An electrician who's done your kind of project

Most solar installers are solar installers. Ashley had already spent years as an electrician before he became an MCS-certified solar installer, and that prior trade is the part that matters for renovation work. He has over fifteen years' electrical experience, including more than ten years on commercial projects, and spent 2016 in the Channel Islands doing electrical work on high-end mansions and apartments. That work included loft conversions, kitchens, extensions, domestic and commercial properties, and industrial sites including the Jersey Recycling Centre. The things you're already pulling your house apart for, in other words, are the things he's been the electrician on.

After coming back to Manchester he set up Renegade Electrical in 2018, and the solar side has grown out of that since. The order matters: solar got added to a real electrician's toolkit, not the other way round.

Why this matters during a renovation

A renovation involves multiple trades arriving in the right order, the consumer unit potentially getting moved or upgraded, and decisions about cable runs that have to be made before the plasterer turns up. Most solar installers can't help you with any of that. Ashley can - he's already made those decisions on previous renovations, he can coordinate timing with the main contractor and the specialist scaffolder, he can specify the consumer unit upgrade as part of the in-house electrical work, and he'll route cables through the build-up rather than surface-mount them after the fact.

When during the build to bring Ashley in

The earlier the better. A lot of decisions that affect a solar or battery install need to be made before second fix - cable routes for panels, inverter and battery; consumer unit position and capacity (does it need uprating?); where the battery is going and whether the building work allows that route; whether there's an EV charger feed to run while walls are open; and the order of operations on the roof if scaffolding is up for roofing or rendering anyway.

One thing worth flagging: we still see other installers recommending unsuitable or dangerous setups - batteries in lofts, for example, which goes against NAPIT safety guidance. When sales-trained installers spec jobs without an electrician on the survey, corners get cut. With Ashley, the person walking the property is the person installing it, and he won't recommend something inappropriate just to land a sale.

Loft conversions

Loft conversions are a particularly good moment for solar. The roof is already being touched, scaffolding's up, structural changes are being signed off anyway. Ashley can install panels while the scaffold is in place, plan cable routes through the new build-up before plasterboard goes on, coordinate with your roofer on the order of operations, and spec any electrical changes the conversion itself needs - lighting, sockets, possibly a bathroom feed. A loft conversion typically increases a home's electrical demand, and solar offsets some of that without changing your bills.

Extensions and rear builds

Extensions create new roof space - flat on a single-storey, pitched on a two-storey. Flat roofs let us mount panels facing south regardless of how the building itself is oriented, which is particularly useful when the existing house faces the wrong way. If the original roof is the wrong orientation for solar but a new extension provides a south-facing flat roof, that's often where the panels end up.

Full refurbishments and self-builds

A full refurb or self-build is the cleanest scenario - everything is fresh, the consumer unit is new, and you can plan the system as part of the design rather than retrofitting around what's already there. Ashley personally oversees the whole thing - design, supply, install, commissioning, aftercare - so you've got one direct contact across the project. He fits DMEGC and Trina Vertex panels, with Solax or AlphaESS batteries from 6kWh up.

A complete new-build electrical installation in Bowlee

On a new-build home in Bowlee, Heywood, Renegade designed, installed and commissioned the complete electrical installation from the start of the project through to handover. The work included internal and external lighting and a wall-mounted smart-home control interface covering lights, plugs, switches, cameras and thermostats.

We made the decisions on lighting positions, socket and switch layouts, controls and cable routes before the walls and ceilings were closed. Solar was planned for a later phase, so the electrical design also allowed for the low-carbon equipment still to come. Read the full Bowlee new-build electrical case study for more on the project.

In a customer's own words

"Since then Ashley has fitted solar panels and a battery, a doorbell, new light sockets, outdoor lighting & power, a bathroom extractor fan, removed old ariels, and probably more stuff I can't remember."

That's a customer in M25 who started with one job and kept calling Ashley back across a series of works on the property. One trade, one phone number, one electrician who knows the building - that's how the renovation work tends to play out for us.

Credentials

• MCS-certified installer (NAP-66870)
• TrustMark Registered
• NAPIT Registered (66870)
• Octopus Energy Trusted Partner
• 9.96/10 on Checkatrade from 161+ verified reviews
• 5-year minimum warranty on all equipment, panels warranted up to 30 years
• 2 years routine maintenance included on every installation

Coverage

Based in Prestwich, we serve renovation, extension and self-build projects across Greater Manchester and the wider North West.

Get in touch to discuss adding solar, battery or EV charging to your renovation.