Solar Panel Installers in Reading — Design, Installation and Battery Storage
Solar panels, battery storage and EV chargers for homes in Reading, designed and fitted by our own MCS-certified team, about 35 minutes from our base.
- 5.0 on Google
- Fixed written quotation
- No doorstep sales
- Berkshire
- RG1
- RG2
- RG4
- RG5
Accredited by
Our warranty cover
- 30yearsSolar panels
- 10yearsBattery
- 10yearsInverter
- 6yearsOur workmanship
Reading is where most of our work happens. We are based at Burghfield Common, about twenty minutes from the town centre, which means a surveyor can usually get to a Reading property quickly and an installation team is not travelling across three counties before they start work.
That matters more than it sounds. A great deal of what determines whether a solar installation is any good is decided during the survey — the condition of the roof timbers, where the consumer unit sits, how a scaffold can be erected, whether a chimney is going to shade half the array at four in the afternoon. Those are judgements made standing on a roof, not from an aerial photograph.
Reading also has an unusually varied housing stock for a town of its size, and the right system for a Victorian terrace off the Oxford Road is not the right system for a 1980s detached house in Lower Earley. What follows is what we actually find across the town, and what it means for a solar design.
Customer Reviews
5.0 · rated on Google
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"Ben from SolarFX and his team have done a great job for us. Kept us in the loop at all stages, and Ben has been really supportive following the install with support, set up and managing the new system. During the recent sunny period our average cost per day for electricity was 60p. Would strongly recommend SolarFX."
Alistair Shaw Google
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"Ben at SolarFX did an outstanding job on a 3.6kW solar system which included 11 solar panels, hybrid inverter and battery storage. The workmanship and attention to detail was brilliant — Ben did exactly what he said he would do. Highly recommend Ben and his team."
Umar Saeed Google
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"Ben was great to work with — an expert in both the installation practicalities and the analysis to choose the right system for our property. Our bills have reduced by 80% since the system was installed."
James Lort Google
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"Ben from SolarFX has been fantastic — working out what was wrong with our solar system and fixing it promptly, installing a new EV charger and fixing kitchen lights too. Helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. Great value and high quality too."
Maria Evans Google
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"Ben, Paul and Dom make a great team to bring together an excellent solar installation. Our original ask was a solar system to improve our overall energy footprint (EPC rating) and through the process we ended up with a highly efficient…"
Michael P. Google
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"Ben did an outstanding job with our solar system installation from start to finish. He was professional, knowledgeable, and took the time to explain everything clearly throughout the process. The installation was completed efficiently…"
Lee Butler Google
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"We recently had a full panel and battery storage system installed by SolarFX, and I couldn't be happier with the entire experience…"
Clare Waters Google
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"Exceeded expectations. Ben was very helpful from start to finish. From the initial contact with all my questions he was very knowledgeable and made this investment an easy choice…"
Katie F. Google
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"Highly recommended. Getting solar panels and a battery is a big financial commitment so we had surveys and quotes from five different companies. We felt Ben understood our requirements and was more diligent and reassuring in his knowledge…"
Ed Reeve Google
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"We recently had Ben from SolarFX install the Anker SOLIX X1 energy storage system along with solar panels, and we couldn't be happier with the service. Ben is incredibly hardworking and a very tidy, professional installer…"
Beata Malinowska Google
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"I had been meaning to look into solar panels and battery storage for some time, and when investigating who to use the name SolarFX came up on review sites. So I asked Ben and team to site survey, discuss and quote for their best options…"
Mark Winandy Google
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"Superb service. Ben is a very knowledgeable professional. Gave clear and easily understandable explanations about the process and the systems. The standard of Ben's work was exceptional. He went the extra mile. Very highly recommend them."
Mark Hutchings Google
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"Zero hassle, very clean, and savings of £6,000 for a job well done."
Roger Hudson Google
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"The team at SolarFX were great! We had a solar system installed by them and we are seeing massive benefits!"
Lara Dymott Google
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"Ben is a fantastic installer. Going over and above to make sure you are happy with every part of your installation."
Linda Ashworth Google
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"Really pleased with the service. Ben installed our solar panels and we have not had any problems…"
Preety Sahaye Google
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"Ben was very professional and knowledgeable on the products. Great service, and we will continue using this company for future solar-related products."
Jason Mohammed Google
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"Very professional, polite, clean and very knowledgeable, with great after-sales service."
Lorraine Hirschfield Google
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"Great professional service. On time and with great support. I highly recommend."
Andrzej Ostapko Google
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"Friendly, knowledgeable, and efficient. The entire process was smooth and stress-free."
Anne Roy Google
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"First class all round experience. A great team of professionals!"
Oliver Tobias Google
Installations we've documented near Reading
Real jobs from our own team, written up in full: what was on the roof, what we fitted and why.
Reading, BerkshireA 9.5kWp slate-roof arrayTwenty black 475W panels across an existing slate roof, with the FOX EVO equipment kept in the garage.Read the case study
Reading, BerkshireA complete home energy systemTen panels on a pitched garage roof, storage below and an EV charger, designed as one system.Read the case study
Padworth, BerkshireSolar, storage and EV chargingSolar PV, battery storage, EV charging and a surplus diverter for hot water.Read the case study
Bath Road, Reading7.125kWp with Anker SOLIX storageFifteen AIKO 475W panels at around 20 degrees, an 8kW hybrid inverter and 10kWh of storage.Read the case study
Tadley, HampshireA compact 3.6kWp AIKO array on clay tileEight AIKO 445W Gen 2 panels on a Renusol system with 24 roof hooks.Read the case study
Tadley, HampshireFlat-roof solar with FOX ESS storageTwelve panels raised across a flat roof, inverter and battery consolidated in the plant room.Read the case study
Benson, OxfordshireFlat-roof solar PVA specialist flat-roof mounting system and a tidy internal electrical installation.Read the case study
East Horsley, SurreyA battery upgrade that became a full rebuildFour roof orientations sharing two MPPTs, and around 30kWh of storage rebuilt at ground level.Read the case study
Offer Free EV charger with every solar panel installation
EV charger installation in Reading
We fit home EV charge points across Reading and Berkshire, as a standalone job or alongside solar panels and a battery. We cover RG1, RG2, RG4, RG5 and the surrounding streets.
- Load assessment firstWe check your main fuse, consumer unit and demand, and add load management where the supply needs it.
- Safe earthing, every timePEN fault protection or a dedicated earth, established at survey rather than assumed.
- Charge from your own solarWith solar and a battery, a solar-aware charger fills the car from your roof instead of the grid.
- Smart, app-controlledCompliant smart charging with off-peak schedules, so you charge when electricity is cheapest.
Property and roof types in Reading
Victorian and Edwardian terraces — central Reading, Newtown and the Oxford Road
The terraced streets running off the Oxford Road, through Newtown and around Cemetery Junction are mostly late-Victorian and Edwardian, and they present the same handful of problems repeatedly. Roofs are narrow, front elevations face the street, and the usable slope is often the rear one. Slate is common, and older slate is brittle — fixings need to be set into rafters properly rather than driven optimistically through a batten.
Rafter spacing on houses of this age is frequently non-standard, so a mounting layout drawn to a default 400mm centre will not survive contact with the actual roof. We measure it during the survey and set the rail layout to the rafters that are there.
Access is the other Reading-specific issue. Many of these streets have no rear access and permit-only parking, so scaffolding has to be planned, and sometimes a permit arranged, before an installation date is confirmed. It is a solvable problem, but it is not one to discover on the morning of the install.
1930s semi-detached homes — Tilehurst, Caversham, Emmer Green
The interwar semis that dominate Tilehurst, much of Caversham and the older parts of Emmer Green are, on the whole, good solar houses. Hipped and gabled roofs in concrete or clay tile, decent rafter sections, and usually a straightforward run from the loft down to the consumer unit.
The two things that catch people out are hips and chimneys. A hipped roof loses the corners of an array, so a layout that looks like twelve panels on a drawing becomes ten on the roof once you keep the panels clear of the hip and the ridge. And the shared chimney stack on a semi will shade part of the array for part of the day — which is an argument for optimisers or a careful string layout rather than for abandoning the roof.
Caversham and Emmer Green also sit on a hill, and a good number of properties there have mature trees to the south. Tree shading changes through the year and is worth assessing honestly rather than optimistically.
1960s to 1980s estates — Woodley, Earley and Lower Earley
Lower Earley is one of the largest estates of its era in the country, and Woodley and Earley are similar in character. Trussed roofs, concrete interlocking tiles, roofing membrane underneath, and simple rectangular roof planes with few obstructions. From a purely technical point of view these are among the easiest roofs in Reading to work on.
Trussed roofs do need respecting: the trusses are engineered as a system and fixings go into the rafter members, not into whatever is convenient. Concrete tiles are heavier and more brittle at the edges than they look, and older ones can be fragile enough that a few spares are worth having on the van.
Consumer units on these houses are often original or from an early upgrade, and a proportion need replacing or supplementing before a battery is added. We would rather tell you that at survey than discover it on the day.
Modern developments — Green Park, Kennet Island and the newer riverside schemes
Newer developments around Green Park, Kennet Island and the redeveloped riverside sites bring different considerations. Roofs are often shallow-pitched, sometimes with restricted plane sizes, and management company or estate covenants occasionally have something to say about external alterations. That is worth checking early, because it is a paperwork problem rather than a technical one and it is much easier to resolve before a quotation is accepted.
On the plus side, wiring is modern, consumer units are current, and there is usually somewhere sensible to site a battery — a garage, a utility space, or an external wall that is not the one your neighbour looks at.
Designing a system in Reading
Orientation and shading across the town
Reading's terraced streets tend to run in long parallel rows, which means whole streets share an orientation. If your neighbour has a south-facing rear roof, so do you. Where a street runs east to west, the usable roof is often a single slope and the design question becomes whether an east-west split array is worth doing — frequently it is, particularly with a battery, because it spreads generation across the day rather than concentrating it at noon.
Mature trees are a real factor in Caversham, Emmer Green, Sonning and the older parts of Earley. Shading from a single tree is not a reason to abandon a project, but it is a reason to design around it with optimisers or a separate string rather than pretending it is not there.
Conservation areas and listed buildings
Reading has a number of conservation areas, including parts of central Reading, Caversham, and areas around the river. Solar on residential roofs is often permitted development, but conservation area status and listed building status both change that, and panels on an elevation fronting a highway are treated differently from panels on a rear roof.
We check the designation before designing anything, and where consent is needed we will tell you plainly rather than proceeding and hoping. In-roof mounting is sometimes the difference between a scheme that is acceptable in a sensitive setting and one that is not.
Scaffolding, access and parking
Anything above single storey needs scaffolding, and in central Reading that means thinking about pavement licences, permit parking and how a scaffold lorry reaches the property. On terraced streets with no rear access, the scaffold usually goes up at the front and materials are carried through — which is fine, provided everyone knows in advance and the house is protected properly.
Where a property is on a red route, a bus route or a narrow one-way street, we plan the delivery and scaffold sequence around it. This is the single most common cause of delays on Reading installations and it is almost entirely avoidable with a proper survey.
What we install in Reading
Every one of these is available across Reading and the surrounding area. Each page explains what is included, what is not, and what affects the price.
- Solar panel installationSurvey, design, roof works, electrical works and commissioning for a domestic solar PV system.
- Battery storage installationHome battery systems sized against your consumption, sited properly and commissioned with the tariff in mind.
- Solar and battery systemsPanels, hybrid inverter and storage designed as one system, on one scaffold, with one commissioning.
- Battery retrofitAdding storage to a solar system that is already on the roof, without disturbing what works.
- EV charger installationHome charge points installed with a proper load assessment, PEN fault protection and solar-aware scheduling.
- In-roof solarPanels integrated into the roof covering rather than mounted above it, with the weathering detailed properly.
How an installation in Reading runs
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Enquiry | You tell us the postcode, the property and roughly what you spend on electricity. |
| 2. Remote design | An indicative design and proposal based on the roof, your usage and your objectives. |
| 3. Site survey | Roof, structure, electrics, access and shading assessed in person. |
| 4. Final design and fixed quotation | A written specification and a fixed price before anything is ordered. |
| 5. Permissions and DNO | Any consent required, plus the G98 notification or G99 application. |
| 6. Installation | Scaffolding, roof works, electrical works and commissioning. |
| 7. Handover | Certification, monitoring setup, warranty registration and export tariff support. |
Many domestic installations are completed in one to three days once scaffolding is in place, although the actual duration depends on system size, roof type, access, electrical works and whether a battery is included. Read the full process.
What affects the price in Reading
Cost in Reading is driven by the same things as anywhere else — system size, panel and inverter specification, whether a battery is included, and the state of the existing electrics. What varies locally is access.
A detached house in Lower Earley with a driveway, a simple roof and a modern consumer unit is a straightforward job. A three-storey Victorian terrace on a permit-parking street with a brittle slate roof and a 1970s consumer unit is not, and the quotation will reflect the scaffolding, the additional care on the roof and the electrical work.
We would rather explain that difference than quote a headline price per kWp that turns into a variation once someone is on site.
What affects the cost of solar panels · What affects the cost of battery storage
Start here
Technology worth understanding first
- Power optimisersPer-panel DC electronics that keep conversion in one accessible box: the middle option between string and micro.
- MicroinvertersOne inverter per panel mounted on the roof: what per-panel conversion buys, and what it costs.
- Mounting systemsHooks, rails, clamps and fixings — the part of the installation that decides whether the roof stays watertight.
- All-black panelsPanels with black frames, black backsheets and concealed busbars, and what the appearance costs in output and in price.
Guides for Reading property types
- Victorian terracesNarrow slate slopes, party walls, rear back-additions and scaffolding through a shared alley — terraced solar on its own terms.
- Pre-1920 homesSolar on Victorian and Edwardian houses: brittle coverings, irregular rafters, ageing electrics and planning sensitivity.
- Post-1965 homesTrussed rafter roofs, concrete interlocking tile and modern electrics — the most straightforward housing stock to work on.
What homeowners in Reading ask us first
Do I need planning permission for solar panels in Reading?
For most houses in Reading, roof-mounted solar is permitted development and no application is needed. That changes if the property is listed or sits in a conservation area — and Reading has several — or where panels would go on an elevation fronting a highway. We confirm the designation for your address before designing the system, and tell you if consent is required.
Can you install on a terraced house with no rear access?
Yes, and we do it regularly across Newtown, east Reading and the Oxford Road streets. The scaffold goes up at the front, materials are carried through the property with protection down, and we arrange any parking suspension or pavement licence needed. It takes more planning than a detached house with a driveway, which is why we want to see the street at survey stage.
Is a battery worth it if I am out at work all day?
Usually more so, not less. If nobody is home between eight and six, most of what the panels generate would otherwise be exported at a low rate and bought back in the evening at a high one. Storage is what closes that gap. It also lets you charge from a cheap overnight tariff, which has value even in December when generation is minimal.
How long does an installation take in Reading?
Many domestic installations are completed in one to three days once scaffolding is in place, although the actual duration depends on system size, roof type, access, electrical works and whether a battery is included. Terraced properties with restricted access and older electrics take longer than a modern detached house.
Will a chimney stop me having solar?
Almost never. It changes the layout and it may make optimisers worthwhile so that one shaded panel does not drag down a whole string. Reading semis and terraces nearly all have a stack somewhere, and we design around them as a matter of routine.
Do you cover the villages around Reading as well as the town?
Yes. Burghfield, Theale, Calcot, Pangbourne, Sonning, Twyford, Shinfield, Spencers Wood, Arborfield and Charvil are all within easy reach of our base at Burghfield Common, along with Woodley, Winnersh and both Earleys.
Our work, photographed on site
Every photo here is from one of our own installations across Berkshire. No stock imagery.
Get a fixed price for your Reading home
Send us your postcode and roughly what you spend on electricity. We'll come back with an indicative design and a price before anyone visits.
Also covered from our base
- Solar panels in WokinghamBerkshire · RG40, RG41
- Solar panels in NewburyBerkshire · RG14, RG19, RG20
- Solar panels in ThatchamBerkshire · RG18, RG19
- Solar panels in BracknellBerkshire · RG12, RG42
- Solar panels in MaidenheadBerkshire · SL6
- Solar panels in BasingstokeHampshire · RG21, RG22, RG23
- Solar panels in Henley-on-ThamesOxfordshire · RG9
Get a free design and quotation for your Reading property
No obligation. We will review the details, come back to arrange the next step, and issue a written design and fixed quotation before anything is agreed.
Prefer to talk? Call 0118 227 7444.