Solar Panel Calculator

When it comes to exploring the potential of solar energy for your home, you may have come across various calculators that estimate solar energy outputs, costs, and potential savings. But what if there was an all-in-one tool that simplifies this process, eliminating the need to hunt down separate calculators for different aspects of your solar panel journey? That's where MakeMyHouseGreen's UK Solar Panel Calculator steps in.

One of the fundamental questions anyone considering solar panels asks is, "How much energy will I generate?" Our solar energy calculator answers this with precision. By taking into account factors such as your location, roof orientation, and solar panel efficiency, our tool accurately calculates your annual energy output from solar panels. But it doesn't stop there. We go the extra mile by providing a graph that showcases how much energy could be generated per hour, allowing you to visualise your potential solar energy production throughout the day.

Saving money on your energy bills is a key motivator for going solar. Our solar savings calculator estimates your potential savings by considering the reductions in your energy bills and the additional earnings you can make through the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG). The SEG is a government-backed initiative that allows you to sell your excess energy back to the grid, turning your solar panels into a money-making asset. By including SEG payments in our calculations, we provide you with a realistic view of how solar panels can impact your finances.

Curious about how many solar panels you'll need to achieve your desired energy output? Our solar panel calculator has you covered. It can estimate the number of solar panels required for your property, considering your energy consumption needs. Want to see how adjusting the number of panels affects the cost and energy output? You can easily experiment with different scenarios using our tool, helping you find the perfect balance between energy goals and budget.

The "Expected Costs" section provides a detailed breakdown of the financial aspects of your solar panel installation. It includes the following: Solar Panels & Installation: The cost of the solar panels themselves and the cost of installation. Additional Products: If you've chosen to include any supplementary products like solar batteries or electric vehicle (EV) chargers, their costs will be shown here.

We provide a simple breakdown of the average amount of money you can expect to save each year over the next 10 years, thanks to the installation of solar panels. These savings are calculated based on your estimated energy production and usage patterns. As you explore different system sizes and configurations using our calculator, this figure will adjust accordingly, helping you understand the long-term financial benefits of going solar.

Many UK homes are suitable for solar — the key factors are shading, roof condition/structure, and available roof space. A south-facing roof is ideal, but east/west roofs can also work well depending on your usage pattern. You can read more in our guide about which types of roofs are suitable for solar panels.

Solar pricing has generally trended downward over the long term, but real-world installed costs can still move around due to hardware supply, demand, and installer capacity. You can see a few of the factors affecting the price of solar panels in our guide.

Roof space depends on the number of panels you want and the panel size. Most residential panels are roughly around ~1.7m x ~1.0m in footprint, and a common planning estimate is ~1.6–2.0 m² per panel before allowing for roof edges, walkways, and layout spacing.

Our “how many panels fit” guide walks through this clearly, and the MakeMyHouseGreen solar calculator will give you a more accurate answer that is specific to your home.

Flat roofs can be excellent for solar because panels are installed on tilted mounting frames to face the sun. The limiting factor is usually row spacing to avoid panels shading each other. We recommend using our solar calculator to map out the exact dimensions of your roof and get an accurate estimate of how many panels you can fit.

Solar panels are built to withstand wind speeds of up to 140 miles per hour – the speed of an intense hurricane! Good systems are engineered and mounted to withstand harsh weather — we take care to never mount solar panels too close to the edge of your roof. We will always leave a “buffer zone” which stops any wind from coming along the wall of your house and continuing up underneath your solar panels.