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SolarWhat happens on your free 45 minute design call
It is forty five minutes on a video call, and you finish it holding a written price. Nobody comes to your house to produce that price. Here is exactly what gets covered, in the order it happens.
Updated 4 August 2026 · from the OVO Solar & Battery team
The short version
Your local OVO expert shares their screen, brings up your roof, and designs a system on it while you watch. They talk through what your household actually uses and when. Then they send you a written quote before the call ends. The whole thing takes about forty five minutes, it costs nothing, and nobody visits your home to produce it.
What you are holding at the end
A panel layout for your specific roof, an estimate of what it would generate and export, a battery size matched to your usage, and a written quote in your inbox while you are still on the call. No deposit, and no obligation to take it.
What to have ready before you book
- A recent electricity bill, or your annual kWh figure from your online account. None of this is essential, but it makes the design sharper.
- A rough sense of when the house is occupied on a weekday.
- Whether you already have a smart meter, since export payments need one that can send half hourly readings.
- Anything coming that will change your usage, such as an electric car, a heat pump or an extension.
- Any known quirks about the roof, like a recent re-tile, a flat section, or a tree that has grown into the light.
Step by step, from the first minute
Your roof goes on screen
Your expert brings your property up and works across each roof face in turn. Orientation, pitch, usable area, and the things that eat into it: chimneys, vents, rooflights, dormers, and shading from trees or neighbouring buildings.
The panel layout gets drawn
Panels are placed on the faces that earn their keep, and the array size in kWp falls out of that. You watch the layout change as decisions get made, so you can say no to a face you would rather leave clear.
Your usage gets talked through
Annual kWh, when people are home, whether anyone works from the house, what the evening looks like. This is the part that decides the battery, and it is a conversation rather than a form.
Battery and export rate get set
The battery is sized against the electricity you use outside daylight hours. Your expert also covers which export rate your system would qualify for, and the conditions attached to it.
The written quote arrives
The price for the system as designed on screen, in writing, sent while you are still on the call. If you want a panel added or removed, that gets changed and repriced there and then.
What your expert is looking for on the roof
A roof is not one surface. Most UK homes have at least two faces worth assessing, and they rarely perform the same. South facing gives the biggest annual total. East and west split the generation into a morning peak and an evening peak, which often suits a household better because it lands closer to when people are actually using electricity. Shading matters more than most homeowners expect, because panels wired in a series string tend to perform at the level of the weakest module. That is fixable with module level electronics, but it is a design decision with a cost attached, so it gets raised on the call rather than discovered later. The sequencing of panels and storage is set out in our guide to solar and battery strategy.
The usage conversation, and why it drives the battery
Panels generate at midday. Most households use the bulk of their electricity in the evening. The battery is what closes that gap, so it gets sized against the part of your day that solar cannot reach rather than against your total consumption. The arithmetic behind it is simple. Under the Ofgem price cap for 1 July to 30 September 2026, the average capped electricity rate is 26.11p per kWh, so every unit you cover from your own battery is a unit you do not buy at that price. An accurate usage figure changes the design more than almost anything else you bring to the call.
| What gets worked out | Where the number comes from |
|---|---|
| Usable roof area and panel count | Your roof measured on screen, face by face, with pitch, orientation and shading |
| Annual generation estimate | The agreed panel layout modelled against your location and roof aspect |
| Battery size | Your annual kWh and when your household is genuinely at home |
| Grid application route | Your inverter rating against the 3.68kW per phase threshold |
| Export income | Your modelled surplus at the export rate your system qualifies for |
| Price | The system exactly as designed on screen, quoted in writing on the call |
Every line is worked through while you watch, so you can challenge any of it before it reaches the quote.
The grid paperwork, handled for you
Solar connections are governed by your Distribution Network Operator, the company that owns the cables in your street. Up to 3.68kW of inverter capacity per phase, the job runs under G98, which means it can be fitted first and notified to the network within 28 days of commissioning. Above that it runs under G99, which needs approval before the work happens and typically takes around four to eight weeks. On a three phase supply the connect and notify ceiling rises to 11.04kW. You never file any of it. Your regional partner deals with the same network operator every week and handles the application end to end, and your expert will tell you on the call which route your design takes and what it means for the timeline.
Who is on the other end of the call
OVO supplies energy to 4 million customers. Solar and battery installations are carried out by regional partner businesses that hold the exclusive OVO partnership for their area. There are 16 of them, selected from around 200 businesses assessed, and between them they have completed over 1,000 OVO solar and battery installs in the last 12 months. Every job carries the OVO guaranteed 10 year workmanship warranty, and the expert who designs your system on the call is from the same local business that fits it.
Book the free 45 minute video design and watch your own roof measured on screen, with a written quote before you hang up.
Get your free quote →What the quote covers, and what to check
- The panel count, the panel wattage and the total array size in kWp.
- The inverter rating, which is what sets your grid application route.
- The battery capacity, and whether it matches the usage figure you gave.
- The generation and export estimates, and the assumptions sitting under them.
- The export rate quoted, and the conditions attached to qualifying for it.
Pricing for each system size is set out in our solar panel cost guide, and the export rates with their full conditions are in the export rate guide. To see which local OVO expert covers your area, enter your postcode on the coverage page. Anything the call did not answer is in the help centre.
Export rates and eligibility conditions were correct at August 2026 and are subject to change. The 20p rate applies where OVO installs both your solar and your battery, requires you to take your electricity supply from OVO, and applies to systems under 30kW. Confirm the current position on your call.
Forty five minutes, your roof on screen, a written price at the end, and nobody at your door. Book your free design call.
Get your free quote →Design call questions, answered
Do I have to be at home for the call?
No. It is a video call, so you can take it from anywhere with a decent connection. Some people take it from the office. It helps to be somewhere you can look at a screen properly, because you will be watching your roof get measured and a layout get drawn, and you will want to see it clearly enough to question it.
How accurate can a design be without anyone seeing the roof?
Accurate enough to price. Roof faces, pitch, orientation, usable area and most shading obstructions are all readable on screen, and the panel layout is drawn against them while you watch. What a remote design cannot do is inspect your rafters or your consumer unit, so if anything about the property is unusual, say so on the call and your expert will tell you what it changes.
Is it really free, and is there any obligation?
It is free and there is no obligation. You get the written quote whether you buy or not, and there is no deposit at any point during the call. Plenty of people book it simply to get a real number for comparison, then take their time.
What if I do not know my annual electricity usage?
The call still works. Your expert can size against typical consumption for a household like yours and flag it as an assumption. It is worth digging the real figure out afterwards, because the battery size is the part of the design most sensitive to it, and a revised figure can be run through without booking a second call.
Who actually installs the system?
A regional partner business holding the exclusive OVO partnership for your area. There are 16 of them, selected from around 200 businesses assessed, and between them they have completed over 1,000 OVO solar and battery installs in the last 12 months. The work carries the OVO guaranteed 10 year workmanship warranty.
Do I need a smart meter?
For export payments, yes. Export tariffs depend on a smart meter capable of sending half hourly export readings, because that is how your exported units get measured and paid for. If you do not have one, raise it on the call and your expert will explain the order things need to happen in.
Can the price change after the call?
The quote reflects the system exactly as designed on screen. Change the design, by adding panels or adding a battery, and the price moves with it. Your expert will tell you on the call which parts of the quote are fixed and what could alter them, so nothing lands as a surprise later.
What if my roof turns out not to suit solar?
Then you will be told that on the call, and it has cost you nothing to find out. A north facing only roof, heavy permanent shading or very limited usable area can all make a system hard to justify, and a straight answer at the design stage is worth more than a quote you would regret.
Figures and specifications in this guide are sourced below and were checked on the date shown. Rates and product specifications change; we confirm the current picture on your free design call.
Sources
- OVO Solar and Battery, the free 45 minute remote video design process, the partner installer network and the workmanship warranty ovosolarandbattery.co.uk
- OVO Energy, Smart Export Guarantee rates and eligibility conditions, checked 3 August 2026 ovoenergy.com
- Ofgem, energy price cap for 1 July to 30 September 2026, average capped electricity unit rate ofgem.gov.uk
- Energy Networks Association, G98 and G99 connection processes for small scale generation, including the 3.68kW per phase threshold and the 28 day notification window energynetworks.org
- Ofgem, Smart Export Guarantee scheme rules and the smart metering requirement for export payments ofgem.gov.uk
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