Bolton, Bury, Worsley and Prestwich, covered from our Manchester office and under an hour from our HQ in Clitheroe. This is what solar actually involves on the housing north of the city, which is mostly terraces, semis and one very particular conservation village.
Our Manchester office number. Call it and you reach the people who will survey your roof, not a call centre.
From Princess Avenue, Clitheroe to Bolton. North Manchester is the nearest of our Greater Manchester areas, and every roof is still surveyed in person.
Tesla, Fox and Aiko. A short list we know properly rather than a catalogue we half know.
North of the city the housing is older, denser and more varied in condition than the south, and the solar questions are different: orientation and chimneys rather than trees and listing.
Long rows of stone and brick Victorian terraces, slate on timber, one usable slope each and a chimney stack every two houses. The whole row faces the same way, so the street decides more than the house does. Six to ten panels on the right slope is a good install. On the wrong slope we will say so rather than sell it.
Prestwich, Whitefield and the northern suburbs of Bolton are ring after ring of 1930s and post-war semis: hipped roofs, concrete tile and space between the houses. The best solar roofs north of the city. A hipped roof splits the array across two or three slopes, so the design is about balancing them rather than filling one big south face.
Worsley is the exception: a conservation area since 1969, with an Article 4 Direction, black-and-white timbered fronts and the Bridgewater Canal running through it. Beautiful, and the one place north of the city where a rear facing array needs a planning conversation before a design one. Roe Green and Boothstown around it are mostly ordinary suburban roofs.
Bolton has 26 conservation areas but only one, Barrow Bridge, with an Article 4 Direction. Bury’s two Prestwich conservation areas, Poppythorn and St Mary’s, have one at St Mary’s. Salford’s Worsley Village has one. Everywhere else north of the city, solar on a house is normally permitted development, including inside the other conservation areas. We check which side of a boundary you are on, and usually the answer is that you can go ahead.
A terrace roof with a chimney stack every other house is a shading problem twice a day. Combined with orientation, which side of an east to west street you are on, it decides whether a Bolton or Bury terrace is a good solar roof or a poor one, and no aerial estimate tells you that. We look at the street on a map before we quote, and if you are on the wrong side we would rather say so.
Bolton brought in a borough-wide Article 4 Direction on HMO conversions in June 2025. That is about change of use rather than solar, but it tells you how much of the terraced stock north of the city is rented. For a landlord the questions are who benefits from the generation and how it is metered, and rental energy efficiency requirements are only heading in one direction. It is a conversation we have had many times.
If you are not on this list, ask anyway. Bolton is forty-five minutes from our HQ and most of the rest is inside an hour.
Any installation has to be notified to them before connection. We handle it as part of the job rather than leaving it with you.
North of Bolton and Bury the ground rises fast to the West Pennine Moors. Egerton, Bromley Cross, Ramsbottom and Tottington have stone roofs, real exposure and earlier sunsets than the towns below them. Solar works up there; the design and the fixing specification have to account for it.
Yes. The towns are low and the terraces are dense, so the constraint is chimneys and orientation rather than the weather. Panels run on daylight, not heat, and a grey Bolton afternoon still generates usefully.
What decides it is which way the roof faces, what the chimney next door does to it in the afternoon, and when the house is occupied. A Prestwich semi with a south facing hip is a straightforward case. A north facing terrace is not, and we will tell you so before you spend anything.
So we can look at the roof, which way it faces, and which side of the street you are on.
On any annual statement, in units. A rough figure is fine.
The single biggest factor in how much of your generation you keep.
That is enough for a straight answer. If your roof is not right for it, we will say so. We would rather tell you now than sell you something that disappoints you in February.
Usually not. Solar on a house is normally permitted development, and north of the city Article 4 Directions are rare: Barrow Bridge in Bolton, St Mary’s in Prestwich, and Worsley Village. Outside those three, the normal rules apply even inside the other conservation areas. We check the designation before anything is designed.
Worsley Village has been a conservation area since 1969 and carries an Article 4 Direction, so assume a planning application is needed before a layout is designed. It is not automatically a refusal, and a rear facing array is often acceptable, but it is a conversation to have first.
Often not, and we will tell you. A north facing single slope with a chimney next door is a poor solar roof. If the front faces south and you are not in one of the Article 4 areas, a front slope array can work, but it is a different conversation about appearance.
Frequently, because a rented house is often occupied through the day. The questions to settle are who benefits from the generation and how the electricity is billed, and they are far easier to settle before the install than after it.
We do. For Bolton, Bury and Salford that is Electricity North West, and it happens before connection as part of the job.
One to two days on site for a typical terrace or semi once the scaffold is up. Stone houses up on the moors take longer, and exposed sites sometimes need a different fixing specification agreeing first.