The Challenge
The Taylor family came to us in late 2025 with a simple problem: their electricity bills had more than doubled since 2022, and with two children at home and both parents working remotely, they were heavy daytime users. Their annual electricity spend had reached £2,100 — and rising.
The property is a 1970s semi-detached in north Hull with a south-facing roof at a 35-degree pitch — close to ideal for solar generation. The family qualified for full funding under the ECO4 scheme, meaning the entire system cost was covered by grant.
What We Installed
- 12 × Sigen 410W Mono PERC panels (4.92kWp total)
- Sigen 6kW hybrid inverter with integrated battery management
- Sigen 10.24kWh battery module
- 100A consumer unit upgrade with SPD protection
- DC isolators, surge protection, and weatherproof cabling throughout
- Sigen monitoring app with live generation and consumption data
Installation walkthrough video coming soon
The Installation
Our team arrived on a clear January morning and completed the full installation over two days. Day one covered the roof work: mounting rails, panel installation, and DC cabling. Day two handled the inverter, battery, consumer unit upgrade, and commissioning.
The property's loft space made cable routing straightforward — DC cables ran from roof to inverter without any visible external trunking. The battery was wall-mounted in the garage, keeping it off the living space entirely.
System commissioning took three hours: we configured the inverter for maximum self-consumption, set the battery to charge preferentially from solar, and set up grid export with Octopus Energy for any surplus generation.
The Results
We checked back with the Taylors after the first full month of operation. The numbers were better than projected:
- Solar generated 312kWh in January — the lowest generation month of the year
- Battery provided overnight and morning power, eliminating peak-rate grid draw on most days
- Grid import dropped from an average of 480kWh/month to 104kWh/month
- Electricity bill for January: £23.40, down from £175 the previous January
- Projected annual saving based on system modelling: £1,240
In summer months, the family expects to be near grid-independent — the 10kWh battery is large enough to carry them through most summer nights on solar alone.
"We honestly didn't expect it to make such a difference in January. The app shows us generating power even on grey days — and the battery means we barely touch the grid until late evening. We wish we'd done this years ago."— Mr & Mrs Taylor, Hull
Key Takeaways
This installation demonstrates how effective a well-sized hybrid system can be even in a northern climate during winter. The key factors that made this project work:
- South-facing roof with minimal shading meant full panel output
- 10kWh battery sized to cover typical overnight consumption
- Hybrid inverter handles solar, grid, and battery as a single integrated system
- ECO4 funding eliminated any payback period concern for the customer