Five diagrams
Wall solar, drawn out step by step
Five drawings take you from sunlight on the wall to the kettle in your kitchen.
01
Diagram 1: sun angle on a wall
In northern England the noon sun is about 60° up at midsummer and about 14° up at midwinter. A wall panel stands far more upright than a roof panel, so it faces that low winter sun almost square-on.
The hybrid stand lets the panel lean out from the wall. Its angle is set within the maker's limits when the wall is assessed.
02
Diagram 2: panel to microinverter
The panels make direct current (DC). A small microinverter on the stand turns it into the alternating current (AC) your home runs on.
It also caps what reaches your home at 799VA, the limit for plug-in solar, whatever the panels are rated at.
03
Diagram 3: straight into a wall socket
The kit's 4m lead ends in a moulded, fused UK plug. It goes straight into a weatherproof outdoor socket. No extension leads, cable reels or adaptors.
Your fuse box needs modern RCD protection. If the socket or the RCD isn't there, an electrician can fit or check them.
04
Diagram 4: what your home uses first
Power from the panels goes to whatever is running in your home first: the fridge, the router, the washing machine. If the house needs more, the grid tops it up as normal.
If the kit makes more than you're using, the spare flows out to the grid. That export usually isn't paid for, so the saving comes from what you use.
05
Diagram 5: when the sun moves off the wall
A south wall gets the sun through the middle of the day. East walls catch the morning, and west walls the afternoon and evening.
When the sun moves off the panels, output drops and your home draws from the grid as it always has. There's nothing to switch. In a power cut the kit switches itself off, to keep people working on the lines safe.
Ready to see what your wall could make?