complete newbie to solar , did an enquiry on line after asking a friend how their solar was going, they were pleased with the investment (they are down south so their installer is not suitable for me). Property is an old slate roofed building, not listed and facing 205 degrees , is just off south. I would like an aesthetically pleasing finish to marry in with the existing building but appreciate it will never look quite the same as it does now. Decided to go for "all black" even though there is a slight performance drop.
The roof length is 16.2 although chimneys at either end encroach by total of 80 cam , and has a 31 degree angle , i worked out i have a full width of 350cm (maybe as low as 335, possibly 365cm) . The 3 installers who have visited have various quotes all for 16x 400 panels (6.6 total ) , and mostly for 3.7 inverters linked to 7 to 10KW battery. Two are within 100 pounds of each other at 12K . Having now read up and studied specs , i have some thoughts that i want as much solar as i can fit on the roof a 10K battery (yearly im at 7000 use is with EV) and min 6-7K inverter depending on where panels get to
I ve worked out with narrower panels (i ve seen some at 1.02m) , i can still get a row of 8 landscape , then would like to get 3 deep ie 24 panels
Questions i have
How close do panels fit , ie if 1016mm wide, when 3 mated together would be 3.05 metres or (a lot) wider ?
Any legal (England planning regs) around edge clearance , especially ridge and gutter clearances , any practical considerations, as with panels i’ve identified and based on calc upper and lower tolerances are quite tight
Looking at the Oct. flux tariff, what is max generating capacity allowed ( i seem to think 9KW?) , do other export tariffs have similar limits , is there a max i should for aim for or just keep it simple and get as much for self use as possible
Is there any portal where i can type in what i want , and get people to bid for it rather than getting full “sales pitch” on their systems every time i ask for a quote as i sort of know (for now!) the panels (REC or QCells) , the inverter (solax or Givenergy) and battery (Triplex or Givenergy)