Solar across a house and garage roof in Milton Keynes

A small detached house with a £2,200 annual energy bill and an electric car on the horizon. The charger went on first.

Black solar panels on the south-facing front roof of a small detached house in Milton Keynes

Quick facts

System size: 5.11 kWp
Panels: 11 × DMEGC DM465G12RT-G48HBB, 465 W, with Tigo optimisers
Mounting: On-roof, Fastensol FTH01 pantile rack
Inverter: Fox ESS H1-5.0-E-G2, 5 kW hybrid
Battery: Fox ESS EP12 Plus — 11.52 kWh nominal, 10.4 kWh usable
Backup: No whole-home backup
EV charger: myenergi Zappi Glo, 7 kW — fitted months before the solar
Roof: Pantile, south-facing front, virtually no shading; 9 panels on the house, 2 on the garage
Installed: September 2026, solar and battery in a day
MCS estimated generation: 4,803 kWh a year
Estimated savings: £1,254 a year
Estimated payback: 6 years

Estimated at quote stage based on the customer’s usage and tariff at the time. Actual savings vary.

Why they got in touch

A homeowner in Milton Keynes was spending around £2,200 a year on energy and “exploring solar as a long-term investment”, while also “considering an electric vehicle within 6–12 months”. They had a competing design from another firm to compare against.

What we recommended and why

The house roof alone would not take enough panels, so we used the garage roof as well — nine panels on the house, two on the garage, eleven in total. Tigo optimisers went on so that the two roofs, which behave differently through the day, do not drag each other down.

Because an EV was coming, we fitted the Zappi charger first, months ahead of the solar. There was no reason to make them wait for the car charging just because the solar was still being designed.

The install

The solar and battery went in together in a single day on 9 September. The front roof is south-facing with virtually no shading, so the main array was straightforward; the garage pair needed its own small run back to the inverter.

The result

5.11 kWp over two roofs with 11.52 kWh of storage and a charger already on the wall for when the car arrives. The MCS certificate puts estimated generation at 4,803 kWh a year.