22-Panel Solar & Tesla Powerwall 3 Install, Llantrisant

The job

Every so often a job comes along that makes you look at the roof and think, “we’re going to need more scaffolding.”

This was one of them. Twenty-two Aiko 465W all-black panels, 10.23kW at peak, feeding a Tesla Powerwall 3. It’s one of the bigger domestic installs we’ve done, and one of the ones we’re proudest of.

The numbers

22 × 465W comes to 10.23kW, which in South Wales should generate around 9,000kWh a year. The average UK home uses about 2,700. So this roof makes more than three times what a typical house needs, and whatever isn’t used or stored gets sold back to the grid. Pick the right tariff and the energy company ends up owing you money, which makes a pleasant change.

The battery

The Powerwall 3 is an all-in-one unit: inverter and battery in one box, 13.5kWh of storage and 11.5kW of output. That’s a serious set-up for a high-usage home. The bit we like most is the backup. If the grid goes down, the Powerwall takes over instantly, and we do mean instantly. The lights don’t even flicker. The whole house just carries on as if nothing happened.

But that’s enough about Tesla.

A PowerHaus installer standing on the finished row of all-black solar panels in Llantrisant — First row down, twenty-one to go.

The team

The state-of-the-art team installing this state-of-the-art system

Five of us are electricians by trade, but every one of us can hook, rail and panel a roof. Nobody on this team gets to stand at the bottom holding the ladder.

The PowerHaus team lined up on the scaffolding in Llantrisant: Chewy, Christian, Jordon, Calum, Wayne and Jamie — **Left to right:**

Chewy · apprentice

Christian · director

Jordon · director

Calum · roofer

Wayne · director

Jamie · apprentice

Chewy: no, it’s not his real name, but it fits him perfectly. Behind the lens: Santino, roofer, and clearly a man of many talents. Meet the whole team →

Stage by stage

How it went

From an empty roof on day one to a Powerwall talking to the app. Every step below is a real photo from this job, not a stock image.

01

Scaffold up, panels in

Twenty-two panels and a lot of rail, all up the ladder before a single hook goes on. Then a walk of the roof to plan where everything sits.

Solar panels stacked against the wall at the foot of the scaffold, ready to go up — Twenty-two panels, waiting their turn.

Installer walking the empty roof before work starts — A blank canvas. Won’t be for long.

02

Hooks and rails

Tiles lifted and cut, roof hooks bolted to the rafters, rails levelled. Get this bit right and everything else follows. Get it wrong and everything else follows that, too.

Cutting a roof tile with a grinder to make room for a roof hook — Cutting tiles so the hooks sit flush.

Fixing a roof hook to the rafter — Every hook bolted straight into the rafter.

Lifting a mounting rail into position on the roof — Rails going on.

Drilling a rail clamp tight onto a roof hook — Clamped, checked, on to the next one.

The full rail system fitted across the empty roof, ready for panels — Rails done and dead level. The roof is ready.

03

Cabling

Every string run and clipped neatly along the rails before a panel goes anywhere near the roof. Nobody wants to lift a panel twice.

Close-up of cables being clipped and tidied on the roof — Clipped, not dangling. Details matter.

Fitting the cable conduit at the eaves where the cables leave the roof — Conduit at the eaves, down to the battery.

04

Panels up

Passed up the scaffold one at a time, levelled, clamped, and checked. Twenty-two times.

A solar panel being passed up from the scaffold to the roof — One up. Twenty-one to go.

A panel lifted over the scaffold rail onto the roof — Over the top and onto the rails.

Checking the first panel with a spirit level before clamping — The first panel sets the line for all the rest.

Two installers fitting panels across the roof, the finished rows reflecting the sky — Row by row.

Carrying one of the last panels across the roof — The last few.

Installers on the roof with most of the panels now laid — Starting to look like a solar roof.

Drilling the final panel clamps tight — Clamps on, torqued and checked.

05

Finishing touches

Bird mesh round every edge (pigeons love a warm panel), a last look at every clamp, and a final clean with the official PowerHaus pink microfibre cloth. Yes, it’s pink. It’s the best cloth we own and we will not be taking questions.

Fitting bird protection mesh along the top edge of the panels near the ridge — Bird mesh going on at the ridge.

Close-up of the bird protection mesh fitted along the panel edge — No room at the inn.

Wiping down a panel with a pink microfibre cloth — The cloth. We told you it was pink.

A last check of the clamps on the finished array — One last look at every clamp.

06

The brains and the battery

Powerwall 3 and Gateway on the outside wall, wired in, commissioned and talking to the app. This is the box that keeps the lights on when the grid doesn’t.