Solar panels in Birstall: most roofs here are the easy kind
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Why most Birstall roofs are the easy kind
Your roof decides the system more than anything else, and in Birstall that's mostly good news. The bulk of the village is last-century estate housing filling the land between the A6 and the river, and those homes were built simple.
A roof from that era is usually a straightforward pitch, and the wiring is generally modern enough to take an inverter without a rewire first. That's the sort of roof we can put a full array on without much fuss, which is why a lot of Birstall is genuinely quick to quote.
What still varies house to house is which way the roof faces and how steep it is. Two homes on the same street can point very different ways, so we look at how the sun tracks across each slope and work out the size that suits the house, rather than the biggest system that will physically fit.
The older core near St James the Greater
The one part of Birstall that asks for more thought is the old village down by the river, around St James the Greater. It's the exception to the easy-roof rule, not a reason to rule solar out.
The houses there are older and closer together, with steeper, narrower slopes, the odd chimney in the way, and some wiring worth updating before an inverter goes in. This is also Birstall's conservation area, so on a few of these homes whether you need planning permission comes into it. Out on the estates, that question doesn't arise at all.
None of it stops a roof working. It just shapes the design. We work with the slope you've got, handle the paperwork including the connection form for the network company, and say plainly if a roof won't give you a system worth having.
Homes near the Soar and Watermead
Birstall runs right down to the River Soar and Watermead Country Park, and the homes along that edge are worth a second look before anyone quotes a system.
Those homes sit lower, with mature trees close by. Trees like that can put part of a roof in shade for a stretch of the day, and it's easy to miss on a satellite photo. It rarely stops a roof working. It changes where the panels go and how many earn their keep, which is exactly what a proper look at the roof is for. We're out this way often, so we come and see it rather than guess off a photo.
We cover the villages either side too, from Syston just north-east up to Loughborough. If you're weighing up storage, our battery storage page and whether you actually need one both go into when it pays. Adding an EV charger in Birstall changes the sums again, and you can see everywhere we work on the areas we cover page.
Common questions
- Are Birstall's estate roofs good for solar?
- Usually, yes. Most homes here have plain pitched roofs from the last century with wiring that's up to the job, which is close to ideal for a solar install. We still check each house, because two roofs on the same street can face very different ways and shade one another. But the estate roofs across Birstall are the sort we can design a solid system on.
- We're in the old village near St James' church. Can we still fit panels?
- In most cases, yes. The older houses down by the church have steeper, narrower slopes and sometimes older wiring, and part of the old village is a conservation area, so a few of those roofs need a bit more thought before we design them. That's all workable. We look at which slope actually suits panels and build the design around it, and we tell you straight if a roof won't give you a system worth having.
- We back onto Watermead. Will the trees shade our panels?
- They might, for part of the day. The homes along the Soar and Watermead sit lower with big trees close by, and that shade is easy to miss on a satellite photo. It rarely rules solar out. It changes where the panels sit and how many are worth fitting, which is exactly the kind of thing we check when we come and look at the roof.
More questions? See our common questions.