The Efficient Solar Company

27/10/2026

The price cap went up at the start of this month, taking a typical household to around £1,723 a year.
It's worth saying what that figure is and isn't. It caps the unit rate and the standing charge, not your total bill, so what you actually pay still depends on how much you use. A cold January in a draughty house doesn't care what the cap says.
We've written up what the change means and the bits of it that tend to get glossed over. It's on the blog, link in the comments.

25/10/2026

The clocks went back last night, so that’s the dark evenings properly here.

Worth being straight about what that means. Output drops from now until around February. Panels run on daylight rather than heat, and there’s simply less of it about.

What changes is where the value sits. In summer a system often makes more than the house is using. In winter it’s about hanging on to what you do generate, which is why a battery and the right tariff matter more up here than they do further south.

If you’ve already got one, today is a good day to check how it’s set to charge overnight. Plenty of people set it in spring and never look at it again.

24/10/2026

“Will the chimney get in the way?”

It’s one of the questions we’re asked most, and you can see why from this one. The honest answer is sometimes, a little, at certain times of day. Shade moves across a roof as the sun does, so a chimney that shades nothing at noon might clip a panel late in the afternoon in December.

That’s a large part of what the survey is for. Where the panels sit, how they’re grouped and what needs working around all get decided up on the roof, not from a photo or a postcode.

It rarely means solar won’t work. It usually means the layout ends up a bit different from what you’d have guessed from the ground.

23/10/2026

"Very good and quick service, my house was left clean after installation.”

Leaving a house as we found it isn’t an extra, it’s just part of the job. Scaffolding down, cables tidied, floors swept. Thanks for taking the time to write this one.

14/10/2026

We are really proud of this .

This one means a lot to us.

We’ve been awarded a 99% customer satisfaction rating by Independent Warranty, following their installation quality survey. It’s their Customer Care Merit Award, and what makes it mean something is that it comes from asking our customers directly rather than from anything we’ve said about ourselves.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to answer, and to everyone who’s trusted us with their home this year. We don’t take it for granted.

29/09/2026

What the October price change actually means for your house

From Wednesday, Ofgem's cap goes up 4%. For a typical household that's around £1,723 a year, up about £60.

The bit worth understanding is that the cap limits the unit rate, not your bill. Your bill is the unit rate multiplied by how much you buy from the grid. You can't do much about the first part. The second part is where solar comes in.

Panels don't power your house instead of the grid. What they do is cover what you're using while the sun's on them the fridge, the freezer, the washer, anything on standby. Anything you don't use goes back to the grid, and you're paid a small amount for it.

That's why batteries have become so common. Instead of exporting the middle of the day for pennies, you store it and use it at teatime, when you'd otherwise be buying at the full rate.

How much it's worth depends on the roof, the direction it faces, and when people are actually in the house. It genuinely doesn't suit everyone, and we'll say so if it doesn't.

The job we finished in Blackburn last week was a mid-terrace, five panels and a 5.76kWh battery, in and done in a day. Not a big roof, not a big system, but enough to make a difference to what that family buys in.

If you've been wondering how your own roof would stack up, ask away in the comments and we'll answer.

or call us on 07831 434622 if you'd rather talk it through.

26/09/2026

This one was a bit of a project, and we're right chuffed with how it's turned out.

Lovely old stone barn up in the hills, and the owners wanted solar without it looking like someone had bolted panels onto a 200-year-old roof. Fair enough, we'd have felt the same.
So we stripped the roof right back, fitted an in-roof system and dropped the panels in level with the stone. Drive past now and you'd hardly clock them, they just look like part of the roof.
Inside, there's a Sunsynk inverter and two batteries, so everything the roof makes during the day is there to use of an evening instead of going back to the grid.
Every bit of it done by our own crew, start to finish.
Got a roof you think might be a bit awkward? We love the tricky ones. Give us a ring and we'll come and have a look.

📞 07831 434622

23/09/2026

Can you get solar panels on finance?

Yes. It's the question we get asked most on surveys, so we've partnered with credit broker Ideal4Finance to let you spread the cost over monthly payments, subject to status.

You'll get the same system, the same install team and the same aftercare, just paid for monthly instead of all at once. Have a look at the calculator on our website to see how repayments would work for the system you're after.

theefficientsolarcompany.com/solar-panel-finance

The Efficient Solar Company Ltd is an Introducer Appointed Representative of Ideal Sales Solutions Ltd, t/a Ideal4Finance. Ideal Sales Solutions Ltd is a credit broker and not a lender (FRN 703401). Finance available subject to status. The rate offered is always provisional and will depend upon your personal circumstances, the loan amount and the term.

10/08/2026

30/07/2026

It's been another busy couple of weeks for us The Efficient Solar Company and we'd like to say a big thank you to all our customers for keeping us so busy! ☀️🔋

We've recently completed:

✅ 5kW Solar PV System with a 10kWh Battery
✅ 8kW Solar PV System with a 10kWh Battery
✅ 3.6kW Solar PV System with a 10.6kWh Battery

As with every installation we carry out, we've handled all the MCS certification and DNO applications/notifications, so our customers don't have to worry about a thing. From the initial survey through to commissioning, we make the whole process as straightforward as possible.

We're proud to be a local family run business based in Barnoldswick, helping homeowners across the area reduce their energy bills, become less reliant on the grid, and make the most of renewable energy.

If you're thinking about solar panels or battery storage, we'd love to help. Get in touch for a free, no-obligation quote, and thanks again to everyone who's trusted us with their homes—we really do appreciate your support! ☀️💚