Here is a worked example for a Haslemere home, built only from published national figures and our own run of the European Commission’s PVGIS tool. It will not tell you what your system costs, because that depends on your roof, but it shows where a sensible quote should start and which Haslemere factors push it up or down. For the wider picture, including where a battery fits in local homes and how SSEN’s network handles it, see our page on battery storage in Haslemere.
The two national figures to start from
The Energy Saving Trust is the clearest neutral source. Its solar advice, updated 27 August 2026, puts a typical domestic system at around 4.5 kWp, around 12 panels over 20 to 30 m² of roof, costing around £7,600 installed. Its battery advice, updated 19 August 2026, puts a 5 kWh system at around £4,600, gives a wider range of £1,500 to £10,000, and says a typical home system might be 10 kWh. Added together, a typical array with a 5 kWh battery comes to about £12,200. That is our arithmetic on the Trust’s figures, and the Trust adds a useful point: fitting storage at the same time as panels costs less than a separate visit later.
DESNZ publishes a second view, built from real installations. Its median cost for 4 to 10 kW solar systems in 2025/26 was £1,546 per kW, which for 4.5 kWp is about £6,957, and its battery statistics put the average job in the smallest band (around 5 kWh) at about £6,570. Treated as two separate average jobs, that is about £13,500. Both pairs of numbers are national, and neither is our price.
What the roof would generate in Haslemere
Our PVGIS 5.3 run for the Haslemere town-centre point puts a 4 kWp, south-facing, unshaded array at about 4,070 kWh a year, or about 1,018 kWh per kWp. Scaled to the Trust’s 4.5 kWp system, that is roughly 4,580 kWh a year on our arithmetic. Ofgem’s typical domestic consumption value from 1 July 2026 is 2,500 kWh a year, so on paper the array makes more than a typical home uses. The catch is timing: the same PVGIS run gives about 497 kWh in June but only about 133 kWh in December. A battery earns its keep by moving summer daytime surplus into the evening, which is why it is sized to your evening use, not to the roof.
We do not turn those kilowatt-hours into a savings figure here. That depends on your tariff, how much you are home during the day and what you would otherwise export, and we would rather show you that arithmetic for your own house. Our guide to solar panel payback time in the UK explains the variables.
The Haslemere factors that move a quote
Trees. The made Neighbourhood Plan notes that almost half (48%) of the plan area is heavily wooded, with oak, birch and conifer plantations. Shade on part of a roof is the single most common reason a Haslemere design needs optimisers or microinverters, which add cost, or a smaller array than the roof area suggests.
Bigger houses. Detached homes were the majority of Haslemere sales over the past year. A larger roof can take more than the Trust’s 4.5 kWp, which raises the total but tends to lower the cost per kW (DESNZ’s 2025/26 medians fall from £1,595 per kW below 4 kW to £1,546 for 4 to 10 kW), and a busier household can justify more storage.
Designations. The town has two conservation areas, the Town Centre and Springhead and River Wey, among Waverley’s 44, and the old core has many listed buildings. On a house, roof-slope solar in a conservation area keeps its permitted development rights; a listed building needs listed building consent, which takes time and can shape the design. The Surrey Hills National Landscape around the town is article 2(3) land, so a flat-roof array there needs a prior-approval determination before work starts.
The grid. Haslemere sits in SSEN’s Southern Electric Power Distribution area, 8.3 km from the nearest other network. Systems up to 16 A per phase (3.68 kW) are notified under G98; a 4 kW inverter is 17.39 A, just over that line, so a typical array with a battery often needs a G99 application approved first. That is the installer’s paperwork, but it can affect the timetable.
The VAT window
Residential installations of solar panels and batteries carry 0% VAT until 31 March 2027, and the rate reverts to 5% from 1 April 2027. A battery added later on its own gets the same treatment while the window is open. Our guide to VAT on solar panels and batteries covers what counts as a residential installation. The window is a fact to plan around, not a reason to rush a decision you are not ready to make.
Reading a Haslemere quote
A quote worth comparing should itemise panels, inverter (and any optimisers), battery with its usable capacity, mounting, scaffolding, labour, the network notification, VAT and warranties. Put two quotes side by side on those lines rather than on the total alone. For Haslemere’s protected setting more generally, our solar panels Haslemere page covers the conservation areas, the woodland and the town’s own climate commitments, and the solar panels Surrey hub covers the county picture. If the numbers do not work for your roof, we will tell you.
Sources: Energy Saving Trust, Solar panels: costs, savings and benefits explained (updated 27 August 2026) and Battery storage (updated 19 August 2026); DESNZ, Solar PV cost data (May 2026) and MCS-certified domestic battery installation statistics (28 May 2026); European Commission JRC, PVGIS 5.3 (SARAH3, 2005–2023); Ofgem, Typical Domestic Consumption Values (from 1 July 2026); HMRC VAT Notice 708/6; Haslemere Neighbourhood Plan 2013–2032, paras 3.51–3.52; Waverley Borough Council, conservation areas register; Rightmove, Haslemere sold house prices; GPDO 2015 Schedule 2 Part 14 as amended by S.I. 2026/896; ENA EREC G98 Issue 2; NESO GB DNO licence area boundaries (May 2024).