The Surrey edge of the patch
Solar panel cost in Surrey
What a domestic system costs on the southern band of the county we reach from Washington — Cranleigh and Haslemere in the west, Dorking in the middle, Reigate and Horley in the east, 24 to 28 road miles from the workshop — the published starting range, the national average, and a worked example from the official yield data, with the assumptions shown.
At a glance
The cost depends on the size of your home and the amount of energy you use, but most domestic solar panel installations in the UK typically start from around £4,000 to £6,000. The Energy Saving Trust, read on 6 October 2026, puts an average home system at about £7,600, typically 4.5 kWp — about 12 panels covering 20 to 30 square metres. On the PVGIS yield for Dorking, that size of array south-facing is worth roughly £876 a year on the assumptions below, an indicative payback of about 8.7 years. Your own price comes from the survey, not from this page.
What decides the price in Surrey
Clay tile and tile-hung elevations on the older stock, mature trees close to the house on the Greensand and the Downs, and sloping plots that make the scaffold the first line of the quote. Inside the Surrey Hills National Landscape the roof-slope rule is the same as anywhere else, and a flat-roof array needs prior approval.
Surrey has two electricity network operators and the line between them runs through the part we cover: Cranleigh, Dorking, Horley and Reigate are UK Power Networks; the Haslemere side is Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks. The MPAN on your bill settles which receives the G98 notification, or the G99 application for an inverter over 16 amps per phase. The notification is part of the job and part of the price; so is the scaffold, which is the largest cost after the equipment on most jobs and the item most often left out of a headline figure. Ours is always in.
The county picture — the towns we reach, the roofs we find there and the planning position — is on our solar panels in Surrey page; the wider picture for the whole patch is on solar panel installers in West Sussex.
A worked example near Dorking
PVGIS, the European Commission’s solar database, read on 15 October 2026: a south-facing array at 35 degrees with a 14% system loss at Dorking (51.23, -0.33) models about 1,037 kWh per kWp a year. Scaled to three common sizes, with 48% used in the house at 26p a unit and the rest exported at 12p:
| System | Generation a year | Used at home | Exported | Worth a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.5 kWp | 3,630 kWh | £455 | £227 | £682 |
| 4.5 kWp | 4,667 kWh | £585 | £291 | £876 |
| 6 kWp | 6,222 kWh | £780 | £388 | £1,168 |
Representative figures, not a quote. The 4.5 kWp row against the Energy Saving Trust average of £7,600 gives the 8.7-year indicative payback above. Our own solar savings calculator uses the more conservative MCS figure of 857 kWh per kWp for the South East, so it will show you a lower number on purpose — why the calculator is deliberately cautious explains the gap. This is a modelled figure and it sits a little above the “£4,000 to £6,000” we publish as a typical starting point — your own price comes from the survey, not from this.
Savings first, export second
The value of a system in Surrey is mostly the electricity you stop buying. On average, UK homeowners save £300–£600 per year, sometimes more if you add battery storage or work from home during the day. Export is the smaller half: the Smart Export Guarantee pays for what you send out — whether the inverter was notified to UK Power Networks at Reigate or to SSEN at Haslemere — and the rate we point people to first is Octopus Energy’s Outgoing Octopus (Fixed) at 12p a unit, correct as of June 2026, cut from 15p to 12p on 1 March 2026, re-checked by November 2026. You do not have to export to the supplier you buy from, and zero VAT and the Smart Export Guarantee, explained plainly covers both schemes.
A battery moves units from the exported column to the used-at-home column, which is where the value is; the honest arithmetic on whether a battery pays is written out, and how storage behaves day to day is the page to read before you decide. The lines we fit — including the Sigenergy stack that can take the car charger too — are chosen at the survey, not from a price list.
VAT, finance and grants
Domestic solar panels and battery storage are zero-rated for VAT — the same on a Dorking semi as on a Cranleigh barn conversion — and a proper quote simply has no VAT line on it, nothing to claim back. If you would rather spread the cost, the finance calculator on our homepage shows the shape of a monthly figure; we publish no APR there, because the real one comes with the written quote. What counts as a grant in Surrey, and what does not, is on solar panel grants in Surrey.
What a Surrey quote from us contains
The scaffold, priced for the plot: a good share of the houses on the Surrey edge sit on a slope, with the access on the uphill side and the best roof on the downhill one, and that is the first line of the quote rather than the last. The fixing, chosen for the covering — hooks for concrete tile on the newer estates, a different answer for clay peg tile and tile-hung elevations in the older centres. The network notification to whichever of the two operators your MPAN names, done by us before anything is energised. The battery wall, agreed under PAS 63100 at the survey. And the manufacturer registrations in your name, with the warranty terms for the exact configuration fitted.
Dorking is about 25 road miles from Washington and Reigate 28, inside the thirty-mile line we work to, so travel is not an item on a Surrey quote; the roof, the scaffold and the wall are.
Dorking, Reigate, Horley, Cranleigh and Haslemere: five different roofs
Dorking and Reigate carry the older stock under the Downs, where clay tile, dormers and conservation-area addresses tend to put the array on a rear slope and the planning check before the design. Horley’s newer estates are the straightforward jobs on this edge — simple pitches on modern tile, where the only real question is which slope earns its keep. Cranleigh is a large village with big gardens and big trees, so shading is modelled rather than assumed. Haslemere sits on the Greensand Hills inside the Surrey Hills National Landscape, on the SSEN side of the operator line, with steep plots where the scaffold decides more than the panel does.
The three things people in Surrey ask before they ask the price
“My Dorking roof is not south-facing.”
An east–west split loses some of the headline yield in the table and spreads the generation across the morning and the evening, which can suit a house that is in at both ends of the day. The survey models your roof, not the Dorking average, and the quote shows the figure for your orientation.
“Is the payback a brochure number?”
Every assumption it rests on is in the table above, and our own calculator deliberately uses a lower yield than PVGIS. If the numbers do not work for your house we will say so — on a shaded Cranleigh plot that is sometimes the honest answer.
“Do I need planning permission in the Surrey Hills?”
Usually not on a roof slope, even inside the National Landscape; a flat-roof array there needs prior approval and a listed house sits outside the class. The whole position is in solar panels and planning permission in Surrey, linked below.
The planning position in full is in solar panels and planning permission in Surrey.
What you are not committing to in Surrey
- A free survey of thirty to forty-five minutes on the Surrey edge, with nothing to sign at the end of it.
- A written quote afterwards with the scaffold, the operator notification and the battery wall priced and the assumptions shown.
- If a Cranleigh plot is too shaded or the usage too low to justify it, we say “not yet” rather than sell it.
- The same electricians do the survey, the install and the certificate: MCS certified · NICEIC Approved Contractor.
Questions we get asked in Surrey
How much do solar panels cost in Surrey?
Most domestic installations depend on the size of your home and the amount of energy you use, but start from around £4,000 to £6,000. The Energy Saving Trust, read on 6 October 2026, puts an average home system at about £7,600, typically 4.5 kWp. A Surrey price is set by the roof, the scaffold and the wall for any battery, and it comes from the survey.
What will a 4.5 kWp system generate on a Surrey roof?
PVGIS, the European Commission’s solar database, models about 4,665 kWh a year for a 4.5 kWp south-facing array at 35 degrees near Dorking, with a 14% system loss — roughly 1,037 kWh per kWp. Shade from trees, a shallower pitch or an east–west split bring that down, which is why the survey measures the roof rather than reading a map.
Do you charge more for Surrey because of the distance?
The quote is the quote. Dorking is about 25 road miles from Washington and Reigate 28, inside the thirty-mile line we work to, so a Surrey job is priced on the roof and the system, not on the postcode. Beyond Guildford we will still quote, but we say plainly that it is outside our regular area.
The next step
Get a Surrey quote
A free survey on the southern band of the county we reach from Washington, then a written quote with the assumptions shown. The figures on this page are representative; yours come from the roof.
- 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.