Questions and answers

Tell us a few details about your home and we'll come back with a quote. We assess your roof from imagery and your own electricity usage, so there's nothing to arrange and no one to let in. It costs nothing and commits you to nothing.

No. Your quote is built from imagery of your roof and your household's own usage. We confirm the final details before installation, not before the quote.

It's built from four things: which way your roof faces, its pitch, what shades it, and how much electricity your house uses. Every figure in the quote has the assumption behind it printed beside it, so you can see exactly where each number came from.

We'll tell you straight away. Suitability comes out of the quoting process, and if a system doesn't make sense for your roof, we'd rather say so than sell you one.

Once you've accepted your quote and paid the booking deposit, installation is currently 2–4 weeks away. The installation itself usually takes one to two days. Home EV chargers are quicker: the current lead time is 2–3 weeks from the day your install is confirmed.

The SEAI Solar Electricity Grant covers your solar panels, up to €1,800. It pays €700 per kWp — kWp is the size of the system — for the first 2kWp, then €200 per kWp for the next two. A 4kWp system reaches the full €1,800.

It qualifies if it was built and occupied before 2021 and hasn't had a solar grant before at the same meter point. The meter point number, your MPRN, is printed on your electricity bill. One grant per property.

No. The SEAI grant is for solar panels only. The battery is priced separately in your quote, and your quote shows how the full system costs out.

No VAT on solar panels supplied and installed for a home under one contract, since May 2023. Where a battery is installed as part of that same supply-and-install contract, Revenue's guidance applies the same zero rate to the whole job.

You do, and it's straightforward. You apply to SEAI online before any work starts, using your MPRN (your meter's number, printed on your bill) and your Eircode, and SEAI sends you a letter of offer. After the installation a BER assessment is carried out, the paperwork goes to SEAI, and SEAI pays the grant into your bank account, usually within four to six weeks. We walk you through each step as part of your project.

Yes. A home system is registered with ESB Networks on a form called an NC6, and that paperwork is handled as part of your project.

You need a smart meter to be paid for the electricity you send back to the grid. If your home doesn't have one yet, ESB Networks fits it, and we'll tell you where that stands as part of your project.

It depends on your roof, your usage and your tariff, which is why we give one worked example rather than a range. A 3-bed semi with 3.5 kWp of panels (about 8) on a south-facing roof, a 10 kWh battery and a €200-a-month bill at 35c a unit: we'd expect to save about €92 a month, around €1,100 a year. Every assumption behind that is on our How we calculate this page, and your quote carries your own figures.

On the same example, 3.5 kWp of panels facing south, a 10 kWh battery and a €200-a-month bill at 35c a unit, the system costs €8,500 before the grant and €6,800 after the €1,700 SEAI grant, so we'd expect it to pay for itself in about 6.2 years. After that it keeps producing electricity you don't have to buy. The full workings are on How we calculate this.

Yes. What you don't use goes back to the grid and your electricity supplier pays you for it, under a scheme called the Clean Export Guarantee. Each supplier sets its own rate, so it's worth checking what yours pays.

The first €400 a year is exempt from income tax. In Budget 2026 that exemption was extended to the end of 2028.

No. The standing charge is what you pay to be connected, so it stays. What changes is the number of units you buy.

That's the point of it. Your panels generate while the sun is up, the battery holds what you don't use, and the house runs on it in the evening — the cooker, the kettle, the lights.

It can, if you choose backup. A standard grid-connected system switches off in a power cut, as the rules require, so backup is an option we price in your quote rather than something every system has. If keeping the lights on matters to you, say so when you ask for your quote.

Yes. As well as storing what your roof makes, the battery can fill up on a cheaper overnight rate and run the house through the expensive hours of the day.

The BYD Battery-Box carries a 10-year warranty from BYD, the manufacturer, which guarantees it will still hold at least 60% of its usable capacity at the end of that period. Batteries lose capacity slowly rather than failing outright, and the Battery-Box is modular, so capacity can be added later if you need more.

Yes. The BYD Battery-Box is modular, so capacity can be added later if your usage changes — a heat pump, an electric car, a bigger household.

Panels run on daylight, not sunshine, so they generate on grey days too, just less than on bright ones. The Irish climate is the reason storage matters: it moves what you make in the middle of the day to the hours you actually use it.

South does best, east and west still work, and the difference shows up in your quote rather than in a rule of thumb. Pitch and shading count as well, which is why the quote models all four together.

Not for a house. Since October 2022 there's no limit on the area of solar panels you can put on the roof of a home anywhere in the country. The zones near airports and hospitals that restrict glare apply to other buildings, not to houses.

Yes, and it's a common job. Tell us what you have and we'll come back on what fits it.

Yes, and both are a good reason to size the system properly. A heat pump and a car both pull hard at particular hours, and that changes what your roof and battery should be.

Yes. BYD systems work on an ordinary single-phase supply and on three-phase, which is a heavier electricity supply some larger homes, farms and businesses have. The three-phase setups handle high-draw equipment including heat pumps, milking parlours and workshop machinery.

You come back to us. One company manages the project from your first quote through to switch-on, and the same number afterwards.

Very little. Panels have no moving parts and rain keeps them largely clean, though SEAI suggests a clean every few years, and more often near the sea or a main road. The battery and the inverter (the box that turns what your panels make into the electricity your house runs on) report on themselves through the app. If anything needs attention, you come back to us.