Common questions about solar in Northern Ireland

For most homes, yes. In our worked examples, 10 panels (4.4 kW) cost £4,000 to £5,000 and pay back in about 10.9 to 13.6 years. With a battery they cost £7,000 to £10,000 and pay back in about 8.2 to 13.6 years^S61. These count savings on your bill only, not export payments. Your free survey gives your own figures. See all seven worked examples.

Yes. Panels generate from daylight, not heat, so they keep working through a Northern Ireland winter, just at a lower output than in summer. Pair them with a battery and you make the most of every unit, storing the daytime surplus for the evening. A sodium-ion battery keeps working in a cold garage or shed down to minus 20°C.^S11

Not always, but most people want one. Without a battery, solar you don’t use straight away goes to the grid. With one, you use it yourself in the evening, and you can also fill the battery with cheaper overnight electricity, even in winter.^S6bS12 We’ll show you both options at survey.

It is built from abundant sodium instead of lithium, works from minus 30°C, is described by Eleven as thermally stable, and is guaranteed for 8,000 cycles over 10 years.^S11S12 See why we plan to offer it.

It can. EcoFlow OCEAN 2 keeps your whole home running, with conditions. Eleven Energy, coming soon once it is certified in Northern Ireland, will back up chosen essential circuits.^S2S12 Tell us what matters to you at survey and we’ll design for it.

Usually, yes, and it’s one of the best upgrades for older systems. EcoFlow, the battery we fit today, can be added to existing panels, and so can Eleven when it arrives. We check your inverter, consumer unit and NIE Networks registration first.^S2S12

Yes. Business and farm systems are usually three-phase and much larger than a home system. We design to your daytime load and handle the G99/NI approval with NIE Networks before we install.^S21 See business solar.

They’re NIE Networks’ rules for connecting generation. A single-phase system with an inverter up to 3.68 kW is “fit and inform” under G98/NI, so we notify NIE Networks after installation. Larger systems, three-phase systems and most with a battery need G99/NI approval before we install. We handle both.^S21

We’re a local team in Newtownards, and we design homes, businesses and farms as three different jobs, not one package scaled up. We fit lithium batteries (EcoFlow) today and will add sodium-ion (Eleven) once it is certified in Northern Ireland, so we can recommend the right one for your property rather than the one we happen to stock. And because we’re part of BRISK Technology, a business can have its solar, EPOS systems, IT, networks and CCTV looked after by one company. Get my free quote.