Solar panels in Glenfield, and its hipped roofs
- RECC member
- 6-year workmanship warranty
- Insurance-Backed Guarantee
A suburb of hipped roofs
More than anything, your roof decides the system you get, and Glenfield's roofs have a clear character. The building boom that filled the suburb through the twentieth century favoured the hipped roof, and it dominates here.
A hipped roof has slopes on all four sides rather than two gable ends, and it is the standard shape across Glenfield's semis and detached houses. It is a fine roof for solar. It simply asks for a bit more thought about where the panels sit, because the faces are shorter than on a plain gable. We have set out how roof shape, hips and orientation change a solar layout in our answer on north-facing and awkward roofs.
The right size of system follows from the roof and from how much electricity you actually get through, not from how many panels will physically fit. There is more on working out the right size if you want it, and you can see how we approach a job on our main solar page. It is the opposite of being sold the largest array going.
Around St Peter's church
One corner of Glenfield is different. The suburb's old heart sits around St Peter's, the parish church, and that pocket wants a closer look before any panels go up.
Most of Glenfield is ordinary twentieth-century suburbia, where solar is simply permitted development. The old core is the exception. There are older and locally protected buildings in it, and the planning position is more involved. Whether you need planning permission depends on the building and on which roof the panels face, so if your home sits in that pocket we look into it first.
We handle the paperwork either way, including the network operator's connection notice for the grid. A planning check, or an extra form for a battery or a larger array, is our job, not yours.
Easy for us to reach, and worth seeing in person
We are based in Loughborough, about ten miles north, so Glenfield is a short run for us out along the north-west edge of the city.
The free assessment is a proper site visit, not a price off a postcode. On a hipped roof in particular there is no substitute for standing in front of the actual house. Here is what a solar assessment involves if you want to know how it runs, before you get an honest quote for the system your home needs.
Weighing up storage? Whether a battery is worth it comes down to when you use your power, and our battery storage page goes into it. Thinking about an EV charger in Glenfield too? That changes the sums again. We work solar across Loughborough just as easily, and you can see everywhere we go on our areas we cover page.
Common questions
- Do I need planning permission for solar in Glenfield?
- For most homes, no. Most of Glenfield is ordinary twentieth-century suburbia, and solar there is normally permitted development, so you can get on with it. The exception is the old core around St Peter's, the parish church. That pocket is planning-sensitive, with a number of older and locally protected buildings, so if your home sits in it we look into the planning position first rather than assume.
- Most houses in Glenfield have hipped roofs. Is that a problem for solar?
- No. The hipped roof, with slopes on all four sides, is the standard shape across Glenfield's semis and detached houses, and we fit solar on them all the time. It doesn't change whether solar works, only how the panels are laid out, which is one of the things the free visit sorts out.
- Is Glenfield a good area for solar?
- Generally, yes. It's a large suburb of owner-occupied twentieth-century semis and detached homes, and most have plain tiled roofs with modern wiring, so solar tends to be a clean job here. The two things worth checking are the hipped-roof layout on your particular home and, if you're in the old core, the planning position.
More questions? See our common questions.