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Solar panels can cut your electricity bills by up to 50%. Just enter your postcode below to compare solar panel quotes and find the best deal.
Solar panels, or solar PV, convert energy from the sun into electricity for your home - an easy way to cut your electricity bills in an environmentally friendly way. If you buy your solar panels outright and qualify for the Feed-in Tariff, you can also earn money for the energy you generate.
Our customers found their energy bills halved after installing solar panels - a figure backed up by national research. Generating your own energy and being self-sufficient also means you can defend your home against future energy price rises. Simply pop in your postcode below to find the best deal for your home.
When you buy your own solar panels, you'll generate free electricity and get paid for every unit you produce through the government's Feed-in Tariff scheme. Find out more
If you're worried about the upfront cost, we also have a range of solar panel loans available.
In a limited number of areas, you can also get free solar panels. However, while you get to keep the free electricity, they keep the Feed-in Tariff payments. Find out more
We know it's a big decision, so we've tried to cover all the details you'll need in our guides below. If you still have any questions just let us know on customerservices@uswitch.com
Solar panels information from uSwitch - get the lowdown on solar panels and decide if they're right for your home
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Solar panels are made up from a layer of photovoltaic cells. Photovoltaic cells are made from a semiconducting material, usually silicon, that work by converting the energy from sunlight into electricity. It is these cells that convert the sun’s energy into electricity.
Solar panels don’t need blazing sunshine to work and the UK gets more than enough sunlight for solar panels to work. Solar panels work as long as there is daylight. However, in winter, when the days are shorter, your solar panels will produce less electricity than in summer. How much energy your solar panels produce relies on the amount of sunlight they receive as well as their voltage.
Your solar panels are are connected to the National Grid, so if you stop producing free electricity, you can buy it as normal. It will be a seamless transition, so you won’t have to worry about your lights cutting out if your solar panels stop producing electricity.
Enter your postcode in our solar panel comparison and we'll show you the best deals for free solar panels or solar panel providers if you want to buy solar panels outright.
The government Feed-in Tariff scheme means that any surplus electricity you use can be sold back to the National Grid - a great way of not only saving on your electricity bills but also making your solar panels profitable. If you choose free solar panels, the company which installs your solar panels will normally keep this income. If you don’t have the money upfront to install solar panels but want to keep your Feed-in Tariff income, it is a good idea to get a solar panel loan - you make the payments on the loan using the money generated from your Feed-in Tariff payments. Once it is all paid off, you can keep your Feed-in Tariff income.
Learn more about solar panels with our solar panel guides.
A 3kW 12 solar panel system, with a tilt of 30 degrees, South facing, with no shading and a 0.8 constant (used to make the calculation accurate for UK conditions), will generate 2575 Kwhs of electricity per year. By signing up to the Feed-in Tariff, you can earn 15.44p for every unit of electricity generated (£397), plus 4.5p for every unit sold back to the Grid (£57) meaning total Feed-in Tariff earnings of £455. By adding together the savings on electricity and the earnings on the Feed-in Tariff, you get a total saving of £640. Over the 20 years of the feed-in tariff, this means total income of £12,819.