How to choose a solar panel installer in Northwich

Start with what a Northwich roof needs

Every installer says it carries out a survey. On a Northwich house the survey is where firms differ most. The town lies within the brine subsidence compensation district set up by the Cheshire Brine Pumping (Compensation for Subsidence) Act 1952, and terraced houses account for 44.7% of households in the Witton ward (Census 2021). Older roofs, natural slate, past repairs and the possibility of old movement all call for someone who goes into the loft and is willing to say that an engineer should take a look. The checks below are in the order worth doing them: paperwork first, then the conversation, then the quote.

Check 1: the MCS directory

MCS is the certification scheme for small-scale renewable installations such as home solar. Certification matters for two practical reasons. Without an MCS certificate for the installation, you cannot get an export tariff under the SEG, Ofgem’s export tariff rules. And certification requires the firm to belong to a consumer code, which gives you protections if something goes wrong.

Search the MCS installer directory by the firm’s name. Check three things:

• The name matches. The company on the quote should match the company on the directory. A trading name on the van and a different company on the paperwork deserves a question.
• The scope is right. The directory lists the technologies each firm is certified for. Solar PV and battery storage are separate, so a firm certified only for solar PV is not certified to install your battery.
• The firm does the work. Some firms sell the job and subcontract the installation. Ask who will actually be on your roof and under whose certification the work will be registered.

Check 2: a consumer code

Consumer codes are rulebooks that firms sign up to, approved by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI). In home renewables, the codes you are most likely to come across are RECC and HIES. They set standards for how firms sell, what a quote and contract must contain, how deposits are protected and how complaints are handled. Ask which code the firm belongs to, and confirm the membership on that code’s own website rather than relying on a logo on the firm’s letterhead.

Check 3: Companies House

Search the company on Companies House. In a few minutes you can see:

• the registered name and company number, which should appear on the quote;
• whether the company is active, and when it was formed;
• whether its accounts and confirmation statements are filed on time;
• the directors, and the other companies they have run, including any dissolved soon after trading began.

None of this proves good or bad work. A young company can be excellent and an older one careless. But a pattern of companies opened and closed by the same people, or accounts long overdue, is a reason to ask questions before you pay a deposit.

Check 4: ask how they check older roofs

Before anyone visits, ask one simple question: how do you assess the roof structure on an older Northwich house? Then listen for specifics.

Signs of a careful firm

• inspecting the roof space and describing the rafters: their size, spacing and condition;
• looking for signs of past movement, both from the street and from inside;
• how they fix to slate as opposed to tile, and who replaces any breakages;
• putting concerns in writing, and recommending a structural engineer when they cannot be sure.

Signs of a careless one

• a promise to price the job from a satellite image with no visit planned;
• a claim that roofs round here are all fine;
• an assurance that panels are light, so the structure does not matter.

The full list of what a survey should cover is in the roof structure check, and the background to the town’s ground is on subsidence and solar.

Check 5: the written quote

A proper quote is written down, specific to your house and produced after a survey. It should include:

1. the system size in kWp, the number of panels, and the make and model of the panels and inverter;
2. a layout drawing showing where the panels will go;
3. an estimate of annual generation in kWh, with the method and any shading allowance explained;
4. the roof survey findings, and any structural work or engineer’s report allowed for;
5. the fixing method for your roof covering;
6. scaffolding, access and any licences needed;
7. electrical work, including consumer unit changes and isolators;
8. who notifies or applies to the network operator, under G98 or G99 (see grid connection);
9. the total price with the VAT rate shown (for home solar, 0% to the end of March 2027 and 5% afterwards, per HMRC’s VAT Notice 708/6);
10. the deposit, the payment stages, and what happens to the deposit if the job does not go ahead;
11. warranties for the panels, the inverter and the workmanship, and who stands behind each one;
12. an expected timescale, and what you will receive at handover, including the MCS certificate.

Reading the warranties

Warranty lines on a solar quote are easy to skim and hard to compare. There are usually several, each from a different party. The panel maker offers a product warranty against defects and, separately, a performance warranty promising that output will not fall below a stated level for a stated period. The inverter maker offers its own product warranty, which may run for a different period from the panels’. The installer offers a workmanship warranty covering the fitting itself: the fixings, the flashing around them and the wiring. Ask what happens to that workmanship cover if the firm stops trading, and whether it is backed by insurance. On a Northwich roof, where the fixings and the slate around them are the parts most likely to need attention, the workmanship cover deserves as much scrutiny as the panel specification.

Red flags

• Pressure. Discounts that vanish unless you sign tonight, or a salesperson who will not leave.
• Prices that expire on the day. A genuine price does not disappear overnight.
• Savings promises. Headline savings, or claims that the system pays for itself, without the assumptions written down. Ask for the generation estimate in kWh instead; it is the figure you can check.
• Big deposits. A large share of the price taken before any survey, or long before materials are ordered.
• No MCS certificate. A firm that cannot say whose certification the job will be registered under, or suggests you do not need one.
• No roof inspection. A firm that sets a final price on an older house without seeing the loft.
• Grant talk. Claims that a grant will pay without any check of your income or EPC rating; see grants and schemes.

Getting more than one quote

Two or three quotes from firms that have each surveyed the roof will tell you more than any single one. Compare them line by line using the list above, not on the total alone. The cost guide shows how to turn a quote into a price per kW and set it against the published figures. If a council group-buying round is open, its offer is another useful benchmark. For short answers on costs, grants and the grid in one place, see the FAQs.

Neighbours as references

With thousands of solar sites now recorded in Cheshire West and Chester by DESNZ, someone on your street may already have panels. Ask them who installed them, whether the survey included the loft, how the firm dealt with scaffolding and slate, and whether the certificates arrived when promised. What they say about aftercare can be more revealing than the price they paid. The local figures are in solar take-up locally.

Before you pay the balance

Make sure you have, or have a firm date for: the MCS certificate; the electrical installation certificate; confirmation of the G98 notification or the G99 approval; the warranty documents; and the manuals and monitoring login. You need them to claim an export tariff, and one day you will need them to sell the house, as buying a Northwich home with solar explains.

If two quotes for the same Northwich roof differ in ways you cannot explain, put both through the question form with the system sizes, and the reply will set the line items side by side. More reading on each step is listed in the guides.