Things worth knowing
Straight answers, written by the people who fit it
No listicles, no scare tactics, no numbers we cannot show you the working for. Mostly the questions we get asked halfway up a ladder.
Charging an electric car in a Brighton terrace: the public network, and the home-charger cases
Over 1,000 public chargepoints, 86% of residents without off-street parking within a three-minute walk — and when a Brighton house can have its own.
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EV charger installation in Surrey: the rollout, the cable-gully rule and what a home charger needs
What Surrey has built and banned — 200-plus public sockets, no cables across the pavement — and what a home charger on the Surrey edge involves.
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A home charger in a Worthing terrace: parking, the supply and the grant
Three Worthing houses — a semi with a drive, a terrace with a rear space, a terrace on the street — and what each can do about charging a car at home.
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Where we fit EcoFlow PowerOcean across Sussex and Surrey: one pack, and the places it can grow
EcoFlow PowerOcean county by county: one pack on a West Sussex estate, a shaded Surrey roof, the unheated clifftop garages, the Solar Together roofs.
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Where we fit Fox ESS across Sussex and Surrey: two walls, two operators, one line in our own photographs
The Fox ESS inverter-and-battery pair in our own photographs, county by county: the walls it goes on, the 16 A paperwork line and the two operators.
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Where we fit Hanchu ESS across Sussex and Surrey: one wall, and an unfamiliar name said out loud
The one-wall Hanchu ESS hybrid, county by county: West Sussex garages, the shaded Surrey edge, Brighton basements, Lewes cellars — and what to ask first.
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Where we fit Sigenergy across Sussex and Surrey: the house with one good wall
Which houses across West Sussex, Surrey and East Sussex suit a Sigenergy stack, where it goes, who gets the paperwork — and where another line is honest.
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Shade, Box Hill and a smaller array: why a Dorking battery earns more
Dorking's modelled yield is below the coast's and its roofs are more often shaded: why that makes a battery count for more, and where the stack goes.
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A battery behind a timber frame: East Grinstead's High Street and the later streets
Sixteen timber-framed houses and over 80 listed buildings around the High Street, plainer streets outside it: where a home battery goes in each.
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Lewes cellars, listed interiors and the retrofit question
The largest town in any National Park, a conservation area over almost all of it, panels already on many roofs: what a Lewes battery survey checks.
Read it G98 or G99: which form your solar or battery needs, and who sends it
G98 up to 16 amps per phase (3.68 kW), G99 above it: what decides which form your inverter needs, why a battery can tip it, and who does the paperwork.
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PAS 63100: where a home battery can and cannot go
PAS 63100, the fire-safety specification for home batteries since April 2026: what it covers, where a stack cannot go, and what that means in your house.
Read it SEG tariffs: what exporting actually pays, and why that decides the battery
How the Smart Export Guarantee works, what the open tariffs paid as at June 2026, and why a unit kept at home is worth twice one exported.
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How we size a solar and battery system from your bill, not from your roof
The five numbers a system is sized on — annual kWh, roof yield and orientation, evening load, export rate and the car — and where each one comes from.
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Scaffolding, access and the survey: the part of a solar quote nobody explains
Why the scaffold is in every quote, what a 30–45 minute survey measures, and the Sussex streets, roofs and lanes where access decides the design.
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How to read a solar and battery warranty before you sign
Product versus performance, years versus throughput, the retention point, who honours what — and why the terms for your kit come with the quote.
Read it Solar, a battery and an electric car: sizing the three as one system
Cars charge at night and a 7 kW charger out-draws a domestic array: how we size the array, battery and charger as one system, and the tariffs that change.
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Solar panels and planning permission in East Sussex: inside the National Park, on the coast, and the exceptions
When solar panels in East Sussex need planning permission and when they do not: the roof-slope rule, the National Park at Lewes, flat roofs, listed houses.
Read it Solar panels and planning permission in Surrey: the roof-slope rule, the Surrey Hills and the exceptions
When solar panels in Surrey need planning permission and when they do not: the roof-slope rule, the Surrey Hills, flat roofs, listed houses, Article 4.
Read it Sigenergy, Fox ESS, Hanchu ESS or EcoFlow: how we choose between the lines we fit
Four battery lines, one survey. How we decide between Sigenergy, Fox ESS, Hanchu ESS and EcoFlow PowerOcean for a West Sussex house, without a spec sheet.
Read it Sigenergy SigenStor explained: what the five-in-one stack is, and what to ask before it goes on your wall
What Sigenergy's five-in-one SigenStor stack combines, what that changes on a Sussex wall, and the questions to put to any Sigenergy installer.
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What a Sigenergy installation involves, from the survey to the handover pack
The order of a Sigenergy installation on a West Sussex house: survey, the wall, the network notification, the stack going up, commissioning and the app.
Read it Can a Brighton flat have a battery? And the terrace answer too
Whose supply, whose wall, what the lease says: the honest answer on batteries in Brighton's converted houses, plus the basement and the listed question.
Read it The garage question: home batteries on a Burgess Hill estate
The integral garage is the obvious battery position on a Burgess Hill estate house. Why we still measure it, and sizing for a family and a car.
Read it Why your Billingshurst battery paperwork goes to SSEN, not UK Power Networks
RH14 is on SSEN while Horsham and the coast are on UK Power Networks. What that changes for a home battery in Billingshurst, and what it does not.
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A home battery inside Chichester's walls, and outside them
A townhouse inside the Roman street plan and a detached house on the estates are two different battery jobs: the cellar, the listed question and SSEN.
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Adding a battery to panels you already have, in Lewes and on the East Sussex coast
Solar Together put panels on many East Sussex roofs. What a retrofit survey checks first, the Lewes listed question, clifftop bungalows and UKPN.
Read it Four Haywards Heath houses, four battery positions
The old core, the railway-town terraces, the post-war estates and Bolnore Village each put a home battery somewhere different. A walk through all four.
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Battery, EV and a Horsham estate house: sizing the three together
On the estates north and east of Horsham the battery job is easy and the car is what changes it. How we size array, battery and charger as one system.
Read it Home batteries in Littlehampton when you don't own the roof
A quarter of Littlehampton is flats: what a battery needs when the roof is the freeholder's, and why BN17 and BN16 notify two different operators.
Read it A battery by the sea: siting a home battery in Shoreham-by-Sea
Salt air, Article 4 conservation areas, a quarter of households in flats: how a home battery is sited in Shoreham-by-Sea, inland and by the harbour.
Read it The outbuilding battery: storage in the home patch under the Downs
Around Storrington and Pulborough the barn is often a better home for a battery than a period cottage: the cable run, the board, the Park and SSEN.
Read it Where a home battery goes in a Worthing terrace with no garage
Cellar, utility, rear addition or boarded loft: where a battery goes in a Victorian or Edwardian Worthing house with no garage, and the spot we refuse.
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Battery storage on the Surrey edge: which operator gets your G99
Dorking, Horley and Reigate notify UKPN; Haslemere notifies SSEN. What the line changes for a Surrey home battery, and why a lower yield makes it count.
Read it Solar panels in Brighton and Hove: terraces, conservation areas and the flat-roof rule
Brighton and Hove is the hardest roofscape on this coast for solar: the planning rule that applies in its conservation areas, and when a flat roof wins.
Read it How to choose a solar panel installer in West Sussex: six checks before you sign
Six checks before you sign with a solar panel installer in West Sussex, from the export certification to the scaffold and the paperwork.
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Solar panels on a Horsham stone roof: what changes, and what doesn't
Horsham stone roofs are heavy, brittle and irregular. What that changes for a solar design in Horsham, and the planning rule people get wrong.
Read it How accurate is a solar panel cost calculator?
What an online solar cost calculator can genuinely work out from your bill, where it is guessing, and the five things only a survey can price.
Read it Fox ESS battery: five questions to ask before it goes on your wall
The questions that decide whether a Fox ESS battery is right for your house, and the paperwork a good installer hands over with it.
Read it EcoFlow PowerOcean: what “start with one pack” really means
EcoFlow sells PowerOcean on the idea that you can start small and add packs later. What that means on a real house, and what the datasheet says.
Read it Horsham stone, flint and the Sussex roof problem
Some local roofs make solar straightforward. Others need a different conversation entirely. A survey-level guide to what we find on West Sussex roofs.
Read it Is a battery worth it? The honest arithmetic
A battery roughly doubles how much of your own generation you use. Whether that pays depends on when your house is empty. Here is the arithmetic.
Read it What solar actually does in a Sussex winter
Panels still generate on grey days — just less. What a West Sussex December really looks like on the app, and how to make the short days count.
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What actually happens at a free solar survey
Thirty to forty-five minutes, a look at your roof and your fuse board, and a quote afterwards. No pressure, and sometimes the answer is no.
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Charging an electric car off your own roof
Pairing a home charger with solar changes the maths on both. What actually gets charged by the sun, and why the two want designing together.
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Pigeons, panels and why we fit mesh as part of the job
How pigeons get under solar panels, what it costs you if they settle, what the law allows, and why mesh clipped on at install beats a clean-out later.
Read it Zero VAT and the Smart Export Guarantee, explained plainly
The two schemes that actually affect what a domestic solar system costs and earns in the UK — what each one is, and what neither of them is.
Read itThe next step
Book your free survey
Thirty to forty-five minutes, at your house, at no cost. We look at the roof, the fuse board and how you actually use the place — then send you a clear quote with the assumptions shown.
- Call 01243 882444
- Email hello@solar-squirrel.co.uk
- Based Washington, West Sussex
If solar genuinely won’t pay for itself on your usage, we’ll say so and save us both an afternoon.
Rather see the numbers before you speak to anybody? Put your own bill on the house — it works out the size, the saving and the payback while you watch, and brings them down to this form with you.