take a small ballasted array of its own.
Cliftonville villas
Large hipped roofs with several aspects. Usually room for a split east and west array, which suits a household that uses power morning and evening.
Westbrook and Garlinge
Interwar semis and bungalows on concrete tile. The straightforward end of the job.
Flats
Possible, but the freeholder has to agree and the supply arrangement needs checking first. Ask before you get quotes.
Roofs like yours
Jobs on the kind of roof Margate has
How a job runs
Four stages, in order
Assessment
Roof pitch, orientation, shading, structure and the state of the existing electrical installation. All four matter, and the last one is the one that catches people out.
Design and quote
A layout for your roof with the panel and inverter specified, the expected generation stated with the assumptions behind it, and a fixed price.
Installation
Scaffold, mounting, panels, then the electrical work. Most domestic installs are done inside a few days.
Certification and handover
Testing, commissioning, MCS certificate, and a walk through of the monitoring and the shutdown procedure before we leave.
Questions from Margate
Asked here more than elsewhere
Does the sea air affect the panels?
Not the panels themselves, which are glass and aluminium. It affects the fixings and the mounting, which is why the hardware is specified for a coastal site rather than whatever is cheapest.
My roof faces east and west, not south. Is it worth it?
Often, yes. A split array generates across a longer part of the day, which matches how most homes actually use electricity. South is the best single aspect, but it is not the only one that pays.
I am in a flat. Can I have solar?
Sometimes. It depends on who owns the roof and how the supply is metered. Get the freeholder's position first; without it nobody can quote properly.
Nearby
Solar in the towns around Margate
Get a price
Solar in Margate,
priced for your roof
A postcode and a rough idea of the job is enough. You get a straight answer from the people who would do the work, not a sales call.