Solar panels in Great Glen, on the A6 in Harborough district
- RECC member
- 6-year workmanship warranty
- Insurance-Backed Guarantee
An old conservation core, and the estates around it
Your roof decides more than anything else, and Great Glen hands you two very different ones. There is the old core down by the River Sence, and the commuter estates that grew up around it.
The conservation core
The oldest part of the village, around St Cuthbert's church and the Sence, sits inside a conservation area. The houses there are period stock, so before a panel is planned we check whether you need permission for a street-facing roof, since that works differently inside a conservation area than out on an ordinary estate. The roofs themselves are older and less regular, so the design works with how the roof faces the sun rather than fights it. None of that stops solar. It just means the plan is drawn for that one roof.
The commuter estates
Most of Great Glen is newer housing built for people commuting into Leicester, and those roofs are about as straightforward as solar gets: wide, evenly pitched, and outside the conservation area, so there is nothing extra to apply for. The only real question on an estate roof is what size system actually suits the house, which comes down to your roof space and how much electricity you get through, not how big a system anyone can sell you.
Empty by day, home by night
Great Glen empties towards Leicester every weekday morning. That daily pattern is the single biggest thing that decides whether a battery earns its place here.
When the house is empty through the day, the panels are working at the exact hours no one is home to use the power. Whether it is worth storing that power for the evening depends entirely on how your household runs, so it is worth understanding when a battery pays before you spend on one. Most homes along the A6 are on mains gas, so a battery here is only ever about your electricity, never your heating.
When you are ready, the free assessment is where it all gets pinned down for your own roof. We cover the villages either side too, from Oadby up the A6 to Kibworth down towards Market Harborough. If you are also weighing up charging at home, an EV charger in Great Glen shifts the battery sums again. Everywhere we work is on the areas we cover page.
Common questions
- Is my home in the Great Glen conservation area?
- The conservation area sits over the old heart of the village, around St Cuthbert's church and the River Sence, where most of the period houses are. The modern commuter estates further out sit outside it. It only really changes things for the older, street-facing roofs in that core. If that's your home, we walk you through what it means; if you're out on the estates, there's nothing extra to think about.
- Are the older houses near St Cuthbert's harder to fit than the estate homes?
- They ask a bit more of the design, not that they rule solar out. The older places around the church and the Sence come from a different era, so their roofs tend to be tighter and less regular than a new-build's, and a few have wiring worth checking first. The commuter estate homes are the opposite, wide and simple, so a full array goes up cleanly. Either way, we shape the layout around the roof you've actually got.
- The house is empty all day while we commute. Does that change what we should fit?
- It mainly changes the battery side of it, not the panels. Great Glen empties out towards Leicester and the A6 every morning, so a lot of homes here are generating their solar power at the exact times nobody is in to use it. Whether storing that power for the evening is worth it comes down to your own household, which is worth going through properly rather than guessing at. The panels themselves are worth having either way.
More questions? See our common questions.