What a Solar Install Actually Looks Like, Day by Day

People ask about kilowatt hours and warranties. What they are usually worried about is different: how many days will strangers be in my house, how much of my wall are you breaking, and will it work when you leave.

Nobody publishes that, so here is a real installation from the first visit to the handover.

Before anything: the visit

Somebody comes to your house. That sounds obvious and it is the step most often skipped, because it costs a morning and quoting over the phone does not.

What we are looking at: what you actually run and for how long, where the roof faces and what shades it, where the battery and inverter can live with air around them, how far that is from your consumer unit, and what state your existing wiring is in.

That last one surprises people. Solar does not fix bad house wiring, it reveals it. Better to find it now than on commissioning day.

Bring your meter reading to this visit if you have it. Reading it yourself takes a day and puts you in a much stronger position, which is the whole point of our free sizing guide.

Then the design, and the part worth arguing about

You should get back more than a price. You should get what size battery and why, what size inverter and why, how many panels and what they are expected to make on a poor day, and what the system will not do.

That last item matters. A design that claims to do everything has not been thought about. Ours will usually say something like: this carries your fridge, freezer, fans, lights and office all night, and one AC in the evening but not overnight.

Push back here, before anything is ordered. Changing your mind at the design stage costs a conversation. Changing it after commissioning costs equipment.

Delivery day

The batteries and inverter arrive first, usually with the panels. This is the moment to check what turned up against what you agreed, because it is far easier now than later.

Weigh the battery. Check the panel serial numbers in all three places. Count the panels. It takes fifteen minutes and it is the last easy opportunity you get. Our posts on fake panels and fake batteries cover what to look for.

Day one: mounting and cabling

The roof work happens first, usually early while it is cool. Rails go down, panels go on, and the DC cabling is run into the house.

Meanwhile a second pair of hands is preparing where the equipment will live: mounting the inverter, positioning the battery, running cable to your consumer unit and fitting the protection.

Expect noise, expect drilling, and expect somebody on your roof for several hours. Most homes are through this in a day.

Day two: connection and commissioning

The system gets tied into your consumer unit, which means the power goes off for a stretch while that is done properly.

Then commissioning. Settings configured for your specific battery, because the charge parameters are not generic and getting them wrong shortens the battery’s life quietly over years. That is a real job, not a formality, and we wrote about it in inverter charge settings.

After that it is tested under real load. Switch things on. Watch the changeover when NEPA drops. Start the heaviest appliance you own and watch what the inverter does, because that is the moment surge shows up if it is going to.

The handover, and what you should be given

This is the part that separates a professional job from a transaction, and it is where you should be most demanding.

• A walkthrough of the display, so you can read your own system
• What each alarm means on your specific brand, in writing
• The charge settings that were configured, written down
• Where the isolators are, and how to shut it down safely
• What is covered by warranty, for how long, and who to call
• The app set up on your phone, if the system supports it

If nobody walks you through the display, you will not notice a problem developing until it becomes a failure. That single conversation prevents most of the callouts we get.

The week after

Watch it, without worrying about it. A new system takes a few days to settle into a rhythm you recognise, and you learn what a normal evening looks like on the display.

Then when something changes months later, you will know, because you have a baseline. That is worth more than any warranty.

A fair expectation

One to two days for most homes. One day if everything is straightforward and the equipment is already on site. Longer for a big system, a difficult roof, or if your existing wiring needs work first.

Anybody promising a full install in three hours is skipping something, and it is usually the commissioning, which is the part you cannot see and will feel in four months.

If you want to know what yours would involve specifically, message us on WhatsApp on +234 809 988 9885 and describe your house. We will tell you what the job looks like before anybody quotes you a number.