Solar Panels in Rochdale & Heywood

We cover Rochdale, Heywood and the surrounding borough for solar panels, battery storage, EV chargers and general electrical work. Our base is in Prestwich, and the route over runs through Middleton, where we're already working most weeks, so getting out to a survey in Rochdale or Heywood is a straightforward trip rather than an expedition.

Ashley does every survey himself and is on site for the install. As an MCS-certified electrician, he'll tell you what'll work on your roof and what won't, and the numbers you get will be modelled on your property and usage rather than read off a brochure.

Solar panels in Rochdale

Rochdale's housing runs from terraced streets around the town centre, through the semis and detached houses of the suburbs, to stone-built properties as the ground rises towards Littleborough and the Pennine edge. Each type wants something different from a solar panel installation. The terraces have compact roofs with chimneys to design around, so the job is placing the panels well rather than covering everything. The stone slate roofs on the older properties towards the hills need proper care with fixings and weathering, and the exposed positions mean wind loading gets taken seriously in the mounting design. The semis and the newer estates have larger, simpler roofs that take bigger arrays, usually with a battery in the system so the evening runs on the afternoon's generation.

Because the borough climbs into the hills, aspect varies a lot from street to street. Two houses a few hundred yards apart can have quite different solar potential depending on how they sit on the slope, which is exactly what a measured survey settles.

Battery storage and EV chargers in Rochdale

A battery works with solar and without it: charged overnight on an off-peak tariff and run down through the day, it cuts the unit price of everything it covers. Our home battery installation page covers sizing and how the tariff side fits together.

For EV charger installation, the same rules apply here as anywhere - the supply, earthing and consumer unit get checked by a qualified electrician before anything's quoted, because a charger is a new circuit on your installation, not a gadget on a wall. With the M62 on the doorstep and the tram running into Manchester via Oldham, plenty of households round here rack up the miles, and overnight home charging on a cheap tariff is the affordable way to cover them.

“From the start he was extremely friendly, knew what he was talking about and we agreed a price, he came did the job it took longer than he expected but he didn't complain he took his time to finish the job and came back next day to help set it up, I was thoroughly impressed”

10/10 · M45 · March 2026 · one of 161 verified reviews from Checkatrade

Heywood and new-build electrical work

Heywood, Bowlee and the surrounding area is where our new-build electrical experience sits. Renegade designed, installed and commissioned the complete electrical installation for a new-build home in Bowlee - lighting inside and out, with a wall-mounted smart-home interface controlling lights, plugs, switches, cameras and thermostats, all planned while the walls were still open. Solar panels were planned for a later phase, and the consumer unit and cable routes were designed with that in mind. The full account is in the Bowlee new-build case study.

That project is a fair picture of what an electrician-led outfit brings to a self-build or renovation: the low-carbon equipment gets planned in the right order rather than bolted on afterwards. If you're building around Heywood and want the electrical design and installation handled that way, it's the kind of job we take on.

Electrical safety in older properties

Plenty of the housing stock across Rochdale and Heywood has been wired and rewired in stages over decades, and the state of the consumer unit and earthing affects what can be added to it. An EICR electrical safety inspection costs £150 plus VAT for any domestic property, with same day certificates - a sensible starting point before adding solar, a battery or a charger to an older installation. We carry out remedial work and consumer unit upgrades too.

Whether it's panels on a terrace in Wardle, a battery in a semi in Norden or a whole-house electrical design in Heywood, it's the same in-house team doing the work. Get in touch and we'll come out and put real numbers in front of you.

Local services

What we do in Rochdale

Every one of these is carried out by the in-house team, with only specialist scaffolding subcontracted.

Solar Panel and Battery Installations in Manchester

Commercial Solar Installations

EV Charger Installation, Repair and Relocation

EICR & Electrical Safety Inspections

Home Battery Installations

Electrical Testing in Manchester

Certified, registered and independently checked

Why us

A small Manchester outfit, not a sales operation

Renegade Solar is run by Ashley Merritt, a qualified electrician. Here is what that changes.

You deal with Ashley

Ashley Merritt runs Renegade Solar, does the survey himself and designs the system. There is no call centre and nobody works on commission.

About Ashley →

An electrician designs it

Over 20 years on the tools, including more than 10 years on commercial work. The roof, the wiring, the consumer unit and the battery sizing are all one job, not four.

Our own team fits it

The installation is carried out by the in-house Renegade Solar team. Specialist scaffolding is the only part we subcontract.

Awkward roofs welcome

Flat roofs, rooflights, dormers, chimneys, parapets, mixed roof sections and ground-mounted arrays. We design around what is actually up there.

See the gallery →

How it works

What happens after you get in touch

The same order every time, and the same person through all of it.

Free survey

A qualified electrician comes out and looks at the actual roof, the consumer unit, the cable route and how you use electricity. Not a salesperson with a script.
No charge, no obligation
System design

Panel layout, inverter and battery sizing, 3D modelling and generation projections worked out for your property and your tariff rather than a Google Earth guess.
Written proposal

The equipment, the layout and the numbers in writing, with the payback calculation and the assumptions behind it so you can check the working.
Installation

Fitted by the in-house team. A standard domestic install is commonly one to two days, subject to scaffolding, roof condition, consumer unit work and weather.
Commonly 1 to 2 days
Commissioning and certification

Tested and certified to the applicable BS 7671 requirements, with MCS-certified equipment and installation so the system is eligible for the Smart Export Guarantee.
Handover and aftercare

We show you the monitoring, explain how to get the most out of the system, and cover two years of routine maintenance afterwards.
Two years routine maintenance

Recent work

Jobs we have actually done

Real roofs in Greater Manchester, photographed on the day. Scroll sideways for more.

See the full gallery

Common questions

The questions we get asked most

Do solar panels actually work in Manchester?

Yes. Panels generate from daylight rather than direct sunshine, so they keep producing on the grey days we get plenty of, and they often run more efficiently in cooler temperatures than in a heatwave. The annual generation projection we give you already accounts for local weather, your roof orientation and any shading.

How long does an installation take?

A standard residential solar panel installation is commonly completed in one to two days. That can stretch if scaffolding is complicated, the roof needs repair first, the consumer unit needs upgrading, the DNO has requirements, or the weather turns.

Do I need planning permission?

Many domestic solar installations are permitted development. Listed buildings, conservation areas, some flat roofs, ground-mounted arrays and unusual positions can need extra checks or consent. We will tell you where your property sits before you commit to anything.

Can I have a battery without solar panels?

Yes. Standalone home battery installations make sense where the roof is shaded, unsuitable, not yours to alter, or you would rather not have panels on it. On a time-of-use tariff the battery charges at the cheaper off-peak rate and runs the house through the expensive periods.

Will a battery keep my house running in a power cut?

Only if the system is specifically designed for it. Backup needs the right equipment and an essential-circuits design agreed up front, so it is something to raise at survey stage rather than assume. Not every battery installation gives you backup.

Who actually turns up to do the work?

Ashley and the in-house Renegade Solar team. Specialist scaffolding is the only part of the installation we subcontract. The person who surveyed your property is the person overseeing the install and the person you ring afterwards.

My roof is a strange shape. Is that a problem?

Usually not. We have fitted arrays around rooflights, chimneys, dormers and roof lanterns, split installations across several flat roof sections, and put arrays on the ground where the roof was not the right answer. It is worth a survey before you write your property off.

Ask us something else

Where we work