Fleet’s housing suits the idea of charging a car from the roof. Across Fleet Central, East and West, 45.4% of the 10,854 households live in detached houses and 73.7% own their home (our sum of the 2021 Census ward figures), so on the estates around Ancells Farm, Pondtail and Church Crookham there is often both a south-facing slope and a drive. The question is how much a roof actually makes for the car, month by month. This guide works it through with PVGIS figures for Fleet, and labels every sum as ours.
For installing the charger itself, see our Fleet EV charger installation page.
The roof in four months
PVGIS 5.3, the European Commission’s solar tool, estimates that a 4 kWp array facing due south at 35° in Fleet makes about 3,974 kWh a year. The months that matter for a car are the extremes:
| Month | PVGIS output | Average per day (our arithmetic) |
|---|---|---|
| June | about 482 kWh | about 16.1 kWh |
| July | about 483 kWh | about 15.6 kWh |
| December | about 139 kWh | about 4.5 kWh |
| January | about 158 kWh | about 5.1 kWh |
These are for an unshaded due-south roof. East or west slopes make less, and shading changes the answer more than the town does. A larger array on a detached Elvetham Heath roof scales these figures up roughly in proportion.
What the house takes first
On a Fleet roof, the panels feed the house before anything else. Ofgem’s Typical Domestic Consumption Value from 1 July 2026 is 2,500 kWh a year, about 6.8 kWh a day on average (our arithmetic). Not all of that is used in daylight, but as a cautious working figure, take the whole day’s use off the roof’s output. On an average June day, 16.1 kWh less 6.8 kWh leaves about 9.3 kWh. On an average December day, 4.5 kWh does not cover the house at all.
A June surplus, in hours of charging
A 7 kW charger delivers roughly 7 kWh an hour. The whole of an average June day’s output from a 4 kWp Fleet roof equals about 2.3 hours at full rate, and the 9.3 kWh left after the house equals about 1.3 hours (our arithmetic). Over a June week with the car at home, that adds up. Over a June week with the car parked at work in Farnborough or Basingstoke from eight until six, most of the surplus goes elsewhere: into the grid, or into a home battery if you have one.
So the summer value depends on when the car is at home. Weekends, school holidays and home-working days are when a Fleet roof does the most for the car.
Why a 7 kW charger outruns the roof
Even on a clear Fleet day, a 4 kWp array never produces more than about 4 kW at once, and less on most days. A charger running at a full 7 kW therefore draws the difference from the grid, even at noon in July. Making the most of a surplus means a set-up that charges only from what the roof is spare, and slows or pauses when a cloud passes. We confirm what your charger and car can do at the survey, rather than promise a mode in advance. The EnSmart SmartBee-M we fit is a 7 kW smart unit; more on the kit is in our home EV charger installation guide.
December: the overnight rate does the work
In December and January the roof makes less than the house uses, so there is nothing left for the car. Every new home chargepoint sold in Great Britain since 30 June 2022 has had to be smart, with default charging hours outside weekday peaks, so a Fleet car plugged in at night charges in the cheaper hours if your tariff has them. A year-round plan pairs the two: the roof in summer, the overnight rate in winter.
Grants rarely change the sums here. Owner-occupiers of houses get no OZEV chargepoint grant, and 73.7% of households across Fleet’s three wards own their home. Renters and people who own and live in a flat can claim 75% of the cost up to £500 per socket with private off-street or allocated parking; the claim must be made through an OZEV-authorised installer, so tell us your situation at the quote stage. Our guide to the EV chargepoint grant has the detail.
SSEN and the paperwork
Fleet sits in SSEN Distribution’s Southern Electric Power Distribution area, about 10 km from any other network. Panels up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW) are notified under G98; anything larger needs a G99 application approved before work starts, and a 4 kW inverter, at 17.39 A, is just over that line. SSEN says it aims to respond to small-generation applications within 10 working days. The charger is notified separately, and the installer handles both. SSEN began a £5.2 million upgrade of underground cables around Fleet and Church Crookham in January 2024, designed for more cars, heat pumps and solar, but your own supply is still checked at the survey.
DESNZ records about 3,868 solar PV installations of all sizes across Hart district at the end of 2025, so many Fleet roofs already have panels; if yours does, the question is only the charger. If not, see our page on solar panels in Fleet.
Sources: European Commission JRC, PVGIS 5.3, PVGIS-SARAH3 2005–2023, 4 kWp, 35°, due south, 14% losses, building-mounted (run 15 October 2026); daily averages and charging hours are our arithmetic; Ofgem, Typical Domestic Consumption Values (from 1 July 2026); Ofgem, Smart Export Guarantee; ONS Census 2021, TS044 and TS054, Fleet Central, Fleet East and Fleet West wards, via Nomis (read 16 October 2026); DfT and DVLA, VEH0142, privately kept, end of June 2026 and 2025 (published 23 September 2026); Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021; ENA, EREC G98 Issue 2 (10 March 2025); SSEN news, Hampshire electricity network boosted by further £5.2 million upgrade (9 January 2024); DESNZ, Renewable electricity by local authority 2014 to 2025 (published 29 September 2026); GOV.UK, Changes to electric vehicle chargepoint grant schemes from 1 April 2026 (updated 7 July 2026); NESO, GIS boundaries for GB DNO licence areas (May 2024).